Edward G Pettit

With the continuing gossip about Edgar Allan Poe biopics, many forget that there was once a film about Poe's life, "The Loves of Edgar Allan Poe." But from every account I've read, the film was terrible and mostly fictional. Released in 1942, it starred John Shepperd (aka Shepperd Strudwick) and Linda Darnell as Virginia.  A bit of trivia: Mary Howard, who played Frances Allan, Poe's foster mother, is actually Mary Rogers, the daughter of the great Will Rogers.  She was also hot. 

I've always wanted to see the movie, if only to witness a piece of Poe's cultural reception.  Well, it looks like I may finally get a chance. Andrew's Video Vault in West Philadelphia is showing "Loves of Edgar" on Thursday, May 14 (scroll down at the link) on a bill with a couple other non-Poe films. Can't wait.

On the right is a collection of lobby cards from the film

Here's the NY Times review of "Loves of Edgar" from 1942 when it opened at the Little Carnegie:

September 21, 1942

THE SCREEN; 'The Loves of Edgar Allan Poe,' With John Shepperd, Linda Darnell and Virginia Gilmore, Opens at the Little Carnegie

T.S. Published: September 21, 1942 

As an addition to the library of films suitable for grade school edification and instruction, "The Loves of Edgar Allan Poe," now at the Little Carnegie, may conceivably serve some purpose, particularly in those classrooms where the dull, the prosaic and uninspired is held to be appropriately educational. But as an adult drama about one of America's most complex men of letters it is no more than a postured and lifeless tableau. Presupposing a remarkable patience on the part of the audience, Samuel Hoffenstein and Tom Reed, the scenarists, have dissected Poe, only to repeat the obvious—that his childhood was unhappy, that he was perennially broke in purse, that his loves were slightly confused, that he drank a lot, was headstrong and seemed to hear unearthly voices. In short, a conventional movie genius.

They are of the same pattern, these film incarnations of genius. Aside from such distinctions as costume and facial features, they are alike in that they are usually misunderstood fellows who go from bad to worse, creating immortal verse (immortal paintings, immortal music, etc.) as they go. When communing with the muse they wear an expression of acute dyspepsia. They are the Little Evas of the world—pure in spirit, pathetic and all too mortal, for they die young. On all these points John Shepperd is strictly in the groove, with a portrait of Poe that belongs in the main stream of the Little Theatre tradition, and his lovelorn ladies, Linda Darnell and Virginia Gilmore are hardly carried beyond ankle-high emotions by the requirements of the script. The remaining portraits are for the most part tintypes of the period. Meanwhile a perceptive drama of an unhappy and greatly gifted man remains to be done.

THE LOVES OF EDGAR ALLAN POE; screen play by Samuel Hoffenstein and Tom Reed, with additional dialogue by Arthur Caesar; directed by Harry Lachman; produced by Bryan Foy for Twentieth Century-Fox. At the Little Carnegie Playhouse.

Virginia Clemm . . . . . Linda Darnell
Edgar Allan Poe . . . . . John Shepperd
Elmira Royster . . . . . Virginia Gilmore
Mrs. Clemm . . . . . Jane Darwell
Frances Allan . . . . . Mary Howard
John Allan . . . . . Frank Conroy
Ebenezer Burling . . . . . Henry Morgan
T. W. White . . . . . Walter Kingsford
Mr. Graham . . . . . Morris Ankrum
Poe, age 3 . . . . . Skippy Wanders
Poe, age 12 . . . . . Freddie Mercer
Schoolmaster . . . . . Erville Alderson
Elmira, age 10 . . . . . Peggy McIntyre
Hugh Pleasants . . . . . William Bakewell Jr.
Turner Dixon . . . . . Frank Melton
Charles Dickens . . . . . Morton Lowry
Thomas Jefferson . . . . . Gilbert Emery
Dr. Moran . . . . . Ed Stanley
Tavern Keeper . . . . . Francis Ford
Kennedy . . . . . Harry Denny
Shelton . . . . . Hardie Albright