"The Fall of The House of Usher", also known as "House of Usher" is a movie that came out in 1960, which features Vincent Price. From what I understand, this was the first Edgar Allan Poe film he was in, the story being the same name as the movie. According to various lore, the movie went by both names, but from what I could find in the newspaper archives, it seems that the full title was used in the UK, while "House of Usher" was used in the US.
The plot of the film is alright, where Philip Winthrop comes to the House of Usher to wisk away his fiancee, Madeline, but is essentially cock blocked by her brother, Roderick. The Usher legacy is a grim one, full of evil, mad, cursed people. Roderick tried to convince Philip not to take Madeline back to Boston with him, but Philip insists on doing so. Before he can, Madeline "dies", but not really, only being entombed by her brother. She eventually goes mad and escapes, and the movie ends with the house burning to the ground.
When it comes to the plot and writing of the movie, honestly, I didn't find it that interesting. I know that it was a different time period, but I didn't feel like this movie was very creepy, Gothic, or scary. I didn't feel sympathetic to Philip, and honestly found myself wondering why he was trying so hard to defy Roderick, when it was pretty clear that he was telling the truth. I didn't think that the actor, Mark Damon, was bad, but in many ways, I found his style of acting to be rather boring. I didn't care for him as a main character, and honestly just kept waiting for every scene that had Vincent Price in it.
I think that the appeal of the movie has always been more about the setting, than the acting. The dream sequence was really cool, with the blue filter and foamy/water overlay. I'm sure that when the movie first released in 1960, this probably blew peoples' minds.
It's funny, this movie was later used in clips for the 1974 movie "Madhouse". At one point, Price even called the house of usher a madhouse. It makes me wonder if he re-watched his own film to create that one.
"House of Usher" is an okay movie. Even though Price is in it, he doesn't really star. If he wasn't in this movie, I don't think I would have liked it at all.
When I tried to find reviews for the movie in the newspaper archives...there really wasn't much of anything. Which is strange, considering how successful it was financially, according to wikipedia. The movie apparently made 1.4 million dollars. The most I could find in the archives were just ads of the movie. One quick blurb said that it "could be more convincing", but that was about it.
I feel like this is one of those movies that a person would watch if they're either:
-Really into Vincent Prince
-Really into Edgar Allan Poe
-Really into the history of Cinema and Theater.
I'm not sure how many people would be into this if they don't fit into any of those categories. Personally, I think that I fit into the Vincent Price one, but even still, I felt pretty ho-hum about this movie.
2/5
[Watched on youtube]
