Sluggish pace impairs this Poe adaptation
Roger Corman directed eight adaptations of tales by Edgar Allan Poe between 1960 and 1965. Of these, seven starred Vincent Price. “The Tomb of Ligeia,” the final Poe/Corman film, relies more on psychological horror than graphic violence to build suspense and create an atmosphere of morbid possession. It also makes greater use of exteriors than his earlier films.<br /><br />Verden Fell (Price) is a widower who lives only with his servants in a massive, ancient abbey. The opening scene shows him burying his wife, Ligeia, despite being told by a priest that the unchristian woman is an affront to God and church and is not fit for God’s soil. A creepy moment occurs when a black cat jumps on the coffin with a loud screech and Ligeia’s eyes open. Fell attributes this to a post-mortem response, but is Ligeia really dead?<br /><br />Fell meets Lady Rowena (Elizabeth Shepherd) when during a fox hunt she’s thrown from her horse onto Ligeia’s grave. Rowena is attracted to the morose Fell and soon they fall in love. Yet eerie manifestations continue to appear to Fell, suggesting Ligeia is reaching out to him through sheer force of her will. Fell and Rowena marry, and Rowena is plagued by mysterious goings-on that are complicated by her husband’s odd nocturnal behavior.<br /><br />With a screenplay by Robert Towne (“Chinatown,” “Mission: Impossible”), “The Tomb of Ligeia” is dialogue-heavy. To compensate, Corman made good use of an ancient ruin in Norfolk, England and used a variety of camera movements to keep things visually interesting. With a tale more subtle than those of his previous Poe pictures, Corman treats it seriously, with virtually no humor, making it rather austere.<br /><br />In the earlier Poe adaptations, Price had a twinkle in his eye and always managed to find moments to lighten the mood. Here, however, he is weighed down by Towne’s joyless script. Price captures the doom-laden Verden Fell but never has a single big moment. The direction is overly restrained, as are Price and the screenplay, resulting in a slow, draggy pace and tedious stretches. The film feels much longer than its 82 minutes.<br /><br />This was Elizabeth Shepherd’s first major screen role and she plays both Rowena and Ligeia. This device works in drawing comparisons between the two Fell wives. She’s especially vibrant as Rowena, exhibiting youth, beauty, and life — everything Fell has lost with the death of Ligeia. Whether her Rowena is riding side-saddle, being enchanted by Fell, or panic-stricken when she’s left alone in the enormous abbey, Shepherd holds her own against Price and is far more dimensional in her performance.<br /><br />Price’s Fell is melancholic when we first see him and snaps out of his funk only briefly after marrying Rowena. Price wears wraparound dark glasses, since it’s explained that Fell has an aversion to bright light. The glasses add to the character’s mystery and provide an ominous look. This is the only movie I can recall in which Price’s appearance on screen doesn’t immediately make things better. Like the script, he plods along, subduing everything we love about Vincent Price — the rakish attitude, the sense of foreboding malevolence, the near campy portrayal. His performance as both a romantic leading man and a tortured soul subject to necrophilic madness is vastly understated.<br /><br />The look of “The Tomb of Ligeia” is rich and sumptuous. Outdoor locations include a 900-year-old ruin, the actual Stonehenge, and the site of Ligeia’s burial. Arthur Grant’s photography is appropriately moody, with lots of atmospheric shadows and dimly lit rooms, and the production design includes costly-looking furnishings, rugs, and wall coverings.<br /><br />“The Tomb of Ligeia” is a gothic romance with flowery dialogue and a malicious cat that appears at intervals to provide jump shocks. The movie is about love lost, indomitable will, the balance between sanity and madness, and obsession. Though it differs considerably from Poe’s short story “Ligeia,” director Corman captures the essence of Poe. It departs from Corman’s previous Poe movies in that it hews more to character than action. Both Fell and Rowena are well crafted characters that draw us in and involve us.<br /><br />Bonus materials on the unrated Blu-ray release include 3 audio commentaries, Trailers from Hell with Joe Dante; and several Vincent Price theatrical trailers.<br /><br />“The Tomb of Ligeia” illustrates the development of Roger Corman as an interpreter of Poe. Living with Edgar Allan Poe for five years, he was eager to do something different — shoot on location, stay closer to the intent of Poe, and deal in greater depth with a troubled, haunted soul. Though he accomplished these goals, he also sacrificed a sense of cinematic fun, making this Poe adaptation overly talky, relentlessly somber, and one of the series’ least successful.
The movie title "The Tomb of Ligeia (Special Edition) [Blu-ray]," available on Movies & TV, has received an average rating of 4.6 from 392 reviewers. 
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The additional details include the following in key-value format :
 {"Genre": "Horror", "Format": "Blu-ray", "Contributor": "Vincent Price, Elizabeth Shepherd, Derek Francis, John Westbrook, Roger Corman", "Language": "English", "Runtime": "1 hour and 22 minutes", "Aspect Ratio": "2.35:1", "MPAA rating": "NR (Not Rated)", "Package Dimensions": "6.65 x 5.43 x 0.59 inches; 2.79 Ounces", "Director": "Roger Corman", "Media Format": "Blu-ray", "Run time": "1 hour and 22 minutes", "Release date": "September 7, 2021", "Actors": "Vincent Price, Elizabeth Shepherd, John Westbrook, Derek Francis", "Subtitles": "English", "Studio": "KL Studio Classics", "Country of Origin": "USA", "Number of discs": "1"}

Here is a brief synopsis of the title : Star Vincent Price (Theater of Blood, The Last Man on Earth), director Roger Corman (The Premature Burial, The Raven) and screenwriter Robert Towne (The Last Detail, Chinatown) hook up for horror in Edgar Allan Poe’s most terrifying tale of passion, possession and purr-fect evil! When a dead wife sinks her claws into immortality—and comes back as a ferocious feline—she leads her husband’s (Price) new bride on a deadly game of cat and mouse. And when the fur starts flying, she soon learns that even in death... she can land on her feet! Elizabeth Shepherd (Damien: Omen II) and John Westbrook (Room at the Top) co-star in this chilling conclusion to Corman’s Poe cycle of films..