Movie Reviews: Vincent Price Collection Vol. 1

Having received a box set of Vincent Price movies for my birthday, I eagerly watched the whole set! Here are the reviews. Some of the films I had reviewed before (thanks, local libraries for stocking cool, old movies!). He has been a favorite of mine since childhood, watching stuff on the 4:30 Movie and weekend films on television. Happy memories!

These reviews are in the order they are on the collection's discs. 

Pit and the Pendulum (1961) directed by Roger Corman

Vincent Price stars in this classic story by Edgar Allan Poe adapted for the screen by B-movie horror icon Roger Corman. Price is Nicholas Medina, a Spaniard living in the 1500s. His home is a castle by the seaside, though it is the creepy sort of shoreline. He is visited by his brother-in-law Francis Barnard (John Kerr) who wants to find out about the death of his sister. She married Nicholas many years ago and died a few months ago. Nicholas didn't give much detail on the death in his letter to Francis, hence the visit. Nicholas is borderline crazy with good reason. His dad was part of the legendary Spanish Inquisition and a torture chamber is still in the basement of the castle. The father conducted a lot of business at home, including the torture of his wife and brother (i.e. Nicholas's mom and uncle) because they had been having an affair. Young Nicholas witnessed the torture and is naturally super-sensitive. With Francis's arrival and his suspicion, Nicholas starts to hear his dead wife calling and even her playing the harpsichord. The problem is other people in the castle can hear her too. Something more nefarious is going on.

The movie is an interesting blend of Poe themes. There's the fear of being buried alive, the doomed house, the lost wife/lover who still haunts the living, etc. They make a nice, natural, cohesive, and disturbing whole. The movie has good atmosphere and some chilling moments. The actors are all good with Price doing what he came to be known best for (he plays the dad in flashbacks). Overall, it's a satisfying old-school horror film.

Recommended.

The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971) directed by Robert Fuest

A string of grisly and bizarre murders are investigates by some hapless policemen as Doctor Phibes (Vincent Price) continues his killing spree. Phibes's wife had died at the hands of a medical team and he is out for revenge on all nine members of that team. Unfortunately, Phibes was in a car accident that left him unable to talk except by using a special machine attached to the side of his throat. Everyone thought he died, so he is not immediately the first suspect. He lives in a new, exotically decorated home with Vulnavia (Virginia North) who does his bidding with the same wordless grace and chill as Phibes.

The story is a fairly standard revenge/horror with many odd elements added. Phibes is also an organist and rises from his lower rooms to the main floor as he plays at a keyboard. The main room is a sort of ballroom, with a mechanical ragtime band on raised platforms and a wraparound balcony. Phibes dresses in long, flowing, shiny robes. His exotic murders are based very loosely on the Ten Plagues of Egypt from the biblical book of Exodus (though the plagues are called "Pharoah's curses" in the movie). The deaths are more odd than terrifying, though there are some pretty horrible results of Phibes's handiwork. In another surreal touch, his car has frosted windows with images of him sitting in the back seat. The police investigation is mostly plot exposition and an excuse to throw in some weird and often unfunny humor. The movie definitely looks like a product of the late 1960s and early 1970s.

While Price is always fun to watch, I found the movie a bit too odd even for my odd tastes. I appreciate the effort that went into the set designs and costumes. The plot needed something more than just the bare bones it has. Or the support characters needed more character. Or they could have gotten the Egyptian plagues right. Or made the comedy with the police work. The movie needs a lot of tinkering.

Not really recommended.

The Haunted Palace (1963) produced and directed by Roger Corman

In the 1700s, Joseph Curwen (Vincent Price) is burned to death in the New England town of Arkham. One hundred and ten years later, his great grandson Charles Dexter Ward (also Vincent Price) comes to town because he has inherited Curwen's property, a creepy old castle overlooking the town. The locals don't want to tell Ward where the place is and are very hostile. Their ancestors were cursed by Curwen, who promised to have revenge on the generations to come. The town is plagued with birth deformities. The locals blame the curse. Ward and his wife Ann (Debra Paget) move in anyway, only to find a caretaker (Lon Chaney, Jr.) getting the palace ready again for Curwen's descendant. Once Ward gets a look at a painting of Curwen, he sees the uncanny resemblance and starts to behave very differently.

