Fall of the House of Usher - 1960
Vincent Price -- Roderick Usher
Myrna Fahey -- Madeline Usher
Mark Damon -- Phillip Winthrop
Harry Ellerbe -- Bristol the butler

When you reach a certain station in life, it is easy to become nostalgic. Recently, I have come across an updated version of Mattel's handheld football game. It took me back to many an afternoon spent on the couch beating those buttons to move that little blip across the "field". In a similar vein, I have rediscovered the Friday night/Saturday afternoon horror movies of my youth, especially those of Vincent Price.

One of the many endearing qualities to Price's volume of work is the many emotions that he can exhibit. Especially in the horror genre, it is essential that you be an emotional actor. This is so primarily because you are being asked to express the darker colors of the human emotional spectrum: anger, angst, pathos, and delirium among others. These are not the type of emotions that can be played tongue-in-cheek or with a nodding wink to the camera; they must be as real to you as if they were your own. In addition, should you be asked to play someone who is losing their sanity, this adds another layer of complexity to the role. As Roderick Usher, Price pulls it off with a master's touch.

Our story opens with Winthrop riding through an area that looks like a southern's version of Sherman's march through Georgia during the Civil War. However, it isn't; it is the lands of the Usher estate. Winthrop is here to retrieve his beloved Madeline, to whom he is engaged to be married. The grounds, not to mention the home itself, are a picture of rot and decay. Nothing grows in the fields, and the home is crumbling on the foundation.

Once inside, Winthrop meets up with Madeline's brother Roderick. Roderick is not exactly the most gracious host, as he pretty much makes it known that Winthrop is not welcome. In addition, there is no way that Winthrop can leave with Madeline.

When asked why, Roderick explains the Usher family has a Deep Family Secret (DFS). He suffers from morbidly acute senses, which makes anything beyond the most bland, quiet or dimly-lit room a terror to his senses. This, Roderick continues, is part of the Usher family curse which will eventually kill both him and his sister Madeline. Winthrop is not exactly enthused to hear this; in fact, when Madeline enters, she appears to be much the picture of health. However, it also appears as if Roderick exerts some form of influence over her.

Over the course of time, things begin to happen which suggest there is something to this DFS; chadeliers fall, boiling pots swinging close to people, etc. Something is happening, but Winthrop either ignores or downplays their significance. Making matters worse, Madeline appears like her old self when Winthrop is around, but her condition and her mindset change in the presence of Roderick.

Making matters worse, Madeline has begun sleepwalking, often falling asleep in the family's chapel room. She has also begun to talk openly of her death, and how it is close at hand. Winthrop rightly sees his mission as an attempt to rescue her from a bad situation, but yet cannot without running into Roderick's interference at every turn.

Finally, Madeline has decided to leave, and is in the process of telling Roderick when she dies...or does she? Everyone is devastated by the turn of events, but Roderick is in quite a hurry to put her in the family crypt. Not until some time later when it comes out via Bristol that Madeline is prone to catalyptic trances -- a death-like state that can exist for many hours. Oops! Apparently, she has been buried alive. That's not something you'd hope for.

Along the way, Roderick decides to fill Winthrop in on the family's backstory. Apparently, at one time the lands of Usher were luscious and green, and the sun shone every day. Then, one day it all changed. Soon, we get a look at the Hall of Shame as painted by Roderick. Let me tell you, these people are not exactly Public Citizen #1. A list of their sins include harlotry, slave trading, smuggling, jewel theft, extortion, blackmail, and drug abuse.

The portraits Roderick has painted are done in dark, menacing tones which only seem to emphasize the depravity in their souls. It is because of these sins, Roderick explains, that the Usher family must be eliminated. Winthrop disputes that the sins of the father cannot be visited upon future generations (which is true, given that the world now is under a covenant of grace because of Christ's sacrificial death, each man is accountable for his own sins). The fact that Winthrop and Madeline would marry and presumably produce children would only continue the Usher blood line and result in more horror, which is profane to Roderick's way of thinking.

After confirming that Madeline is indeed alive, Winthrop searches for her. He need not have worried; she is on a personal vendetta against her brother. Hey, what's a little premature burial amongst siblings? Eventually, she finds her brother and exacts her revenge as the house begins to catch fire and burn to the ground. Winthrop escapes with his life, and the house of Usher is no more. Close curtain.

What struck me while viewing this movie again recently was the matter of the control Roderick has over his sister. It seemed as if he possessed an almost cult-like hold over her. Once, I even got the sense that Roderick had incestous feelings for her sister, but I'm not quite willing to go that far. I will say that Roderick possessed a fair amount of jealousy at his sister's betrothal, and that his fascination with death and his controlling personality was at work in his relationship with Madeline.

Roderick also was absorbed in the morbidity of his family home, and the effect it has on him (a theme explored in "Pit and the Pendulum" ). Not only is there an acrid air over the land, but he believes that air inflames the passions of those who live there. While a home could have been a place where any number of evil acts could have taken place, it does not make it evil. Evil is a quality that only people can possess, since it requires the ability to make a moral choice, a choice inanimate objects cannot make.

Madeline is, I believe, a tragic figure in this drama. She is described as being a loving woman full of life in her existence prior to the movie's beginning. Unfortunately, her condition worsens upon her return to the Usher mansion. She desparately wishes to be rescued by Winthrop, but cannot escape her brother's influence. This is the tragic element all horror movies require to be successful.

Winthrop is something less of a tragic figure in that he came away from his expedition without his beloved Madeline. His terrible experience is magnified by the range of emotions he goes through in the course of his stay there. His emotions range from hope and expectation to mourning, followed by false hope and then mourning again.

This movie is one of Roger Corman's best. It was done during his Poe period in the early 1960s, during which he also made "Raven" and "Pit and the Pendulum". It stands tall in the Corman and AIP libraries as an excellent movie.

My rating: :biggrin: :biggrin: :biggrin: :biggrin: :biggrin:
A classic in every sense of the word.


(Edited by Nick Sterno at 7:30 pm on Oct. 27, 2001)