Alta Vista Film Production
Starring: Vincent Price, Elizabeth Shepherd, John Westbrook
Directed by: Roger Corman
Cat Out of the Bag Alert! This review contains some spoilers for this film!
Synopsis: Based on the story by Edgar Allan Poe, the last Poe story directed by Roger Corman. Verden Fell (Vincent Price) is in mourning for his late wife Ligeia when he meets and falls in love with Lady Rowena Trevanion (Elizabeth Shepherd). Unfortunately the spirit of Ligeia constantly comes between the couple . . . or is Ligeia still alive?
Bad Kitty: The black cat is so prominent in this film that it is featured on the film’s publicity posters. From the first scene at Ligeia’s gravesite to the end scenes, the cat plays a major role in the proceedings, showing up to torment and taunt the Lady Rowena.
It becomes clear as the film goes along that the cat is meant to be the embodiment of Ligeia herself.
Kitty Carnage Warning! Not only is the cat actor thrown around a lot in this film (and we mean a lot . . . the poor thing is tossed into every other scene) but the end sequence focuses on Verden’s attempts to kill the cat, first pushing it off the body of Lady Rowena and then chasing it around a room with a whip and pike. The cat does fight back, however, scratching Verden’s eyes out. In the end when the abbey is burning, Verden manages to get his hands around the throat of the animal and strangles it to death.
Final Mewsings: Dead women can be catty.
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