Allied Artists/Bert I. Gordon's Tormented is sheer, modernized Poe (for cool circa 1960). It's cowritten by Gordon with noted, sci-fi scribe, George Worthing Yates, though is much more subtle in its scares than the filmmakers' giant-monster terrors, forging a slow-burn, psychological vantage, as Richard (Creature from the Black Lagoon/It Came From Outer Space) Carlson's jazz pianist, Tom Stewart, wrestles with the "tell-tale" specter of a woman he wouldn't rescue, played with revengeful relish by Julie Reding. (Tormented's additional cast furthers its quality, presenting an impressive who's who of both lead and character actors, including Lugene Sanders, Gene Roth, Susan Gordon, Joe Turkel, Vera Marshe, Lillian Adams and Harry Fleer [who's dubbed by famed narrator, Paul Frees.])
Film Masters has just released this perennial, drive-in/UHF staple in a 4K transfer taken straight from its 35mm elements, accompanied by terrific extras: a Ballyhoo Motion Pictures documentary by Courtney Joyner; a visual essay by the Flying Maciste Brothers; a full-color booklet on the film's production by Tom Weaver; a commentary track by Gary Rhodes and Larry Blamire; an archival interview with Gordon; restored, original and recut trailers; a Mystery Science Theater 3000 roast of the film; plus the unaired, pilot wraparound of Gordon's Famous Ghost Stories, which included an edited cut of Tormented, hosted by Vincent Price.
In addition to its Poe allusions, Tormented holds a thematic kinship with George Stevens/Theodore Dreiser's regret-ridden A Place in the Sun, but because of its seashore (Cape Cod) relegation, it feels even more so like a jazzy counterpart to Curtis Harrington's Night Tide (thanks in no small part to Albert Glasser's tense, trumpeted score). I do hope that Film Masters considers Night Tide for restoration, but for now, having Tormented receive the royal treatment is more than a step in the right direction. In fact, its a spectral dream come true.
Delve in, my friends. Tormented is the type of macabre masterpiece that demands possession and guarantees revisitation.
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