Roger Corman’s House of Usher

• In advance of Mike Flannagan's reimagining of The Fall of the House of User on Oct. 12, 2023, this episode examines the first film in Roger Corman's Poe Cycle -  House of Usher starring Vincent Price - often considered the best Poe film ever made.

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Transcript

Welcome to Celebrate Poe - Episode 192 - Roger Corman’s House of Usher.   This is George Bartley, and I am so happy that you decided to join this look into America’s Shakespeare - Edgar Allan Poe.   In preparation for Mike Flannagan’s multi-episode version of The Fall of House of Usher this week, I’d first like to look at the classic 1960 Roger Corman version of The Fall of the House of Usher from 1960.  This was the first of Roger Corman’s cycle of 8 Poe stories - and many people consider this movie to be the best of the series.

This story might not be 100 per cent faithful to its source material - few movies are - it does a great job of capturing the spirit of Poe and is a lot of fun to watch.  I thought it might be interesting to first look at  version of the House of Usher that is certainly more faithful to Poe’s orginial work to get an idea of the concepts and characters that the the original story deals with before taking a deep dive into the Mike Flannagan version that uses The Fall of the House of Usher to delve into a complex story that takes up several episodes.   I believe Flannagan’s version takes up eight episodes, while the Roger Corman version is 80 minutes - so it is a pretty tight little film.  So before the Flannagan version premieres on Netflix I’d like to go a bit more into Poe’s orginal story, as well as the excellent 1960 version with Vincent Price.

From what we've learned so far, The Flanagan version seems to be an adaptation of the short story in name only, as the series seems to be going for more of a Medical Dynasty meets gothic melodrama tone. The Ushers are now a group of rich, powerful, dysfunctional and morally bankrupt participants in a medical pharmacetical company. In the first trailer alone, there are allusions to classic stories such as The Masque of the Red Death, The Black Cat, and of course, The Raven you can't have Poe without a raven or two thrown into the mix. I wouldn’t advise a student to watch Flanagan’s version specifically to learn about Poe - but if the trailer is any indication, the Netflix version should be very entertaining.

At its core, the Netflix version seems to be a story about how grief, and the fear of losing a loved one, can cause insurmountable destruction to the human spirit - a subject Poe was tragically familiar with all his life.

Despite not being as incredibly well-known as say, The Raven or The Tell-Tale Heart, The Fall of the House of Usher is not without its numerous adaptations and references. Claude Debussy was working on an opera based on the tale before his death in 1918, before Philip Glass actually went ahead and    did it, and fans of theater composer Dave Malloy heard references to it in his song cycle Ghost Quartet. It's also made appearances on film multiple times, including two silent versions in 1928, New-Queer Cinema forerunner Curtis Harrington making two short film adaptations wherein he played both Roderick and Madeleine himself, and it was modernized quite recently in 2020 with the incredibly underrated The Bloodhound. However, one version stands head-and-shoulders above the rest, and it can be found in Roger Corman's Poe Cycle.

Roger Corman is one of the most prolific minds in cinema, directing, producing, and even acting in quite literally hundreds of films. From 1960 to 1964, Corman created The Poe Cycle, using the writer's place in the public domain to his full advantage by making eight adaptations of his poems and short stories - so he did not have to pay any royalties or worry about copyright - and it all began with House of Usher. Released in 1960, House of Usher is a fairly accurate version of the story, starring Mark Damon  as our protagonist, here named Philip, Myrna Fahey as Madeline, and the Prince of Horror himself Vincent Price as Roderick. Price actually stars in all but one of these films, but House of Usher was his best, according to the  The United States National Film Registry as of 2005.

The reasons why this is a fantastic adaptation of the story are the same reasons the Poe Cycle is great in general, but the first film absolutely perfected both: The tone, and Price's performance. While it does fall into some Hollywood traps, like shoving in a romance that didn't exist in the book, this is a classic of gothic horror cinema. The production design was incredibly ambitious and was the first American International Pictures film to be produced in color, and they took full advantage. Despite the dreary nature of the story, House of Usher is dripping in rich and expressive technicolor, which makes the film seem painted onto the screen in a way that's both classic and chaotic - and the high melodrama of it all, as well as the opulence and style all fit the emotional turmoil of Poe's stories perfectly.

