For sport he has abducted young Francesca (Jane Asher), her father, and her lover planning to make the two men fight to the death.
No good will come of this.
When you B so hard you accidentally make an A.
Stagey OTT stylised Technicolor shenanigans are afoot on massive studio sets. There's satanism, symbolism and men in tights.
Little separates this from 'serious' cinema of the era but snobbery. It isn't Ingmar Bergman or Shakespeare, it's Poe wearing their clothes and doing a great impression of them and if that impression is good enough who's to say it's not great in its own right.
Transcendent 9/10.