Jeanskynebu the audience applauded

Afouotos Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Fatma Suarez The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Dana An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Scott LeBrun 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.

GL84 Arriving at his fiancee's mansion, a man looking to retrieve her to be married together finds that her controlling brother is trying to remove him before a terrible family curse takes hold of them and tries to ensure her safety before it can come to pass.This is one of the best in the Corman/Price/Poe series. Being the official start of the series, the Gothic atmosphere surrounding the film is completely overwhelming and at times can suffocate with it's dread. There's numerous encounters here filled with old, creaky caskets, a long, winding staircase into the darkness and cob-webbed decor surrounding the rooms while featuring candle-lit lighting and large, opulent splendor that's bright and spacey that solidifies its true Gothic mindset. That goes hand-in-hand with the fact that the castle grounds are in the traditional Victorian style on a fog- covered grounds, dark dead trees, musky swamplands and it makes the sequences showing it pretty spooky. Likewise, the curse befalling the family is quite chilling with the line of history and how it's doomed to repeat itself makes for a great revelation that jumps off quite fittingly from the house's location and surroundings into the big plot-point about her being accidentally buried alive in order to fulfill the family curse. That as well leads into the film's great action scenes, where their first trip in the basement is a great set-piece that has a great shock effectively using a skeleton in the casket while a dream sequence also comes off rather well as it's pretty creepy for the time and actually came as a surprise. Still, it's the final half hour which scores so well here as that is one continuous Gothic set-piece with the banging doors, the blaring thunderstorm in the background and the thrilling resurrection that is cleverly done showing a close-up following of a blood-trail along the floor out of the crypt back into the house and leading into the big final fight that make this a spectacular series of events. The conflagration at the end is an only more than appropriate ending, as it's action-packed and suspenseful in its own way, serves itself well with the great brawl for the Gothic-styled revenge which is a great ending to the series of events and ends it on a high note. Perhaps the best part, though, is Price's creepy performance as Roderick Usher. He gives one of his best performances, being creepy, mysterious and fun to watch as well and is certainly a career highlight in that respect. These here make this quite a spectacular effort that does have more than enough to overcome the one minor flaw in here. There is really only one thing that holds this back as every new and then, Price's constant speeches about not understanding the Usher curse got old. It wouldn't take up that much to officially explain what happened, and it would take away from the speeches and get to the story, so that kind of sticks out here. Though some may have a problem about how close it is to Poe's story, that's of a viewer-discrepancy issue rather than anything to do with the actual film itself and really isn't a detriment like the other factor is.Today's Rating/PG: Mild Violence.

TheRedDeath30 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.

dougdoepke I don't know about Poe, but the movie's something of a disappointment. Producer-director Corman had a bigger budget than usual to work with, and it's evident he sank most of it into the sumptuous mansion sets. On one level, they're quite impressive as is Price as the afflicted Roderick Usher. Price's aristocratic bearing is perfect for the overbearing part. However, two things work against the horror effects. First are the sets that are so sumptuous, they distract visually from the downward spiral of the characters. This is a psychological melodrama. Thus, the visuals should complement and not compete with the story. Second is the high-key lighting that brings out the vivid colors, again a visual distraction. They're eye-catching, but they also split the background from the rather one- note story. There's a reason that the horror classics go back to the era of low-key b&w. With that cinematography, shades and shadows could be easily merged into feelings of anguish and dread. Here, the musical score and overdone sound effects are piled on as nudging compensation. But unfortunately they're more annoying, than complementary.On the plus side, are Price and Fahey as the ill-fated brother and sister. At the same time, however, Damon appears to lack the gravitas to go up against the formidable Roderick and the accursed house. Still, I thought the spirit apparitions sequence was truly creepy and made me think Herk Harvey of that minor masterpiece Carnival of Souls (1962) may have used it as inspiration. On the whole, however, the movie strikes me as overrated, more of a visual experience than a shuddery one. I expected better.