Edgar Allan Poe lived in the 1800s, when he had far fewer opportunities to convert his popular works into new media forms. Luckily, his stories have stood the test of time, leading others to attempt their own visual interpretations of them. Since 1934, “The Tell-Tale Heart” has had seven film versions.
The 1941 film directed Jules Dassin is one of the best-known and most widely shared interpretations of Poe’s story. Click one of the links below to find and watch the first two minutes of the film, which is about 20 minutes long. (If the first link doesn’t take you to the film, try another one; like other web pages, online versions of films sometimes get removed or replaced.)
Doane R. Hoag adapted Poe’s story to work as a screenplay, and many other members of the film’s crew and cast contributed to its overall effect. What modifications to the story did you notice already? Think of your own answer to each of these questions. Then click the question to compare your ideas to ours.
Tense, dramatic orchestral music sets the audience up to expect a serious, moody, and suspenseful tale as the credits roll. |
|
The opening credits have a static background framing the floorboards to help foreshadow the major dramatic conflict of the story: the placement of the old man’s body beneath the floor itself. |
|
Quotes like these, known as epigraphs, help to suggest a theme of the work. Here, the epigraph is taken from a book of the Bible called Romans—the quote itself suggests that individuals have a conscience that is “written in their hearts” that is able to see right and wrong. The quote suggests that the story will be about right and wrong. |
|
Beginning at 1:10, the sound of the old man’s footsteps as they climb the house stairs is the focus. The camera zooms in on the protagonist’s ear at the same time. The sound does more than foreshadow the protagonist’s madness—it also creates tension by making people in the audience who have read the story think that the murder may already have happened. |
|
The excerpt ends with the old man slapping the protagonist; the film seems to present him as cruel. Perhaps the film wanted to provide more explanation for the protagonist’s insanity by making him the target of abuse. |
