The fall of the house of usher movie12/31/2022 ![]() ![]() short (also from 1928) and the 1960 Roger Corman/Vincent Price classic but there are at least five more versions I would be interested in catching (by such notable directors as Alexandre Astruc, Jan Svankmajer, Jesus Franco, Curtis Harrington and Ken Russell)! That said, my reaction to the film under review continues to be ambivalent: to begin with, this is perhaps one of only two cases which can truly be described as a dream-like experience (the other being the equally haunting but more readily satisfying VAMPYR by one of my favorite auteurs, Carl Theodor Dreyer) however, the sluggish pacing makes its brief 66 minutes feel long not helped by the archaic parts of the accompanying score (at least, some of it was suitably avant-gardist) and the droning narration, reading the English translation of the original French intertitles, by respected but heavily-accented actor Jean-Pierre Aumont! Visually, the film really cannot be faulted as the Impressionist first half (with images that could almost be taken for paintings) giving way unsurprisingly to Expressionism in the much-anticipated high-strung finale. For the record, a viewing of the obscure low-budgeted 1949 British effort followed this re-acquaintance with the Epstein film, while I also own and have watched the U.S. Anyway, this is now my third viewing of the movie: the second had occurred either as part of an earlier Bunuel retrospective or to compare it with one of the many other filmic renditions of the tale. Ironically, when the disc was released by All Day Entertainment, I recall complaining about its "Collector's Edition" moniker when it was a bare-bones affair apart from an essay by the director himself – the company's President David Kalat, however, was prompt to inform me that the proposed Bunuel-related supplements fell through at the last minute. The Fall of the House of Usher was followed by The Pit and the Pendulum (1961) in Corman’s Poe adaptations.I had always wanted to check out this Silent version of the Edgar Allan Poe horror perennial, and not just because of Luis Bunuel's involvement actually, he only served as Second Assistant in charge of interiors on the film – so much for the co-directing credit that is often attributed to him (including the DVD front cover). It is a horror classic along the lines of the great Universal Monster films. It is the growing dread and creative shooting on a relatively low budget that made this film work (and still work). It might not be a jump out of your seat type of horror film, but it has that dread that horror took (especially before film). The Fall of the House of Usher is classic Poe and classic horror. ![]() Despite cheap means like this, Corman gets a picture with a bright, vibrant look while still keeping the dark dreariness of Poe’s story. The Fall of the House of Usher has a great example of this in that the fire at the end was a barn that was going to be destroyed…he reused it in multiple movies. Corman was known for his frugal directing, but he also was known because he did a good job with what he had. The film had a much bigger budget than most of the AIP pictures, but it still was a low budget picture. ![]()
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