Super Movies! The one with Grand Moff Tarkin and Joan Collins

 

Title: Tales From The Crypt

What Year?: 1972

Classification: Anachronistic Outlier

Rating: It’s Okay! (3/4)

 

The last time I came to this feature, I was announcing that I was ready to bring it to an end, at least as part of the regular lineup. Because I’m really not very good at this, I’m back with another entry. It all came to this because several other possibilities I considered for my other features fell through, and in the middle of it all, a reviewer I follow posted a review of one I had been considering on and off for a very long time. With that, I present Tales From The Crypt, 1970s edition.

Our story begins after an opening score that seems to have been recorded in the 1930s with a group of visitors in a Medieval catacomb. Five of the group wander down a side passage into a chamber where a creepy man in an old-school monk’s robe. The old guy becomes the narrator of a series of tales of their misdeeds, beginning with a woman who murders her husband on Christmas Eve, only to discover that a lunatic in a Santa suit has paid a visit. The tales get more explicitly supernatural as we move on to a philanderer who finds himself transformed after an accident with his mistress and a wealthy man’s scheme to remove a dotty garbageman from his gentrifying neighborhood. We then meet a proud financier whose wife learns the price of getting what you wish for. Then we’re back to the Earthly plane with a faceoff between the chiseling administrator of a home for the blind and his defiant but patient wards. But at the end of it all, they still must learn just where they are!

Tales From The Crypt was a 1972 horror film by Amicus (see The People That Time Forgot) and AIP based on stories from the comic of the same name and from two other EC titles, Vault of Horror and Haunt of Fear. The film was directed by Freddie Francis from a script by Amicus cofounder Milton Subotsky. The top-billed star was Peter Cushing (see The Horror Express and Shock Waves) as the dustman Grimsdyke, a role he reportedly chose over the businessman Jason in the segment “Wish You Were Here”, ultimately played by Richard Greene. Other cast included Joan Collins (see Empire of the Ants) as the murderess in “All Through the House”, Patrick Magee as the leader of the blind men, and the late Sir Ralph Richardson (see… Time Bandits?) as the Cryptkeeper. The theme from the film was Bach’s “Toccata And Fugue”,  previously used for horror/ genre films such as the 1931 version of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde. The film was an immediate if modest success, earning a box office of over $3 million against a budget of 170,000 pounds. It was followed by a sequel, The Vault of Horror, released as a Shout 2-pack Blu Ray with the original in 2014. Several segments of the film were later remade for the Tales From The Crypt TV series. The film is currently available for streaming on the Tubi platform.

For my experiences, I knew of Tales From The Crypt vaguely thanks to the TV show, but never got much further into it than the present film, which I looked up sometime in the 2000s. When I first encountered it, I freely accepted it as a “classic”. In the years since, I have never felt that its reputation diminished. What I did see was major fluctuations in the availability of the film, to the point that I was for a time seriously concerned that this would be yet another movie in Copyright Hell. I suspect that this, in turn, allowed a more subtle shift among audiences and critics, especially new and old fans of the TV series and the original comics. I myself have come to the point of debating between this film, Vault of Horror and Creepshow as the best vintage EC-based film. The original film is no longer the centerpiece of the franchise, if it ever was, yet it hasn’t fallen into obscurity or disrepute either. And that offers a pretty good point for a relatively neutral reviewer like me to come in for another look.

Turning to the film, what stands out in my usual sensitivities is that this is an egregious example of a film that feels both ahead of its time and willfully “retro”, the epitome of what I call the Anachronistic Outlier. The music, the shooting style and even the casting all deliberately harken back to the 1950s period of the comics and in some cases to their earlier sources. In the process, the movie unintentionally highlights the morality-play format that tamped down horror in the pulp era. Yet, there is still a nihilistic “edge” that anticipates or exceeds movies far ahead of its own time, undoubtedly in no small part because “mainstream” American genre films had fallen so far behind as to be actively regressing. This isn’t slasher-movie pseudo-moralizing about premarital sex and found-object homicide, but a Serlingesque panorama of terrible people who knowingly bring trouble on others as well as themselves. It’s aided greatly by the distinguished cast. Cushing and Richardson are the easy standouts, with Magee pulling up from behind. My picks for the most impressive performances, however, are Collins, who spends much of her time looking anxious or bored as she considers the logistics of body disposal, and Greene, pushed to supporting cast in his own story yet perhaps even better than Cushing might have been as a rogue who unquestionably suffers far more than he deserves.

