Ever notice how nothing positive is ever conveyed when a word is preceded by “premature”? Premature ejaculation, for example. Premature death. Premature aging. Premature birth. It is different from “early”, which is why my completion of high school before the last quarter wasn’t described as premature graduation, though it probably should have been.
Without knowing anything else about 1962’s The Premature Burial, it is no surprise it is based on a story by Edgar Allan Poe. After all, the main trait everybody seems to associate with the man was his fear of being interred alive.
This particular adaptation is another in Roger Corman’s run of Poe films from the early 1960’s, but this one is noteworthy for the being the only one without Vincent Price. Instead, Ray Milland is the lead, and that may be why I didn’t find this to be as intriguing as most of the other picture in this series. It isn’t that Milland is a bad actor, but the problem may be he is too good of a conventional actor, and he doesn’t really seize the potential for a role such as this until near the end.
The film opens with him and some others watching gravediggers John Dierkes and Dick Miller unearth the coffin of his father. It is obvious from the contorted corpse the man had been buried alive and trying to claw his way out of his confinement.
I’m not sure if Milland had a fear of what is stated in the title, but he damn well does now. It becomes such an obsession that he builds his own mausoleum with all kinds of means to prevent meeting what he believes will be his fate. It is a clever combination of devices and secret egresses, though a tad ridiculous. Off the top of my head, I can recall the coffin which breaks apart with the flick of a finger, the rope ladder which can be dropped from the ceiling so as to allow exit through an opening in the roof, a fully stocked larder. In the event all else fails, there is a goblet (yes, an actual goblet) of poison.
Hazel Court, as his wife, is deeply unhappy he is spending all his time there. As she accurately describes it, his obsession with what might happen to him after his eventual demise has led him to be in a kind of perpetual living death. As for myself, that a guy was spending so much time elsewhere alone and seemingly caught up in a hobby had me thinking she has to walk in on him wanking at some point.
The marriage was a recent development, one that was opposed by Milland’s sister (Heather Angel) who also lives in this gothic mansion on the moors. Typical of this kind of thing, there are any number of potential reasons for Angel’s opposition, and any of the actors among the small cast could be of a duplicitous nature. You know the drill.
Unlike most of the other Corman Poe pictures, this one doesn’t find its footing until way too late in the runtime, and that is only after Milland meets the fate he so dreaded. This is where the actor finally channels the full camp nature of what is now is villainous character, as he goes around committing a great many murders in a cast only totaling nine.
I wouldn’t normally be aware of how few actors there are, except there also isn’t much to look at. The sets feel small and confined, with that impossible to pinpoint factor which makes them feel as if they extend no further than the edges of the screen. There are also few artists flourishes, except an expected and gaudily-lit dream sequence, where unusual sound design has horns blaring whenever Milland opens his mouth to scream.
Far from being a complete loss, The Premature Burial is a substandard gothic horror movie which ticks some of the boxes one expects from such fare, but little more. In particular, the absence of Price is strongly felt, and Milland a poor substitute. Fortunately, Price would return for four more Poe features helmed by Corman, in a series that did not end prematurely.
Dir: Roger Corman
Starring Ray Milland, Hazel Court
Watched on Kino Lorber blu-ray