The Death of Poe (film)
Encyclopedia
The Death of Poe is a 2006 independent film
that tells the tragic story of the mysterious disappearance and death of the American
author Edgar Allan Poe
. The film is shot mostly in black-and-white
with occasional color sequences.
where he is buried alive
. He prepares to take a trip to New York City
via a ferry steamboat from Richmond, Virginia
, to Baltimore, and from there, another ferry to New York City itself. He discusses his plans to marry his childhood sweetheart Sarah Elmira Royster
with a stranger taking the same steamboat, who suggests that he meet with a few potential investors for his planned magazine The Stylus
. Though Poe had intended only to pass through Baltimore, he agrees to meet the investors who, one by one, turn down his request for funding.
Poe is depicted as having some type of memory loss
, which is first evident when he offers to pay his boat fare twice after forgetting he had already paid. In Baltimore, he more than once forgets the arrangements he has made at his hotel as his stay in the city is extended. One night, he chooses to dine in a local tavern
rather than at the hotel. There, he meets an old friend from his days at West Point. In desperation, he asks his former classmate and the classmate's companion for money to help start a magazine, saying proudly he has already raised $1,000. Poe leaves the tavern to retrieve his prospectus
for the magazine. His classmate follows him and beats him up to steal the $1,000 he had collected.
An injured and delirious Poe is then found by organizers of a cooping
ring. The author, along with several others, are forced to multiple polling locations around Baltimore to place multiple votes for the candidate for mayor. A couple of victims of the scam die amidst the brutality of their captors.
Afterwards, Poe is released and he eventually collapses in the street and is found by a local tavern owner. The man calls for Poe's uncle Henry Herring and Dr. Joseph Snodgrass. The men discuss what to do with the incoherent, half-conscious Poe. Snodgrass assumes he is drunk and suggests they let him sleep it off - a theory the film seems to dispute by showing him early in the film declining offered alcohol
several times. Herring becomes more concerned and demands Poe be taken to Washington College Hospital, despite the expense.
At the hospital, Dr. John Moran tends to Poe, unable to accurately determine his situation or the cause of his failing health, or how he received his injuries. He muses to his wife, Mrs. Moran, that he does not want to be known as the physician who killed Edgar Allan Poe. Over the next three days, the bedridden Poe is kept in seclusion in a private room as Moran denies Poe visitors, including his Baltimore cousin Nielson Poe, who becomes convinced that his cousin is about to die. Poe ultimately does die after one final hallucination or perhaps a flashback
where he sees his dead wife Virginia Clemm
.
, United Kingdom
on September 30, 2006. The U.S. premiere was at Baltimore's Charles Theatre
on October 11, 2006.
The film was released on DVD in the United States by Alpha Video
on December 5, 2006. Alpha's release also included two rare early films based on Poe's work: The Avenging Conscience (1914) (D.W. Griffiths' silent film
adaptation of "The Tell-Tale Heart
"), The Raven
(1915), and additional bonus material.
The film was also screened at the Fargo Film Festival in Fargo
, North Dakota
on March 11, 2007.
. . . or anywhere else where Poe isn't revered." This sentiment was echoed by DVD Pub Review, who stated that "Mark Redfield has a lot of talent, but it seems that he tries too hard to do too much." Both Plath and DVD Pub Review lauded the extensive bonus material of the DVD release.
Independent film
An independent film, or indie film, is a professional film production resulting in a feature film that is produced mostly or completely outside of the major film studio system. In addition to being produced and distributed by independent entertainment companies, independent films are also produced...
that tells the tragic story of the mysterious disappearance and death of the American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
author Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe was an American author, poet, editor and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective...
. The film is shot mostly in black-and-white
Black-and-white
Black-and-white, often abbreviated B/W or B&W, is a term referring to a number of monochrome forms in visual arts.Black-and-white as a description is also something of a misnomer, for in addition to black and white, most of these media included varying shades of gray...
with occasional color sequences.
Plot summary
After a textual montage summarizing Edgar Allan Poe's life, the film begins in late September 1849 with Poe awakening from a hallucinationHallucination
A hallucination, in the broadest sense of the word, is a perception in the absence of a stimulus. In a stricter sense, hallucinations are defined as perceptions in a conscious and awake state in the absence of external stimuli which have qualities of real perception, in that they are vivid,...
where he is buried alive
Premature burial
Premature burial, also known as live burial, burial alive, or vivisepulture, means to be buried while still alive. Animals or humans may be buried alive accidentally or intentionally...
. He prepares to take a trip to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
via a ferry steamboat from Richmond, Virginia
Richmond, Virginia
Richmond is the capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the United States. It is an independent city and not part of any county. Richmond is the center of the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Greater Richmond area...
