.gif)
House of Usher (film)
Encyclopedia
House of Usher is an American International Pictures
horror film
starring Vincent Price
, Myrna Fahey
, and Mark Damon
: the story is about a New England family cursed with madness, criminal conduct, and debauchery. The film was directed by Roger Corman
and its screenplay written by Richard Matheson
from the short story "The Fall of the House of Usher
" by American author Edgar Allan Poe
. The film was the first of eight Corman/Poe feature films. In 2005, the film was listed with the United States
National Film Registry
as being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant." The film is also known as Fall of the House of Usher and The Mysterious House of Usher. On August 6, 2010, BRIC Arts presented the film in Prospect Park
with a new score and psychedelic
overlays and flashforward
s by Marco Benevento
in celebration of the film's 50th anniversary.
) travels to the House of Usher, a desolate mansion surrounded by a murky swamp, to bring away his fiancée Madeline Usher (Myrna Fahey
). The two were affianced after meeting in Boston before the film opens.
Madeline's corpse-like brother Roderick (Vincent Price
) opposes Philip's intentions, telling the young man that the Usher family is afflicted by a cursed bloodline which has driven all their ancestors to madness, criminal behavior and debauchery. Roderick foresees the family evils being propagated into future generations with a marriage to Madeline and vehemently discourages the union. Philip becomes increasingly desperate to take Madeline away and she agrees to leave with him.
During a heated argument with her brother, Madeline suddenly dies and is laid to rest in the family crypt beneath the house. As Philip is preparing to leave following the entombment, the butler
Bristol (Harry Ellerbe) lets slip that Madeline suffered from catalepsy
, a condition which can make its sufferers appear dead.
Philip rips open Madeline's coffin and finds it empty. He desperately searches for her in the winding passages of the crypt but she eludes him and confronts her brother. Now completely insane, Madeline avenges herself upon the brother who knowingly buried her alive. Both die as a fire breaks out. Philip escapes and watches the house sink into the swampy land surrounding it.
Track listing
Other reviewers have been kinder, and House of Usher is now regarded as a high point in Corman's filmography, with an 85% "fresh" rating on RottenTomatoes.
American International Pictures
American International Pictures was a film production company formed in April 1956 from American Releasing Corporation by James H. Nicholson, former Sales Manager of Realart Pictures, and Samuel Z. Arkoff, an entertainment lawyer...
horror film
Horror film
Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...
starring Vincent Price
Vincent Price
Vincent Leonard Price, Jr. was an American actor, well known for his distinctive voice and serio-comic attitude in a series of horror films made in the latter part of his career.-Early life and career:Price was born in St...
, Myrna Fahey
Myrna Fahey
Myrna Fahey was an American actress best known for her role as Maria Crespo in Walt Disney's Zorro, and as Madeline Usher in the film version of Edgar Allan Poe's, The Fall of the House of Usher...
, and Mark Damon
Mark Damon
Mark Damon is an American film actor and producer. He started his career in his native country, appearing in such films as Young and Dangerous and Roger Corman's House of Usher...
: the story is about a New England family cursed with madness, criminal conduct, and debauchery. The film was directed by Roger Corman
Roger Corman
Roger William Corman is an American film producer, director and actor. He has mostly worked on low-budget B movies. Some of Corman's work has an established critical reputation, such as his cycle of films adapted from the tales of Edgar Allan Poe, and in 2009 he won an Honorary Academy Award for...
and its screenplay written by Richard Matheson
Richard Matheson
Richard Burton Matheson is an American author and screenwriter, primarily in the fantasy, horror, and science fiction genres. He is perhaps best known as the author of What Dreams May Come, Bid Time Return, A Stir of Echoes, The Incredible Shrinking Man, and I Am Legend, all of which have been...
from the short story "The Fall of the House of Usher
The Fall of the House of Usher
"The Fall of the House of Usher" is a short story by Edgar Allan Poe, first published in September 1839 in Burton's Gentleman's Magazine. It was slightly revised in 1840 for the collection Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque...
" by American author Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe was an American author, poet, editor and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective...
