Tell Tale Heart

First published in January 1843 and running to just over 2,000 words, The Tell-Tale Heart was one of the shorter of Edgar Allan Poe’s many works of fiction yet managed to convey many of his hallmarks, madness, obsession, murder and an overwhelming guilt which prompts the narrator to confess their deeds to the investigating police officers.

Reprinted and adapted countless times across different media, in 2011 it was performed as a monologue by Steven Berkoff as one half of his show One Man, and the text of that version has now been further adapted by director Stephen Cookson to present that staged version as the feature film Tell Tale Heart with Berkoff recreating his role as the narrator of his own misdeeds and downfall.

Set in Whitechapel in 1880, from a spartan and darkened set Berkoff’s performance is typically confrontational, delivered directly to camera as he recounts his relationship with “the old man,” Dudley Sutton in one of his final roles before his death, who despite his kindness to his lodger and caregiver has become an object of hate.

The notion of murder lodged in his head, it cannot be shaken, and through sleepless nights he watches his benefactor and waits for his moment to end the tyranny of “his vulture eye,” disposing of the body beneath the floorboards then scrubbing his hands like Lady Macbeth in Covid lockdown in hopes that the stain on his conscience can be as easily removed.

The titles full of the images of Poe’s tales, black cats and ravens, the film is largely confined to the single set of the chambers and staircases of the towering and claustrophobic residence with brief interludes in the style of penny dreadful illustrations providing exterior context, but the restrictions of the production emphasises the sense of being trapped within the downward spiral of madness.

Inevitably, Tell Tale Heart cannot escape from the fact that is a presentation of a very slight narrative stretched to feature length and other than such minor expansions as the addition of the interview with the three policemen it is almost entirely Berkoff’s project and carried solely by his voice, and while his commitment to the material cannot be questioned it could on occasion also be tempered by restraint.

Tell Tale Heart is available digitally from Thursday 11th June

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