Film 6/52: The Fall of the House of Usher (1960)


While originally released as House of Usher, the title on the print we viewed was The Fall of the House of Usher, hence its presence at this point in the alphabetical lineup of our 52 Pick-Up series. The first of Roger Corman's Edgar Allan Poe adaptations, The Fall of the House of Usher is a film that I have owned for years, and across many formats. Strangely enough, I have no recollection of ever having seen it, even going back to the days of Creature Features and Chiller Diller. I only have distinct memories of watching one of the Corman Poe's, and that's The Raven. As a result, I've long wanted to schedule a Corman Poe-a-thon in the Slaughtered Lamb, either as our regular Wednesday night feature over a few months, or as an all-day marathon for one of our monthly movie events. Since we hadn't gotten around to either of those, the 52 Pick-Up series seemed like an ideal time to finally check this one out! 

House of Usher was adapted to the screen by Richard Matheson; he scripted half of the eight Corman/Poe films. Vincent Price leads a cast of (basically) four, and does a fantastic job as Roderick Usher, who is misguided in his attempts to protect his sister (Myrna Fahey), and dissuade her paramour (Mark Damon) from trying to be with her. The film benefits from the widescreen cinematography that takes in the nicely-designed sets (not to mention several wonderful matte paintings of the Usher home, believed to be the work of the late, great Albert Whitlock). The terror in this one ratchets up as the film goes on, and from the point of a wild, colorful dream-sequence through the finale, it's quite a fun ride. I'm glad to have finally experienced it in all its glory on the SLC screen. 

I told Vonna that I intend to run another series in parallel with our weekly 52 Pick-up, and work our way through the remaining seven films in the Corman/Poe-cycle. And since I want to experience them chronologically, don't be surprised that you won't see any more of these pop-up within this particular series.

For those interested, and not already aware, here are the eight Corman/Poe titles:
  • House of Usher (1960)
  • The Pit and The Pendulum (1961)
  • Tales of Terror (1962)
  • Premature Burial (1962)
  • The Raven (1963)
  • The Haunted Palace (1963)
  • The Masque of the Red Death (1964)
  • Tomb of Ligeia (1964)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Film 7/52: The Green Slime (1968)

Image
We've been singing The Green Slime theme song around The Slaughtered Lamb since first considering this as our 'G' entry in the 52 Pick-Up (if you've got an Amazon Echo, ask Alexa to play "The Green Slime"). That may have been one of the reasons why Vonna ultimately decided she could sit this one out, so I was left to face the green slime all on my own. I had a vague awareness that the film was a Japanese co-production, but I wasn't aware that it featured no Japanese actors in the cast! It does have the hallmarks of my favorite Japanese sci-fi films of the era, including cool (if not convincingly filmed) miniature ships and sets, and rubber men-in-suit monsters. Years later, director Kinji Fukasaku would go on to direct the Battles Without Honor and Humanity series (which I have yet to see), and his final film was the very influential adaptation of the novel  Battle Royale . The Green Slime setup is this — an asteroid (Flora) is on a collision course wi...
Read more

Film 3/52: The Collector (1965)

Image
The Collector  is a fairly recent addition to the library, and a film I've been interested in seeing for some time, so it was an ideal selection for my 52 Pick-Up series. Based on the John Fowles novel, but promoted as 'William Wyler's  The Collector ,' it's safe to say that it's  not what you might expect  from the director of Ben-Hur .  Terence Stamp plays a socially inept entomologist, Frederick, who decides to add a young woman who he's long been infatuated with, Miranda (portrayed by Samantha Eggar), to his 'collection.' It's a creepy film, but not in the same dark and disturbing manner that it would surely be handled in a contemporary film. Wyler makes light of Frederick's eccentric behavior, as opposed to presenting him as a true threat to a woman abducted by an unstable individual. Frederick assures Miranda that he won't do anything untoward, and for much of the film's running time we can believe him; that is, short of his hol...
Read more

Film 49/52: Warlords of Atlantis (1978)

Image
Growing up, Doug McClure was a staple of weekday afternoon television thanks to three Amicus Studios fantasy films he starred in based on the works of Edgar Rice Burroughs ( The Land That Time Forgot , The People That Time Forgot , and my favorite,  At the Earth's Core , in which he starred opposite Peter Cushing and Caroline Munro). I was surprised years later to discover that he did a fourth fantasy film (not for Amicus, and from an original screenplay), Warlords of Atlantis . I've had a copy in the library for years, but after showing Vonna the trailer (which showcases several of the films interesting creatures), we selected this one for our 'W' film. McClure is the creator of a diving bell helping a scientist and his son interested in finding the lost city of Atlantis. On their first dive, they're attacked by a sea creature, and after a narrow escape they find a golden statue — an artifact of Atlantis. The ship is attacked by a giant octopus, and several of the ...
Read more