The Pit and the Pendulum (1961)
When Roger Corman died on May 9, 2024, at the impressive age of 98, his passing marked the end of a brilliant cinematic career that began in the 1950s and continued for more than 70 years. I’ve been a fan of Corman’s Edgar Allan Poe films ever since I first discovered them, so this feels like the perfect moment to revisit one of my favorites, The Pit and the Pendulum (1961). It’s not the most faithful of Corman’s Poe series, but it perfectly captures all of the defining elements of both the original author’s works and the Corman films they inspired. It’s a vivid, violent fever dream of a movie, from the swirling paint of the opening credits to that final horrifying closeup, with especially memorable performances from horror icons Vincent Price and Barbara Steele. Richard Matheson’s screenplay and Floyd Crosby’s cinematography weave together all the quintessential sensations of Poe’s Gothic horror, making the whole a truly sublime experience in the classic Romantic sense.
Corman regular Vincent Price leads the cast as the 16th century Spanish gentleman, Nicholas Medina, whose wife, Elizabeth (Barbara Steele), has recently died under mysterious circumstances. When Elizabeth’s brother, Francis (John Kerr), arrives from England looking for answers about her demise, he finds Nicholas in a state of psychological distress caused by Elizabeth’s death and his traumatic childhood as the son of a brutal Inquisition torturer who killed his own wife and brother for their adulterous affair while Nicholas watched. Nicholas’ sister, Catherine (Luana Anders) and his physician, Charles (Antony Carbone), provide the persistent Francis with details about the family’s history and Elizabeth’s fate, but Nicholas grows increasingly certain that they have accidentally interred Elizabeth alive and caused her vengeful ghost to haunt him.
Poe’s original story is much too thin to serve as the plot of a full-length feature film, so The Pit and the Pendulum builds a narrative using most of the author’s favorite themes, including premature burial, revenge, madness, and haunted protagonists. Several plot points echo “The Fall of the House of Usher,” which had served as the source for Corman’s first Poe picture in 1960, with a white-haired Price as the hypersensitive Roderick, but the horror of being buried alive recurs in “The Cask of Amontillado” and “The Premature Burial.” Guilt-stricken protagonists also come unhinged in “The Black Cat” and “The Tell-Tale Heart,” while a dead wife’s return marks the climax of both “Morella” and “Ligeia.” Many of these stories would later get their own Corman adaptations, either as feature films or as segments of the anthology picture, Tales of Terror (1962), but The Pit and the Pendulum mixes a heady Gothic cocktail of phantasmagoria that’s difficult to surpass. We see flashbacks to the gruesome vengeance of Nicholas’ father and the seemingly deranged wanderings of a haunted Elizabeth. We get the dreadful sight of the corpse bricked up inside Elizabeth’s tomb and the eerie sounds of her harpsichord echoing through the halls. Price’s performance emphasizes the vulnerability of the psyche to repeated violent shocks; his Nicholas is more victim than villain, even though his suffering eventually drives him to reenact his father’s brutality. Like Price’s character in the 1953 film, House of Wax, Nicholas is a sensitive artist whose monstrosity emerges from sadistic mistreatment. Although the breaking of the mind through cruelty and suffering is presented very differently in the movie than it is in Poe’s original story, it’s still the central theme and the ultimate source of horror.
In general, Corman’s Poe pictures manage to look lavish in spite of shoestring budgets and rapid-fire shooting schedules, and The Pit and the Pendulum is a perfect example of this combination of economy and extravagance. Although the movie was shot in just 15 days, it still looks fantastic, with gorgeous sets by Daniel Heller and elaborate costumes that heighten the Gothic atmosphere. Having Vincent Price as the star makes a huge difference in all of their collaborations, but especially in a story like The Pit and the Pendulum, where the actor must portray a sympathetic but damaged protagonist whose collapse into madness strikes the audience as profoundly tragic. Corman could trust a gifted veteran star like Price to lean into whatever a role required, and of course the horror maestro excelled at full-tilt villains, but I especially admire Price’s performance in The Pit and the Pendulum for its pathos. If I have any real complaint about the movie, it’s the brief screen time allowed for Barbara Steele, who embodies malevolent loveliness so deftly as Elizabeth, but at least she gets some flashback scenes to enhance our sense of the character. When she and Price share the screen in the third act, the full horror of the tale at last becomes apparent, much to our spine-tingling delight. The titular pit and pendulum that follow can’t hope to compete with that lethal pair.
I’ve seen all of Corman’s Poe movies, and my favorites in addition to The Pit and the Pendulum are The Masque of the Red Death (1964) and The Tomb of Ligeia (1964), but they’re all worth watching if you enjoy the Gothic thrills of Corman’s contemporaries, particularly Hammer and Mario Bava. Speaking of Bava, the best place to appreciate Barbara Steele is Bava’s iconic Black Sunday (1960), but you can also see her in other Italian horror pictures like Castle of Blood (1964) and The Long Hair of Death (1964). Vincent Price’s other films during the Poe years include Twice-Told Tales (1963), The Comedy of Terrors (1963), and The Last Man on Earth (1964), each of which has its own merits. If you’ve never gotten around to watching Corman’s Poe films, I suggest starting with Tales of Terror (1962) for its anthology format and delightful performances by Price, Basil Rathbone, and Peter Lorre.
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— Jennifer Garlen for Classic Movie Hub
Jennifer Garlen pens our monthly Silver Screen Standards column. You can read all of Jennifer’s Silver Screen Standards articles here.
Jennifer is a former college professor with a PhD in English Literature and a lifelong obsession with film. She writes about classic movies at her blog, Virtual Virago, and presents classic film programs for lifetime learning groups and retirement communities. She’s the author of Beyond Casablanca: 100 Classic Movies Worth Watching and its sequel, Beyond Casablanca II: 101 Classic Movies Worth Watching, and she is also the co-editor of two books about the works of Jim Henson.
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