The man who is cut in half by the pendulum is named Rufus Wilmot Griswold. In real life Rufus Wilmot Griswold was Poe's greatest enemy as a writer and critic, and after Poe's death Griswold wrote an unfavorable obituary of him which was first published in the October 9, 1849 issue of the New York Tribune. Additionally, he wrote a biographical article about Poe, painting him as a depraved, drunk, drug-addled madman. In the days following Poe's death Griswold stalked Poe's house to steal his writings and works, claiming to be Poe's literary executor and promising to share any profits with Poe's family, which he never did. In truth, Griswold attempted to destroy the author's reputation. Much of what he wrote were half-truths and outright lies, parts of it were lifted almost verbatim from Edward George Bulwer-Lytton's The Claxtons and his description of the fictitious Francis Vivian. Griswold also claimed he had proof in the form of some of Poe's letters, but these were later found to be forgeries. Griswold's mendacious portrayal of Poe appeared in biographies about him for several decades and forged most people's impression of the man, associating Poe with the false depiction he made about him. Movie writers Ben Livingston and Hannah Shakespeare wrote Griswold's fictional death scene as revenge, in an attempt to do postmortem justice to Poe.

Film

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