May 19 2009
Edgar Allan Poe Tell-Tale Heart with James Mason
Here is an incredible piece of animation from 1953 of Edgar Allan Poe’s short story The Tell-Tale Heart. This UPA Production was the first adult only carton in Great Britain under the British Board of Film Censors classification system. I couldn’t tell you why really. I guess scary deserves an X rating.
The best part of this animated short of The Tell-Tale Heart, outside of the dark animation art, is that it is narrated by James Mason, you know, James Mason from the TV mini-series movie of Salem’s Lot (the head vampire’s human servant). What a voice James Mason has, perfect for this. It doesn’t compare of course to the rendering of The Tell-Tale Heart, one of Edgar Allan Poe’s most famous short stories, that was done in the 2009 movie Poe Last Days of the Raven to celebrate the centennial of Edgar Allan Poe’s 200th birthday. That was an exceptional reading integrated into the movie making it hard to separate fact from fiction.
In keeping with our writely applied Edgar Allan Poe 200th birthday celebration, here is a YouTube of the animated Tell-Tale Heart narrated by James Mason.
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