Though the title is taken from and Edgar Allan Poe poem, the story is from an H. P. Lovecraft novel. The producers didn't want to step away from the successful combination of Corman and Poe, so they marketed this film as another Poe flick. Lovecraft isn't so dramatically different from Poe. The movie has a lot of the same atmosphere, with foggy streets and the castle in ruins. Price does his usual fine job in the dual role and horror fans will delight in the small role Lon Chaney is given. The movie is another fun horror outing for Corman and crew.

Recommended.

The Fall of the House of Usher (1960) produced and directed by Roger Corman

Philip Winthrop (Mark Damon) rides from Boston to the titular home in the middle of a boggy, foggy landscape. He demands entry because he is engaged to Madeline Usher (Myrna Fahey). The butler (Harry Ellerbe) says Philip can't see her since she is bedridden. Philip insists on seeing her brother Roderick (Vincent Price). The butler reluctantly lets Philip in. Roderick says Madeline is too sick and the house is too doomed for Philip to stay and he should return to Boston. Philip resists. Madeline comes into the room, happy to see Philip. She begs Roderick to let Philip stay. The butler fixes up a room. Waiting for dinner, Philip discovers that the house is in terrible shape with quakes causing cracks in the walls. The bigger problem is the sinister history of the family and the doomed outlooks of both Roderick and Madeline.

The story moves at a good pace and manages to maintain a sense of dread, even with lighter or more romantic moments thrown in. The actors give good performances, selling the horrible history that looms over them. The house has a lot of odd paintings of the Usher ancestors, adding to the weirdness. Roderick is an artist and seems to be following in the family portraiture line with his own strange rendition of Madeline. The movie captures the spirit of Poe's work quite well.

Recommended.

The Masque of the Red Death (1964) produced and directed by Roger Corman

Prince Prospero (Vincent Price) goes to visit the local village where he takes all their crops and takes any pleasure (mostly sadistic) he can get from them. Gino (David Weston) and Ludovico (Nigel Green) protest his plunder so Prospero orders them executed. Francesca (Jane Asher) begs for mercy since she is the daughter of Ludovico and the girlfriend of Gino. Prospero at first says he will do nothing for them. A woman cries out and he orders her silenced. When she still screams, he goes to investigate. The woman is bedridden. When she roles over, Prospero sees she has contracted the Red Death, a horrible plague. He orders the town burned, Francesca taken to his castle for his entertainment, and the accused men imprisoned in the castle where he will come up with some amusing way for them to kill each other. 

At the castle, Prospero throws an elegant multi-day party for the nobility culminating in a masquerade ball. He is unaware of various other schemes going on--his partner Juliana (Hazel Court) wants to get rid of Francesca as a romantic rival and to fulfill the secret rites Prospero has introduced her to; nobleman Alfredo (Patrick Magee) is a second-banana bad guy who wants to hurt Prospero, or at least get his hands on Francesca; Hop-Toad (Skip Martin), one of the entertainers, wants to get revenge on Prospero for ill treatment of Hop-Toad's wife Esmeralda (Verina Greenlaw). And Francesca wants to free her father and her lover before they are killed or corrupted by the goings on in the castle. Prospero reveals that he worships Satan and his attitude toward other people reflects that disregard for human life and dignity.

The movie is surprisingly lavish. Corman was famous for making small-budget movies quickly but here the costumes and sets are top-notch. The art direction follows the color schemes from Edgar Allan Poe's story. The camera work captures the chaotic nature of the evil festival Prospero is hosting, with people behaving as literal animals and Satanic rites being enacted. Moments are nightmarish in their gaudy display of evil. Price gives a good performance, leading a cast who provides a mixed-bag of performances. 

The blu-ray in this collection includes an extended cut of the film which adds about a minute and a half of content, one scene and some extended dialogue that does not add too much to the theatrical release.

Recommended--highly for Poe or Corman fans.

Witchfinder General/The Conqueror Worm (1968) co-written and directed by Michael Reeves

Price stars as Matthew Hopkins, a witchfinder in 1600s England. The English Civil War is raging, so Protestant and Catholic forces are occupied fighting each other. In the chaos, Hopkins roams freely from town to town, torturing and executing people accused as witches (and collecting bounties for his service). He has a lackey named Stearn (Robert Russell) who takes especial delight in the torture. Hopkins is more focused on rooting out what he thinks is evil, though he is willing to take advantage of young women before he condemns them to death. The pair come to a village where the local priest has been accused. The priest's niece Sara (Hilary Heath) tries to prevent the inevitable, even though she is engaged to Richard Marshall (Ian Ogilvy), a soldier away on duties. When Richard finds out what happened, he goes after the evil duo, even at the risk of his military career.

