The Tomb of Ligeia Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		4.0
Overall		3.5

The Tomb of Ligeia Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov September 11, 2021

Roger Corman's "The Tomb of Ligeia" (1964) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber. The supplemental features on the disc include two archival audio commentaries; new audio commentary recorded by critic Tim Lucas; archival episode of Trailers From Hell with Joe Dante; and more. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".

During a fox hunt, the beautiful Lady Rowena (Elizabeth Shepherd, Omen II) gets lost and enters a seemingly abandoned abbey where she encounters the wealthy widower Verden Fell (Vincent Price). He takes back to his home and bandages her injured ankle.

Intrigued by Verden Fell’s unusual appearance, personality and the place he calls home, Lady Rowena quickly falls in love with him. Verden Fell also becomes attracted to Lady Rowena, but something in his home complicates their relationship.

After a series of strange events, Lady Rowena eventually concludes that Verden Fell is still madly in love with his late wife, Ligeia, and that she might have possessed his soul. She attempts to escape and all hell breaks loose.

The Tomb of Ligeia was the second Edgar Allan Poe adaptation Roger Corman produced and shot in the United Kingdom. Its budget was fairly similar to those of Corman’s previous Poe films, but its style is drastically different.

Perhaps the biggest difference between The Tomb of Ligeia and the rest of the Poe films is the new atmosphere. Indeed, there is a shift from the straightforward gothic horror identity of the previous films to a more pronounced interest in the psychology of the different characters. As a result, in this film the treatment of light, shadow and color as well as the framing patterns are very different.

The film is divided into two contrasting sections. In the first the focus of attention is primarily on the relationship between the main characters and the environment in which they exist. There is an odd tension between them which Corman effectively uses to pre-arrange various conflicts. In other words, in this film the new atmosphere essentially takes over the role which the elaborate dialog has in the previous films.

The second section is more traditional. Corman and his team use familiar tricks to bring some of the traditional horror atmosphere back into the film. The visual effects at the end, in particular, are very similar to those seen in some of the previous Poe films.

The cast is good. As usual, Price looks very comfortable in front of the camera and his excellent facial expressions actually make a number of sequences look and feel far more atmospheric than they really are. Shepherd looks beautiful in her period dresses, but occasionally her reactions are notably overdone. Oliver Johnston is fantastic as the old servant.

The script for the film was written by Robert Towne. A decade later, Towne collaborated with Roman Polanksi on Chinatown and won an Oscar Award for Best Writing, Original Screenplay.

The soundtrack was created by Kenneth V. Jones (Robert Aldrich’s Ten Seconds to Hell, Curtis Harrington’s Whoever Slew Auntie Roo?).

The Tomb of Ligeia Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 2.34:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, The Tomb of Ligeia arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of British distributors Kino Lorber.

The master that was used to source this release comes from MGM and is quite old. It has been used for a number of other home video releases of The Tomb of Ligeia as well, including this Region-B release from Arrow Video. (The same master has been used even for older DVD releases of the film).

Despite its age, I think that the master offers a decent, mostly pleasing organic presentation of the film. However, you don't need a very large screen to quickly realize that there is plenty of room for meaningful improvements. As far as I am concerned, the master's biggest strength is the absence of problematic digital corrections of the type that are often present on similar older masters that emerge from Universal's vaults. This is the main reason why delineation, depth, clarity, and density levels remain decent. But a proper new 2K or 4K master would easily introduce substantial improvements in each of these areas and the film will instantly reveal a very attractive fresh appearance. A proper new master will produce a new, stronger and healthier color scheme as well. At the moment colors tend to look natural but dated, in some areas a tad awkwardly balanced as well. Image stability is good. Some minor specks and stains remain, but there are no warped or torn frames to report. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free player in order to access its content).

The Tomb of Ligeia Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature. When turned on, they appear inside the image frame.

The lossless track serves the film well, but it shows some signs of ageing. For example, some extremely light background hiss occasionally makes its presence felt. Minor dynamic unevenness can be spotted as well. These are not distracting anomalies, but they do reveal that the current master that MGM has in its vaults was prepared quite some ago.

The Tomb of Ligeia Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer - original trailer for The Tomb of Ligeia. In English, not subtitled. (3 min).

• Trailers From Hell - a vintage episode of Trailers From Hell with director Joe Dante (Innerspace). In English, not subtitled. (4 min).

• Commentary One - in this archival audio commentary, Roger Corman discusses in great detail the visual style of The Tomb of Ligeia and the key differences between the previous Edgar Alan Poe adaptions/films he did, the framing of different sequences, the art direction, the film's sound design, etc.

• Commentary Two - in this archival audio commentary, actress Elizabeth Shepherd (The Lady Rowena Trevanion/The Lady Ligeia) discusses the shooting of different sequences from the film, the different costumes and outfits that were used, her interactions with Vincent Price during the production process, etc.

• Commentary Three - in this new audio commentary, critic Tim Lucas discusses the production history of The Tomb of Ligeia, some interesting discrepancies between the original story from Edgar Allan Poe and the one told by the film, the main characters and their relationships, Roger Corman's career, etc.

The Tomb of Ligeia Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I like some of these early Roger Corman films because they are low-budget films with a certain atmosphere. They don't break any new boundaries and occasionally the acting in them could be a bit problematic, but almost without exception there is pure enthusiasm in them which together with the atmosphere mentioned above make them perfect to see very late at night. Kino Lorber's release of The Tomb of Ligeia is sourced from an older but rather decent master that was supplied by MGM. RECOMMENDED.