Leaburn O
A decent adaptation of Poe's classic horror tale. Starts well and gets a bit campy towards the end. Decent enough without being outstanding. Watched on Silent Movies.
Rated 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
03/02/24
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Tim M
Short and devilishly sweet, House of Usher lives up to Edgar Allen Poe's haunting tale with gothic imagery and a persistent sense of foreboding.
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
01/05/24
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Dave S
After a string of genuinely bad low-budget B-movies in the ‘50s, director Roger Corman used 1960's House of Usher to prove to his detractors that he could actually make a decent movie. Very loosely based on the Edgar Allan Poe short story, it tells the tale of a 19th century New England estate seemingly haunted by the generations of madness of the family who has inhabited it. The movie succeeds on the strength of Richard Matheson's script, some excellent sound effects, striking sets and costumes, and a stellar performance from the always reliable Vincent Price. Yes, it gets a bit hokey towards the end and yes, the visuals of the burning castle at the end are laughable, but the movie works due of the consistent atmosphere of dread created by Corman. This may be the best of his Poe adaptations.
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
10/30/23
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CodyZamboni
Solid Roger Corman horror adaptation of Poe's story. Movie's MVP is Vincent Price, in a commanding performance. I liked the old school spooky look of the mansion, the eerie dank dungeon crypt sets, and unsettling blue tinted nightmare sequence. Towards the end, I was surprised how much gore the early 1960's censors allowed to be shown. Kudos also to Richard Matheson for his script.
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
10/30/23
Full Review
Monsol E
...I may have to read the original work soon, because this movie blew me away.
This story has an odd feel, everything seems normal but isn't...it's just an illness...just a protective brother...just a creaky house...just a bizarre family history...or is it? or isn't it? You don't know...which is amazing.
Despite having a cast of four people, the acting was all great. Price somehow made the VERY odd Roderick believe-able.
The location was fantastic. While the entire movie takes place in the house, it's such a strange place, that it felt like a character too. Those paintings were really freaky as well.
Even after the movie ended, I was left wondering if anything abnormal actually happened, or if Roderick's madness was so infectious, that even I, the viewer, took part in it.
A really good story, and a really good movie. I see why it's getting remade again...just don't forget about about this amazing version!
Rated 4.5/5 Stars •
Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars
10/18/23
Full Review
Matthew B
Roger Corman may not have seemed to be the obvious person to make films based on Edgar Allan Poe. He mostly worked in the field of exploitation cinema, churning out cheap films. Corman recycled clips from other films, and used as few actors and sets as possible. Often Corman simply made two movies using the same sets, props and people to save money.
Nonetheless despite the admitted awfulness of much of his work, there was also an inspired side to Roger Corman. It was not only his ingenious ways of stretching a low budget to make two films a year. The films occasionally express eccentric and original ideas that makes them interesting, even while we laugh at their shoddier elements.
When it came to adapting The Fall of the House of Usher, Corman was keen to produce a more serious work than usual. He successfully applied to have the budget that he was annually offered to make two movies combined into one slightly higher budget work. This resulted in a film that makes full use of its Technicolor and comparatively lavish sets, and even includes an overture.
Perhaps sometimes Corman is a little too keen to show his sets off. When the character talk about lighting candles, it is evident that the room is too well-lit to need any more candles. There is some evidence of cost-cutting. The success of The Fall of the House of Usher would lead to another seven Corman movies based on Poe, and he would freely take the scenes of a burning house at the end of this film, and reuse them in several more productions.
The film may be more explicit than the Epstein production, but there is still something dream-like about the world that Corman creates here. When Philip Winthrop (Mark Damon) approaches the House of Usher, he appears from an outside world that we never see. Of course that is Corman saving on his budget, but it adds to the sense that he is stepping in from an outer world, and entering into a dreamlike state.
This is helped by the fact that the Usher house is found in an area where all the vegetation has died, perhaps a metaphor for a blighted aristocracy. We are told that the land used to be green. Phillip passes through a lifeless world where the mist rises from the ground, and the tarn has turned brackish. He arrives at an imposing house made even more unreal by the use of a matte painting.
Richard Matheson's script adds a backstory concerning the Ushers, which suggests a general rottenness in the family. A flashback in various coloured filters is played out with billowing mist across the bottom of the screen. We see the previous ghoulish relatives looking like the fiends in Carnival of Souls.
There are portraits of past relatives, but none of them are the kind of picture that a healthy family would put on their wall. The figures in the paintings look evil and diseased. The present Ushers seem to be tainted by the evil house in which they live, and Roderick is opposed to the idea of Philip and Madeline having children, who will share this taint.
The house around them may be the cause of their morbid state of mind, or it may be an external expression of the inner psyche of Roderick and Madeline. This is a house that makes creaking noises. Large cracks open in the wall. Phillip is threatened by a collapsing chandelier, a loose bannister, and even the coffin of a dead Usher. It is as if the house wishes to make him as unwelcome as Roderick Usher.
It is perhaps a pity that Corman did not command a bigger budget for some of the effects that his film used, though the penny-pinching director and producer seemed to almost enjoy making films on the cheap. However special effects are not the essence of great moviemaking. A well-told story will survive a few unconvincing effects, and that is the case here.
Corman produces a more commercial version of the Poe story than Epstein, but he takes his source material seriously enough to create a powerful and atmospheric story that takes account of the psychological elements of Poe's tale as well as its more grisly moments.
I wrote a longer appreciation of Corman's and Jean Epstein's versions of the story on my blog page if you would like to read more: https://themoviescreenscene.wordpress.com/2021/11/05/the-fall-of-the-house-of-usher-1928-and-1960/
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
08/24/23
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