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IMDb > The Tell-Tale Heart (1953/I)

The Tell-Tale Heart (1953/I) More at IMDbPro »


Overview

User Rating:
7.8/10   314 votes
MOVIEmeter: ?
Up 1% in popularity this week. See rank & trends on IMDbPro.
Director:
Ted Parmelee
Writers:
Edgar Allan Poe (story)
Bill Scott (story) ...
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Contact:
View company contact information for The Tell-Tale Heart on IMDbPro.
Release Date:
17 December 1953 (USA) more
Plot:
One of the most discussed and imaginative cartoons of any era. It tells the famous Edgar Allan Poe story... more | add synopsis
Plot Keywords:
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Awards:
Nominated for Oscar. Another 1 win more
User Comments:
Picture Perfect Poe more

Cast

  (Credited cast)

James Mason ... Narrator (voice)
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Additional Details

Runtime:
USA:8 min
Country:
USA
Language:
English
Color:
Color (Technicolor)
Aspect Ratio:
1.66 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Mono
Certification:
USA:Approved | USA:Passed (National Board of Review)

Fun Stuff

Trivia:
Rumors for years surrounding this film would have it being in 3-D. However, absolutely no trade magazines list the production as being in 3-D (even pre-filming announcements and in-production articles), and according to Grover Crisp, head of the restoration unit at Sony/Columbia, the original negative bears absolutely no markings that would indicate that the film had any 3-D origins. It is speculated, based on several collectors' memories, that the myth started when super8mm editions of the film were labeled with 3-D stickers by accident, around the same time that stickers were being put on the 3-D shorts that Columbia was releasing in that format. more
Quotes:
[first title card]
Title Card: The film you are about to see is based on a story told a hundred years ago by America's greatest master of drama and suspense.......
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Movie Connections:
Spoofed in Tiny Toon Adventures: Night Ghoulery (1995) (TV) more

FAQ

Was this film released in 3-D?
What was Leonard Maltin's judgement of the film?
What do the opening title cards say?
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8 out of 8 people found the following comment useful:-
Picture Perfect Poe, 18 August 2004
Author: tostinati from United States

An English teacher whose taste I generally respected despised this film. As a word person, she was no doubt bothered by the compression and elimination of so much of Poe's carefully wrought language.

But she overlooked one thing, in my estimation. Poe said everything in a short story should be toward one effect, and certainly, there has been no better attempt on film to achieve the kind of formal and emotional control Poe suggested was the story teller's goal than this animated short. She should have appreciated that.

The control of tone, light and color palette here is complete; the actors are hand-crafted; the voices and music are expertly orchestrated as in great radio drama; best of all, nothing extraneous or distracting seeps through at any point. (We clearly see only one face during this short. We never see the narrator, but see all that happens through a subjective camera.) While there is a ton of ham bone melodrama and story padding in Corman's Poe films, this film achieves just the right pitch, delicate and disturbing, maintains it, and then finishes simply. In today's context, UPA's Tell-Tale seems slightly dry, if not downright academic; Corman's films evoke not only Hollywood, with all that means, but low budget film making and drive-in culture as well.

I believe Poe would have appreciated UPA's effort and encouraged them to try others, like Cask of Amontillado and Masque. Given the chance, I think he'd have liked to tell Corman to just quit it.

10 stars. One of the great cartoons, ever.

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