1960
Director- Roger Corman
Cast- Vincent Price, Mark Damon, Myrna Fahey, Harry
Ellerbe
Phillip
(Mark Damon) has traveled to the mansion of the Usher family to see his fiancé Madeline
(Myrna Fahey) and meet her family. He is greeted by the family butler (Harry
Ellerbe) and Madeline’s brother Roderick (played by a very emo Vincent Price with
blonde hair and without his trademark mustache). Roderick refuses to let Phillip
leave with Madeline but he is very vague as to why. For her part, Madeline is ambivalent
and depressed, resigned to some mysterious fate.
After some
persistent nagging, Phillip discovers that the Usher family lives under a
curse, or at least Roderick believes so. The Ushers have always been evil;
murderers, traitors, scammers, etc. Roderick believes that their house is evil
and that their blood is tainted, and that the only way to end the curse is to
let their bloodline die off.
The
Usher house seems to be tied to the fate of the family, and with only two
members of the family left, the house seems to be ready to cave in at any time.
Phillip tries futilely to convince Madeline to leave with him and Roderick is
willing to do whatever takes to end his family curse, including murdering his
sister!
The film
explores several different themes. One is the idea of a place being evil. This
idea was explored years later with the Marston House in Stephen King’s Salem
Lot. Another theme is the idea of generational evil, evil that is not a product
of choices but of blood, passed down over the years. And of course, the film
never explicitly spells it out for us, so it is up to the viewer to decide if
the curse is real or Roderick’s delusions.
This was the
first of several Vincent Price /Roger Corman collaborations based (loosely) on
the works of Edgar Allen Poe. The screenplay was by Richard Matheson, the best
horror screenplay writer ever. A lot of elements of this film show up in the
next collaboration, Pit and the Pendulum. The Corman/ Price films began the 2nd
phase of Price’s career and signaled the start of a prolific decade for him.
Today, Corman’s name may be synonymous with low budget, on par with Troma, but
his Price-Poe pictures were very important films that had an impact on horror
for decades afterward, and this film was the start of that.
Mark
Damon, who played Phillip, though an unknown name to most, has had an extremely
long, prolific, and important career. He starred in several other horror films
including The Devil’s Wedding Night. He was a producer on many important,
successful films including Das Boot, The Never Ending Story, Monster with
Charlize Theron and The Lost Boys!!!
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