"House On Haunted Hill" [1958] Movie Review

 

[Watched on Fawesome]

"House On Haunted Hill" is a 1958 Horror movie, that's commonly referred to as some sort of Ghost Story. Of course, it's most famous leading role is played by Vincent Price, who is, for the most part...a bad guy. Right?

 Vincent Price plays a perfectly sinister millionaire "playboy" that intends to scare his house guests, inviting them to stay the night with a $10,000 reward if they make to 8 am the next day. It was 5 people invited, so the payout would have been $50,000 overall. Adjusted for inflation, that 50K would be $571,777 in 2026. 

I like the concept of the movie, a creepy murder house that people are  trying to see how long they could stay. You hear a little background about each character, though it's not very much. Even though this was different time period, I think it would have been cool to hear more reasons as to why the people at the house were there. 

I wondered if the movie inspired the quest "Whodunit" from the game Oblivion, where the player has to pick off the guests at a party, one by one. 

 I found it interesting that there was the tale of someone who was thrown into a vat of acid, in the basement of the house. This similar idea was shown in the movie "Scream and Scream Again", which came out in 1970. I wonder if this movie inspired that. 

Some of the acting is pretty cheesy, and a bit stock, but it's funny. I also found it funny when the skeleton of the rat floated to the top of the acid, it was such a cheesy prop used!

The set did a great job at concealing Vincent Price's height. You really couldn't tell how tall he was!

The old lady ghost was funny to me, like some sort of witch without a hat. I found the semi-romantic notes between the characters Nora and Lance to be silly, though I guess that's what they had to do to keep peoples' attention.

 In a way, the movie reminded of the game "Clue", with it's sort of mystery elements around the house.

I'm surprised that they could show the body hanging at the stairs, considering the time period. Supposedly this and the movie poster showing the woman being hanged, caused it to be somewhat censored, but I didn't really see that in newspaper ads, at least. 

Overall, I really enjoyed the film, and found Vincent Price's talent was really highlighted here. He was the perfect "sinister husband" and was surprisingly not "The Bad Guy". In a strange way, Price's character was framed, like in the movie "Madhouse".  I loved the dynamic between him and Carol Ohmart, they were like a more sinister version of Gomez and Morticia Addams. 

I think that, especially today, the movie isn't scary. But that doesn't mean it's bad. Of course, nearly 70 years later, many of the things that society used to be scared of, are considered silly or normal now. I think this movie is one of those perfect watches for Halloween, and October in general. Interestingly, the movie was released in May of 1958, but it seriously has that Halloween vibe. 

I think that this movie is worth the watch, because the plot itself is really fun, and clever. It makes the viewer think of what would they do if in this situation, or how they'd write a story like this one. 

Looking through the newspaper archives, there weren't that many reviews for the film, though one I found was laughable. 

 

 

In a review by "Charles Stinson", he called the movie "inept". He wrote his review in a such a way that to me, it seemed like wanted to use some words that he recently read about in the dictionary, and wanted to seem intelligent. I suppose if he were paid by the word by the newspaper, this likely paid a fatter check. I'm not saying his opinion was wrong, I just felt like he tried too hard to prove how much he disliked the movie. 

 Many advertisements of the movie talked about "Emergo", which was supposed to be some type of interesting device. It was basically just the pulley system used to move the skeleton seen at the end of the movie. Wikipedia states that a device would be used in theaters to scare the audience too.

 I'm unsure if "Emergo" was ever used for anything other than this movie. 

 The house seen at the beginning of the movie is known as "Ennis House", which was built in 1925. The house has an interesting history, mostly due to it's constant need of repairs, since it was virtually built. One of the problems it had was the south wall bulging out. Apparently after this movie was released, there was a problem with young people coming to the residence, and screaming as loud as they could from the outside. 

 Strangely, and sadly, quite a few people from the cast had rather early deaths. First, was Alan Marshall, who played Dr. Trent, passed away in 1961 at the age of 52. He had a heart attack after a performance in Chicago. 

 Next, was the death of Carolyn Craig, who played Nora Manning. She committed suicide, from a self inflicted gunshot wound, and passed away on December 12th, 1970, at the age of 36. I couldn't find any obituary on her in the newspaper archives. 

 

And third, Richard Long, who played Lance, passed away December 21st, 1974, at the age of 47. He had-had cardiac problems due to contracting pneumonia at a young age, and had already had a heart attack in 1961. After a month stay in the hospital to treat additional attacks he passed away four days after his birthday. 

 

 

  But overall, I enjoy the movie, and think that it's well worth the watch. Yes, it's cheesy and not really scary, but I think that it's fun to see! A perfect Halloween movie. 

 3/5 on letterboxd