Price plays a man whose young wife vowed never to die--at which point, she promptly died! Well, in a way, she is still very much alive, as Price cannot get on with his life and he is a brooding and sullen jerk. Despite all this, he eventually meets a nice lady who he marries and everything seems peachy--until they return to Price's mansion from their honeymoon. It seems that there are, naturally, weird goings on at the home and the young wife is both frustrated at Price for acting like a weirdo and is scared because something unnatural and unholy is occurring there.
In the early 1960s, Vincent Price and Roger Corman teamed up for a bunch of pretty good horror tales with titles based on Poe Stories--though the stories themselves often had little to do with Poe. However, the plots of many of these films were almost indistinguishable from each other--having plots involving dead wives or sisters who weren't quite dead (such as FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER, MASQUE OF RED DEATH and THE TOMB OF LIGEIA. Additionally, Corman also made several films without Price along similar lines, such as THE PREMATURE BURIAL and THE TERROR. As a result, for someone like me who has seen all these other films, THE TOMB OF LIGEIA is like a case of déjà vu--and after a while it's hard to keep them all straight.
However, if you have NOT seen all these other films, then THE TOMB OF LIGEIA is a very entertaining and competent film--though far from great or memorable. For a relatively low-budget film (though for once, this one has many exterior shots--something NOT seen in the earlier films), it is a pretty good film and Corman certainly got a lot of bang for the buck, so to speak.
In the early 1960s, Vincent Price and Roger Corman teamed up for a bunch of pretty good horror tales with titles based on Poe Stories--though the stories themselves often had little to do with Poe. However, the plots of many of these films were almost indistinguishable from each other--having plots involving dead wives or sisters who weren't quite dead (such as FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER, MASQUE OF RED DEATH and THE TOMB OF LIGEIA. Additionally, Corman also made several films without Price along similar lines, such as THE PREMATURE BURIAL and THE TERROR. As a result, for someone like me who has seen all these other films, THE TOMB OF LIGEIA is like a case of déjà vu--and after a while it's hard to keep them all straight.
However, if you have NOT seen all these other films, then THE TOMB OF LIGEIA is a very entertaining and competent film--though far from great or memorable. For a relatively low-budget film (though for once, this one has many exterior shots--something NOT seen in the earlier films), it is a pretty good film and Corman certainly got a lot of bang for the buck, so to speak.