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The Pit and the Pendulum (1961 film)

1961 film by Roger Corman

The Pit and the Pendulum is a 1961 American film about a man who travels to Spain to clarify the strange circumstances of his sister's death.

Directed by Roger Corman. Written by Richard Matheson, based on the short story by Edgar Allan Poe.
She was enslaved by evil in a terror haunted castle.  (taglines)

Don Nicholas Medina

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  • I worshiped your sister. I worship her still. Without her, life is meaningless. She was that substance of loveliness. [displays a painting of Elizabeth] I tried to capture it, but it was the way she walked and moved - her smile, her voice. She sang like an angel. And she could play the harpsichord as no other woman I've ever known could play.
  • Could I have kept that ring without knowing it? Play the harpsichord without knowing it? Destroyed Elizabeth's room all without knowing it? My inner mind - creating evidence of Elizabeth's vengeful return because that mind knows. But I don't know! I will find out.
  • I will tell you where you are. You are about to enter hell, Bartholomew. Hell! The Netherworld. The infernal region. The abode of the damned. The place of torment. Pandemonium. "Abbadon, "Tophet", "Gehenna". "Naraka", the pit! And the pendulum.
  • Harlot! You will die in agony! Die!
  • The razor edge of destiny. That's the condition of man. Bound on an island from which he can never hope to escape - surrounded by the waiting pit of hell. Subject to the inexorable pendulum of fate - which must destroy him finally.

Doctor Leon

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  • Elizabeth was quite dead. I would stick my reputation on that fact.
  • She does not haunt you, Nicholas. Can you not see that? It is you punishing yourself.
  • This groundless dread must finally be put to rest. We will exhume Elizabeth.
  • Buying and selling. Living and dying. The weave of life.

Dialogue

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Don Nicholas Medina: Will you stay the night with us?
Francis: The night - and more, sir. Until I know exactly what has happened here.
Don Nicholas Medina: Was he not my father? Am I not the spawn of his - his depraved blood?
Catherine: His depravity is not yours, Nicholas. Why scourge yourself because of it?
Don Nicholas Medina: The atmosphere is heavy in here. [opens the curtains in Elizabeth's room]
Francis: Why have you brought me here?
Don Nicholas Medina: It is her room, sir. I've had it kept exactly as she left it.
Don Nicholas Medina: I should never have brought her here. She was too sensitive, too aware.
Francis: Aware of what?
Don Nicholas Medina: The malignant atmosphere of this castle. It destroyed her.
Francis: My sister was a strong and willful woman - not subject to the influence of atmospheres.
Don Nicholas Medina: You have been here only a matter of hours, Mr. Barnard. You cannot know what it is to live here, month upon month, year after year, breathing this infernal air, absorbing the miasma of barbarity which permeates these walls.
Doctor Leon: I beg of you leave with me.
'Don Nicholas Medina: I can never leave. I must accept whatever vengeance Elizabeth chooses to inflict upon me.
Doctor Leon: [after Nicholas has fallen down the stairs and appears to have died] I told you to wait.
Elizabeth: I couldn't. [she and Dr. Leon kiss] What about my brother?
Doctor Leon: He's supposed to leave in the morning , but now... why couldn't you wait one more day?
Elizabeth: I've waited too long already. [goes down to where Nicholas is laying] And now, my dear Nicholas, I have you exactly as I want you - helpless.
Doctor Leon: Elizabeth, there is no time for this.
Elizabeth: I've waited an eternity for this moment. There has to be time. Is it not ironical, my dear husband, your wife an adultress, your mother an adultress, your uncle an adulterer, your closest friend an adulterer - do you not find that amusing, dear Nicholas?
Doctor Leon: Elizabeth.

Cast

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Taglines

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  • Until now no one has dared to film this ...... the most diabolical classic of all time!
  • The Greatest Terror Tale Ever Told!
  • Edgar Allan Poe's diabolic classic
  • She was enslaved by evil in a terror haunted castle.
  • Betrayal cuts both ways!
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