Premature Burial is not Roger Corman's best filmed Poe adaptation, Masque of the Red Death is my favourite, but I did prefer it over the interesting but uneven Tales of Terror. It could have been a little longer, and not all of it is what you call surprising. However, it is well worth a look. It is well shot and I loved the Gothic atmosphere of the sets. The music really haunts your mind, at its best in Milland's hallucination dream sequence. The script is very literate and maintains interest, with Alan Napier getting the best lines, Milland showing his wife and friend around his tomb and the story has some fine moments especially with the dream sequence, Court's shadow and with the grave-diggers helped by a genuinely creepy atmosphere that Corman evokes wonderfully. Corman does direct assuredly. I was impressed by the performances also. Ray Milland is going to have inevitable comparisons to Vincent Price, who for me gave pitch-perfect performances in the rest of Corman's Poe adaptations(all but this one), but he deserves to be judged on his own merits, and I think he does give an understated and vulnerable performance that proved most effective. Hazel Court is also terrific, and Alan Napier relishes some of the best lines of the film. The rest of the cast do solidly in their roles also. In conclusion, a very under-appreciated Corman film that shouldn't be dismissed because it doesn't have Price in it. 8/10 Bethany Cox
