#16 - Twice-Told Tales (1963)
(dir. Sidney Salkow)
Vincent Price stars in this anthology of three shorts based on stories by Nathaniel Hawthorne. In the first, a doctor discovers a liquid that may be the key to eternal youth. In the second segment, a young woman is poisoned by her father in order to save her life, but as a side effect she instantly kills anything she touches. Finally, in a segment based on Hawthorne's novel The House of the Seven Gables, a man returns to his family's cursed ancestral home to search for a hidden inheritance...
I really liked the first story, mostly because Price and co-star Sebastian Cabot have a great rapport and much of the segment is just an extended conversation between them. I also like that Price is wearing makeup to make him appear older, and it is convincing enough that I questioned what year the film was from when I first saw it (Cabot's makeup is... less convincing). The other two stories were alright, I give the middle one credit for originality but without Price it would've been pretty boring - he has such presence that he can elevate basically anything he stars in. The last didn't do much for me though.
As far as classic horror goes, you could do worse, but this is not an essential watch. The similarly named Tales of Terror from 1962 is definitely the superior Vincent Price anthology. I love the poster though, especially "NO DEMONOPHOBIACS ADMITTED!" Spoiler: there are no demons in this movie.
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