I came to this movie after watching two earlier Roger Corman / Vincent Price Gothic-style chillers, based on the works of Edgar Allen Poe, the very good "Pit And The Pendulum" and classic "The Masque Of The Red Death". This in fact was the last of six collaborations between director and actor and perhaps it was the right decision on the evidence here.
Despite having some memorable moments, "The Tomb Of Ligeia" definitely shows signs of sag. The subject of live interment had been done better in "Pit...", the sight of an attractive woman in flowing robes wandering around a haunted mansion was a feature of "Masque..." and of course even Price's turn as a disturbed lord of the manor was starting to pall at this stage.
Set in the U.K. countryside with a largely British cast, the film takes quite a while to really get going with most of the action crammed into the last half hour or so. The strange, eye-catching scenes mentioned above include a nightmarish transformation of a bouquet of white flowers to a bloody fox, and Elizabeth Shepherd's Lady Rowena pouring blue candle wax onto her evening meal.
Price, for once without facial hair and sporting a short haircut too is this time at less than his best as the widower Verden Fell still obsessed with the death of his first wife and the rest of the cast struggle to compensate. I'm no cat lover so the apparent possession of a black cat by Mrs Fell the first for much of the film didn't much excite me either. The unoriginal ending with everything going up in flames yet again brought to a close a rather underwhelming feature not quite up to the standard of previous Poe-derived films made by Corman and starring Price.
Despite having some memorable moments, "The Tomb Of Ligeia" definitely shows signs of sag. The subject of live interment had been done better in "Pit...", the sight of an attractive woman in flowing robes wandering around a haunted mansion was a feature of "Masque..." and of course even Price's turn as a disturbed lord of the manor was starting to pall at this stage.
Set in the U.K. countryside with a largely British cast, the film takes quite a while to really get going with most of the action crammed into the last half hour or so. The strange, eye-catching scenes mentioned above include a nightmarish transformation of a bouquet of white flowers to a bloody fox, and Elizabeth Shepherd's Lady Rowena pouring blue candle wax onto her evening meal.
Price, for once without facial hair and sporting a short haircut too is this time at less than his best as the widower Verden Fell still obsessed with the death of his first wife and the rest of the cast struggle to compensate. I'm no cat lover so the apparent possession of a black cat by Mrs Fell the first for much of the film didn't much excite me either. The unoriginal ending with everything going up in flames yet again brought to a close a rather underwhelming feature not quite up to the standard of previous Poe-derived films made by Corman and starring Price.