View source for Twice-Told Tales (film)



{{Use American English|date=January 2025}}
{{Infobox film
| name           = Twice-Told Tales
| director       = [[Sidney Salkow]]
| image          = Twicetoldtales.jpg
| writer         = [[Robert E. Kent]]
| based_on       = "[[Dr. Heidegger's Experiment]]" (1837)<br>"[[Rappaccini's Daughter]]" (1844)<br>''[[The House of the Seven Gables]]'' (1851) by [[Nathaniel Hawthorne]]
| starring       = [[Vincent Price]]<br>[[Sebastian Cabot (actor)|Sebastian Cabot]]<br>[[Brett Halsey]]<br>[[Beverly Garland]]<br>[[Richard Denning]]<br>[[Joyce Taylor]]
| narrator       = Vincent Price
| producer       = [[Robert E. Kent]]<br>[[Edward Small]] (executive)
| music          = [[Richard LaSalle]]
| cinematography = [[Ellis W. Carter]]
| editing        = [[Grant Whytlock]]
| studio         = {{unbulleted list |Admiral Pictures<br/>Robert E. Kent Productions}}
| distributor    = [[United Artists]]
| released       = {{Film date|1963|09}}
| runtime        = 120 minutes
| language       = English
}}
'''''Twice-Told Tales''''' is a 1963 American [[horror film|horror]] [[anthology film]] directed by [[Sidney Salkow]] and starring [[Vincent Price]]. It consists of three segments, all loosely adapted by producer/screenwriter [[Robert E. Kent]] from works by [[Nathaniel Hawthorne]].

==Plot==
Each of the three sequences is introduced by [[Vincent Price]] (in a [[voice-over]]). Price also stars in all three narratives.

==="Dr. Heidegger's Experiment"===
Two elderly friends, Carl Heidegger ([[Sebastian Cabot (actor)|Sebastian Cabot]]) and Alex (Price), meet to celebrate Heidegger's 79th birthday. They discover that Heidegger's fiancée from 38 years before, Sylvia ([[Mari Blanchard]]), is perfectly preserved in her coffin. Heidegger believes that the water dripping into the coffin from the crypt's ceiling has the power to preserve, and perhaps to reinvigorate. He tries it on a withered rose and it comes back into full bloom.

Carl and Alex drink the water and become young again. Carl injects the liquid into Sylvia and she comes back to life.  Carl overhears Sylvia and Alex speaking and learns that they were secretly lovers. Carl attacks Alex but Alex accidentally kills him in the struggle. Carl's body returns to its true age and Alex realises that the effects of the water are temporary. Sylvia is reduced to a desiccated skeleton and Alex's body too returns to its original age. Alex returns to the crypt in desperation to find more of the water but it no longer flows.

==="Rappaccini's Daughter"===
In [[Padua]], Giacomo Rappaccini (Price) keeps his daughter Beatrice ([[Joyce Taylor]]) in a garden. A university student next door, Giovanni ([[Brett Halsey]]), sees her and falls in love. One of Giovanni's professors says that he used to teach with Rappaccini.  Many years earlier, Rappaccini abruptly quit academia and became a recluse after his wife ran away with a lover. Rappaccini has treated Beatrice with an exotic plant extract that makes her touch deadly to keep her safe from unwanted suitors, but it also makes her a prisoner in her own home.

When Rappaccini sees the attraction between Giovanni and Beatrice, he surreptitiously treats Giovanni with the extract so they can be together. Giovanni is aghast and obtains an experimental antidote from his professor. He consumes the antidote in front of Beatrice but it kills him. Beatrice drinks it also, killing herself. Having lost everything of value, Rappaccini grabs the exotic plant with both hands and allows its touch to kill him.

==="The House of the Seven Gables"===
Gerald Pyncheon (Price) returns to his family house after an absence of 17 years, bringing with him his wife Alice ([[Beverly Garland]]). His sister Hannah ([[Jacqueline deWit]]), who has been living in the house, tells Alice about the curse put upon Pyncheon men by Mathew Maulle, who used to own the house but lost it in a shady deal to the Pyncheon family. Jonathan Maulle ([[Richard Denning]]), a descendant of Mathew, arrives but he refuses Gerald's offer to give him the house in exchange for the location of a vault where valuable property deeds are stored. Alice becomes haunted by the curse on the house, which eventually leads her to the cellar.

