The Spectre of Edgar Allan Poe

1974
PG
1h 29m

IMDb RATING

4.6/10

133

YOUR RATING

Drama Horror

Poe's fiance, Lenore, falls into a coma and is taken for dead. She is rescued at the last possible moment from being buried alive, but the experience has driven her insane. On the advice of ... Read allPoe's fiance, Lenore, falls into a coma and is taken for dead. She is rescued at the last possible moment from being buried alive, but the experience has driven her insane. On the advice of his friend, Dr. Forrest, Poe commits Lenore to the asylum run by Dr. Grimaldi. On a visit ... Read allPoe's fiance, Lenore, falls into a coma and is taken for dead. She is rescued at the last possible moment from being buried alive, but the experience has driven her insane. On the advice of his friend, Dr. Forrest, Poe commits Lenore to the asylum run by Dr. Grimaldi. On a visit to the asylum, Poe and Forrest sense that something strange is going on, and decide to sne... Read all

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

4.6/10

133

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Trivia
Last film of Carol Ohmart.

Connections
Featured in Deadly Earnest's Nightmare Theatre: The Spectre of Edgar Allan Poe (1978)

Soundtracks
Lenore
Words and Music by Allen D. Allen
Sung by Tom Bähler (as Tom Bahlor)

User reviews6

Review

Featured review

4/10

Squanders its Poe-tential.

The Spectre of Edgar Allan Poe is a fictional account of how the renowned writer came to be obsessed with death and the macabre.

According to this film, the young Poe (Robert Walker Jr.) was in love with a woman named Lenore (Mary Grover), who one day suddenly dropped dead, or so it seemed. At Lenore's funeral, Poe hears screams coming from the coffin and it is discovered that the young woman is still alive. In a catatonic state of shock, Lenore is admitted to a private asylum under the care of Dr. Grimaldi (Cesar Romero), who secretly conducts experiments on his patients and whose sister Lisa is a pychopathic killer. Poe becomes suspicious, and with help from his friend Dr. Adam Forrest (Tom Drake), he investigates.

I really like the idea of Edgar Allan Poe becoming involved in real-life mysteries, uncovering macabre happenings which would serve as inspiration for his stories -- it would make for a great TV series. This film, however, doesn't do the idea justice. The direction is pedestrian, the pace dreary, the acting barely passable, and the script mostly involves the characters wandering around the dark corridors of the asylum -- so dark that it is often hard to see what is happening. The chills and scares are strictly PG. On the plus side, Walker makes for an effective Poe, looking very much like the author.

The Spectre of Edgar Allan Poe ends with Lenore dying for real (hacked to death by the axe-wielding Lisa), leaving Poe grief stricken, at least until he marries his 13-year-old cousin -- the only genuinely shocking thing about the whole film.