The Tomb of Ligeia Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.5
Overall		3.5

The Tomb of Ligeia Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman October 18, 2014

Note: This film is available in the bundle The Vincent Price Collection II.

Vincent Price’s career spanned everything from classic noir ( Laura) to somewhat questionable biographies (he played a rather unlikely Joseph Smith in Brigham Young in a film which always delighted this non-Mormon Utah native), but Price’s lasting legacy will probably always be the horror films he started making in the 1950s with the now iconic House of Wax 3D. Scream Factory, the horror themed imprint of Shout! Factory, gave Price fans a great Halloween present last year when they released The Vincent Price Collection, which included a gaggle of Price’s American International Pictures releases, often made in collaboration with Roger Corman. Scream is back now with a second volume just in time for this year’s Halloween festivities, casting a somewhat wider net that features some of Price’s horror themed outings for other production entities (as well as some AIP features). Once again generally strong technical merits and some fun supplements make this an enjoyable “treat” for horror fans.

Most fans of Roger Corman’s Poe cycle will tend to default to titles like The Pit and the Pendulum when asked to name a film from the series. Even the at best tangentially related “Poe” material like The Raven seems to have a higher profile than The Tomb of Ligeia, a strangely overlooked piece in the Poe-Price-Corman canon. What makes this lack of recognition even more baffling is that The Tomb of Ligeia, while obviously a bit redundant in its story and characterizations, features a screenplay by one of the titans of mid-20th century film, Robert Towne (Chinatown). This last of Corman’s Poe series is also notable for its abandonment of what had been Corman’s trademark with his Poe adaptations up to that point, namely a reliance on Freudian subtexts that tended to feature claustrophobic, studio built sets for virtually every scene (even those supposedly taking place out of doors). The Tomb of Ligeia is filled with actual outdoor sequences, giving this film a somewhat less surreal ambience than others in the series.

Once again Price plays a character debilitated by the death of his wife. In this case he’s Verden Fell, a patrician 19th century man whose failing sight forces him to wear “Ben Franklin” shades that make Price look like a slightly prescient older version of what would soon be called a hippie. Fell is convinced his wife Ligeia will be able to return from the dead, and has built a special “see through” coffin just so he can keep an eye on her. He seems to live at his wife’s tomb, and in fact frightens the daylights out of pretty young horsewoman Rowena Trevanian (Elizabeth Shepherd) when she’s out riding there one day. (The film makes extremely expressive use of the ruins of an old abbey in Norfolk, England.)

In a perhaps too overconvoluted setup, Towne has Fell and Rowena embark on a romance (despite the obvious age difference, something Corman addresses in his commentary), while a mysterious black cat who may or may not be possessed by the spirit of Ligeia wreaks occasional havoc in the background. Soon enough even Rowena seems to be exhibiting strange symptoms, and Fell has to come to terms with the fact that his fondest hope—that Ligeia was somehow able to shuck the bonds of death—may in fact become his worst nightmare.

The Tomb of Ligeia doesn’t work at the same level as some of the other Poe outings, ironically partly due to Corman’s intentional use of outdoor location shots, but also due to the fairly obvious lack of chemistry between a middle aged Price and a rather young Shepherd. Still, the film is nicely moody, with a sinister ambience of foreboding running through the often quite picturesque settings. Corman once again goes for broke in a hyperbolic climax that sees a haunted world erupting into flames.

The Tomb of Ligeia Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Tomb of Ligeia is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Scream Factory, an imprint of Shout! Factory, with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.34:1. Elements are in generally very good condition, with only minor dirt and flecks occasionally showing up. There's been a bit of fade here, with reds drifting toward orange and flesh tones assuming a just slightly brown mien, but overall things are decently vivid and well saturated. Blues and greens pop especially well throughout the film (see the blue candles in screenshot 5 for a nice example). Detail is rather good in close-ups, offering good looks at some of the tufted costumes and settings. Contrast is slightly variable, though solid enough that there are no major discrepancies between the outdoor footage and the studio bound sequences.

The Tomb of Ligeia Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Tomb of Ligeia features a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono track that capably supports the films nice blend of dialogue, effects and score (by Kenneth V. Jones). Jones' music sounds just a bit dry at times, but dialogue and effects have good ambience and are well prioritized. Fidelity is fine and there are no issues of any kind to warrant concern.

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

• Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 2:28)


• Still Gallery (1080p; 2:28)


• Audio Commentary with Producer/Director Roger Corman. Corman tends to be almost frighteningly low key in his commentaries, and that's the case here, but he is often fascinating, detailing how he decided to jettison his psychological approach in previous Poe outings to open up this feature with lots of location footage.


• Audio Commentary with Elizabeth Shepherd. This is a perhaps surprisingly enjoyable and informative commentary from Shepherd, who seems to have very clear recollections of the filming.


• Audio Commentary with Film Historian Constantine Nasr. This is overall the best generalist commentary on the Blu-ray, covering biographical and shooting data in a consistently entertaining manner.

Though it isn't officially listed as a supplement, this feature begins with:

• Introduction to The Tomb of Ligeia (1080i; 3:04), produced by Iowa Public Television for The Vincent Price Gothic Horrors, featuring Price discussing the film.

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

The Tomb of Ligeia revisits quite a few tropes that Corman had already mined in his previous Gothic efforts, and that may be one reason why the film didn't really explode at the box office or remain in memory the way that some of the other Poe offerings did. Price was probably too old to play this role convincingly, but he's typically overheated fun here, supported by a game cast and some very evocative outdoor photography. Technical merits here are very good, the supplementary package is excellent (three commentaries?), and The Tomb of Ligeia comes Recommended.