Wow! Such a good movie.

This is How Movies Should Be Made

It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

Mark Damon plays the role of Philip Winthrop, a young man who travels a long way to the Usher estate, where he intends to reunite with his bride-to-be, Madeline Usher (Myrna Fahey). He enters to find a rather forlorn, forbidding environment, and a future brother-in-law, Roderick (Vincent Price) obsessed with the Usher family's dark, dark history. Roderick is utterly convinced that he and Madeline are doomed, that nothing can be done to save them, and that Philip would be very foolish to try to remove her from the house.Producer & director Roger Corman began his series of Edgar Allan Poe adaptations with a flourish with "House of Usher". It wasn't made with the intention of beginning a series, but was so successful commercially and critically, that A.I.P. heads James Nicholson and Samuel Arkoff urged him to make more. Corman assembled a masterful team that would be worthy collaborators for most of this series, including production designer Daniel Haller, cinematographer Floyd Crosby, composer Les Baxter, and screenwriter Richard Matheson, who adapted the Poe tale. The style and substance of this now classic horror film helped to establish Corman as a legitimate, accomplished filmmaker, and not just a man who could shoot fast and cheap.Price offers a nuanced, subtle performance as the tortured lead. For those who think that he might have gone for theatrics a little too often during his career, they should be reasonably impressed with his work here. The beautiful Fahey is entrancing as the victimized sister, and Harry Ellerbe is excellent as the loyal butler of the estate. Handsome young Damon can't quite bring the same amount of gravitas to his role, but he's not bad, either.Highly recommended to lovers of Gothic horrors. This one has earned its place among the best of them.Nine out of 10.

The first adaptation of the Edgar Allen Poe movies was already an enjoyable experience. It's more about atmosphere and some creepy sequences than story. I guess Legend of Hell House must have gotten its ideas from this one. Even though not as good as other haunted house movies it's one that I'm pondering over to have in my collection. And Vincent Price gives as usual a great performance. What makes this movie strong is the setting of the mansion. We have the paintings of the gruesome ancestors on the walls, the coffins in the basement and the mansion itself bathing in a big cloud of mist to just name a few things. Usually I think black and white creates the right atmosphere but here it was actually the color that added to the experience. A few creepy scenes such as chandelier falling and almost dropping on a visitor, coffin falling open to reveal a skeleton and the visitor having a dream about the ancestors of the Ushers in the form of ghosts. That the back story of the Ushers was eventually more interesting than the story displayed in the movie didn't take away the overall enjoyable experience for me. And Myrna Fahey was really beautiful as Madeline, could easily compete with Barbara Steele.

The first of Roger Corman's Edgar Allan Poe adaptations from American International Pictures, The House of Usher opens as Philip Winthrop (Mark Damon) arrives at the Usher ancestral home—a crumbling pile in an arid, foggy landscape—looking for his bride-to-be, Madeline Usher (the lovely Myrna Fahey). He is greeted there by Madeline's brother Roderick (Vincent Price), who asks him to leave. Not one to take no for an answer, Philip remains, staying for the night, determined to take Madeline away with him the next day. Roderick, however, is resolved to keeping his sister at home whatever it takes, believing his family to be under a curse that causes strange maladies, evil ways, and premature death.House of Usher is about as Gothic as it gets, featuring a foggy landscape, an old dark house full of cobweb-strewn secret passageways, an elderly butler who knows more than he is letting on, a dusty old crypt, and a raging thunderstorm; but as atmospheric as the setting is, I didn't find myself all that engrossed in the mystery that unfolds. Instead, I found it all rather boring, Roderick's repetitious insistence that his family is cursed and Winthrop's steadfast refusal to believe what he is told becoming rather tiresome. Admittedly, the production is sumptuously mounted, with impressive sets and lovely colour cinematography (used particularly effectively during a hypnotic dream sequence), but on the whole I was left rather unimpressed by this much-loved horror 'classic'.

The first of Roger Corman's low-budget adaptations of Edgar Allen Poe's Gothic tales of horror sets a convincing template to which the producer/director would return time and again. Created with an eye for period detail and utilising the charisma of Vincent Price to intrigue and occasionally scare the viewer, the story moves slowly but surely, like a descent to madness, to its fiery conclusion. With only four players and, not unnaturally, given the prominent part the house itself plays in the narrative, the movie is very set-bound, with eerie music turned up whenever a scary scene looms, the claustrophobic stifling atmosphere is in keeping with the conclusion of the story.Price is excellent, as the doomed, ghoulish brother Usher of his pretty but sheltered sister, the aptly-named Madeline. There's also a faithful butler on tow, to help move the action along and reveal key background facts, but I can exclusively reveal that he didn't do it. Mark Damon swoons and raves as Maddy's ardent but thwarted lover to compete the cast.Shot in lurid colour, with highly atmospheric background music, it would be easy to mock the heightened acting which occasionally borders on the wrong side of camp, but Price's presence and Corman's skill with cinematography and story-telling deliver a fitting tribute to Poe's work.