31 Days of Horror Recommendations: House of Usher (1960)

 

Year: 1960

Country: U.S.

Subgenre: Gothic Horror (Poe)

Runtime: 79 minutes

Director: Roger Corman

With the brand new house of Usher series out on Netflix, I thought a look back at one of my favorite movie adaptations of Poe's classic was in order. To most horror fans, this film NEEDS NO introduction; not only is it a Vincent Price film, it is also a Roger Corman production.  Even though, I wanted to toss my two cents in during this, the spookiest time of the year. This was the first in a series of Poe tales for Corman and the first time that American International Pictures agreed to let him produce one film in color, instead two black and white films for double feature release. Novelist Richard Matheson adapted the Poe short story for the screen, as he would for several later Corman Poe films.  It was also the start of the Price/Corman collaboration of (mostly) Poe materials; and, while several of those films, like The Raven, were meant to be purposefully comedic, this one was not. Even The Pit and The Pendulum--released the following year--had flashes of comedic mania. This film, however, was deadly serious. Price evidently took the role quite seriously as well, as he was willing not only to shave off his signature mustache for the role, but also to dye his hair into the bargain. Price is joined in the cast by Mark Damon and Myrna Fahey as Madeline Usher, in what would become her most famous role (if you don't count her dating Joe DiMaggio). Harry Ellerbe as Bristol rounds out the cast, except the a menagerie of uncredited "ghost roles" (Ellerbe would go on to make an appearance in the Corman/Price collaboration The Haunted Palace in 1963). The film itself is quite luscious in appearance, with quite ornated sets. And though many of these look more like a set than the actual interior of a mansion, the rich color film stock by Eastman more than makes up for it. All in all, it is a fine screen adaptation of the madness and the haunted from the mind of Poe and worth a watch in between episodes of the new Netflix series.