Edgar Allan Poe - Fantastic Tales

[dem bones]

Edgar Allan Poe - Fantastic Tales (NEL, March 1969)

If you're still unsure whether you're a cover or storyperson, you might try the Edgar Allan Poe litmus test. Pile up enough shared horror anthologies and it could be you'll eventually end up with copies of all of his stories without ever buying a Poe-specific collection. But suppose you saw this pair sitting side by side on a bookstall? The Galley Press Tales Of Mystery & Imagination (1987) hardback contains a generous 28 stories, while the NEL Fantastic Tales (1970: cover illustration, Phil Game) has a measly five. The dealer is asking the same price for each and you've only enough cash on you for one. Which do you chose?

Here's a clue.

From the helpful inside cover blurb;

Here's a feast of horror and fantasy not for late night reading:
In METZENGERSTEIN the terrible feud between the debauched Baron Metzengerstein and Count Berlifitzing reaches a horrifying climax ...
Sinister, terrifying—WILLIAM WILSON is relentlessly pursued by a stranger who is his double ... his life is a ghastly, living nightmare.
TOBY DAMMIT dared to wager himself against the Devil—and lost.
THE OBLONG BOX is 2 ft. wide and 6 ft. long and smells of human putrefaction ...
THE GOLD-BUG is a death-dealing insect .. lust for gold and madness are in its bite.

... and back in March 2006, Steve provided the following on p.3 of his inspirational (i'm still ripping it off to this day) NEL Horror Review.

Something of a curio this one. A three-way tie-in with a (unrelated) "series of spellbinding films" based on the work of Edgar Allan Poe - one of which was never actually made.

There was nothing unusual about a Poe movie "adaptation" in the '60s of course - films either based on stories by Poe, very loosely based on stories by Poe, or not even vaguely based on stories by Poe but availing themselves of his name or one of his titles anyway.

Quite why NEL should have produced a tie-in edition for the 1968 French/Italian Poe anthology film, Histoires Extraordinaires (AKA Spirits of the Dead/Tales of Mystery and Imagination) though, I'm not too sure.

The back cover credits Roger Vadim as director, in fact Vadim only directed the "Metzengerstein" segment with Jane Fonda. Even if it is more Barbarella than Berenice, the cover photo of Fonda is certainly... well, you can provide your own adjectives...
The "William Wilson" sequence with Brigitte Bardot and Alain Delon was directed by Louis Malle, and "Toby Dammit" (based on Poe's "Never Bet The Devil Your Head") was by Federico Fellini and starred Terence Stamp.

AIP's 1969 production of The Oblong Box brought together Vincent Price and Christopher Lee but forgot to bring along much of Poe's original story beyond the title. Michael Reeves (what was that other film he did? Oh yeah, Edgar Allan Poe's Conqueror Worm... ) was originally up for this one but he was replaced and, as I'm sure we all know only too well, very sadly passed away the same year. As well as Price, Hilary Dwyer and Rupert Davies also reappear from Reeves' er... earlier "Poe film".

Having little or no shame whatsoever, AIP also planned an "adaptation" of Poe's, "The Gold-Bug". The fact that Poe's original isn't a horror story doesn't seem to have phased Roger Corman overmuch - I mean, if you can get Vincent Price and Peter Lorre again and just recycle a few elements from The Little Shop of Horrors and A Bucket of Blood, who needs Edgar Allan Poe?

Well if you do, this book's a nice little addition to any Poe collection (admittedly Jane Fonda's Gothic swim-suit lends it a certain something...)