The 1960 film, The Fall Of The House of Usher, opens with Phillip Winthrop (Mark Damon) riding his horse across a desolate landscape.
There’s a foreboding mansion in the distance but what the viewer immediately notices is that the land around the mansion looks almost post-apocalyptic. Even though the film is set in the 1800s, the misshapen trees and the high winds all bring to mind a film set in a nuclear-scarred world, the type where you expect to find radioactive mutants hiding behind every tree and rock.
Phillip is a young aristocrat who is traveling to the home of the Usher family. He is engaged to marry Madeleine Usher (Myrna Fahey) but, as soon as he arrives at the mansion, her older brother, Roderick (Vincent Price, with no mustache and blonde hair), informs Phillip that he will never be allowed to marry Madeleine. Roderick explains that the Usher family is cursed and he even takes Phillip on a tour of Usher family history, showing him a series of truly hideous paintings of past Ushers. One Usher was a murderer. Another Usher was blackmailer. An Usher wearing a pirate’s cap is identified as being a slave trader. The Ushers are cursed, with each family member destined to become insane. Roderick’s mission is to bring the Usher bloodline to a close and that means that Madeleine cannot marry.
Phillip disagrees, especially when the sickly Madeleine herself says that she wants to escape from her seemingly mad brother. With the house itself continually shaking as if it’s on the verge of collapsing, Phillip becomes determined to take Madeleine away. Roderick tries to warn him not to. Even the friendly butler, Bristol (Harry Ellerbe), encourages Phillip to give up. But Phillip remains stubborn and determined. However, when Madeleine suddenly collapses and dies, it appears that Phillip’s plans to marry her are at an end. But is Madeleine truly dead?
Based on a short story by Edgar Allan Poe, this was, at the time, the most expensive film that Roger Corman and American International Pictures had ever made. (It was also their first color film.) Of course, the budget was still just $300,000 and the Usher mansion was largely constructed out of props that were borrowed from other films. That said, the film had a name star and, with its vivid colors and its fiery finale, it certainly looked like a big-budget film. This film marked the first collaboration between Vincent Price and Roger Corman and it was a box office success, making a million dollars at a time when a million dollars really meant something.. Corman and Price would go on to do several other Poe adaptations together, all of which were distinguished by Price’s villainous performances and Corman’s pop art visuals.
Seen today, The Fall of the House of Usher can seem to be a bit slow. With only one location and a cast of only four actors, it often feels a bit stagey. Mark Damon is rather stiff as Phillip. (One can see why he abandoned acting to become a producer.) But Vincent Price’s performance as Roderick Usher continue to entertain, with Price delivering every line of dialogue with his trademark aristocratic archness. There’s nothing subtle about Price’s performance but Price’s tendency to overact perfectly matched Corman’s vivid visuals and it’s interesting to watch a hyperactive Price performance paired with the type of dull performance that Mark Damon offers up.
The fiery finale still packs a certain punch and, watching it, one can see why Corman and Price said, “Let’s do this again!” The Fall of the House of Usher (which is also available on some streaming sites as simply House of Usher) remains an enjoyable macabre Halloween treat.
House of Usher (1960, dir by Roger Corman, DP: Floyd Crosby)
Through the Shattered Lens 