Tomb of Ligeia, The (1964) – Nostalgia Central

In an English churchyard in 1821, a coffin is lowered into an open grave. It contains the body of Ligeia (Elizabeth Shepherd), a beautiful, voluptuous, but completely evil woman whose philosophy is: “Man need not kneel before the angels nor lie in death for ever, but for the weakness of his feeble will.”

Just before the coffin is sealed, Ligeia’s eyes briefly fly open. Her widowed husband, reclusive English landowner Verden Fell (Vincent Price), insists she is not dead, but the burial proceeds and a sinister black cat leaps onto the coffin.

Ligeia’s passing brings stark horror to the husband she has left behind, and naked terror to the lovely Lady Rowena Trevanion (also Elizabeth Shepherd), the girl he presently falls in love with and marries.

Rowena senses a malicious presence in the house – symbolised by an omnipresent and hostile black cat – and discovers that Fell is keeping Ligeia’s preserved corpse hidden in a secret chamber, where her terrifying willpower continues to control him.

The evil from Ligeia’s tomb drives Rowena to the verge of madness and, in a nerve-shattering climax, the whole appalling secret of Ligeia and her evil is exposed.

The picture was filmed in colour and largely on location in and around the 1,000-year-old Castle Acre Priory near Swaffham in Norfolk.

Verden Fell
Vincent Price
Lady Rowena Trevanion/The Lady Ligeia
Elizabeth Shepherd
Christopher Gough
John Westbrook
Lord Trevanion
Derek Francis
Kenrick
Oliver Johnston
Dr Vivian
Richard Vernon
Peperel
Frank Thornton
Minister at Graveside
Ronald Adam
Livery Boy
Denis Gilmore
Lady Rowena’s Maidservant
Penelope Lee

Director
Roger Corman