The movie is more like a thriller than a horror film. There are no supernatural powers or events on display. The drama plays out with a few unpleasant scenes of torture and one rather horrible burning. Hopkins is more cunning and ruthless than anyone in the film (maybe than anyone in Price's career), even turning on his own partner when it is to his own advantage. Price's restrained, focused performance is quite good, it is easy to see why he thought this was his best performance in the horror genre. The other actors are good. The production values are fine though they definitely have that late-1960s or early-1970s look. 

The movie was originally released as "Matthew Hopkins Witchfinder General." The extras on the blu-ray include alternate opening and final credits with Price reciting bits from Poe's The Conqueror Worm, clearly trying to justify changing the title to make it seem like another flick in the Poe cycle. This movie isn't as psychological or artistic as the Poe adaptations and it requires a big stretch to connect the poem's content and themes with the film's. The change is a bit of a shell game played on the viewers.

Recommended, but don't think this is a standard Price horror show.

Movie Reviews: Corman-ia

With the death of famed filmmaker Roger Corman in May, 2024, I decided to catch up on some of his famous and less famous works. He made a lot of B-movies in the 1950s and 1960s and helped to develop a lot of up-and-coming Hollywood talent, including people like Jack Nicholson, Francis Ford Coppola, James Cameron, and numerous others. Here's a chronological rundown of quite a few (most available on Kanopy streaming service as I write this in August 2024)...

Attack of the Crab Monsters (1957) produced and directed by Roger Corman

A group of scientists land on a Pacific island to do research. A previous expedition has disappeared completely. The island was downwind of a hydrogen bomb experiment, so there has been lots of radiation exposure. The land is eerily quiet. No insects or animals have survived on the island other than land crabs. The scientists (and two Naval grunts) offload supplies from a navy airplane which takes off from the ocean. The plane bursts into flames as it ascends. The scientists race back to their one building where they try to radio the navy. A sudden storm has cut off communication to the outside world. And a sudden earthquake has opened a huge pit on the trail to the beach. Thing are not going to go well for this scientific research mission since you can guess by the title what's inside the pit.

The premise is fairly basic and the storyline follows a typical path. The monsters are only suggested by menacing scenes and maybe a gigantic claw here and there before the full display in the final third. Any caution about the problems of using nuclear weapons takes a backseat to the unfolding horror as the island starts falling apart and the scientists are picked off one by one. The story gets the job done and the giant crab puppet looks pretty decent for something from this era--there's no shots of a real crab superimposed on another image to make it look huge. The movie isn't particularly scary or outstanding in any way.

Mildly recommended--this is a very B-level B-movie.

A Bucket of Blood (1959) produced and directed by Roger Corman

Walter (Dick Miller) is busboy at a beatnik bar/coffee shop, the sort of place that artistes hang out at. The in-house poet Maxwell (Julian Burton) spouts a lot of profound-sounding non-sense on the stage while the patrons listen. Walter absorbs it quite well, repeating Maxwell's words back to him. Maxwell doesn't recognize it because "repetition is death." Carla (Barboura Morris) is impressed with Walter, even though he's a bit klutzy and dimwitted. Walter lives in a walkup apartment with a mildly intrusive landlady who is always losing her cat. Walter wants to be part of the art scene and tries to sculpt Carla's head from a picture but he can't concentrate. Besides not having talent, the cat is meowing pathetically. It's stuck in Walter's wall, so he decides to get the cat out. He stabs a knife into the wall and hits the cat. Distraught at the accident, he decides to cover it up by covering the cat up with clay. He brings the "sculpture" to bar where the patrons go gaga over it. He starts to build a reputation as an artist, but his skill as an artist is dependent on an increasing body count.