The greatness of not only House of Usher but the entire Poe Cycle comes down to Price himself. He played some of Poe's most famous characters and narrators, but Roderick Usher was his absolute best performance. Not to say the rest of the cast wasn't great too, Fahey goes absolutely insane as Madeline, and it was an unusual sight to see an ingénue push the envelope like that and truly look terrifying, but Price took it to another level.

Firstly, Price bleached his hair for the role, that's commitment. Secondly, despite Roderick getting a bit of an antagonist makeover, Price performed the role with a lot of sympathy for his character. You feel terrible for him when watching this film, haunted by his tainted ancestry, just wanting the nightmare to end for not only him but his sister whom he's incredibly protective over. A part of the book that was expanded in Price's performance is that Roderick has pretty severe sensory issues, being incredibly sensitive to harsh sounds and touches. He looks so fragile and afraid when he recoils from it, that when you see him being shaken or yelled at by someone you just want to make it stop, especially those who also have sensory issues. Despite the film being set up with characters seen as abnormal being disallowed from any kind of relief or redemption, you can the story seems to convincingly come across for what it is: A tragedy.

Aat the end of the day, this story, as all of Edgar Allan Poe's stories, is a tragedy. Not just a tragedy the characters are experiencing, though you do feel empathy for the circumstances that have been forced on them, but the tragedy of Poe himself. The reason he could so easily tap into the feelings of fear and grief that the Usher family experiences is because he had felt the pain of grief and fear of death multiple times, losing parents, siblings, and partners to debilitating illness. In understanding that this is a horror that comes from sadness and grief, you can come to understand these stories and adapt them well. House of Usher, especially through Price's performance, doesn't feel like you're just gawking at weirdos, but two sensitive and enigmatic people being crushed under the weight of their family's dark legacy.

From what I understand, unlike such filmakers as Mike Flannagan, the Netflix version of The Fall of the House  of Usher focuses less on Poe’s gothic atmosphere rather than the psychological themes.  So you have the intrusion of the past into the present, the connection between madness and the occult, and how unchecked fear can lead to violence and death.  And from the trailer and its great pacing, you get the idea that Flannagan’s version resembles a well-made  American Horror Story. Flannagan’s miniseries also involves such characters as a C. Auguste Dupin, the detective who appears in another Poe story, The Murder of the Rue Morgue.  It looks like the miniseries will also draw on other Poe stories and poems like The Cask of Amontillado and The Raven.  At this point, I can only surmise to what extent, but I am very curious to view Flannagan’s take on The Fall of the House of Usher.

But getting back to the great director Roger Corman - his Poe Cycle all started with The Fall of the House of Usher in 1960.  The film stars Vincent Price as Roderick Usher, Myrna Fahey (who once dated Joe DiMaggio and received a death threat because a deranged fan couldn't stand to see DiMaggio with anyone other than Marilyn Monroe) as his sister Madeline Usher, Mark Damon - not Matt Damon - as her fiancé Philip Winthrop, and Harry Ellerbe as Bristol, the butler. Scripted by famed horror/fantasy/sci-fi writer Richard Matheson, who also worked on the later Corman/Poe/AIP films like Pit and the Pendulum (1961), Tales of Terror (1962), and The Raven (1963), The Fall of the House of Usher marked a new approach to filmaking for roger Corman and the studio.  Previously, the studio was content in putting out two black and white films at the same time for minimal cost, Corman somehow convinced the studio heads to take the money to make two of those films and instead let him use it to make one film in color, and the result, this film, turned out to be a huge box office draw in 1960.