, to Baltimore, and from there, another ferry to New York City itself. He discusses his plans to marry his childhood sweetheart Sarah Elmira Royster
Sarah Elmira Royster
Sarah Elmira Royster Shelton was an adolescent sweetheart of Edgar Allan Poe who became engaged to him shortly before his death in 1849....
with a stranger taking the same steamboat, who suggests that he meet with a few potential investors for his planned magazine The Stylus
The Stylus
The Stylus, originally intended to be named The Penn, was a would-be periodical owned and edited by Edgar Allan Poe. It had long been a dream of Poe to establish an American journal with very high standards in order to elevate the literature of the time...
. Though Poe had intended only to pass through Baltimore, he agrees to meet the investors who, one by one, turn down his request for funding.
Poe is depicted as having some type of memory loss
Memory loss
Memory loss can be partial or total and it is normal when it comes with aging. Sudden memory loss is usually a result of brain trauma and it may be permanent or temporary. When it is caused by medical conditions such as Alzheimers, the memory loss is gradual and tends to be permanent.Brain trauma...
, which is first evident when he offers to pay his boat fare twice after forgetting he had already paid. In Baltimore, he more than once forgets the arrangements he has made at his hotel as his stay in the city is extended. One night, he chooses to dine in a local tavern
Tavern
A tavern is a place of business where people gather to drink alcoholic beverages and be served food, and in some cases, where travelers receive lodging....
rather than at the hotel. There, he meets an old friend from his days at West Point. In desperation, he asks his former classmate and the classmate's companion for money to help start a magazine, saying proudly he has already raised $1,000. Poe leaves the tavern to retrieve his prospectus
Prospectus
Prospectus may refer to:* Prospectus * Prospectus * Prospectus * Parkland College's newspaper...
for the magazine. His classmate follows him and beats him up to steal the $1,000 he had collected.
An injured and delirious Poe is then found by organizers of a cooping
Cooping
Cooping was a practice by which unwilling participants were forced to vote, often several times over, for a particular candidate in an election...
ring. The author, along with several others, are forced to multiple polling locations around Baltimore to place multiple votes for the candidate for mayor. A couple of victims of the scam die amidst the brutality of their captors.
Afterwards, Poe is released and he eventually collapses in the street and is found by a local tavern owner. The man calls for Poe's uncle Henry Herring and Dr. Joseph Snodgrass. The men discuss what to do with the incoherent, half-conscious Poe. Snodgrass assumes he is drunk and suggests they let him sleep it off - a theory the film seems to dispute by showing him early in the film declining offered alcohol
Alcohol
In chemistry, an alcohol is an organic compound in which the hydroxy functional group is bound to a carbon atom. In particular, this carbon center should be saturated, having single bonds to three other atoms....
several times. Herring becomes more concerned and demands Poe be taken to Washington College Hospital, despite the expense.
At the hospital, Dr. John Moran tends to Poe, unable to accurately determine his situation or the cause of his failing health, or how he received his injuries. He muses to his wife, Mrs. Moran, that he does not want to be known as the physician who killed Edgar Allan Poe. Over the next three days, the bedridden Poe is kept in seclusion in a private room as Moran denies Poe visitors, including his Baltimore cousin Nielson Poe, who becomes convinced that his cousin is about to die. Poe ultimately does die after one final hallucination or perhaps a flashback
Flashback (narrative)
Flashback is an interjected scene that takes the narrative back in time from the current point the story has reached. Flashbacks are often used to recount events that happened before the story’s primary sequence of events or to fill in crucial backstory...
where he sees his dead wife Virginia Clemm
Virginia Eliza Clemm Poe
Virginia Eliza Clemm Poe was the wife of American writer Edgar Allan Poe. The couple were first cousins and married when Virginia Clemm was 13 and Poe was 27...
.
