Stars: Vincent Price, Mark Damon, Myrna Fahey, Harry Ellerbe

Director: Roger Corman

Summary: An adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe's nerve-tingling tale about a man who believes his blood is tainted and resolves to prevent the Usher family line from continuing.

The great Vincent Price stars in this quintessential adaptation of the Edgar Allan Poe story. Hopeful Phillip (Mark Damon) rides up to the crumbling Usher estate to pick up his betrothed, Madeline (Myrna Fahey), and is coldly received by her brother, Roderick (Price). A most unwilling host, Roderick suffers from "morbid acuteness of the senses" and is convinced their family lineage--and the very house itself--is cursed by the evil deeds of their forebears. He is sworn to do everything in his power to keep his sister from leaving with Phillip--even burying her alive--to stop her from continuing their damned lineage. Roger "King of the Bs" Corman got permission from his producers to make this, his first film in color and with a recognizable star, for the same price as two of his usual black-and-white films. The result was a smash hit with critics and audiences, and Corman made seven more. This is still one of the best, with a comparatively restrained performance by Price, good set design and photography, and eerie music by the legendary Les Baxter.

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Vincent Price brings a theatrical flourish to his role in The Fall of the House of Usher. He plays Roderick Usher, a brooding nobleman haunted by the dry rot of madness in his family tree. This being an Edgar Allen Poe story, there's a history of family madness and melancholia, a premature burial and a sense of doom hanging over the gloomy, crumbling mansion. Roger Corman sold stingy AIP pictures on the concept by claiming "The house is the monster"--or so goes the oft-told story. True or not, Corman (with the help of his brilliant art director Daniel Haller and legendary cinematographer Floyd Crosby) creates an exaggerated sense of isolation and claustrophobia with the sunless forest and funereal fog that holds the house and its inhabitants prisoner in a land of the dead. It doesn't quite look real (some of the effects are downright phoney, notably the apocalyptic climax), and none of the costars can hold a candle to Price's elegant, haunted performance (often speaking in no more than a stage whisper), but it's a triumph of expressionism on a budget. Shot in rich, vivid colour and CinemaScope, from a literate script by genre master Richard Matheson, this is stylish Gothic horror in a melancholy key. It was such a success that Corman reunited his core group of collaborators for the follow-up The Pit and the Pendulumthe very next year. Thus Corman's "Poe Cycle" was born. --Sean Axmaker

Main Language:	English
Region:	Region 2
Special Features:	Trailers - Original theatrical trailer, Scene Access, Interactive Menu Screens
Year:	1960
Release Date:	October 20, 2003
Runtime:	76 minutes
Certification:
Catalogue Number:	24273 D V D
Label:	Midnite Movies
Keywords:	Allan, House, General, Fall, Usher, Edgar, Horror, Occult, Sci, Fi, Poe's
Genre:	Horror/Occult