Matcollis
This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.
Tacticalin
An absolute waste of money
ChanFamous
I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.
Rainey Dawn
Here we have yet another film I have not seen in years, watching it again after all these years I found the film quite good - even better than I recalled it to be. Three stories based on Nathaniel Hawthorne's Twice-Told Tales - all three a excellent! Dr. Heidegger's Experiment - I quite enjoyed Sebastian Cabot heartbreaking performance as Dr. Carl Heidigger. It is a sad romantic tale of a man who was to be married but his wife died the night before the wedding. He remained in-love with her for 38 years. One night he and his long time friend Alex Medbourne (Price) discover a secret - a type of fountain of youth. That same night Dr. Heidegger also discovered another secret - a 38 year old dark secret.Rappaccini's Daughter - Dr. Giacomo Rappaccini (Price) wife was an adulteress - he only wanted to protect his daughter from the pains of adultery and to make sure she did not make the same mistake her mother did. Rappaccini's Daughter, Beatrice (Taylor), falls for a young man and he falls for her. But how can they marry when Beatrice can kill him with one touch of the poison her father inoculates her with? The House of the Seven Gables - Gerald Pyncheon (Price) and his sister Hannah Pyncheon (deWit) have inherited the haunted house and a family curse. There is more to their inheritance than this if they can find the vault. But will Mathew's ghost allow them to? All three of the tales are good but of the three it is Dr. Heidegger's Experiment that I found was the best, saddest and most horrifying of all.9/10
TheLittleSongbird
So what was my main attraction to Twice-Told Tales? Vincent Price, one of my favourite actors and one who brings 100% no matter what the movie is like. Nathaniel Hawthorne is another good reason also. I actually enjoyed Twice-Told Tales. It does have some sparse production values, has moments where it is very stagy and talky and has ponderous pacing. It is in the third segment The House of the Seven Gables where these problems are especially prominent. The photography, some good effects and the acting, especially from Price, make the segment worth the watch at least, but it felt dull to me and tries to cram far too much in, which undermined the story-telling severely. Thankfully the other two segments really made up for it. On the whole the photography is lush, the dialogue provoking more thought and the stories much more interesting. Sidney Salkow's directing does show signs of efficiency, particularly in Rappacinni's Daughter. I wholly concur with the general consensus that the second segment Rappacinni's Daughter is the best one of the three, it is creepy and atmospheric, the most lush in look, is the most emotionally complex and has a really well-told story(it is also the most faithful to Hawthorne's writing). The first segment Dr. Heidegger's Experiment also has an effectively macabre feel, and I liked its more hopeful ending. The cast are very good in what are essentially examples of ensemble acting. Beverly Garland doesn't have a lot to do but makes the most of it. Richard Denning plays it straight and he is also not so bad. Sebastian Cabot brings to the table a very sympathetic performance, even if he has been better before, his rapport with Price is beautifully and subtly done. Jacqueline De Wit is a joy here, and the best of the support cast for me. Vincent Price is the film's best asset, he commands the screen effortlessly and all three of his roles play to his strengths. Overall, has a weak final third but two thirds of it, especially the second segment, are excellent. 7/10 Bethany Cox
gavin6942
Three stories of Nathaniel Hawthorne converted into a horror film. Surprisingly, this works well, despite Hawthorne not being known for his horror material.Vincent Price serves as the narrator, but also appears as the characters Alex Medbourne, Professor Giacomo Rappaccini, and Gerald Pyncheon."Dr. Heidegger's Tale": A doctor's wife is found in her tomb after 38 years, and never aged or decomposed a day. What keeps her this way? Some sort of purified water... a virgin spring? Decent special effects on the rose and elsewhere. The makeup department deserves some credit here.One wonders how someone who has magic youth water dripping on them manages to stay a certain age rather than revert back to a baby or even a fetus. I mean, if it makes 70-year old men 40, should it not make 30-year olds infants? But I should not think about this too much."Rappaccini's Daughter": We find that Naples "shines like a necklace that should be hung around a pretty girl's neck" and is much bigger than Padua. But also, in twenty years, no visitor has ever entered the house of Rappaccini -- why? There is some connection between Beatrice Rappaccini and a noxious, smoking plant. What is it? The professor has the largest nose I have ever seen. The actress playing Beatrice (Joyce Taylor) is the most beautiful person in this film, far exceeding the wife of part one. We also see guinea pigs being used as guinea pigs, the only time I can ever claim to have seen that."House of the Seven Gables": Gerald and his wife return to his childhood home where his sister still lives and are not welcomed warmly. Every male member of the family has died the same way... is Gerald next? Epic, though slightly cheesy, use of a pickax. Beverly Garland claimed having seen Vincent Price expertly spotting parts of the prop furniture on the set of the film. When the shooting ended, those pieces of furniture "mysteriously" vanished.
MartinHafer
TWICE-TOLD TALES consists of three separate stories that are supposedly based on Nathaniel Hawthorn stories. However, like so many Vincent Price films of the 60s that are based on classic American tales (mostly those of Poe), the stories diverge a lot from the original source material by Hawthorn. The closest to the original story is probably the second one, Rappaccini's Daughter, though there once again are many differences. The final story, The House of Seven Gables, is particularly odd because this story AND the 1940 film THE HOUSE OF SEVEN GABLES both starred Vincent Price and both strayed dramatically from the original stories--so much so that you'd scarcely recognize them.Of the three tales, Dr. Heidigger's Experiment is the most enjoyable. Since it is the first tale, the rest of the film is rather downhill. Despite being so different from the story, the new tale is very exciting and ends on a very positive note. The other two stories (particularly The House of Seven Gables) are letdowns and really didn't do much to keep my interest. Despite fun performances by Vincent Price in all three stories, the film just limped along after the first segment and by the time it ended, I was more than ready to watch something else. Watchable but not much more.
