The Telltale Heart

Otto Matiesen stars in this art film based on the Poe tale. It's from a DVD collection entitled "Unseen Cinema: 1884-1941" and is from Disc 2. The collection consists of a lot of art and experimental films--the sort you'd never see the average person seeing. I watched them because after 11,000 plus reviews, I wanted something different.

The film begins with the words of Poe moving up the screen. Then, the eyes of the killer are superimposed over them and the story begins. What follows is faithful to Poe's story--but it's told using very interesting sets--very much like those of "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" along with some animations superimposed over the picture. The look is really exceptional--and works great with the Poe style. It's often exaggerated and strange--and I liked it a lot--though I am not necessarily one to like artsy films. I also like Matiesen--his expression was often quite insane and fit the story well. He was perfect for such a silent film. I really liked it...except for one thing. The entire plot about the crazed killer hearing the beating of the dead man's heart isn't even mentioned until the very, very end. Odd...but still quite compelling and wild.

This is another avant-garde treatment of a classic Poe story: again, it's a very satisfying visual experience but the slightly meatier running time – 24 minutes as opposed to THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER (1928)'s 13 – allows the theme of the story to fully and recognizably emerge this time around. While the deranged hero looks uncannily like a young Gary Oldman, the all-important appearance of his elderly nemesis does not disappoint (though, in retrospect, it's dispensed with a little too soon!). Most interesting here, too, are the bizarre expressionist sets – obviously modeled on the ones in THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI (1920).

The Telltale Heart (1928)

*** (out of 4)

Charles Klein directed this rather interesting take on the Edgar Allan Poe story. Otto Matieson plays The Insane who murders The Old Man (William Herford) but slowly begins to lose his mind when he thinks he hears the man's heart beating.

Klein's THE TELLTALE HEART is certainly a very good version of the story and one that was filmed quite often throughout the history of cinema. This one here was done in an avante-garde way meaning that we get a lot of strange visuals that help tell the story. The sequences with the pounding heart and the "kill! kill! kill!" written all over the screen was quite effective and certainly the highlight of the picture. I actually thought the entire thing was well-made and for the most part the cinematography was exceptional. Klein certainly built up a nice atmosphere and the use of shadows was well-done.

This is worth it for two scenes, impressionist points of view of a damaged mind experiencing the lust to kill and the guilt of apprehension. Superimpositions of screaming heads, letters, details of eyes and shadows, they all mesh in a swirl of temporal insanity. Having afforded us a glimpse of the fracture, the camera then dollies backwards to reveal the officers of law, two pillars of black silhouette standing at the edges of the frame and whose gullibility at the sight of money the film earlier made fun of, ready to accord justice. What I find that detracts from this is the expressionist element, the crooked doors of Caligari. Caligari being one of the first landmarks of cinema, I believe it's telling that we can find the German influence looming hard over these early American avantgardists, which is to say that the marginal, experimental art of cinema at 1928 looked back at Caligari, with the deviant aesthetic and subjective point of view, as a stepping stone. Ninety years later, impressionist technique continues to challenge us in truly grand works like Inland Empire, while the crooked doors of Caligari, now Tim Burton's shtick, signify nothing.

Influenced by 'The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari' in its stylized set design, this Poe adaptation has a narrative-driven structure, without much experimentation in the line of, say, 'The Fall of the House of Usher' (the American film), released in the same year. That does not mean it doesn't offer creative solutions for the storytelling. But it is a more modest film. The main actor is made to look like Poe himself, a nice idea in my opinion as Poe's stories are probably deeply related with his own neuroses and fears. Also, the actor playing the old man conveys exactly the image intended by Poe's text, especially the pale eyes with a film on them. Overall, a worthy film, recommended for fans of silent cinema.