15 Favorite Horror Films - #13

Poe-Corman Series (1960-1965)

House of Usher, Pit and the Pendulum, Premature Burial, Tales of Terror, The Raven, The Haunted Palace, The Masque of the Red Death, Tomb of Ligeia

     Yes, I know.  I cheat.  This is actually 8 films.  However, they have the same mood, same director, all but one star Vincent Price, all were done for American-International Pictures, all were done in the early to mid 60s, all were filmed in under a few weeks, and all cost a pittance to make.  Note that I didn't say they were all based on Poe stories.  Even though they were considered Poe films, a few of them took only the name of the story and maybe a character or two.  The Raven was turned into a comedy about competing magicians.  The Haunted Palace, while using the name of a Poe poem, is actually an adaptation of an H.P. Lovecraft story, The Case of Charles Dexter Ward.   The Masque of the Red Death was a combination of two different Poe stories to great effect.

     Roger Corman started to direct films in 1955, when he was 29 years old, with a film called Swamp Women.  He continued to direct cheap westerns, horror, exploitation and science fiction films.  He directed up to 9 films in a year during the late fifties, and was known to finish filming some movies in under a week.  For example, in 1960 he did the original Little Shop of Horrors in three days.  In  1963, in order to fully use the set he had rented for The Raven, which had been completed before schedule, he used the same actors to do a hastily written horror film called The Terror in just two days time.  He was known for this sort of thing, and most would think his work was horrible.  Some were a bit under par, yes.  However, most of his films have gone down as cult classics or simple real classics.  After and during his big successes in the 1960s with the Poe pictures, he continued to nurture his group of production assistants and the like, called his 'school' who have now become big names.  Such people as Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, Jonathan Demme, Joe Dante, Ron Howard, Peter Bogdanovich, Nicholas Roeg, Paul Bartel, James Cameron, Curtis Hanson, John Sayles...  They all owe their starts to Roger Corman.  Jack Nicholson was found by Corman and starred in quite a few of his films.  Come time for the 1970s, Corman founded New World Pictures, which produced rip-offs of more popular movies on the cheap.  Without it, James Cameron may not have got his start, as he did production design for a number of these.  (And the movies aren't bad as far as exploitative rip-offs go.)

      But let's get back to Poe adaptations, shall we?  Corman asked AIP (American International Pictures), a cheapy B movie studio, to do an adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe's Fall of the House of Usher.  It was a gamble for the small budget studio as it was to be more expensive than most of their films, but trusting Corman they gave him permission.  The film was done in two weeks on existing sets and became a surprise box office success in the summer of 1960.  It also catipulted Vincent Price, before known as a good character actor into prominance as a king of horror films.  House of Usher is known for its lush color, it's fantastic sets, it's overwhelming sense of dread and sadness, and it's acid-like dream sequences.  It truly is a beautiful film, and does stick pretty close to the original story.  There are a few changes, such as Philip Winthrop being betrothed to Madeline Usher, while in the story the narrator is a friend of Rodrick Usher's, not betrothed or in any sort of romance with Madeline.  However, I think this change makes the movie better.  There are a few good scares in the film, but mostly the movie is a mood piece.  The pure melancholy is contagious here, Vincent Price not cracking a smile in the whole picture.  His performance is unusually understated.  The film is also now in the National Film Registry, meaning it will be forever preserved as important.

     That film was followed by The Pit and the Pendulum, which I think is a better film than the former.  However, it's very different as well.  This one is less beholden to the original two-page short story.  You can't faithfully make a two page short story into a 90 minute film.  So what the writer, Richard Matheson, did was used the short story for the last few minutes of the film, and attempted to make the rest of the film have a Poe feel.  With this, he very much succeeded.  The film is also more violent,  scarier, and in some ways darker that the first film.  This one involves many methods of torture, as Vincent Price's character is haunted by his dead father and his, uh, hobby of torture.  It doesn't help that his father's torture chamber is in the basements of the castle, everything still in working condition.  As a child, Price's character stumbled upon his father's secret, hiding as both his brother and mother were tortured and murdered by his father.  Over the course of the film, he's driven insane.  It's a great great film, and one of my favorites of the series.  It was filmed for $300,000 and made over $2 million in the box office.  It also was again critically praised, though not to the extent of the first film due to it's departure from the original story.

    The next film in the series I've only seen once and don't remember that well.  The Premature Burial does not star Vincent Price, the only film in the series that does not.  Price was supposed to be used, but as Corman intended to make this away from AIP and Price was under contract there, he didn't.  However, once filming started, AIP started threatening Corman with all sorts of things, and he decided that AIP could release it, so the absence of Price is lamentable.  The story is about a man that fears being buried alive, which is a common theme in Poe stories.  I don't know much of the rest of the plot of the film, and it remains the least known of the series.

