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.

If you've seen any of the other Corman/Poe films, then you'll know exactly what to expect from this one. It's a straightforward adaptation of the Poe tale , with some very nice photography and camera-work - all achieved on a low budget, as par the course for Corman. The sets are beautiful and authentic-looking, there's plenty of dry ice floating about all over the place, and the costumes are pretty. Like the other films in this series, THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER works best in creeping up on you unawares, assailing you the viewer with some of Poe's worst fears - in this case, namely being buried alive.A blond (!) Vincent Price haunts the picture, once again giving an excellent performance which helps to lift the whole film. It's safe to say that Price is so good that in any scene without him, you find yourself looking forward to his return. In this film, he's mad (what's new), and puts in a frightening portrayal of total insanity. He believes he's pure and surrounded by evil, when in fact the opposite is true. Price also has some really bizarre mannerisms, he can't bear to be touched and he hates loud noise (later, in THE TOMB OF LIGEIA, he couldn't bear bright light either). Fahey makes a believable transition from damsel in distress to insane killer, and while Damon is occasionally wooden, he acquits himself in the hero role well.Richard Matheson is the scriptwriter in this case, adding to Poe's original story of madness in the family strain. I'm sure that Matheson is the one responsible for some of the choice dialogue here, which was definitely missing in later Poe films. Apart from an out of place dream sequence, which threatens to go all psychedelic on us, everything slots in nicely. The spookiest bit comes when Damon follows a trail of his fiancée's blood through the secret passageways of the house. There are also lots of cobwebby skeletons sitting around and adding to the atmosphere. Just wait for the predictably fiery and nihilistic climax when the house burns apart and collapses. Sombre, slow, creepy, haunting, subtle and atmospheric are all adjectives that can be applied to THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER, and it turns out to be one of Corman's best films (that's saying something when all of the Poe films he made were above average). For those who like Gothic spookers, this could be the one for you.

1960 is such an important year in the development of horror films and, in my opinion, the turning point in the birth of "modern horror". PSYCHO and PEEPING TOM were changing the very tone of horror cinema, Bava directed BLACK Sunday, bringing a new sense of horror to the old Gothic imagery and Roger Corman released the first in his successful series of Poe adaptations that would redefine what indie horror could do on a micro budget.Looking back now it seems that it couldn't fail, but the idea was pretty revolutionary in 60. Roger Corman had been making a living releasing quick to make, cheap to produce black and white features. He finally convinced his studio to put that money behind a color film and to give him the cash to hire a star, the legendary Vincent Price. He took a ready made story from the king of American horror, Edgar Allen Poe, and used one of the greatest contemporary writers, Richard Mathewson, to adapt it for screen. It's like a supergroup joining together and the results are amazing.Some would argue that this is the best of those collaborations, which totaled 8 films in all. In my opinion, the better films would come later with RED DEATH and PIT & PENDULUM, but this is certainly a marvelous movie with Corman's distinct eye for gorgeous images and colors. This story is, perhaps, one of Poe's most well-known, so it makes perfect sense that it was the launching point for this cycle of films. It was not, thought, probably the easiest of his stories to choose for film adaptation. Poe's writing relied heavily on creating a feeling of terror and dread. This story, particularly, is so notable not for the plot or any action that it contains, but for the dark, Gothic, foreboding atmosphere that was so unique at the time of its' writing.How, then, do you portray that sense of dread on screen and create enough action to make it an interesting movie? That was the challenge that faced Matheson and Corman and I think they do an admirable job. Most of that praise, though, should be going to Price. Even when the movie devolves into far too much dialog and "talkiness", Price holds it all together with his magnetic screen presence, chewing each word and line as if they were his last and for his character, Roderick Usher, there is that lingering fear that they would, indeed, be his last words.The story itself revolves around an ancient family curse, an evil house, and the maladies that those things produce in the Usher family. Roderick may be stark raving mad, an incestuous jealous brother, or truly afflicted with the responsibility of preventing this curse from spreading to future generations. His sister's betrothed shows up to take her from all this madness and sets in motion a chain of events that would prove to be their undoing.Corman does wonder with his budget, crafting costumes, sets and looks that are perfect period pieces, especially when one considers this was his first color work. This may not elicit thrills from some modern viewers as it does tend to bog down at the beginning, but for those willing to dive into a moody movie, with a fantastic star turn from Price, this is a treasure.

Edgar Allan Poe is one of the greatest writers of all time, and House of Usher (1960) the film version of his short story "The Fall of the House of Usher" is interesting look at modern psychological science. It covers the form of sensory overload known as hyperesthesia (hypersensitivity to light, sounds, smells, and tastes), hypochondria (an excessive preoccupation or worry about having a serious illness), and acute anxiety. The film was directed by Roger Corman known for his Edgar Allan Poe adaptations. The film was the first of eight Corman/Poe feature films. The film starts with Philip Winthrop (Mark Damon) travels to the House of Usher, , to meet his fiancée Madeline Usher (Myrna Fahey). Madeline's brother Roderick (Vincent Price) doesn't want the marriage to happen, telling Phillip that the Usher family is afflicted by a cursed bloodline which has driven all their ancestors to madness and doesn't want that to continue. Victor Price is great in the role, and truly can seem like a hypochondriac madman. Philip becomes increasingly desperate to take Madeline away; but Madeline suddenly dies and laid to rest in the family crypt beneath the house. As Philip is preparing to leave, the butler, Bristol (Harry Ellerbe), lets slip that Madeline is alive. Philip rips open Madeline's coffin and finds it empty. He desperately searches for her in the winding passages of the crypt but she eludes him and confronts her brother. Now completely insane, Madeline avenges herself upon the brother who knowingly buried her alive. The film does a good job in my opinion of presenting a faithful adaption of Edgar Allan Poe's classic tale of the macabre. Others say it ignore the author's style. I do say I'm glad the film doesn't do a whole reading of Mad Tryst, a novel in Poe's novel "House of Usher'. It wasn't needed in the film. The use of color is wondering. I love the opening shot of Victor Price in the bright red suit. Chilling—yet there were a bit of over cheese scenes, such as that of the green fog and dead people that makes me laugh. That scene was probably a serious scene in 1960's, but now it does looks awful. The movie help define the Gothic genre. It shows Poe's ability to create an emotional tone in his work, specifically feelings of fear, doom, and guilt. The explicit psychological dimension of this tale has prompted many critics to analyze it as a description of the human psyche, comparing, for instance, the House to the unconscious, and its central crack to the personality split which is called dissociative identity disorder. Mental disorder is also evoked through the themes of melancholy, and possible incest. An incestuous relationship between Roderick and Madeline is never explicitly stated, but seems implied by the strange attachment between the two. The film can be interpreted as "a detailed account of the derangement and dissipation of an individual's personality." The house itself becomes the "symbolic embodiment of this individual." With the house falling apart, the characters are falling as well. Check it out if you want. There are two versions, the original and the retouch version, as on 2010, BRIC Arts presented the film with a new score and psychedelic overlays and flash forwards by Marco Benevento in celebration of the film's 50th anniversary. I would choose the newer version as it's more interesting in sound and taste. A great horror movie, so watch it. Talked about a really good haunted house movie.