Roger Corman’s version starts off with the unamed narrator in Poe’s story riding up to a massive, dark, and as we find out later, crumbly house of Usher - except the narrator - as played by the great Vincent Price - is now known in this movie version as Phillip. The grounds around the house show no signs of life, but only death and decay.  It seems that Phillip has come to see about his fiancée Madeline who has returned to her home. Here we meet Roderick Usher, a handsome, yet odd sort of fellow, who we learn has a painfully acute sensitivity of all the senses, preferring the dimmest of light, the blandest of food, the softest of clothing, the mildest of odors, and the quietest of sounds. We also learn, from Roderick, that Madeline is sick, and no one is allowed to see her. Philip, not understanding what's going on, refuses to leave until he can see Madeline, and Roderick finally gives in. She seems all right, but later we learn what the sickness is...one, not so much of body, but of a madness supposedly passed down through the Usher lineage. You see, the house and the grounds were once fertile, and full of life, but evil overtook the Usher line, displayed in the many crimes perpetrated by the various ancestors, such as poisoning the family and the estate, or so says Roderick. The presence of malignance is so oppressive, it's causing the centuries old house to crumble under its' own weight. Anyway, Philip pushes to take Madeline away from the house, but Roderick is intent on keeping her there until such time as she and he die, effectively ending the Usher family line. His fear is that she should leave and procreate, extending the evil that has survived so long. The question of evil and its' ability to be passed down is brought up, along with the idea of evil being not so much limited to an abstract idea but a real, almost tangible quality that infects and destroys people and objects. Where does evil live? In the mind? The soul? Can it be transferred? Can a place, with a history of evil acts performed within, actually become so seeped in evil that it becomes evil itself?
Well, soon Madeline suffers a heart attack and does appear to die, due to all the excitement that Philip has brought, so says Roderick. Madeline is put into the family crypt in the basement, but is she really dead? Maybe not… it seems there's a history of narcolepsy in the Usher family, a disorder characterized by sudden and uncontrollable, though often brief, attacks of deep sleep, sometimes accompanied by paralysis and hallucinations and would sometimes make the sufferer to appear dead, in the Usher family.
But things are not as they seem and soon Madeline's screams can be heard throughout the house. Then things REALLY hum.

Vincent Price and his costars all do a wonderful job, and I especially liked Fahey near the end. Price seems to envelope the role of Roderick Usher, fitting into character perfectly. The music, by the accomplished composer Les Baxter, really complements the visuals in creepy fashion, filling out the overall effect provided by really excellent sets.
The wide screen print here looks really good, but there are occasions where speckling and print damage were noticeable. It's very slight, and did little to lessen my enjoyment of the film. Special features include a theatrical trailer for the film, and a separate commentary track by Corman himself.

"House of Usher" is low budget but Corman does wonders with minimilism. The use of red, normally a vibrant color, is used here to depict morbidity and death. Red candles, red furniture upholstery, Madeline's blood red dinner gown, Roderick's jackets and Madeline's own blood---all vividly captured amid the dark gloom of the house. Price gives another of his patented eccentric performances but who else could deliver lines based on Poe so well?

Now "The Fall of the House of Usher" is considered the best example of Poe's "totality", wherein every element and detail is related and relevant.[16]
The presence of a capacious, disintegrating house symbolizing the destruction of the human body continues to be a characteristic element in Poe's later work.[15]
"The Fall of the House of Usher" shows Poe's ability to create an emotional tone in his work, specifically emphasizing feelings of fear, impending doom, and guilt.[17] These emotions center on Roderick Usher, who, like many Poe characters, suffers from an unnamed disease. Like the narrator in "The Tell-Tale Heart", this disease inflames Roderick's hyperactive senses. The illness manifests physically but is based in Roderick's mental or even moral state. He is sick, it is suggested, because he expects to be sick based on his family's history of illness and is, therefore, essentially a hypochondriac.[18] Similarly, he buries his sister alive because he expects to bury her alive, creating his own self-fulfilling prophecy.[citation needed]
The House of Usher, itself doubly referring both to the actual structure and the family, plays a significant role in the story. It is the first "character" that the narrator introduces to the reader, presented with a humanized description: Its windows are described as "eye-like" twice in the first paragraph. The fissure that develops in its side is symbolic of the decay of the Usher family and the house "dies" along with the two Usher siblings. This connection was emphasized in the story in a six stanza poem that Roderick's relates called "The Haunted Palace/“   I think this comes across as a direct reference to the house that foreshadows its doom

