MovieChat Forums > Pit and the Pendulum (1961) Discussion > Great movie but... (spoilers)

Great movie but... (spoilers)

posted 19 years ago by nicecity
10 replies | jump to latest

...This really annoyed me. Where did the body in the coffin come from? If it was'nt his wife, then who? It's hardly his mother's body.

[–] inamourada_flux 19 years ago

I made a guess that it was a fake that was placed there to fool Nicholas into insanity.
I have read the story but can't remember as it was a long time ago.

--
"Now is the winter of our discontent" - Richard III.

[–] 19 years ago

[deleted]

[–] dougglenn1215 19 years ago

Videodrome has as good an explanation as anything. Don't look for the answer in the original story. As Mr. Corman says in the commentary track for the dvd, Poe's story is essentially contained only in act 3 of the film. He accurately says that if they limited the film to the actual story, they'd only have a fifteen minute movie.

[–] JustLivin4God 19 years ago

I figured it was the mom, since she WAS buried alive.

[–] eamoncarr 19 years ago

I too was wondering. I think it should have been answered in the film rather than left to the viewer to speculate upon. A minor flaw in the film.

[–] Bflogal11 17 years ago

Her lover was a doctor, I am sure he would have no trouble getting his hands on a dead body to put into the coffin.

"There is nothing in my dish but my dish!" James Cocoa-"Murder by Death"

[–] wolfefan 17 years ago

Just one note - yes a doctor would probably have ready access to dead bodies if needed, but my recollection was that there was almost a frozen scream on the bodies face, etc. Wouldn't a LIVE person have to have been buried to create this effect? - Essentially an unknown murder victim from when the plot was hatched months earlier?

[–] andrsbckly 16 years ago

Just to note: the *exact* same tactics are employed by lenore in corman's 'the raven', also with price as a husband and 'dead' wife lenore's body actually a 'peasant girl' placed there by lenore herself. and a doctor, a sneaky one, would have studied enough embalming- and taxidermy- techniques to make a body look like it died interred...however, it couldn't be the body of isabella because it would be too decayed.

[–] dgeer80 15 years ago

I don't know, the body looked pretty darn decayed to me. I think it was Isabella.

[–] CoriSCapnSkip (2754) a month ago

I wasn't sure of that either. If it was a fake very realistically done.