Here's an interview, published just this month, with writer-director Wayne Shipley, who asked me to star in my first western, COME HELL OR HIGH WATER.
Dear Friends,
The Documentary Film “THE GAME COMES HOME –THE HISTORY OF BASEBALL IN WASHINGTON DC”, a film that Willy Meaux & myself, Jeff Herberger, started almost 4 year ago is finally going to get to be seen by a larger audience other than the local Washington Film Fests its been in.
Washington Capitols owner Ted Leonsis has personally screened our film, and now Longthrow Multimedia Int. has signed an Internet Distribution Contract with his Documentary Showcase Website SNAG FILMS.
Check out the terrific Narration by Mark Redfield.
Check it out http://www.snagfilms.com/films/title/the_game_comes_home/
Never thought Id see this day…
Jeff
Mark Redfield as Justin Gatewood in the western 'Come Hell or High Water' (2009)
The POE HOUSE AND MUSEUM and WESTMINSTER PRESERVATION TRUST/UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND SCHOOL OF LAW present
THE LAST POE PICTURE SHOW—an evening of Poe on film
WHEN: SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 21ST, 2009. 7PM (Doors open to the public at 6PM)
WHERE: Westminster Hall. 519 W. Fayette Street. Baltimore, Maryland 21201
ADMISSION: FREE and open to the public! But reserve your tickets now, as seating is limited! Reserve your tickets at: http://www.acteva.com/booking.cfm?bevaID=193069
Join us for our final event celebrating Poe’s Bicentennial in Baltimore and for a fun evening of films inspired by the work of Edgar Allan Poe!
THE PROGRAM:
Vincent Price in HOUSE OF USHER (1960). Roger Corman’s first Poe adaptation! 
POE ON FILM TRIVIA CONTEST! Smart and lucky winners who “know Poe” and the movies can win DVD’s!
Mario Cavalli’s THE CASK OF AMONTILLADO (1998). A thrilling adaptation of the Poe classic!
Panel Discussion: POE ON FILM with Chris Kaltenbach (film critic, The Baltimore Sun), Gregory William Mank (“Golden Age Horror” historian and author), Tony Tsendeas (actor, “The Poe Show”). Moderated by Mark Redfield (actor and filmmaker, “The Death of Poe”). Stay after HOUSE OF USHER for a lively discussion about Poe and the cinema. With 100 years of Poe inspired movies, we’ll have plenty to talk about! Bring your questions!
FREE POPCORN! Refreshments also available.
FREE and OPEN TO THE PUBLIC. But reserve your ticket NOW as space is limited! Reserve your tickets at: http://www.acteva.com/booking.cfm?bevaID=193069
ALSO: Do your Poe holiday shopping early! Vendors will be present featuring Poe-related gift items, perfect for the holidays, from t-shirts to DVD’s to Gregory William Manks’s new book “Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff”, signed by the author himself!
PREVIEWS OF POE: We’ve assembled trailers (or “previews of coming attractions”) of some of the many films inspired by Edgar Allan Poe. From the Universal Studios adaptations that starred Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff, to the Roger Corman “Poe-Cycle” produced by American International Pictures and from films from all over the world, including works from filmmakers Frederico Fellini, Dario Argento and many more. How many have you seen?
THE CASK OF AM
ONTILLADO (1998). Starring Anton Blake (Montressor) and Patrick Monckton (Fortunato). Directed by Mario Cavalli. Screenplay by Richard Deakin. Great Britain. Color. 16 minutes. Superbly acted and photographed adaptation of Poe’s classic tale of revenge, Cavalli’s film has played in festivals world-wide. Filmed in 35mm with a hand-cranked camera and using available light, this CASK is one of the finer vintages of short film adaptations we’ve seen!
POE ON FILM TRIVIA CONTEST: Seven lucky winners receive Poe movies on DVD!
INTERMISSION
HOUSE OF USHER (1960). Starring Vincent Price, Mark Damon, Myrna Fahey. Screenplay by Richard Matheson. Directed by Roger Corman. USA. Color. 79 minutes. USHER is the first of the adaptations in Corman’s so-called “Poe-cycle” for American International Pictures and remains a strong entry in the series. When AIP producer Sam Arkoff, known for producing quickie creature feature films for teenagers on the drive-in movie circuit, asked Corman what was “the monster” in this new horror film, Corman thought quickly on his feet and replied, “The house! The house is the monster!” Arkoff bought it, and green lit the film for production! Roger Corman will receive an honorary Oscar in 2010 for his prolific body of work.