The movie works as a satire of the beatnik art scene. A lot of self-important people show that they are more or less self-centered. Walter is ignored at first as a busboy with impossible dreams. Then the "in crowd" gets in to his work. The owner suspects Walter's source material, but when he's offered five hundred dollars for the "cat with a knife" statue, he forgets about calling the police. The nagging of conscience does not quite leave him. Walter is delighted with his new-found fame and friends, though even he can't quite escape from his conscience. The ending is melancholy but suits the story, even with its strong comedic elements. And it makes a nice twist on the "Wax Museum" horror sub-genre.

Recommended as a fun satire.

The Wasp Woman (1959) produced and directed by Roger Corman

Janice Starlin (Susan Cabot) is the head of her own cosmetics company. More than the head, she is also the only model, the very face of the company. But the company has been in business for nearly twenty years and Janice can't stop the changes that come with age. Business is starting to go down but she puts her hope in Eric Zinthrop (Michael Mark), an eccentric insect scientist who thinks he has a secret formula based on queen wasp jelly. He's just been fired from a beekeeping outfit and is looking for someone to fund his research. Janice jumps at the chance for and age-defying or age-reversing product...maybe not just for her company. But what will the cost be?

The movie stays as a straightforward drama for a long time. Zinthrop is a bit batty but his formula works on guinea pigs and other small animals. He's not ready for human testing but Janice can't wait. Her ambition is balanced by the other members of her company, who want what's best for the corporate bottom line, but also what's best for her. They try to stop the situation or at least get information out on the table so it can be discussed. The story showcases a lot of side conversations about beauty and youth, especially how they are used in our culture. One of the secretaries always puts on a sultry voice when she answers the phone, even though she is married with a boring (according to her) husband. People play a lot of superficial games, but what is the cost in interpersonal relationships? By the last third of the film, Janice is transforming (temporarily) into an insectoid predator, just like the movie's title promises. The bigger issue underneath the horror drama is surprisingly well-developed and an interesting commentary.

Recommended.

The Little Shop of Horrors (1960) produced, co-written, and directed by Roger Corman

Klutzy Seymour Krelborn (Jonathan Haze) is on the verge of being fired from his florist assistant job at Mushnick's Flowers when he brings in a plant he's cross-bred at home. The plant is very unusual and starts to draw business. Mushnik (Mel Welles) is excited for the profits. The situation becomes problematic because the plant is crossed with a venus fly trap and has an insatiable appetite for blood. At first, Seymour just pricks his fingers to feed it but he runs low pretty quickly. The plant starts talking, demanding to be fed. After an accidental death provides nourishment, Seymour starts going down a dark road to keep his fame (a horitcultural society wants to give him an award) and his new-found love with co-worker Audry (Jackie Joseph).

The movie is a famous low-budget cult film made over a weekend. The story is very outlandish as is almost every character in it. The movie starts with a "Dragnet" style voiceover by a local cop describing the situation. The cops are played for laughs with deadpan patter and flat-footed investigations that don't really get anywhere. Mushnik is a stereotype of the overbearing boss who lets the sound of sales drown out the deeper problems. There's even a sadistic local dentist who, naturally, gets fed to the plant, but not before some comedy horror drilling and a cameo by Jack Nicholson as a masochistic patient. The story wanders a bit, seemingly to fill the time to get a full length picture. But it is entertaining in a B-movie style. Considering its micro-budget and two-day film shoot, the picture is an amazing accomplishment. I'm glad I watched it but don't feel the need to ever watch it again.

Mildly recommended, though the musical version that came out in the 1980s was much better.

The Pit and the Pendulum (1961) directed by Roger Corman

See my previous review here.

The Raven (1963) produced and directed by Roger Corman

Country wizard Craven (Vincent Price) lives a quiet life with his daughter, still mourning over the death of his wife Lenore two years before. A raven shows up at his house, but this is not just any raven. This one talks (voiced by Peter Lorre) and begs to be returned to his rightful form. Craven only practices magic by gesture and does not know how to restore the bird to manhood. The raven knows a formula that requires several magical ingredients. Craven's father was master of the Brotherhood of Wizards and had a laboratory in the basement. Craven and the raven go to the basement and come up with a cure. The raven is actually Bedlo, a member of the Brotherhood who was turned into a raven by Scarabus (Boris Karloff) during a magical combat earlier in the evening. Scarabus and Craven's father were bitter enemies twenty years before. Bedlo wants Craven to come help him get revenge at Scarabus's castle. Craven demurs until Bedlo spots a portrait of Lenore and claims he saw her in Scarabus's home. Craven suspects her soul was captured by Craven (since her body is entombed in Craven's house). He wants to free his beloved wife and agrees to help Bedlo deal with Scarabus. When they get to the evil wizard's castle, not everything is as it seems.

