Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		4.0
Overall		4.0

House of Usher Blu-ray Movie Review

Where's Mike Holmes when you really need him?

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman October 20, 2013

Note: This film is currently available as part of The Vincent Price Collection.

Shout! Factory’s Scream Factory imprint is giving horror fans a little early Halloween present this year, bringing six classic Vincent Price – American International films to high definition for the first time. Though horror tends to be a genre that, to paraphrase one Rodney Dangerfield, “gets no respect”, and indeed probably all of these films were thought of as B- movie drive in fodder back in the day, most if not all of them hold up surprisingly well today, with several of them offering a quasi- hallucinatory quality which Roger Corman, the supposedly low rent auteur who is responsible for the majority of the offerings in this set, states was a deliberate choice (not one necessitated by relatively paltry budgets) in an attempt to viscerally recreate the inner life of the (perhaps troubled) mind. Though Price had made at least a couple of forays into horror in the fifties with such fare as House of Wax 3D and The Fly , it was really the American International pictures that established Price’s “second act” in the film business, offering him more or less steady employment when many of his contemporaries had either resigned themselves to the ostensibly less glamorous world of television or who had outright retired from show business.

1960’s Fall of the House of Usher (also known as House of Usher, though its title card here features the longer version) started the long and fruitful “collaboration” between Roger Corman and Edgar Allan Poe, which frequently featured Vincent Price in starring roles and which helped reinvigorate the actor’s career for much of the ensuing decade. Corman was beginning to investigate how to translate his then current fascination with the writings of Freud into the medium of film, and his desire to create an unreal ambience is obvious from the first moment of the film, when Philip Winthrop (Mark Damon) rides his horse through a barren wasteland that looks like the smoking ruins of some recent apocalypse (Corman mentions the footage was shot at the scene of a fire outside of Los Angeles where he hurriedly arranged for a film crew).

Philip arrives at the spooky Usher Mansion, ostensibly to retrieve his fiancée Madeline (Myrna Fahey), but instead running smack dab into Madeline’s weird brother Roderick (Vincent Price), who seems strangely intent on either keeping Madeline from leaving the family manse or at least from even an assignation with Philip. Corman weaves a slowly growing sense of dread in this film, utilizing shadow drenched framings which offer a visual metaphor for disease—whether of the mind or of the body.

The titular house is as much a character as the two Ushers and Winthrop (along with Usher servant Bristol, played by Harry Ellerbe). Corman fills the films with all sorts of spooky sound effects as Winthrop watches (or imagines) the house shifting and swaying, another obvious reference to the decrepitude found within the Ushers themselves. Richard Matheson’s screenplay may not exactly be a perfect example of an adaptation, but it fleshes out Poe’s rather basic storyline and also offers Price the chance to exhibit his typically patrician brand of menace. While the denouement turns into a rather hyperbolic Grand Guignol blood and scream-fest, the opening two thirds of the film are surprisingly “interior”, and not just with regard to the actual setting. Matheson hints at some, yes, Freudian connections between Roderick and Madeline that probably never occurred to Poe.

Price is quoted in the accompanying insert booklet as stating he often felt his younger co-stars were too “modern” in their approach to these period pieces, and that’s undoubtedly true of Mark Damon, arguably the one weak link in an otherwise fairly flawless production. Damon comes off as a kind of petulant teen at times (rather amazingly like his delinquent Twig—yes, Twig—in The Party Crashers), pouting and grimacing his way through the roiling dysfunctions of the Usher household. Otherwise, though, this is a sterling piece of gothic horror, all the more remarkable in that is was made for a relative pittance. Moody, intense but rather artfully literate, The Fall of the House of Usher is certainly one of Price’s most arresting portrayals in any of his American International films.

House of Usher Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Fall of the House of Usher is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Scream Factory, an imprint of Shout! Factory, with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.35:1. While I'm not certain if this was sourced from the same master that was used for the recent British Blu-ray reviewed by my colleague Dr. Svet Atanasov, a cursory comparison of the screenshots suggests (to my eyes, anyway) that the color on this release is slightly darker and marginally warmer appearing (look, for example, at the red candles in the screenshots of Price and Damon at the dining table). One way or the other, this is a great looking high definition presentation, with good depth and clarity. There are some very minor density issues which slightly affect the palette here and there, but they're transitory and rather inconsequential. Damage is also very minor, limited mostly to a few flecks that crop up occasionally. Finally, no over aggressive DNR or digital sharpening appears to have been applied to this release.

House of Usher Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Fall of the House of Usher features a nice sounding lossless DTS-HD Master Audio Mono track delivered via DTS- HD Master Audio 2.0. Dialogue and the film's nicely evocative sound effects are presented cleanly and with no damage. Also very impressive is the wonderful Les Baxter's moody score. Baxter never really got his due as a film composer and is in fact probably more remembered nowadays for his trend setting "Exotica" recordings (which I highly recommend), but The Fall of the House of Usher proves what an elegantly effective composer for films he really was. Baxter's original Overture for the film is included on this release.

House of Usher Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentary by Producer and Director Roger Corman. This is a fantastic commentary (originally heard on the MGM DVD of this title), with Corman going into quite a bit of detail about the shoot, which he obviously remembers in almost picayune detail. He mentions his "Freudian" approach as well as more technical issues like cinematographer Floyd Crosby's approach to CinemaScope or Corman himself beefing up the climax with shots of a barn burning which he had paid to have done.


• Vincent Price's Introduction and Final Words for The Fall of the House of Usher (1080i; 4:10) and (1080i; 2:47) are culled from Vincent Price's Gothic Horrors, an Iowa public television broadcast of the film.


• Audio Interview with Vincent Price Conducted by Film Historian David Del Valle (41:05) was recorded in 1988 and is a fascinating piece for Price fans.


• Vincent Price Retrospective Commentary with Author Lucy Chase Williams, featuring Piotr Michael. Williams wrote a book about Price and focuses on a few key moments in the actor's long and multifaceted life, offering up both personal and career factoids. The inclusion of Michael, a supposed Price impersonator, is too gimmicky to really work very well.


• Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 3:32)


• Photo Gallery (1080p; 4:22)

House of Usher Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

As is discussed both in the insert booklet essay and on some of the supplements included on this Blu-ray, American- International took a huge leap of faith with The Fall of the House of Usher, spending what for it was a rather large amount of money (even if by traditional Hollywood standards, it was still a pittance) and (sorry) ushering in a fantastic era of Poe adaptations, many starring Vincent Price. The film holds up surprisingly well, casting an almost hallucinogenically dreamlike spell. Both video and audio are excellent, and the supplementary features are also outstanding. Highly recommended.