PANEL DISCUSSION: “POE ON FILM”. Stay and join us in a lively discussion moderated by actor and filmmaker Mark Redfield (“The Death of Poe”, “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”). Our panelists include Chris Kaltenbach (film critic for the Baltimore Sun), Gregory William Mank (film historian and author of the recently published “Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff: The Expanded Story of a Haunting Collaboration”) and Tony Tsendeas (actor, director and Poe interpreter, currently touring his one-man show “The Poe Show”). Please note that all panelists are confirmed, but appearance at the event remains subject to last minute professional commitments beyond our control.
“What exactly is it that occurs at the moment of death, especially to a man, who in that moment, is not permitted to die…” …“The boundaries which divide life from death are at best shadowy and vague. Who can say where the one ends and where the other begins?”
These immortal words were written, of course, by—screenwriters Richard Matheson, Charles Beaumont and Robert Towne. They were spoken by the actors Vincent Price, Basil Rathbone or Ray Milland. And they were committed to the medium of film by director Roger Corman. And that, not too surprisingly, is how I first encountered Poe. Vincent Price as the oh-so-sensitive Roderick in Corman’s 1960 film House of Usher. Up late one Saturday night as a boy in Baltimore, watching old horror movies on Channel 45’s Ghost Host…or was it Channel 20’s Creature Feature? I can’t remember which, and it doesn’t really matter. These old horror movies they used to run were my doorway to literature, and to the works of Poe. Been hooked ever since.
Edgar Allan Poe has been part of the cinema almost since the birth of the medium itself . The first film known to be based on a Poe story was adapted from Murders in the Rue Morgue, and the film was entitled, you guessed it--- Sherlock Holmes in the Great Murder Mystery. An American film from 1908. It’s clear, even a hundred years ago, who the more popular detective was… But the plot of a murderous ape was taken from Poe. The first biographical drama about Poe the man, and the second Poe film of record, was made and released exactly 100 years ago in 1909; one hundred years after Poe’s birth. It’s simply called Edgar Allan Poe, and was directed by the Father of Cinema himself, D.W. Griffith. Poe was played by the popular Broadway star Herbert Yost, and the silent one-reeler took its story points mostly from the poem The Raven and from the sad episode of Virginia Poe’s death.
Griffith would make two more Poe-inspired films just before World War One…and since the silent era, hundreds of films have been made based on Poe’s works—with more coming. Lugosi and Karloff starred in a clutch of films for Universal in the 1930’s and ‘40’s, mostly only using Poe’s captivating titles, and nothing more. On stage--operas, ballets, musicals, one man shows, puppet shows, street performers---radio plays, records, CD’s, MP3s, Poe lives--And in technologies not yet known—Poe will live on!
But it’s Roger Corman, I think, with his cycle of Poe films in the 1960’s that introduced a generation to the literature of Poe, outside of reading The Raven in High School, that kept Poe alive for us today.
As an aside, I’m really pleased that Corman will receive an honorary Oscar next year for his prolific body of work. Fitting that the announcement was made this year, on Poe’s Bicentennial.
And for those who claim that the film adaptations aren’t “as good as the book” or complain that “they ruined the book”, I can only summon no greater authority than author and screenwriter Richard Matheson, who, as I mentioned, adapted some of the Price/Corman Poe films. When someone said to him, after seeing a film based on one of his works, in great sympathy and horror, “look what they did to your superb novel I Am Legend”, Matheson smiled, pointed behind him and said, “They haven’t done anything to my novel. There it is. On the shelf for anyone to read.” And so are the works of Edgar Poe.
I, myself, have played Poe on film; it’s really only a portrait of the universal struggle of the artist. I didn’t intend to make it. It happened while adapting Poe’s stories into new film scripts. But I came away wondering-- just who this complex man was, and what happened that fateful week in 1849. Poe taught me a great deal. And I discovered, although I’m an actor, that he and I have something in common—something in common with all artists. Beyond the struggle, the need for recognition, --we share compulsion—we are compelled to create and tell stories. To the very end.
I think Poe would approve of all of us who have strutted our “hour upon the stage”, trying to get into his skin and the spirit of his work. After all, Poe’s parents were actors. He was practically born in a trunk. There’s something of the actor in all writers. Our tools come from the same creative toolbox.
And so, on behalf of all my fellow players and filmmakers who have spoken Poe’s words and have attempted to give life to his ideas and stories in other mediums; this is my tribute: learn your lines, don’t bump into the furniture, and remember, Poe’s original work is always within reach, on the shelf.
Image and text (c) Mark Redfield, 2009
the dramatic story of two fathers and their young sons caught up in the events that lead up to one of the most famous battles of the American Revolution as they volunteer to defend the Heights overlooking Boston Harbor in 1775.
