House of Usher

1960 "Edgar Allan Poe's demonic tale of The Ungodly... The Evil House of Usher"
6.9| 1h19m| NR| en| More Info
Released: 20 July 1960 Released
Producted By: Alta Vista Productions
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
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Synopsis

Convinced that his family’s blood is tainted by generations of evil, Roderick Usher is hell-bent on destroying his sister Madeline’s wedding to prevent the cursed Usher bloodline from extending any further. When her fiancé, Philip Winthrop, arrives at the crumbling family estate to claim his bride, Roderick goes to ruthless lengths to keep them apart.

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Reviews

ReaderKenka Let's be realistic.
SparkMore n my opinion it was a great movie with some interesting elements, even though having some plot holes and the ending probably was just too messy and crammed together, but still fun to watch and not your casual movie that is similar to all other ones.
Seraherrera The movie is wonderful and true, an act of love in all its contradictions and complexity
Cody One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.
fbcosmin-70806 I am sorry I watched this movie. What a waste of time ! No plot, no respect for the story, no terror, no nothing. Not even Vincent Price's play could save this stereotype, boring, colorless movie. It was an absurd situation, with a permanent hesitating lover, who just has stupid dialogues instead of acting, taking his fiancée away.
Shawn Watson Always a penny-pinch, Roger Corman made a modest budget of around $300,000 go far with this Poe adaptation. Instead of two low-rent black and white trash movies he convinced the money men to let him do a single, prestige picture in color and Cinemascope. They agreed, but there is really not a feature-length story here, and it limps across the 79-minute mark gasping and wheezing.Well-to-do Philip Winthrop arrives at the gloomy House of Usher to whisk his fiancée away to a new life in Boston. Her brother Roderick (a blonde Vincent Price) objects to it, claiming that the Usher bloodline is doomed to misery and that the dark, old house won't let her leave. Er...so how did they meet in the first place? Philip imposes himself on the household and discovers that they are all indeed quite mad. Had he been a little older and wiser he would have realized that no woman is worth that trouble and rode right on out of there. But then we wouldn't have a movie, or what has been stretched out into a movie.The pacing, sets, and morbid atmosphere all feel very similar to Pit and the Pendulum, which Corman and Price did a year later. Had I not been recently familiar with that movie then perhaps Fall of the House of Usher might have had a better effect on me, but they are both so alike that I felt like I was watching the same movie twice. It looks pretty and the aching, wobbling house is a wonderful location with a brooding, foreboding gloom surrounding it, but there simply isn't enough for this quartet of characters to do.
Rainey Dawn A wonderful film adaptation of Poe's story "The Fall of the House of Usher". Richard Matheson's screenplay does in fact bring Poe's short story perfectly to life on the silver screen - the film is excellent.I love the sets, costuming and the morbid atmosphere as well as a superior cast. The dream sequence is one of the most beautifully filmed - it is as eerie as I have ever seen.In the end, we are left to wonder if this "curse" is all in the mind, you know simply believing it to be true and is curable by letting go, forgetting the past and living in the now (Philip Winthrop's idea). OR is it something that runs in the family genes and cannot be cured - completely doomed (Roderick Usher's belief). I believe we are left to ponder this.In my belief: Madeline Usher (Fahey) would have been "cured" if she would have never gone back to The House of Usher - she should have at least left with her fiancée Philip Winthrop (Damon) then she would have lead a normal life with Philip. Roderick Usher (Price) might have "snapped out of it" as well if he had left and forgot all about the house and family's history. Basically I believe that Philip Winthrop was correct and that Madeline Usher was driven to "madness" by her brother Roderick Usher in the end. But I am still left to ponder this mystery.9.5/10
TheLittleSongbird Overtime the horror genre has really grown on me, and Vincent Price, one of my favourite actors has been a big part of why. The Fall of the House of Usher was the film that spawned a series of Edgar Allan Poe adaptations, and is up there with the best of them like The Pit and the Pendulum and The Raven. Whether it is completely faithful to Poe's writing I am not entirely sure, whatever way it makes little difference to me. All that matters for a film is how good it is on its own merits, and The Fall of The House of Usher in my mind is more than good, it's great. The settings, costumes and the way the film are shot is both Gothic and gorgeous to look at in their lavishness, and the music is suitably spooky. The script is very literate and quite intelligent, while the story is always compelling and delivers its spooky scares with not an ounce of predictability or hamminess. The ending really convinces in its creepiness and in its tragic undercurrent, making it moving as well. The acting is fine, Mark Damon gets better throughout the film and by the end he really comes to life but to start with I did find him a little too wooden for my tastes. Myrna Fahey and Harry Ellerbe characterise splendidly, but the film belongs to Roger Corman's lively direction and especially to Vincent Price, who is always great but gives one of his best ever performances here, with his ever commanding presence, his distinctive voice, Skakespearean-like line delivery, droll sense of humour and a sense of melancholy, every single of those are here and make for one memorable performance indeed. In conclusion, a great film worth seeing for Price alone though the production values, the atmosphere and how intelligently it's written also are fine attributes. 9/10 Bethany Cox