On the “con” side, most of the obvious problems come simply from the anthology format, previously considered with Two Evil Eyes and Allegro Non Troppo. The ones that certainly rate weakest and strongest are the opening and the finale, which most seem to agree on, so I won’t say more than I have. Of the rest, however, I find even the segments that usually get the praise don’t quite meet their potential. “Wish You Were Here”, for instance, relies on altogether contrived references to “The Monkey’s Paw” for its exposition. By comparison, “Poetic Justice” is at least ahead of its time with a vision of “stranger danger” and homeowners’ association intrigues, though to me Cushing just kind of breaks even. For me, the absolute standout is “Reflections of Death”. Sure, it’s predictable even for the 1950s, but the execution far exceeds an already satisfactory premise, with the key scenes shot from the revenant’s perspective. There’s still a decent twist with the reappearance of Susan (played by Angela Grant), as eerily poised as Magee and the blind men in the final segment. Then the problem throughout is that it just looks and feels cheap if not rushed. To me, this shows especially in the opening and closing music. It’s one thing to rely on an arguably overused piece; it’s another to use a hopelessly tinny recording that sounds like 20 generations of transfer static. I can’t believe they even saved real money; it’s more like they gave the job to someone who never bothered to listen to more than one recording.

That leaves us with the “one scene”. I’ve already gone through multiple shots and segments that would be worthy of the honor. The one thing I haven’t covered in depth is Richardson, familiar to me from his late turn as Ulrich in Dragonslayer. He gives a superbly ghoulish performance, necessarily fragmented across the film. I debated whether it would be possible to isolate just one piece in the usual fashion. Once I had the idea, however, I quickly noted one particular point, bridging the first segment with “Reflections”. After narrating the fate of Collins’ character, we find her counterpart among the visitors vaguely protesting, even as she rubs her throat uncomfortably. The Cryptkeeper then turns to the next sinner, played by TV/ character actor Ian Hendry (d. 1984). It’s here that the monk first questions whether any of our antiheros really remember how they ended up in the catacombs. When called out, the man reflexively answers, “I’m on my way home to my wife and children.” The monk challenges him, almost bemused: “And then?... And then?” It’s a matter of a minute or less, even with the framing factored in, but these few words are a high point if not the finest moment of a cracking performance from a fine actor.

In closing, what I come to isn’t so much the rating, but how the film compares with others I have mentioned, which has ultimately been as big a consideration as any in my final rating. Of all the official, informal and arguable EC films, there never was any doubt that Creepshow is the “best” by any objective appraisal. However, I could have rated this one as highly with my usual handicapping in effect. What really put Creepshow ahead are its budget and improved technology, plus the participation of Stephen King, which obviously can’t be held against any other film. But on consideration, there is one movie I would definitely rank ahead, and it’s this movie’s own sequel, Vault of Horror. Of course, I can’t give my reasons in full without another review I’m not yet prepared to do. It will suffice to say that, where the second film has segments that don’t hold up on their own or by comparison, it also has several that are at least as good as anything in Tales or even Creepshow. (I will name-drop the segments featuring Terry Thomas and Tom Baker.) The further fact that Vault was released only a year later is to me the surest proof that the present film could have been better. It may remain the original and the “classic”, but its real accomplishment was laying the way for better things. In the proverbial light of day, that’s credit enough, and with that, I can count this done.

Image credit Movies And Mania.