Plantiana Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

Baseshment I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

TrueHello Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Invaderbank The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

BA_Harrison When beauty Betty Clare (Adrienne Corri) moves into the building opposite introvert Edgar Marsh (Laurence Payne), the shy young man seeks advice from his friend Carl Loomis (Dermot Walsh) on how best to romantically approach the young woman. Edgar's attempts at wooing Betty are clumsy, and his feelings unreciprocated, and when Edgar introduces Betty to Carl, he really sets himself up for a fall: one evening, he sees Carl and Betty together in her apartment, and they're not talking about the weather! Enraged, Edgar lures Carl to his home, bashes his head in with a fire poker, and stashes the body under his floorboards, but his guilt over the terrible crime manifests itself as a incessant, pounding heartbeat.A loose adaptation of Edgar Allen Poe's The Tell-tale Heart (a story familiar to me through an episode of The Simpsons), this film opens with a warning for the squeamish, although for the most part the action is far from horrific, revolving around Edgar's obsession with Betty (on whom he spies from his first floor window) and his unsuccessful attempts at getting to first base. Things get far more interesting when Edgar eventually loses the plot: we get a surprisingly vicious murder scene, Ed giving Carl numerous hefty whacks that leave him spattered with blood (gruesome stuff for a film from 1960); the young man's descent into complete and utter madness is handled well by director Ernest Morris, with dripping taps, pulsing floorboards and a ticking metronome pushing him even further over the edge; and in the film's juiciest scene, Edgar clutches the still beating heart that he has cut from Carl's chest and buries it in the garden.I rate The Tell-Tale Heart 6/10, which I might have raised to a 7 if it hadn't been for the trite, cop-out ending in which it all turns out to be a dream (that might just become reality).

trinityann8423-1 I actually enjoyed this movie.I am a huge horror fan. I read scary books and love scary movies, Edgar Allen Poe is one of the authors I've enjoyed since I was a child. I received this movie as a gift from work for Halloween.I found out that it had only been a dollar plus it had the movie "Chiller" on it. It was a lot better than I thought it would be. A lot of movie adaptations of classic stories aren't nearly as good as the stories but I believe this one was a well done adaptation. It kept my attention from the beginning until the end.The only flaw I guess was that the main female character was too obvious most of the time while the main character, Edgar, seemed pretty oblivious at the beginning.Other than that, very good acting, I was pretty impressed.

Bub_the_zombie Definitely one of the better takes on the classic Poe story. The acting in this version is simply fantastic. A moody little piece with some risqué' scenes to be of such an early caliber. A very interesting rarity.The quality of the print isn't great, but has still held up well throughout time, considering... It's a wonder that someone still had the negative.. I was really surprised,as a lot of times, films like these can really be tedious, but not this one.A welcomed attempt is what this is. One gets the sense that even tho it had been done to death (even previously from 1960) the filmmakers took their approach seriously, with an end result that is creepy and risky.I'm surprised that more people haven't seen this film, given the fact that it's pretty readily available on a one buck DVD alongside Chiller.

pmsusana One critic described this film as "A real bore"; I vigorously disagree. It has its flaws - modern audiences would probably find it slow to start, and that blaring backround music detracts from a few scenes - but it does build slowly to some wonderfully creepy and horrific scenes during the second half which are well worth hanging on for. I was also impressed with the sincerely tormented performance of Laurence Payne in the central role.