House of Usher (1960)

Day 294 - 10/21/09 - Movie #294

BEFORE: This is another film based on an Edgar Allan Poe story, directed by Roger Corman in the 1960's on the cheap, produced by American International (a Samuel Z. Arkoff production!), and starring Vincent Price. The short story it's based on, "The Fall of the House of Usher" is one of those things they make you read in high-school, then when the English teacher asks you what the story was really "about", you have no clue. Let's see if the film clears things up.

THE PLOT: Philip arrives at the Usher mansion seeking his loved one, Madeline. Upon arriving, however, he discovers that Madeline and her brother Roderick Usher have been afflicted with a mysterious malady.

AFTER: This film is almost an exact re-tread of last night's film (I guess since this one was made first, technically that film was a re-hash of THIS one...) A man shows up at a creepy European manor to inquire about his fiancee (or sister, in "The Pit and the Pendulum"), only to encounter her creepy brother (Price again), who seems to have buried her alive - in last night's film it was by accident, in this one, it was by design. And once again, madness/evil seems to run in the family - in last night's film the crazy man's father was an Inquisitor, and here the whole Usher family tree seems to consist of murderers and scoundrels. And in both cases, the suggestion is that the HOUSE is somehow responsible - and here the house ends up paying the price.

The twist here is that Roderick Usher (Price) has a strange condition where his senses are painfully acute - loud noises and bright lights cause him pain (also called Dennis DeYoung's disease) and his sister Madeline is near catatonic - the Usher curse states that any time there is more than one living sibling in the family, all of them have gone insane and died horribly. So it makes perfect sense to bury one's sister alive in that case, right? No, that doesn't mean Roderick is insane at all! (Hasn't he ever heard of a self-fulfilling prophecy?)

This does touch on a few themes that Poe tended to explore again and again - such as mental illness (Roderick seems to suffer from hyperesthesia, hypochondria, and acute anxiety, not to mention creepiness and excessive flamboyancy), and being buried alive, as also seen in his stories "The Premature Burial" and "The Cask of Amontillado".

Hmm...this is interesting, from Wikipedia: "Poe's inspiration for the story may be based upon events of the Usher House, located on Boston's Lewis Wharf. As that story goes, a sailor and the young wife of the older owner were caught and entombed in their trysting spot by her husband. When the Usher House was torn down in 1800, two bodies were found embraced in a cavity in the cellar."

The most annoying part was that, once again, this was a short story extended out to fill 90 minutes of screen time. Madeline's fiancee Philip Winthrop asks Roderick "Where is she?" about 752 times - dude, if he didn't tell you the first 751 times, I don't think he's going to tell you...

RATING: 4 out of 10 family portraits

SPOOK-O-METER: 5 out of 10 (premature burial is damn creepy...)