I Watch Films: House Of Usher

House Of Usher

We’re back in the House of Usher! This is 10 years on from the previous film we watched. No framing story, a simple four hander (Vincent Price as Roderick Usher, Myrna Fahey as his sister Madeline, Mark Damon as Philip Winthrop, her betrothed, and Harry Ellerbe as Bristol the Usher family retainer) in a spooky set consisting of the titular house and the misty outsides.

Winthrop travels to the House Of Usher to visit Madeline who he became engaged to in Boston. The house is old, spectacularly Gothic and has a big crack in the wall that really ought to be seen to. He is refused entry but insists on going in. There he meets Roderick who tells him about the family curse/disease; every sound, touch, taste etc is agonisingly overwhelming; this regularly drives Ushers mad and may even have made the region desolate (?). Because of this he opposes the marriage, hoping that with the death of the last of the Ushers the curse will end.

There’s a lot of debate about this and eventually Madeline agrees to leave, but when they confront Roderick she falls down, apparently dead. This then leads into the final act, with everyone going variously crazy, the foreshadowed candles and crack coming into play and the fall of the house.

Watch This: Vincent Price magnificently overwrought in an off-kilter interpretation of the classic gothic story
Don’t Watch This: If we must have Poe on film, perhaps we should actually use his story?