Legend of Horror (1972)
** 1/2 (out of 4)
When OBRAS MAESTRAS DEL TERROR was released in America, one of its four stories was edited out so that the movie was shorter. That one story that was cut out was a version of The Tell-Tale Heart and it was turned into a feature length movie in LEGEND OF HORROR, a low-budget film from 1972.
This film basically takes the story cut from OBRAS MAESTRAS DEL TERROR and adds a wrap-around story dealing with a man who was caught in the Mayor's daughter's bedroom and he is sentenced to fifteen-years in prison. From here he is thrown into a cell with an old man and the two plan their escape.
When I first heard about this film I was expecting some sort of Jerry Warren hack job. If you don't know who Warren is, he's basically one of the worst director's in the history of cinema who would buy foreign movies, cut them down and then add new scenes to them. That's not really what happens here since the original story was never released and apparently there's nothing missing from it. What this film did was release that as well as add some new scenes to it to make the running time 75-minutes.
I'm not going to say this is a lost masterpiece or anything like that but I thought it was entertaining enough to make it worth watching. The original story is The Tell-Tale Heart and for the most part it was a good version. I liked the performances from the two actors and thought it was entertaining in its own way. The wrap-around story is also mildly interesting and especially since there are some stop-motion death scenes. These scenes look quite fake but at the same time they pretty much come out of nowhere and they are effective for what they are.
LEGEND OF HORROR is a film that horror fans will want to check out. It's history is rather interesting and the job to make this a complete movie succeeds for the most part.
