A spooky cartoon from UPA - perfect for a Halloween season Saturday. From TCM: The Tell-Tale Heart (1953) is one of the most unusual and memorable animated shorts produced by a major studio during the Golden Age of theatrical animation. The daring and expressive short begins with a rare text disclaimer: The film that you are about to see is based on a story told a hundred years ago by Americas greatest master of drama and suspense... This story is told through the eyes of a madman... who, like all of us, believed that he was sane. This spoiler both explains the point-of-view of the story for the dull-witted members of the audience as well as acting as an alert that the content was to be taken seriously, not humorously. In 1953 a dramatic cartoon was a rarity indeed. The Tell-Tale Heart contains very little animation. It was designed by Paul Julian as a series of detailed, manic paintings and visually tells the story from the subjective view of the crazed man who murders an old man because of his evil eye. The first-person narration is delivered by James Mason--an inspired choice--and writer Bill Scott does not take a single line directly from the story, though the language is very much in the Poe vein. The visuals are brought to life with sweeping camera moves and eerie light and shadows that are constantly in play. The short received enormous press attention--it was written up in both Life and Time magazines in September of 1953.
Posted on: Sat, 25 Oct 2014 20:08:26 +0000
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