The Masque of the Red Death

 Year of Release:  1964

Director:  Roger Corman

Screenplay:  Charles Beaumont and R. Wright Campbell, based on the short stories "The Masque of the Red Death" and "Hop-Frog" by Edgar Allan Poe

Starring:  Vincent Price, Hazel Court, Jane Asher

Running Time:  90 minutes

Genre:  Horror

Medieval Italy, a pestilence called the "Red Death" ravages the countryside.  The evil Prince Prospero (Price) and his friends and courtiers hole up in his palatial castle to wait out the epidemic.  To pass the time, Prospero decrees a lavish masquerade to be held.

This was the seventh of producer/director Roger Corman's series of eight films based on the works of Edgar Allan Poe, and is widely regarded as the best of the bunch.  The script co-written by horror author and Twilight Zone veteran Charles Beaumont and screenwriter R. Wright Campbell combines elements from two Poe stories, "The Masque of the Red Death" and "Hop-Frog" about the brutal vengeance of an abused jester (which makes up the film's main subplot).  Vincent Price who is often seen as very hammy actor, here gives a very strong performance of quiet, silky malevolence.  He is really magnetic here and shows what a good actor he was.  Hazel Court plays Juliana his ill-treated consort, who seeks supernatural vengeance, and Jane Asher plays Francesca, the innocent peasant girl who Prospero seeks to corrupt.  The extraordinarily strange Patrick Magee (best known for his roles in Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange (1971) and Barry Lyndon (1975)) plays one of Prospero's most depraved friends.  The film's nominal heroes, David Weston as Francesca's square-jawed lover, and Nigel Green as her noble father, barely register.  The film boasts higher production values that the usual Corman effort, and has strong images, with striking colour photography from cameraperson and future director Nicolas Roeg.  There is real atmosphere in the film, with some dashes of sixties psychedelia.  There are some baffling supernatural elements that don't really work, but this is one of Roger Corman's strongest films.

       Vincent Price and Jane Asher in The Masque of the Red Death

The Fall of the House of Usher

 Year of Release:  1960

Director:  Roger Corman

Screenplay:  Richard Matheson, based on the short story "The Fall of the House of Usher" by Edgar Allan Poe

Starring:  Vincent Price, Mark Damon, Myrna Fahey, Harry Ellerbe

Running Time:  79 minutes

Genre:  Horror

19th Century America:  Philip Winthrop (Damon) travels to the lonely decaying House of Usher, to visit his fiancée Madeline Usher (Fahey) who lives alone in the mansion with her brother Roderick (Price) and their servant Bristol (Ellerbe).  Madeline and particularly Roderick both suffer from hypersensitivity.  Roderick strongly disapproves of his sister's engagement, because he believes that the Usher bloodline is cursed, and is determined that the family end with him and his sister.

Director Roger Corman and distributor American-International Pictures were known at the time for churning out super low-budget, black-and-white "B" movies, for drive-ins, and grindhouse cinemas, as well as filling out the bottom half of double-bills and kid's matinees.  However the feeling was that the market for those movies was starting to decline, and Corman convinced AIP to put a bit more money behind this film and make it in colour, with some attempt at decent production values, and based on a respected literary source.  Acclaimed horror writer Richard Matheson (author of I Am Legend (1954), The Shrinking Man (1956) and numerous episodes of The Twilight Zone) adapted Edgar Allan Poe's short story into a literate and intelligent script.  Although it was expensive by Roger Corman and AIP standards, this was still a low-budget film, and takes place entirely within the confines of the mansion with only four speaking roles, and the meat of the drama is the struggle between Roderick and Philip for Madeline, whether she likes it or not.  Vincent Price is the standout, turning in a sensitive, quiet performance as the tormented Roderick, making what could be a straightforward villain, pitiable and sympathetic.  Also, he believes that he is doing the right thing, no matter how unpleasant it may be.  Myrna Fahey is effective as the unhappy Madeline.  However, Mark Damon is never really more than the typical square-jawed hero.  The film is directed with style, and Corman manages to get every bit of melodrama from the story.  The house itself becomes a character in the story, with it's constant creaking and crumbling, as it moves toward it's final dissolution.  It really needs to be seen on the biggest screen possible in high definition, to get all the impact from the beautifully designed sets, and such, vibrant colour photography.

Also released simply as House of Usher, it was quite a big hit in it's day, and became the first of eight movie based on Edgar Allan Poe stories that Roger Corman made with Vincent Price.

Mark Damon and Vincent Price in The Fall of the House of Usher

      

The Haunted Palace

Year of Release:  1963
Director:  Roger Corman
Screenplay:  Charles Beaumont, based on the story The Case of Charles Dexter Ward by H. P. Lovecraft
Starring:  Vincent Price, Debra Paget, Lon Chaney Jr.
Running Time:  87 minutes
Genre:  Horror

In the 1700s, the small town of Arkham is in the grip of fear due to the evil warlock  Joseph Curwen (Price) who lives in a large palace overlooking the town.  The townspeople eventually grab Curwen and burn him to death, but not before he places a curse on the town.  110 years later Curwen's great-great-grandson Charles Dexter Ward (Price again) and his wife Anne (Paget) arrive in Arkham to move in to the palace which has passed down to him.  However the Wards are disturbed by the hostile reception they receive from the townspeople, and by the horrific deformities that seem to afflict many of Arkham's inhabitants.  Nevertheless, they move into the palace, but almost immediately Ward starts to display many strange personality changes, and Anne comes to realise that he is being slowly possessed by Curwen's evil spirit which still haunts the palace.

Despite the film being sold as based on Edgar Allan Poe's poem "The Haunted Palace", it is really an adaptation of the H. P. Lovecraft novella The Case of Charles Dexter Ward and really has no connection with Poe at all, aside from a couple of brief extracts, one of which is narrated by Price as the scene changes from the 18th to the 19th Century, and the other appears as text as the film ends.  There are a lot of Lovecraft elements in the film:  It's set in Lovecraft's fictional town of Arkham, the evil book Necronomicon appears, and Lovecraft's recurring dimension-spanning monsters Cthulhu and Yog-Sothoth are namechecked.  Other than that it is a fun slice of old-school gothic with mist-shrouded graveyards, angry villager wielding burning torches, secret passages and very nasty things locked in attics and dungeons.  Vincent Price hams it up for all he's worth in the dual role, and seems to be having enormous fun throughout.  Debra Paget is affecting as Anne Ward, and the rest of the supporting cast are all solid.  However the film is slow by modern standards, and it is quite creaky in places.  It's not a perfect film but it is a good film, and if you're looking for a good old-fashioned spooky story then you can do a lot worse.

Cathie Merchant, Darlene Lucht and Vincent Price in The Haunted Palace