31 Days of Horror Movies - House of Usher (1960)

England had Hammer Films, Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing. We had Roger Corman and Vincent Price.  It was a great time to be a fan of Gothic horror movies.  Vincent Price and Roger Corman made eight films together that were based on the works of Edgar Allan Poe.  The first of these movies was House of Usher (1960).  It was based loosely [very loosely] on the tale The Fall of the House of Usher.  The characters are the same, but other than that… Philip Winthrop [Mark Damon] is a man on a mission.  He’s traveling to meet his fiancée, Madeline Usher [Myrna Fahey].  She lives in this creepy mansion that’s in the middle of a swamp.  The place looks like death and pestilence and plagues.  This creaky pile of a house is very spooky, and it has the feel of being a sentient being in its own right.  The house is decaying, which is a mirror for the Usher family itself.  The house creaks and cracks.  It shakes so badly that a chandelier falls and almost kills Winthrop.  It's falling apart - the outside has a giant fissure running through it.  A bannister gave way at the slightest touch.  A casket in the crypt nearly fell on him.  Burning coals jumped out of a fire at him.  It's crumbling away under the weight of the Usher family's sins of the past, like it's some kind of sin eater.  And because the house has eaten the Usher sins, it too has become wicked. 

Her brother Roderick [Vincent Price in a horrible blonde wig] is as creepy as the mansion within which he lives.  He’s hypersensitive to light and sound.  He and Madeline can eat only bland food.  The sound of footsteps is painful to the Ushers.  He’s also barely sane [a common Poe theme].  When Winthrop tells Roderick of his intentions to marry Madeline, Roderick vehemently opposes it.  He tells Winthrop the Usher family has a curse, one that drives all Ushers insane.  Roderick doesn’t want any future Usher children to inflict any harm on the world - the Usher bloodline must end with Roderick and Madeline.  Roderick shows Winthrop a gallery of paintings.  They were all of Ushers past.  They were a family of killers, slave traders, drug addicts, swindlers, forgers, blackmailers, smugglers and thieves.  Roderick said "foul thoughts and foul deeds were committed" in the house.  Roderick thinks the world will be a better place without any more Usher evil spawn.  The house is crumbling away under the weight of the Usher family's sins of the past, like it's some kind of sin eater.  And because the house has eaten the Usher sins, it too has become wicked. 

Philip doesn’t want to hear it and makes plans to leave with Madeline the next day.  But during the night, Madeline has an argument with Roderick, after which she dies [or so we think].  Roderick entombs her in the family crypt.  As both Roderick and Philip pray over Madeline's open casket, Roderick sees a couple of Madeline's fingers move.  She's not dead, but Philip didn't see it.  Knowing that Madeline is still alive, Roderick closes Madeline's casket anyway.  Before Philip leaves the mansion, the butler told him Madeline suffers from a disease.  Madeline has catalepsy, which only makes her look like she’s dead.  Philip went to her tomb, opened it, and found she wasn’t there.  The Usher madness had set in, and with it Madeline gained superhuman strength and clawed her way out of her casket.  What Philip doesn’t know is Madeline is seeking to avenge herself on her brother – she’s pretty pissed off, and rightly so.  Wouldn’t you be pissed if your brother tried to bury you while you’re still alive?  Premature burial was another recurring Poe theme – see The Premature Burial, The Pit and the Pendulum, and The Cask of Amontillado. 

Philip went into the crypt to look for Madeline but he could not find her.  Exhausted, he went upstairs to rest has a dream.  He encountered all the Ushers from the paintings, and he saw a skeleton in Madeline's casket, while Roderick carries her off somewhere.  He found himself trying to open Madeline's casket.  When she opened her eyes and screamed, he awakened.  There's a storm outside.  Winthrop again searches the house for Madeline.  When he finally found her, she nearly choked the life out of him. Once Madeline appeared before Roderick in the flesh, he’s driven over the edge into full-blown insanity.  Then Madeline and Roderick engaged in a battle to the death, which they both lose.  As the Ushers fought each other, the house cracked up as they crack up.  The house went up in flames and sank into the swamp, taking Roderick and Madeline with it.  So both houses of Usher [the family and the building] were erased from the planet.  At least Philip Winthrop got away.  Roderick Usher saved him after all.

Trivia.

1.  The cinematographer on this movie was Floyd Crosby.  He won an Academy Award for his work on High Noon.  He’s also singer David Crosby’s dad.

2.  Roger Corman shot this movie in only 15 days with a budget of only $200,000.