aka House of Usher
The first of seven Roger Corman films based on the works of American author Edgar Allan Poe relies heavily on the deep, rich textures of Vincent Price.
The dialogue he’s given only occasionally sounds like it came from Poe’s own mind, but the hinge on madness—the deranged grip of nervous agitation that many of his protagonists find themselves inexorably in—is firmly in place, the crumbling house reflective of the Ushers’ state of mind.
It invents a new character and does away with an original one. The shift to third person robbed it of a potentially weighty V/O, but it’s something that I've come to accept over the years. Also, the paintings that hang in the halls are atypical of the era, but they’re amazing, nonetheless.
3½ peculiarities of temperament out of 5
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