THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER is a low budget British adaptation of the storyline that has been somewhat eclipsed by the lush and colourful Roger Corman/Vincent Price version of the tale. That's a shame, because this is an interesting little movie in its own right, a film where every penny of the budget has been put on screen.The film has a disjointed, almost dream-like atmosphere to it which reminded me of the horror classic VAMPYR. The set design is absolutely wonderful and the film as a whole is packed with creepy and atmospheric locales which really add to the experience. Some aspects of the Poe tale have been altered, and the acting from the unknown cast members is nothing to get excited about, but the quality of the direction and script helps make up for these shortcomings. The addition of the hag character for a number of jump scares is a good one too, although the make-up job is a little crude by modern standards.

Rough around the edges 40s Brit version of the Usher Poe story has some variable, stagy acting and a rather awkward opening (English gentlemen gathered at a retirement club decide to read a ghoulish story, and choose the Usher story for the night), but the stark, B&W photography centered around a gloomy, darkened manor in the middle of a countryside nowhere is a knockout. Add a crazed ancestor inside a temple soon to be loose with a creepy mask (she wields a mean knife, too) and a potential buried-alive scenario that leads to the one trapped in a coffin entombed to break free with revenge on the mind thanks to a possible poisoning, there are positives to take from this lesser known version of the Poe story. I think with better actors this could have been a real winner, but the presentation (absent the creaky score which is just too choppy) is aesthetically striking enough to perhaps at least offer an alternative to (but not an improvement of) Corman's famous version.A young man visits his "melancholy chum" at his ancestral castle and encounters unexpected horror. He's motivated by Roderick Usher to follow him and his butler (with knowledge of secrets regarding the family the children now alive at the estate couldn't have possibly imagined) to a temple which actually serves as the prison of a mad relative who could prove to be quite homicidal if turned loose on the world. Roderick's sister Madeleine is in love with Roderick's friend, Jonathan, trying to locate him when the butler and Roderick return without him (due to Jonathan walking into a bear trap and being left to face the crazy woman alone). Maddy is inadvertently responsible for the mad woman's release, soon returning home only to fall prey to an abrupt illness that takes her life. When Roderick begins to suspect she didn't die, the guilt torments him into his own mania. Jonathan is party to all of this, with the butler also trying to get involved in the safety of Roderick. It doesn't end well for most of them in this bleak portrait of a family falling to ruins due to sins of the past. The butler insists that burning alive the mad woman's head will relinquish the curse of the Ushers, so Roderick and Jonathan oblige him in the attempt to do so. Well, that doesn't go according to plan. The mad woman in the temple is photographed with grim touches that give her quite a look that coincides well with the morose atmosphere of the castle and rural grounds.It ends with the home struck by lightning, crumbling as Jonathan looks on. He has seen those very close to him destroyed. It is an appropriate conclusion, particularly considering the tragedy that seems destined to envelope the Ushers.

I've never read the original so can't comment on the degree of congruence, but it's an odd flick on its own, in some ways better than the Roger Corman stuff we're used to, and in some ways lacking.At least it's in black and white, which seems to suit the story better than Corman's usual garish hues. And effective use is made of the wintry English landscape with its chill wind and skeletal trees.There is a framing story in which four or five modern gentlemen sit comfortably in their gentlemen's club, drinking highballs and chatting. In an attempt at entertainment, one of them reads aloud Poe's "Fall of the House of Usher." There follows the period story in some detail.At the end we return to the reader who closes the book. "Well -- what HAPPENED? What was all that about the milk? Was she poisoned? Did she escape from her coffin?" The reader smiles and turns directly to the camera, saying puckishly, "That's for YOU to decide." Frankly, I thought Fritz Lang's similar set up in "The Woman in the Window" was far superior.Although I never thought I'd opine that Roger Corman's ripoffs were superior to any other Poe tale, I have to do it here. This is a spooky story, not clumsily directed, but abominably acted and poorly edited.I don't think there's a line in the movie that's uttered convincingly, including the many screams. It's an embarrassment. The despair and melancholy are palpable but due as much to the stagy performances as to Poe's contribution.Somebody ought to get to work and figure out a way to project hallucinations convincingly on the screen. Here's a hint on how not to do it. Don't have them act as realistically as all the fully fleshed characters.

This "nearly lost" film represents an earnest attempt at telling the ghost story, more or less, found in Edgar Allan Poe's Tales of Mystery and Imagination. It has none of the camp and insanity of the Vincent Price version.The print I watched was fairly poor, probably from television somewhere, and likely missing 7 of the original 70 minutes. Some of the scenes are really boring, but I liked the kookiness of it all, the lightning, and the overall atmosphere. I'm not making excuses for the film, as it's old & creaky, but I found it fairly interesting.The plot tracks Poe's story fairly well, however, several aspects have been added. Credited as "The Hag" (and referred to in other reviews here as such), I actually believe the character is referred to early in the film as "Roderick's mother". Regardless, you get the old hag, the head of the headless lover (looking demonic), the scary temple where the lovers met, and some good coffin/crypt scenes involving the sister.Near the end, the old hag watches as Roderick is driven up flights of stairs by his sister's (seemingly?) walking corpse, until he falls or is pushed from the parapet. The "head" then seems to cause the House of Usher to burn, with only the narrator escaping.One scene clearly suggests that the sister is slowly poisoned, with someone giving her glasses of milk. Also, as she is clearly shot by Roderick (twice) as she chases him - to no effect, suggesting she really is dead.The ending is left to the imagination, as it returns to the men's club from the beginning of the film, where the story is being read from Poe's book.