The Tell-Tale Heart is a 1961 Australian ballet based on the short story The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe. It screened on the ABC and was directed by Alan Burke. It aired 25 January 1962 in Melbourne. [1]
It was choreographed by Ruth Galene who also starred as the principal dancer. [2]
A woman is so tormented by the eyes of an old man that she kills him.
It was made by the ABC who said they have "gone all out for horror" on the production. In one sequence an enormous eye appeared on screen and the pupil of the eye reflected the slow moving figure of the old man. [3] The music was an original score by composer Nigel Butterley. [4]
"The Tell-Tale Heart" is a short story by American writer Edgar Allan Poe, first published in 1843. It is told by an unnamed narrator who endeavors to convince the reader of the narrator's sanity while simultaneously describing a murder the narrator committed. The victim was an old man with a filmy pale blue "vulture-eye", as the narrator calls it. The narrator emphasizes the careful calculation of the murder, attempting the perfect crime, complete with dismembering the body in the bathtub and hiding it under the floorboards. Ultimately, the narrator's actions result in hearing a thumping sound, which the narrator interprets as the dead man's beating heart.
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