''The Tell-Tale Heart'' is a 1941 American

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super ...

, 20 minutes long, directed by

Jules Dassin Julius "Jules" Dassin (December 18, 1911 – March 31, 2008) was an American film and theatre director, producer, writer and actor. A subject of the Hollywood blacklist in the McCarthy era, he subsequently moved to France, and later Greece, whe ...

. The screenplay by Doane R. Hoag is based on the 1843 short story of the same name by

Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe (; Edgar Poe; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is wid ...

. The film marked Dassin's

directorial debut This is a list of film directorial debuts in chronological order. The films and dates referred to are a director's first commercial cinematic release. Many film makers have directed works which were not commercially released, for example early work ...

after working as an assistant to Alfred Hitchcock and

Garson Kanin Garson Kanin (November 24, 1912 – March 13, 1999) was an American writer and director of plays and films. Early life Garson Kanin was born in Rochester, New York; his family later relocated to Detroit then to New York City. He attended ...

. It is typical of the

short film A short film is any motion picture that is short enough in running time not to be considered a feature film. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes ...

adaptations of literary classics studios produced to precede the

feature film A feature film or feature-length film is a narrative film (motion picture or "movie") with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole presentation in a commercial entertainment program. The term ''feature film'' originall ...

during the 1930s and 1940s.

Plot

After years of being subjected to verbal and emotional abuse by his master, a young weaver decides to murder him. Before the elderly man dies, he predicts his killer eventually will succumb to an overwhelming sense of guilt and betray himself. Shortly after the man's death, the weaver begins to hear various sounds - a ticking clock, a dripping faucet, and rain falling into a metal pan outside the window - that convince him he can hear his victim's heart still beating beneath the floorboards where he buried him. When two deputy sheriffs appear at the house the following day, he confesses to his crime to clear his tortured conscience.

Cast

Joseph Schildkraut Joseph Schildkraut (22 March 1896 – 21 January 1964) was an Austrian-American actor. He won an Oscar for his performance as Captain Alfred Dreyfus in the film '' The Life of Emile Zola'' (1937); later, he was nominated for a Golden Globe for ...

as Young Man *

Roman Bohnen Roman Aloys Bohnen (November 24, 1901 – February 24, 1949) was an American actor. He is perhaps best known for his roles in the films ''Of Mice and Men'' (1939), '' The Song of Bernadette'' (1943), and ''The Best Years of Our Lives'' (194 ...

as Old Man *

Oscar O'Shea Oscar O'Shea (8 October 1881 – 6 April 1960) was a Canadian-American character actor with over 100 film appearances from 1937 to 1953. Early years O'Shea was born in Peterborough, Ontario, Canada. Acting O'Shea was a comic actor who earne ...

as First Deputy Sheriff (Uncredited) * Will Wright as Second Deputy Sheriff (Uncredited)

Critical analysis

From contemporary reviews, '' Motion Picture Daily'' described the film as a "different kind of short", noting it's lack of speech and letting the actions speak for themselves. The review went on to state that Dassin has "skillfully translated a short story to the screen in literal form." concluding that "discriminating audiences will probably be more impressed than the general." ''

Showmen's Trade Review ''Showmen's Trade Review'' was a weekly trade magazine for exhibitors and distributors of motion pictures published by Charles E. "Chick" Lewis (February 6, 1896 - October 22, 1953) out of offices in New York City. History and profile The first ...

'' declared that the film described the film as worthy of winning an Academy Award specifically for "elevating the quality of the short subject beyond that of most features, for setting a new standard in short subject production, direction and acting." The reviewer praised director Jules Dassin for "skillful handing of a difficult assignment" and Doan Hoag for "a laudable script". In an article about Jules Dassin written the week of his death, ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, ...

'' film critic

Richard Corliss Richard Nelson Corliss (March 6, 1944 – April 23, 2015) was an American film critic and magazine editor for ''Time''. He focused on movies, with occasional articles on other subjects. He was the former editor-in-chief of '' Film Commen ...

called ''The Tell-Tale Heart'' "possibly the very first movie to be influenced by '' Citizen Kane'' ... This short film ... is positively a-swill in

Orson Welles George Orson Welles (May 6, 1915 – October 10, 1985) was an American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter, known for his innovative work in film, radio and theatre. He is considered to be among the greatest and most influential f ...

ian tropes: the crouching camera, the chiaroscuro lighting, the mood-deepening use of silences and sound effects."''Time'', April 6, 2008
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DVD release

The film is a bonus feature on the Region 1 DVD box set ''The Complete Thin Man Collection'', released by

Warner Home Video Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Inc. (formerly known as Warner Home Video and WCI Home Video and sometimes credited as Warner Home Entertainment) is the home video distribution division of Warner Bros. It was founded in 1978 as WCI Home Vide ...

on August 2, 2005.

References

Sources

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Tell-Tale Heart 1941 1941 films 1941 crime drama films 1941 short films 1941 directorial debut films American crime drama films American black-and-white films Films based on The Tell-Tale Heart Films directed by Jules Dassin Films scored by Sol Kaplan Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer short films 1940s American films