Obviously, Edgar Allen Poe's poem The Raven is too short to fill an entire movie plot. Script writer Richard Matheson crafts an interesting story that encompasses most of the poem with plenty of extras attached. Corman gives the film his usual sense of whimsy and horror. The horror is never too gruesome and is often played for laughs. The magic is fun and I am mostly sure the visual effects were state-of-the-art back in the day. The whole thing is a fun romp with some classic horror actors.

Recommended.

The Haunted Palace (1963) produced and directed by Roger Corman

In the 1700s, Joseph Curwen (Vincent Price) is burned to death in the New England town of Arkham. One hundred and ten years later, his great grandson Charles Dexter Ward (also Vincent Price) comes to town because he has inherited Curwen's property, a creepy old castle overlooking the town. The locals don't want to tell Ward where the place is and are very hostile. Their ancestors were cursed by Curwen, who promised to have revenge on the generations to come. The town is plagued with birth deformities, which is blamed on the curse. Ward and his wife Ann (Debra Paget) try to move in, only to find a caretaker (Lon Chaney, Jr.) getting the palace ready again for Curwen's descendant. Once Ward gets a look at a painting of Curwen, he recognizes the uncanny resemblance and starts to behave very differently.

Though the title is taken from and Edgar Allan Poe poem, the story is from an H. P. Lovecraft novel. The producers didn't want to step away from the successful combination of Corman and Poe, so they marketed this film as another Poe flick. Lovecraft isn't so dramatically different from Poe. The movie has a lot of the same atmosphere, with foggy streets and the castle in ruins. Price does his usual fine job in the dual role and horror fans will delight in the small role Lon Chaney is given. The movie is another fun horror outing for Corman and crew.

Recommended.

X: The Man with the X-Ray Eyes (1963) produced and directed by Roger Corman

See my previous review here.

The Terror (1963) produced and directed by Roger Corman

See my previous review here.

Check out a more thorough review of Roger Corman's life and works in podcast form at Hypnogoria!

Book Review: Dark Horse Edgar Allan Poe Stories by Richard Corben

Dark Horse Edgar Allan Poe Sampler by Richard Corben

Dark Horse Comics has a long tradition of publishing horror comics. They have a series of Edgar Allan Poe stories adapted and illustrated by Richard Corben. Corben's work is a lot rougher and less beautiful than many other illustrators. His visuals have a bit of exploitation to them, especially depicting females with overdone curves and underdressed. He works in the horror genre, so the style is typical. He has done some stories in Hellboy that I liked though I find his art a bit off-putting. His style is evocative but unappealing. Here's a rundown of the various stories available: 

Conqueror Worm--Poe's poem is rather brief and abstract, so Corben crafts a narrative inspired by bits of the poem. A group of well-to-do people are invited to a puppet show that reenacts a travesty that happens at the beginning of the story. The tale is very grim and ugly, ending with grave worms killing everyone. I didn't think Corben's story was good on its own, even with its roots in the poem.

The Raven--A man is tormented one night over the loss of his beloved Lenore, though is he tormenting himself or is the raven that has gotten into the house driving him crazy? Corben gives a little more about Lenore than is in the poem and leans toward the self-tormenting interpretation. The art is less tawdry than in other Corben stories and he does a great job adapting the famous poem to a comic-book format.

The Red Death--King Prospero's kingdom is falling to a plague. Rather than provide humanitarian assistance to the people, he throws an extravagant and decadent party in his castle which has been quarantined. Guests can wear any color but red and can indulge in any activity in a variety of color-themed rooms. At midnight, he discovers a guest dressed in red which makes him angry. Fear streaks through the guests as the red-dressed guest is unkillable. He is the Red Death, spreading the plague over the partygoers. Corben does a good job contrasting the decadence of the elite and the plight of the poor at the beginning, making the ending more like just desserts than tragic loss. He is surprisingly restrained in depicting the debauchery, I was expecting a much more R-rated experience.