Gerald finds her there and, lifting up the slab over the grave of Mathew Maulle, discovers the map to the vault. He kills Hannah to keep her share of the inheritance for himself. Gerald traps Alice in the grave, then goes to the study to find the vault. When he opens it, a skeletal hand inside reaches out and kills him. Jonathan arrives and takes Alice out of the house just as it shakes and collapses into rubble.

==Cast==
* [[Vincent Price]] as  Alex Medbourne / Giacomo Rappaccini / Gerald Pyncheon 
* [[Sebastian Cabot (actor)|Sebastian Cabot]] as  Dr. Carl Heidegger 
* [[Brett Halsey]] as Giovanni Guasconti 
* [[Beverly Garland]] as  Alice Pyncheon 
* [[Richard Denning]] as Jonathan Maulle 
* [[Mari Blanchard]] as Sylvia Ward 
* [[Abraham Sofaer]] as  Prof. Pietro Baglioni 
* [[Jacqueline deWit]] as  Hannah Pyncheon, Gerald's Sister 
* [[Joyce Taylor]] as Beatrice Rappaccini 
* [[Edith Evanson]] as  Lisabetta, the landlady 
* [[Floyd Simmons]] as  Ghost of Mathew Maulle 
* [[Gene Roth]] as  Cabman

==Production background==
The film is an 'omnibus'-style film based on two of [[Nathaniel Hawthorne]]'s stories, "[[Dr. Heidegger's Experiment]]" (1837) and "[[Rappaccini's Daughter]]" (1844), and on the novel ''[[The House of the Seven Gables]]'' (1851), [[The House of the Seven Gables (film)|which had previously been adapted in 1940 also starring Price]].<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20121019012443/http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/94128/Twice-Told-Tales/#articles-reviews Article at ''Turner Classic Movies''] accessed 29 December 2023</ref>  Only "Dr. Heidegger's Experiment" was actually published in Hawthorne's ''[[Twice-Told Tales]]'', which supplied the film's title. Similar to ''[[Tales of Terror]]'' (1962), Price appeared in all three segments.

==Production==
Filming started on [[Halloween]] 1962.<ref>{{Cite news|title=Champion to Direct 'Daisy,' 'Carnival': Husband Will Star Ginger; 'No Man an Island' Review|author=Scheuer, Philip K.|date=Nov 1, 1962|work=Los Angeles Times|page=C9}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[List of American films of 1963]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==

* {{IMDb title|id=0057608|title=Twice-Told Tales}}
* {{TCMDb title|94128|Twice Told Tales}}
* {{AFI film|23376}}

{{Sidney Salkow}}
{{Edward Small}}
{{Rappaccini's Daughter}}

[[Category:1963 films]]
[[Category:1963 horror films]]
[[Category:1963 English-language films]]
[[Category:1963 fantasy films]]
[[Category:1960s supernatural horror films]]
[[Category:American haunted house films]]
[[Category:American historical horror films]]
[[Category:American horror anthology films]]
[[Category:American mad scientist films]]
[[Category:American romantic horror films]]
[[Category:American science fiction horror films]]
[[Category:American supernatural horror films]]
[[Category:Films about curses]]
[[Category:Films about father–daughter relationships]]
[[Category:Films based on American novels]]
[[Category:Films based on multiple works]]
[[Category:Films based on American short stories]]
[[Category:Films based on works by Nathaniel Hawthorne]]
[[Category:Films directed by Sidney Salkow]]
[[Category:Films produced by Edward Small]]
[[Category:American gothic horror films]]
[[Category:Films scored by Richard LaSalle]]
[[Category:United Artists films]]
[[Category:1963 American films]]
[[Category:Films about birthdays]]
[[Category:Films about old age]]
[[Category:Films about resurrection]]
[[Category:Films about suicide]]
[[Category:Films set in Veneto]]
[[Category:English-language horror films]]
[[Category:English-language fantasy films]]

{{Wikipedia attribution|original_title=Twice-Told Tales (film)|access_date=2026-03-07}}