Tales of Mystery & Imagination

The Oval Portrait (1x2)

Air date: Sep 14, 1995

Actor Christopher Lee hosts this series of 13 Edgar Allen Poe's short stories. "The Oval Portrait" On a dark and rainy night, a traveler find shelter in a chateau. As she rests in a room, the traveler notices the walls are covered with several intriguing paintings. She discovers a book describing the paintings and their history. As she continues to read the book, she grows more and more entranced as she reads until he is suddenly startled. In a dark corner glows the face of a beautiful woman. With a sigh of relief she realizes she is only looking at an oval portrait but one so life-like and beautiful that he can barely take her eyes off of it. As the traveler continues to read, the tragic and uncanny tale of the woman in the oval portrait unfolds. A young woman has married an obsessive painter who is so enraptured with his art and capturing the soul of his wife in his painting, that he neglects everything else. Desperate for his affection, she obediently sits in silent pose for weeks at a time, Finally the painter realizes that he has captured his brides very soul in his painting, only to discover that she is dead and decayed.