The Premature Burial--An engaged couple is bickering in a graveyard. He wants a taste of the marriage bed before they are lawfully wed. She refuses. He gives her some drugged wine. Since it's 1840 or so, the doctors assume she is dead and don't embalm her before a rushed burial. The guy comes to the graveyard to dig her up and have his way with her. She comes to just as he is about to assault her. She beats him off and flees, not realizing she hit him hard enough to knock him out. Well, he's mistaken for dead and buried in the same spot. More complications follow, if you can believe it.

Corben's plotting is salacious but also intriguing. The motivations are a bit mixed but the ending hits the mark. The original story is completely different, with a disturbed person writing about the horrors of being buried alive and his obsession with it which almost destroys his life. Again, there's very little connection with Poe.

The Cask of Amontillado--An old man named Montressor brings a widow into his wine cellar. He regales her of the tale of what happened to her husband, Fortunato. During a carnival many years ago, Montressor bought a cask of Amontillado wine and wanted a friend to confirm it as the real thing. He wandered through the evening street festival and he ran into Fortunato, who insisted on trying the wine even though he was not the friend with refined tastes. Montressor took him to the cellar where he walled him up. Old man Montressor claims there was some insult or some other thing that justified the deed but the widow flees for the police. Montressor has already decided to drug himself to death, so he is not worried as he has a last drink by Fortunato's wall.

Corben's art fits well with the grimness of the story and captures the awfulness of the situation. The original Poe story is more straightforward with clear knowledge of the insult and clear embracing of the evil of his act.

The Fall of the House of Usher--Allan rides through a creepy forest. It's so creepy that his horse flees before they arrive at the House of Usher. Allan has been summoned by his friend Roderick Usher. Roderick lives with his sister Madeline alone in the house (except for one butler). The recent flooding has forced them to move the coffins and corpses of the Ushers into the foyer, not the most pleasant introduction to the house. Roderick is extremely odd, using his sister as a nude model being the least odd of his habits. She comes to Allan and begs to be taken away for she fears her brother. The plea turns out to be too late as she dies after Roderick finishes an amazing likeness of her in paint. They lay her to rest in the basement. Allan discover more unhappy secrets as things come crashing down figuratively and literally.

Corben combines the Usher story with Poe's The Oval Portrait, raising the creepiness level. Roderick is a very disturbing character and nearly completely unsympathetic. This telling feels more like it is wallowing in misery rather than tragedy. Again, his art is borderline sexist in the ridiculously voluptuous female characters.

Morella--Myron is sick of his wife, Morella, who dabbles in the occult. She unexpectedly dies but tells him on her deathbed that her daughter Orella will come and take care of him. Orella is a step-daughter who is the spitting image of her mom, which turns into trouble for all concerned.

The tale is quite salacious, especially with the underdressed Morella trying to manipulate the situation. The Poe story has the wife as educated in the arcane but not necessarily occult. She gives birth to a child as she dies and the little girl grows up to be too much like her mother. So Corben takes liberties to condense the tale, though I find his version much less satisfying than Poe's.

Murders in the Rue Morgue--This classic tale follows Dupin, a Parisian gentleman who is fascinated by a newspaper report of two deaths by violence that seem inexplicable. He investigates with cool logic and thoroughness, solving the mystery. The ending is very bloody (it is a Corben adaptation, after all) but follows the original quite well.

The visual storytelling is a bit more interesting in this tale and fits better than others. The odd-looking people match the odd atmosphere and strange resolution of the mystery.

Overall, I still find Corben's style unlikeable even though I appreciate it. He has a running character called Mag the Hag who provides some commentary and the occasional joke, much like the Crypt Keeper in Tales from the Crypt. She's a bit vulgar, with oversized breasts and a bit of a leer. Again, she fits Corben's typical style which I just find unedifying. It's better to read Poe's stories than to read these comics.

Not recommended unless you are into Corben's art.

The Edgar Allan Poe House and Museum, Baltimore

The Edgar Allan Poe House and Museum in Baltimore, Maryland, is a small townhouse where Poe lived with his family for a few years in the 1830s. He met his wife, Virginia Eliza Clemm, in Baltimore during this period. He also began writing short fiction in this house.

Edgar Allan Poe House and Museum

Historic certification!

The front parlor has a lot of stuff in it--the reception desk and shop, a history of the house on a screen, some mementos, the family tree, and a list of fiction he wrote in the house.

