A madman tells his tale of murder, and how a strange beating sound haunted him afterward.A madman tells his tale of murder, and how a strange beating sound haunted him afterward.A madman tells his tale of murder, and how a strange beating sound haunted him afterward.
- Director
- Writers
- Stars
- Nominated for 1 Oscar
- 1 win & 1 nomination total
- Narrator
- (voice)
- Old Man
- (uncredited)
- …
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThe first animated short film to be rated X by the British Film Board of Censors.
- Quotes
Narrator: True, I'm nervous. Very, very dreadfully nervous. But why would you say that I'm mad? See how calmly, how precisely I can tell the story to you. Listen. It starts with an old man. An old man in an old house. A good man, I suppose. He didn't harm me, I didn't want his gold, if gold there was. Then what was it? I think... I think it was... his eye. Yes, that eye, the eye. That. His eye staring. Milky white film. The eye, everywhere, in everything! Of course I had to get rid of the eye.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Hellboy (2004)
"The Tell-Tale Heart" is the story of a man (voiced by James Mason) consumed by a bizarre and sick obsession with his old landlord's "strange" eye. An obsession that will take the man to murder the old man and hide the body, but the horrors are not finished with that. It's a story of madness and obsession told from the point of view of the madman who calmly retells his story and how he reached that state of insanity.
In barely 8 minutes the short film captures the haunting atmosphere of the Gothic novel and Poe's tale of madness becomes vivid with fluid animation and frightening images of chaos reflecting the madman's mind. The limited animation technique used by UPA never found itself more at home that here, where its artistic conception can (and is) explored to its max creating the image of a real painting in movement. "The Tell-Tale Heart" is so beautifully conceived and so perfectly crafted that it feels as if one was truly watching the dark dreams of a psycho.
Now, James Mason's voice-work is what truly takes this film from high class art to masterpiece proportions, as basically the film revolves around his first person narrative. Every line is delivered with a deep emotion that conveys the narrator's frightful experience with amazing believability. Writers Bill Scott & Fred Grable, as well as director Ted Parmelee and the rest of UPA's team crafted one of animation's finest films when they did "The Tell-Tale Heart", a very different animated experience.
Maybe nowadays UPA's achievements have been overshadowed by the many other studios that had more commercial success, but their influence is not forgotten. This terrific short film is without a doubt a classic of animation and a masterpiece of the horror genre, a film that must be seen at least once. 10/10
- jluis1984
- Jul 24, 2006
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Language
- Also known as
- El corazón delator
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
- Runtime8 minutes
- Aspect ratio
- 1.66 : 1