Premature Burial (1962)

Director:

Roger Corman

Writers:

Charles Beaumont (writer)
Edgar Allan Poe (story)
(more)

Release Date:

7 March 1962 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Horror | Mystery

Tagline:

Within the Coffin I Lie...ALIVE!

Plot:

Emily Gault arrives at the Carrell mansion determined to rekindle an old relationship with Guy Carrell...

Plot Keywords:

Fear | Buried Alive | Obsession | Revenge | Beautiful Woman

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Ray Milland	...	Guy Carrell
Hazel Court	...	Emily Gault
Richard Ney	...	Miles Archer
Heather Angel	...	Kate Carrell
Alan Napier	...	Dr. Gideon Gault
John Dierkes	...	Sweeney
Dick Miller	...	Mole
Clive Halliday	...	Judson
Brendan Dillon	...	Minister

Directed by
Roger Corman

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Charles Beaumont		writer
Edgar Allan Poe		story
Ray Russell		writer

Produced by
Samuel Z. Arkoff	....	producer
Gene Corman	....	executive producer
Roger Corman	....	producer

Original Music by
Ronald Stein
Les Baxter		(uncredited)

Cinematography by
Floyd Crosby

Film Editing by
Ronald Sinclair

Art Direction by
Daniel Haller

Costume Design by
Marjorie Corso

Makeup Department
Lou LaCava	....	makeup artist

Production Management
Jack Bohrer	....	production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Francis Ford Coppola	....	assistant director

Art Department
Richard M. Rubin	....	props
Burt Shonberg	....	paintings

Sound Department
John Bury Jr.	....	sound

Camera and Electrical Department
Lloyd Garnell	....	lighting technician
Charles Hannawalt	....	key grip

Other crew
David Blangsted	....	film assistant
Betty Crosby	....	script supervisor
Jonathan Haze	....	assistant to producer

Production Companies

• American International Pictures (AIP)
• Santa Clara Productions

Distributors

• American International Pictures (AIP) (1962) (USA) (theatrical)
• American International Pictures (AIP) (1967) (USA) (theatrical) (re-release)
• Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) (1974) (USA) (TV) (network premiere)
• Divisa Home Video (2009) (Spain) (DVD)
• Image Entertainment (1995) (USA) (video) (laserdisc)
• MGM/UA Home Entertainment (2002) (USA) (DVD) (with "Masque of the Red Death")
• Paradiso Home Entertainment (2005) (Netherlands) (DVD)
• Vestron Video (1985) (USA) (VHS)

Runtime:

81 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Colour:

Colour (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

New Zealand:M | Finland:(Banned) (1963) | USA:Unrated | Norway:16 (1962)

Filming Locations:

Producers Studios - 5330 Melrose Avenue, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

American International Pictures (AIP)

Trivia:

Roger Corman was having a minor dispute with American International. He decided to do this "Poe" picture elsewhere. He was able to get financing from Pathe Labs (which wanted to go into distribution). When Samuel Z. Arkoff learned of this, he traveled to New York to talk with the owner of Pathe Labs. Arkoff felt that Pathe was stepping into American International's business. Pathe's was not moved until Arkoff pointed out that American International was one of Pathe Labs' largest customers and that if it was going into competition with AIP, all of AIP's lab work would be pulled. Pathe sold the production to American International before principal photography began.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Kate tells Guy that it's time for his medicine, she’s holding the tray in her hands. In the next shot it's gone, and it is nowhere to be seen when the three of them leave the crypt.

Quotes:

Guy Carrell: Can you possibly conceive it. The unendurable oppression of the lungs, the stifling fumes of the earth, the rigid embrace of the coffin, the blackness of absolute night and the silence, like an overwhelming sea.

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Film '72: (2008-09-23)" (2008)

Soundtrack:

Molly Malone

Midnight in the garden of good and evil

Intensely gloomy it may be, but an impressive example how a determined cinematic stylist can make a real virtue of a low budget. This was the third of director Roger Corman's AIP chillers based on Poe stories, and the only one not to star Vincent Price. Here, Ray Milland is the protagonist whose family history of catalepsy makes him fear burial alive.

Entirely shot on the sound stage, Corman and his regular art director Danial Haller have created a wonderfully expressionist garden of gnarled trees and shrubs wreathed with dry ice. Even the interior of Milland's mansion seems like a grave, notably in the scene where Hazel Court and Richard Bull take tea in a drawing room with wood-panelled walls, dark green wallpaper, with the dead tree pressing oppressively against the windows.

A number of other directorial touches make even this relatively minor Corman effort a winner. Court's shadow passing phantom-like over the sleeping Milland. The sudden shock moments when the sinister gravediggers Sweeny and Moe appear. And the blue-suffused dream-sequence in which Milland hallucinates the fate he fears most is quite masterfully shot, cut and scored (Ronald Stein).

A dark, dank little gem.