The Pit and the Pendulum
Short description
Set in sixteenth-century Spain, The Pit and the Pendulum follows Francis Barnard as he travels to the castle of Nicholas Medina to learn why his sister Elizabeth died shortly after her marriage. Nicholas, the son of a notorious inquisitor, offers an explanation that Francis finds unconvincing, and he stays on to press for the truth. Accounts of Elizabeth's death point toward a shock suffered in the castle's torture chamber, while Nicholas himself appears increasingly unmoored, convinced that he may have buried his wife while she was still alive. Voices and other disturbances unsettle the household as Francis's inquiries continue.
Roger Corman directed and produced the film, working from a screenplay by Richard Matheson. It was the sixth of the nineteen films Corman directed in chronological order, arriving between House of Usher and Tales of Terror, and it draws on the Edgar Allan Poe story of the same name. Vincent Price plays the dual role of Nicholas and Sebastian Medina, with John Kerr as Francis, Barbara Steele as Elizabeth, Luana Anders as Catherine, Antony Carbone as Doctor Leon and Patrick Westwood as Maximillian. The film runs eighty minutes and took two million dollars worldwide.
On IMDb it holds a rating of 7 out of 10 from around 18,000 votes, while on TMDB it stands at 6.8 out of 10 from 398 votes. A critics' rating of 6.9 out of 10 from 28 reviews places it close to the audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- During editing, director Roger Corman cut every other frame of the blade with a razor to make it appear to move much faster.
- The film initially did not have a prologue. It was added after the film was sold for television. At that time, only Luana Anders (1938-1996) was available from the entire cast, so another scene was filmed with her and added to the beginning of the film. Frankly, the scene doesn't really fit with the film itself.
- Actor John Kerr (1931-2013) was frankly uneasy at the thought of being tied to a table with a pendulum descending from above. To demonstrate to him that it was completely safe, Roger Corman himself stood in for the actor during the preparation for this scene.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