Parlor

Family tree

A list of stories written here (at least that's what the research shows)

Upstairs a wall has many testimonials from other writers and famous figures who were influenced by Poe's work, including Stephen King and Alfred Hitchcock.

Best graffiti ever?

King's appreciation

Poe had an interest in astronomy and the family owned a telescope!

Poe's peeper

They also have a portable writing desk from that time, probably the first "laptop" for composing on teh go.

He can write anywhere!

Upstairs mantel

Poe came back to Baltimore in 1849 for a few months. He died under very unusual circumstances, found drunk in a bar with someone else's clothes on. After going to the hospital, Poe died on October 7, 1849, from what might have been rabies or a brain aliment or complications from drinking. No clear evidence is available but you can read a summary here. He had two graves. When he died he was not so famous as he would become and was buried in a family plot. Decades later, his prominence led to moving his body to Westminster Presbyterian Church in Baltimore with a large memorial.

Grave information

The top room in the house is called the "garret bedroom." Some think that he slept up here but the stairs accessing it go through the room that the women of the house would have used, so he probably did not go traipsing through their room. He most likely slept with his cousin in the back bedroom. The museum has decorated it as if it was Edgar's anyway.

Garret bedroom

More of the bedroom

"Five Poes" by Robert Sullivan

The house has an old-time map of Baltimore showing various places related to Poe, including the house, other places he stayed, and his burial site.

Poe's Baltimore (click to enlarge)

List of sites

The museum is very small and requires pre-purchased tickets. Any fan will want to check it out.

Random Bits of Virginia

On our trip to Lake Phoenix, we did some other things. I went looking for geocaches, which was harder than I thought it would be. The town of Blackstone is about half an hour away and promised to have almost a dozen geocaches. Unfortunately, some of them were no longer active (why don't people take them off the web site?). I did visit Schwartz Tavern which dates back to 1798. It's a museum now but the museum was not open when I visited. The geocache under the porch wasn't there either!

Schwartz Tavern

Across the street from the tavern is the Harris Memorial Armory, which also was not open. It does look like a cool building.

Looks older than the tavern, huh?

After the first evening of diving, we went to a Japanese restaurant called Narita. I had a box dinner, which included California rolls, tempura, and beef teriyaki. Yummy!

A satisfying dinner

On our way home, we stopped in Richmond for lunch at Capital Ale House. I had a lovely bourbon cask-aged porter along with the frittata off the brunch menu.

 

Darkest beer ever?

Hash browns and frittata

We walked over to capital hill where the state government is located.

A small tower on the way to the capital

The main building is getting a face lift so the area had construction equipment and fences galore.

Capital building

The Virginia Women's Monument is a tribute to famous (First Lady Martha Washington) and not-so-famous (seamstress and author Elizabeth Keckly) women who have had an impact on the state and the country at large. 

The Virginia Women's Monument

Ready to join the ranks

Printer Clementia Rind and Martha Washington (seated)

Nearby is the Virginia Washington Monument, with George Washington on horseback and several Virginia founding fathers (like Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson) around the base.

Washington monument

Across the street is the Old City Hall which looks very fancy.

Old City Hall

Another monument on the north side of the Capitol is dedicated to Doctor Hunter Henry McGuire. He was an American Civil War-era doctor who was physician to General Stonewall Jackson. After the war, he founded a medical school in Richmond and provided medical service to the indigent and to the freed Blacks. 

Hunter Holmes McGuire

The next monument is the Virginia Civil Rights Monument. It is a four-sided granite block with statues on every side representing the struggle for school desegregation in Virginia.

Barbara Johns led one of the protests as a teenager in 1951

The civil rights lawyers who took the case through the Virginia legal system

A great quote from Thurgood Marshall

The final side of the monument

Nearby is the Virginia Executive Mansion where the governor lives and works.

Executive Mansion

Just down the hill is an office building for various government departments along with the Lieutenant Governor's Office.

Offices

Another view of the Capitol

Fenced-off front!

A comprehensive list (slingshots?)

On the way back to the car, we spotted a small plaque commemorating the location of a building where Edgar Allen Poe once lived. The original building is gone.

Sinister angle courtesy my daughter

Hopefully we'll get to visit the local Poe Museum on another visit to Richmond!