Good Evening my Wonderful Wyverns! It is with great pleasure I bring tonight’s Gem. A milk-colored Moonstone, opaque and yet glowing with light captured from objects around it. One moment harmless and the next making your blood run cold as you catch it in a bit of odd light and shadow. This is Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell Tale Heart” , but perhaps as you have never experienced it.
In 1957 Columbia Pictures had an animation department called UPA. They animated Poe’s excellent story of a man who, like most of us, believes himself sane. The voice of our Madman was perfectly performed by the classic character actor James Mason. He has the perfect amount of anxiety, smugness and confusion in his voice for this story’s needs.
The animators at Columbia/UPA knew what they were doing. You will find nothing cute, cuddly or humorous in their rendition of the old man and his manse. You must watch it. You can – on YouTube.
And please don’t stop here. There are renditions of “The Raven” in one act by Vincent Price, “Annabel Lee” by Christopher Lee and much, much more! Do yourself and your children a favor and pull these up and watch them together. Let them see what horror really is. What fun a scare can be.
That it’s not all blood and gore and camera tricks, but that once upon a time, actors could do with their voices and faces what now can hardly be done at all. And come back tomorrow, when the blog is sure to hold a clue!
Until tomorrow, I remain, your humble Book Dragon,
Drakon T. Longwitten
Tales From The Book Dragon 