THE HAUNTED PALACE.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
IN the greenest of our valleys
By good angels tenanted,
Once a fair and stately palace —
Radiant palace — reared its head.
In the monarch Thought's dominion —
It stood there!
Never seraph spread a pinion
Over fabric half so fair!
 
Banners yellow, glorious, golden,
On its roof did float and flow,
(This — all this — was in the olden
Time long ago,)
And every gentle air that dallied,
In that sweet day,
Along the ramparts plumed and pallid,
A wingéd odour went away.
 
Wanderers in that happy valley,
Through two luminous windows, saw
Spirits moving musically,
To a lute's well-tunéd law,
Round about a throne where, sitting
(Porphyrogene!)
In state his glory well befitting,
The ruler of the realm was seen.
 
And all with pearl and ruby glowing
Was the fair palace door,
Through which came flowing, flowing, flowing,
And sparkling evermore,
A troop of Echoes, whose sweet duty
Was but to sing,
In voices of surpassing beauty,
The wit and wisdom of their king.
 
But evil things, in robes of sorrow,
Assailed the monarch's high estate.
(Ah, let us mourn! — for never sorrow [[morrow]]
Shall dawn upon him desolate!)
And round about his home the glory
That blushed and bloomed,
Is but a dim-remembered story
Of the old time entombed.
 
And travellers, now, within that valley,
Through the red-litten windows see
Vast forms, that move fantastically
To a discordant melody,
While, like a ghastly rapid river,
Through the pale door
A hideous throng rush out forever
And laugh — but smile no more.

I think that last stanza is especially creepy.

And travellers, now, within that valley,
Through the red-litten windows see
Vast forms, that move fantastically
To a discordant melody,
While, like a ghastly rapid river,
Through the pale door
A hideous throng rush out forever
And laugh — but smile no more.

The plot of this tale has prompted many critics to analyze it as a description of the human psyche, comparing, for instance, the House to the unconscious, and its central crack to a split personality.[citation needed] An incestuous relationship between Roderick and Madeline never is explicitly stated, but seems implied by the attachment between the two siblings.[21]
Opium, which Poe mentions several times in both his prose and poems, is mentioned twice in the tale.[1] The gloomy sensation occasioned by the dreary landscape around the Usher mansion is compared by the narrator to the sickness caused by the withdrawal symptoms of an opiate-addict. The narrator also describes Roderick Usher's appearance as that of an "irreclaimable eater of opium."[22]
While there are no direct statements supporting their conclusions, scholars have demonstrated the language deployed by Roderick to describe his sister as full of hints of the possible incestuous relationship between the twins. They argue that this perversion is the actual cause of the fall of the house as well as an end to the lineage of Ushers.

So in conclusion, in The Fall of the House of Usher, Mike Flannagan has some great source material to work with - and combined with other elements of Poe’s work, a great deal of acting talent and his directing vision has a great deal to work with in the Netflix version of The Fall of the House of Usher.

The next episode of Celebrate Poe will drop a day or two after Mike Flannagan’s version is first shown on Netflix.  I know that I had high expectations for the previous Poe related entry on Netflix -The Pale Blue Eye - and you may remember that I was very disappointed in the fact that it left out some of the most important and effective parts of the book - and was rather boring - except for Harry Melling’s excellent protrayal of the young Poe.  This time I would like to think my expectations are a bit more realistic - Mike Flannagan has done some great work before.  So join me as I delve into Mike Flannagan’s take on The Fall of the House of Usher.

Thank you for listening to Celebrate Poe.