Cast
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Mark Redfield | Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe was an American author, poet, editor and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective... |
| Kevin G. Shinnick | Dr. John Moran |
| Jennifer Rouse | Mrs. Moran |
| Tony Tsendeas | Neilson Poe |
| Kimberly Hannold | Virginia Clemm Virginia Eliza Clemm Poe Virginia Eliza Clemm Poe was the wife of American writer Edgar Allan Poe. The couple were first cousins and married when Virginia Clemm was 13 and Poe was 27... |
| Wayne Shipley | Henry Herring |
| Jonathon Ruckman | Joseph Walker |
| George Stover | Thadeus & Zacharlah Wainwright |
| J.R. Lyston | The Irishman |
| Kurt Bouschell | The Proud Father |
| Sandra Lynn O'Brien | The Talented Daughter |
| Chuck Richards | The Stranger in Richmond |
| Deborah L. Murphy | Maria Clemm |
| Dave Ellis | Cornelius Ryan |
| Jimmyo Burril | Election Gang Leader |
| Thomas E. Cole | Caleb |
| Erik DeVito | Horace |
| Pete Karas | The Landlady's Son |
| Andrew Ready | Griswold's Clerk |
| Tom Brandau | Rufus Griswold Rufus Wilmot Griswold Rufus Wilmot Griswold was an American anthologist, editor, poet, and critic. Born in Vermont, Griswold left home when he was 15 years old. He worked as a journalist, editor, and critic in Philadelphia, New York City, and elsewhere. He built up a strong literary reputation, in part due to his 1842... |
| Holly Huff | Elmira Shelton Sarah Elmira Royster Sarah Elmira Royster Shelton was an adolescent sweetheart of Edgar Allan Poe who became engaged to him shortly before his death in 1849.... |
| T.B. Griffith | Steamboat Captain |
| Douglas Spence | A Porter |
| Shawn Jones | Election Gang Member |
| Johanna Supensky | The Landlady |
| Josh Metz | Election Gang Member |
| Samuel DiBlasi Jr. | Cooping Cooping Cooping was a practice by which unwilling participants were forced to vote, often several times over, for a particular candidate in an election... Victim |
| Richard Arnold | Cooping Victim |
| Michael H. Alban | Barman |
| Sean Paul Murphy | Dr. Snodgrass |
| Jay Carroll | Surgeon's Assistant |
| Rick Kelton | Mr. Charles |
| Dick Svehla | Drunk |
| Gary Svehla | Drunk |
| Leo Dymowski | Drunk |
| Charlie Wittig | Drunk |
| Barry Murphy | Temperance Preacher |
| Mallory Herberger | Nurse |
| William Blewwett | Doctor |
| George Sherry | Doctor |
Production
The film was shot on location in Baltimore and Virginia, and at the studios of Redfield Arts http://www.redfieldarts.com. Principal photography took place in June and July 2005.Distribution
The Death of Poe had its world premiere at the Festival of Fantastic Films in ManchesterManchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
, United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
on September 30, 2006. The U.S. premiere was at Baltimore's Charles Theatre
Charles Theatre
The Charles Theatre, often referred to as simply the Charles, is the oldest movie theatre in Baltimore. The theatre is a Beaux-Arts building designed as a streetcar barn in 1892 by Jackson C. Gott, located in what is now the Station North arts and entertainment district...
on October 11, 2006.
The film was released on DVD in the United States by Alpha Video
Alpha Video
Alpha Video is an entertainment company, based near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, that specializes in the manufacturing and marketing of public domain movies and TV shows on DVD...
on December 5, 2006. Alpha's release also included two rare early films based on Poe's work: The Avenging Conscience (1914) (D.W. Griffiths' silent film
Silent film
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...
adaptation of "The Tell-Tale Heart
The Tell-Tale Heart
"The Tell-Tale Heart" is a short story by Edgar Allan Poe first published in 1843. It follows an unnamed narrator who insists on his sanity after murdering an old man with a "vulture eye". The murder is carefully calculated, and the murderer hides the body by dismembering it and hiding it under the...
"), The Raven
The Raven (1915 film)
The Raven is a stylized silent 1915 movie biography of Edgar Allan Poe starring Henry B. Walthall as Poe. The movie was written and directed by Charles Brabin from a novel and play by George Cochran Hazelton.-Plot summary:...
(1915), and additional bonus material.
The film was also screened at the Fargo Film Festival in Fargo
Fargo, North Dakota
Fargo is the largest city in the U.S. state of North Dakota and the county seat of Cass County. In 2010, its population was 105,549, and it had an estimated metropolitan population of 208,777...
, North Dakota
North Dakota
North Dakota is a state located in the Midwestern region of the United States of America, along the Canadian border. The state is bordered by Canada to the north, Minnesota to the east, South Dakota to the south and Montana to the west. North Dakota is the 19th-largest state by area in the U.S....
on March 11, 2007.
Reception
British film journalist M.J. Simpson described the film as "an impressive and imaginative piece of independent film-making, available at a ridiculously low price and thoroughly worth the time, effort and cash of anyone who has ever enjoyed reading (or watching films based on) the words of Edgar Allan Poe." DVDTOWN.com managing editor James Plath wrote that Redfield's portrayal "really does bring the character to life," however the production "doesn't have the level of acting or script sophistication to make it play in PeoriaWill it play in Peoria?
The saying, "Will it play in Peoria?" is traditionally used to ask whether a given product, person, promotional theme, or event will appeal to mainstream America, or across a broad range of demographic and psychographic groups....
. . . or anywhere else where Poe isn't revered." This sentiment was echoed by DVD Pub Review, who stated that "Mark Redfield has a lot of talent, but it seems that he tries too hard to do too much." Both Plath and DVD Pub Review lauded the extensive bonus material of the DVD release.
See also
- List of American films of 2006
- Edgar Allan Poe in popular cultureEdgar Allan Poe in popular cultureEdgar Allan Poe has appeared in popular culture as a character in books, comics, film, and other media. Besides his works, the legend of Poe himself has fascinated people for generations. His appearances in popular culture often envision him as a sort of "mad genius" or "tormented artist,"...
- Edgar Allan Poe in television and filmEdgar Allan Poe in television and filmAmerican poet and short story writer Edgar Allan Poe has had significant influence in television and film. Many are adaptations of Poe's work, others merely reference it.-Adaptations:...