   Following that, Tales of Terror was made.  A collection of three adaptations of Poe short stories, however one of the stories also includes much of another short stories (The Cask of Amontillado) in it as well.  For the first time, humor was included in one of the stories, The Black Cat.  That one stars Peter Lorre, and I consider the lesser story in the movie.  The other two, one starring Vincent Price (he's in all three of the stories), the other starring Basil Rathbone are straight up horror stories, and are much better, though this is again one of the lesser films in the series, in my opinion.  The last story is the best.

     The Raven is again one of the better films in the series, but for other reasons that the others.  This one is a straight up comedy.  It stars Vincent Price, Peter Lorre, Boris Karloff, and Jack Nicholson and it's pure fun.  It's not horror at all.  The poem is used as a transition device at the beginning of the film, but the story is really about a magician (Peter Lorre) having been turned into a Raven by another one (Boris Karloff) and having come to yet another magician (Vincent Price) for help turning him back.  The climax of the film is a battle of magic spells that are pretty humorous as well.  You can tell everyone was having a great time making this one.  

     The Haunted Palace is a Poe film in name only.  It takes it's name from a Poe poem which was added on by AIP, who wanted another Poe film, whereas Corman wanted to adapt an H.P. Lovecraft story.  Which is what he did.  It's a pretty good film, about in the middle of the set of films.  It also has Lon Chaney Jr. in it as a mysterious servant.  (With a green face no less.)  Price is amazing in this one playing two characters, one nice and one very much evil.  His transformation towards the middle of the film is fantastic.  The way they make him look like his ancestor, who has possessed him, is remarkable.  The castle itself is a character in this film, with its dark hidden passageways and the creepy portrait of the warlock Joseph Curwen.  The plot to this one tends to confuse me, so you'll excuse me if I don't explain it.  It's better to just watch it for yourself.

     My favorite of the series comes next.  It's the penultimate film in the series, and has the best production values.  The Masque of the Red Death is Corman's best work.  I can say that without a doubt.  It helps that the film was photographed by the great director Nicholas Roeg who would go on to make The Man Who Fell To Earth, Walkabout and Don't Look Now.  The film is an amalgamation of two Poe stories, the title story and one called Hop-Frog.  The film shows Price as an evil Satanist, Prince Prospero.  The surrounding countryside around his castle has started to be effected by the Red Death, which is a fatal highly contagious disease.  He brings the upper-class to his castle to avoid the disease along with a woman he fancies from the village who has not been effected.  He burns her village down and sentences her lover and father to death at each other's hands.  The film from there on gets rather complicated with the Red Death showing up in person, Prospero's other lover commiting herself to Satan against Prospero's wishes because of jealousy towards his new lover, there's midget servants killing guests... mass hysteria.  It's all very Freudian and weird, and I think that's why I love it so.  Price is over the top and mustache twirling here, and it's a very Shakespearian film, with a lot of nods to Bergman's The Seventh Seal.  The ending is one for the books.

    The last film, The Tomb of Ligeia, I have actually never seen.  I just ordered the DVD of it today, so that will be remedied soon.  I hear it's good, but I can't talk about it, as I've never seen it.

    The films, along with the Hammer horror ones that came out at the same time frame, kept horror going in the 1960s.  Bringing about a new renaissance of the genre.  It brought in color and gore to the genre, something you didn't get on the new overwhelmingly popular television, which film was at war with at the time, and losing.  The films were lush, theatrical, mostly shot in wide-angled widescreen.  It was a very new brand of horror, nothing like the Universal Horror films that were the big thing before these.  And most of all they gave good box office returns.  Even better, they were cheap to make and could be made in a matter of two weeks!  Money speaks loudly.  The series was a huge influence on Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow, which is one of his better works.  

    A lesser series of Poe films followed done by AIP without Roger Corman or Vincent Price.  And they basically just used Poe titles on unrelated films.  Still, some of them are pretty good.  Note I said 'some' not all.  Stay away from Murders In the Rue Morgue fro

    Four of the films discussed here (Pit and the Pendulum, House of Usher, Haunted Palace, and Masque of the Red Death) are in the newly released Vincent Price collection, along with two other great Price films, The Abominable Dr. Phibes and Witchfinder General.  I highly suggest the set, as it comes with many special features including at least one commentary track for every film and two long interviews with Price, who has been dead for twenty years this year.  It's a great tribute to a great actor.