#75: The Premature Burial

The Premature Burial

Roger Corman
Initial release: March 7, 1962 (USA)

images c/o movie-screencaps.com

It's time for yet another film in Roger Corman's Edgar Allen Poe cycle! This time we're gonna take a look at the third film in the cycle, and the only one (not counting The Terror) to not star Vincent Price: The Premature Burial. Instead of Price, the star is the unusual choice of Ray Milland, perhaps best known for his role as a sadsack drunken writer in The Lost Weekend.

Based somewhat loosely on the Poe short story of the same name, Burial features Milland as Guy Carrell, a British nobleman sometime in the early 1800s whose fear of being buried alive has become an obsession. It gets so bad that he builds a custom tomb with multiple avenues of escape. While his family and friends try to help he’s incapable of shrugging off the phobia and gradually becomes more and more morbid. Some stuff happens, he actually does accidentally get buried alive, and manages to escape and, now totally insane, wreaks havoc. That’s it. It's not one of Poe's best stories and it's not one of Corman's best movies.

The casting choice was largely down to contract issues. Corman wanted to strike out on his own, so he got funding by a film printing company that American International Pictures sometimes worked with; American International had exclusive contract on Vincent Price so Corman had to pick someone else. Besides the change in lead, this film has all the common Corman touches — cheap soundstages, mostly workmanlike cinematography, reused props (that gun from House of Usher came back!) — but there’s something lacking in this one compared to Corman’s other Poe films. It’s not Milland, who’s a decent actor, nor is it really the rest of the cast. I think it’s the script, which is pretty weak, even for Corman. At 81 minutes it’s also one of the shortest films in the franchise, but something about it makes it seem tiresome. There’s also not much to speak of regarding the direction. While Corman usually seems to have a surprise up his sleeve, about the only thing interesting about the camera work in this film was the way the cameraman was clearly stumbling a bit as he walked backwards up some steps.

In any case, while I’ve usually got something to say about Corman’s Poe films, this one is particularly unremarkable. It’s still watchable, and it won’t take up a lot of your time, but it’s an early stumble in a franchise that honestly had done better and would do so again.

God, but if that isn't a cool poster though. 

-june❤