"House of Usher" has the reputation as being maybe the best Roger Corman adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe. I assume that this is probably because the movie is well made. It looks like a movie is supposed to look; you can't generally see the seams showing. And, of course, it has Vincent Price, though "The Haunted Palace" had him as well as Lon Chaney Jr. and Elisha Cook Jr. (he must have fans, right?)
You know, I think the real reason why this is considered Corman's best (some think it is the best movie he directed, regardless of material) is because the movies main flaws are nothing to do with the b-movie legend himself. After all, "The Fall of the House of Usher" isn't really feature film material - even if it is scripted by famed horror writer Richard Matheson.
It has been remade several times, but I have never heard anything about any of the other film versions. And perhaps not without good reason: there is very little physical action in the story, and that is what film is mostly about.
This version makes a heroic try for the best possible cinematic realisation of Poe's story. It introduces the hero, the stagecoach, the village, the mansion's exterior and interior, and then Price as Usher, with striking white hair and ankle length red robes making us immediately think of Gary Oldman's Dracula.
This is not enough for a feature length movie. "House of Usher" does add some details that were not present in the original story, but seems understandably less certain about these aspects of the story.
What we're left with, then, may actually be the best possible adaptation of Poe's story. Whether that's a good thing or not is up to the viewer.
You know, I think the real reason why this is considered Corman's best (some think it is the best movie he directed, regardless of material) is because the movies main flaws are nothing to do with the b-movie legend himself. After all, "The Fall of the House of Usher" isn't really feature film material - even if it is scripted by famed horror writer Richard Matheson.
It has been remade several times, but I have never heard anything about any of the other film versions. And perhaps not without good reason: there is very little physical action in the story, and that is what film is mostly about.
This version makes a heroic try for the best possible cinematic realisation of Poe's story. It introduces the hero, the stagecoach, the village, the mansion's exterior and interior, and then Price as Usher, with striking white hair and ankle length red robes making us immediately think of Gary Oldman's Dracula.
This is not enough for a feature length movie. "House of Usher" does add some details that were not present in the original story, but seems understandably less certain about these aspects of the story.
What we're left with, then, may actually be the best possible adaptation of Poe's story. Whether that's a good thing or not is up to the viewer.