In the 1800’s, Edgar Marsh (Laurence Payne) is a sexually repressed dope addict. When he is not working as a librarian, he spends his time in his room looking at pictures of naked women. He sees a beautiful new tenant move into the boarding house across the road. He learns that her name is Betty Claire (Adrienne Corri). He watches her through the window each night as she undresses. He asks his best friend Carl Loomis (Dermont Walsh) how to meet women.
Edgar finally gets up the nerve to ask her out. After dinner he takes her home. At her door he screws-up. He grabs her and tries to forcefully kiss her. She rebuffs him. The next day he apologizes and begs her to have a drink with him. Feeling sorry for him, she agrees. Edgar quickly becomes infatuated with Betty.
One night at dinner Edgar introduces Betty to Carl. Betty is immediately attracted to Carl. Carl, being far more experienced with women, sees that Betty is interested in him whereas Edgar is oblivious. Carl tries to warn Edgar that he is getting in over his head and that Betty is the first girl he has ever dated so he shouldn’t expect too much. Edgar is already in love and believes that he has a future with Betty. Not wanting to hurt his friend or encourage Betty Carl tries to stay away from them but Betty keeps showing up and Edgar keeps insisting that Carl join them.
The next time they have dinner Betty can only look at Carl. By now Carl is becoming enthralled with Betty. They agree to meet after dinner. That night Carl shows up in Betty’s room. As they make love Edgar is across the road watching from his bedroom window. The sight of his best friend, and the woman he believes is his girlfriend, together, sends Edgar over the edge. Edgar doesn’t take it well at all.
“The Tell-Tale Heart” was released in 1960 and was directed by Ernest Morris. It is a British horror movie based on the Edgar Allan Poe story. In the U.S. it was released in 1962 under the title “The Hidden Room of 1,000 Horrors”.
If you take a good story, add in some wonderful spooky imagery, great acting and some noir touches you have a most enjoyable, although slightly long, movie.
The number of films and shorts that have used this Poe story as a basis is getting to the point where one loses count. This adaptation has a dark and sexual undertone. In the case of Edgar, it is repressed. He keeps porn but it is hidden in a cabinet where his housekeeper can’t see it. He looks at the legs of a harlot in a bar but refuses to talk to her. He secretly watches Betty undress in the darkness of his room across the road. When he passes the portrait of his mother on the staircase, he gently caresses her cheek. It makes one think that his mother was responsible for his reticence. In what way, is the question. Some of it may be the Victorian Era he was raised in, but it also seems to me that there are some nasty mommy issues hidden in his insane mind.
In the beginning of the movie the landlady calls Edgar Marsh Mr. Poe several times. Edgar Allan Poe’s name is spelled incorrectly in the credits.