House of Usher (1960)
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House of Usher Movie Review
House of Usher is a 1960 horror film directed by Roger Corman and starring Vincent Price. It is a very good, though somewhat flawed adaptation.
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“I suggest you leave, Mr. Winthrop.
No? Then perish with us“
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Upon entering his fiancée’s family mansion, a man discovers a savage family curse and fears that his future brother-in-law has entombed his bride-to-be prematurely. This was the first of many Corman/Price Poe adaptations and one of the most famous. The original 1839 tale is an iconic work of Gothic fiction and this is mostly a very satisfactory adaptation of it.
The movie is much less ambiguous and poetic than the short story of course, but the additional elements that they included actually worked. The whole backstory of the Usher family and their dark history was actually quite intriguing and very well executed. That sequence was superb.
Another scene that was a highlight was the dream sequence. It perfectly built upon the aforementioned family history to deliver an atmospheric delight of crazy imagery and vivid colors. The use of the color blue was particularly effective in this instance as it made the sequence pleasingly ghostlike.
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My main issues are the pacing and the staginess. The movie is very short, but it felt longer due to a rather leisurely pace. It should have had more momentum and more exuberance in its execution. As for its stage qualities, it only has four actors playing four characters, which is fine as I appreciate minimalism in character count, but the movie needed more cinematic elements to elevate it to feature film expectations. I just wanted more of atmosphere and story and less of dialogue.
But the dialogue is pretty strong and faithful to the source material and the actors delivered their lines competently. Vincent Price is excellent as Usher. I didn’t quite picture him like this as I wished for more of a ghostly appearance, but Price still excelled at the role that was made for him. He was actually much more subdued this time around while still being over-the-top in the moments where the role called for it. He was great.
Mark Damon is another highlight. His Philip Winthrop is very memorable and likable and I appreciated the fact that this man had a lot of agency as a protagonist, much more so than his literary counterpart. Damon delivered a very good performance. The other two are much less memorable. The butler character was solid, though not wholly necessary. The girl was okay, but more could have been done with her character and her sibling relationship.
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House of Usher purportedly had a rather small budget, but it doesn’t show in the finished product. Yes, it should have been grander in ambition, but the visuals are still terrific. The production design was outstanding as the castle looked incredible and quite detailed. We actually got to visit it properly through so many hidden passages and corridors, which was a delight. The score is also suitably menacing while the sound is evocative. The directing from Corman is strong too, but I just wish that the pacing was better.
1960’s House of Usher is a very strong adaptation of the eponymous Poe tale that is overly leisurely in pace and somewhat stagy in quality, but the performances from Vincent Price and Mark Damon are both excellent and the production design is phenomenal. The highlights were the added history of the Usher family and the dream sequence. It’s a delightful work of Gothic storytelling all-around.
My Rating – 4
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