The Tomb of Ligeia
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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The Tomb of Ligeia (1964) is a horror film, directed by Roger Corman and starring Vincent Price and Elizabeth Shepherd. In the movie, a nobleman's wife (Ligeia) dies and he lives in his manor alone. Another lady (Rowena) visits him and they fall in love. But the nobleman's dead wife comes back to haunt them and to scare off Rowena.
The movie is based on the Edgar Allan Poe story "Ligeia". The last in Corman's series of films based on Poe, Tomb of Ligeia was one of several filmed in England with a mostly English cast. In this instance the bulk of the film was shot outdoors (unusual for Corman) and had a more opulent look than some of the other films of Corman despite a low budget.
Synopsis
Verdon Fell (Price) is both mournful and threatened by his first wife's death. He senses her reluctance to die and her near-blasphemous statements about God. Alone and troubled by a vision problem that requires him to wear strange dark glasses, Fell shuns the world. Against his better judgement, he remarries a headstrong young woman (Shepherd) he meets by accident and who is apparently bethrothed to an old friend Christopher (Westbrook). The spirit of Fell's first wife Ligeia seems to haunt the old mansion/abbey where they live and a series of noctural visions and the sinister presence of a cat (who may be inhabited by the spirit of Ligeia) cause him distress. Ultimately he must face the spirit of Ligeia and resist her or perish.