. The film was the first of eight Corman/Poe feature films. In 2005, the film was listed with the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
National Film Registry
National Film Registry
The National Film Registry is the United States National Film Preservation Board's selection of films for preservation in the Library of Congress. The Board, established by the National Film Preservation Act of 1988, was reauthorized by acts of Congress in 1992, 1996, 2005, and again in October 2008...
as being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant." The film is also known as Fall of the House of Usher and The Mysterious House of Usher. On August 6, 2010, BRIC Arts presented the film in Prospect Park
Prospect Park (Brooklyn)
Prospect Park is a 585-acre public park in the New York City borough of Brooklyn located between Park Slope, Prospect-Lefferts Gardens, Kensington, Windsor Terrace and Flatbush Avenue, Grand Army Plaza and the Brooklyn Botanic Garden...
with a new score and psychedelic
Psychedelic
The term psychedelic is derived from the Greek words ψυχή and δηλοῦν , translating to "soul-manifesting". A psychedelic experience is characterized by the striking perception of aspects of one's mind previously unknown, or by the creative exuberance of the mind liberated from its ostensibly...
overlays and flashforward
Flashforward
A flashforward is an interjected scene that takes the narrative forward in time from the current point of the story in literature, film, television and other media. Flashforwards are often used to represent events expected, projected, or imagined to occur in the future...
s by Marco Benevento
Marco Benevento
Marco Benevento is a pianist, organist and composer from Brooklyn, New York. Benevento is known for his effected piano work with his trio as well as his Hammond Organ and Wurlitzer Electric Piano work with the Benevento Russo Duo...
in celebration of the film's 50th anniversary.
Plot and cast
Young and handsome Philip Winthrop (Mark DamonMark Damon
Mark Damon is an American film actor and producer. He started his career in his native country, appearing in such films as Young and Dangerous and Roger Corman's House of Usher...
) travels to the House of Usher, a desolate mansion surrounded by a murky swamp, to bring away his fiancée Madeline Usher (Myrna Fahey
Myrna Fahey
Myrna Fahey was an American actress best known for her role as Maria Crespo in Walt Disney's Zorro, and as Madeline Usher in the film version of Edgar Allan Poe's, The Fall of the House of Usher...
). The two were affianced after meeting in Boston before the film opens.
Madeline's corpse-like brother Roderick (Vincent Price
Vincent Price
Vincent Leonard Price, Jr. was an American actor, well known for his distinctive voice and serio-comic attitude in a series of horror films made in the latter part of his career.-Early life and career:Price was born in St...
) opposes Philip's intentions, telling the young man that the Usher family is afflicted by a cursed bloodline which has driven all their ancestors to madness, criminal behavior and debauchery. Roderick foresees the family evils being propagated into future generations with a marriage to Madeline and vehemently discourages the union. Philip becomes increasingly desperate to take Madeline away and she agrees to leave with him.
During a heated argument with her brother, Madeline suddenly dies and is laid to rest in the family crypt beneath the house. As Philip is preparing to leave following the entombment, the butler
Butler
A butler is a domestic worker in a large household. In great houses, the household is sometimes divided into departments with the butler in charge of the dining room, wine cellar, and pantry. Some also have charge of the entire parlour floor, and housekeepers caring for the entire house and its...
Bristol (Harry Ellerbe) lets slip that Madeline suffered from catalepsy
Catalepsy
Catalepsy is also a term used by hypnotists to refer to the state of making a hypnotised subject's arm, leg or back rigid. "Arm catalepsy" is often a pre-hypnotic test performed prior to an induction into a full trance.-Causes:...
, a condition which can make its sufferers appear dead.
Philip rips open Madeline's coffin and finds it empty. He desperately searches for her in the winding passages of the crypt but she eludes him and confronts her brother. Now completely insane, Madeline avenges herself upon the brother who knowingly buried her alive. Both die as a fire breaks out. Philip escapes and watches the house sink into the swampy land surrounding it.
Soundtrack
In February 2011 Intrada made world premiere release of Les Baxter score from music-only elements in mono..Track listing
- Overture
- Main Title
- Roderick Usher
- Madeline Usher
- Tormented
- Lute Song
- Reluctance
- The Sleepwalker
- The Vault
- The Ancestors
- House Of Evil
- Catalepsy
- Pallbearers
- Buried Alive
- Fall Of The House Of Usher
Reception
Eugene Archer in the New York Times of September 15, 1960 wrote, "American-International, with good intentions of presenting a faithful adaption of Edgar Allan Poe's classic tale of the macabre...blithely ignored the author's style. Poe's prose style, as notable for ellipsis as imagery, compressed or eliminated the expository passages habitual to nineteenth-century fiction and invited the readers' imaginations to participate. By studiously avoiding explanations not provided by the text, and stultifying the audiences' imaginations by turning Poe's murky mansion into a cardboard castle encircled by literal green mist, the film producers have made a horror film that provides a fair degree of literacy at the cost of a patron's patience." He further opined, "Under the low-budget circumstances, Vincent Price and Myrna Fahey should not be blamed for portraying the decadent Ushers with arch affectation, nor Mark Damon held to account for the traces of Brooklynese that creep into his stiffly costumed impersonation of the mystified interloper."Other reviewers have been kinder, and House of Usher is now regarded as a high point in Corman's filmography, with an 85% "fresh" rating on RottenTomatoes.