Amazon.com Customer Reviews
 Rated 5 out of 5!
TAINTED BLOOD......
The first of Roger Corman’’s Poe cycle films is probably the most simple. A cast of four and a spooky old house are the characters. The house being a malignant symbol of the evil and depravity lived in it by the Usher family. Roderick Usher (Vincent Price) and his sister Madeline (Myrna Fahey) are the sole surviving members attended to by the long suffering family servant Bristol (Harry Ellerbe). Roderick, pale, clean shaven and with white hair, is hypersensitive to light, sound, touch and taste. He is convinced that he and Madeline suffer the curse of the Ushers---incipient madness. When Madeline’’s fiance Philip (Mark Damon) comes for her to marry her, Roderick forbids Madeline to leave. He doesn’’t want their tainted blood to continue. Philip refuses to believe Roderick’’s morbid stories and refuses to leave without Madeline. But he notices that the house is crumbling, cracking and shaking as if it wants to fall apart---as if the house itself is tired of bearing the curse. Then Madeline suffers a cataleptic stroke and falls into a coma, causing Roderick to declare her dead and bury her in the family crypt. But things are not as they seem and soon Madeline’’s screams can be heard throughout the house. Then things REALLY hum. "House of Usher" is low budget but Corman does wonders with minimilism. The use of red, normally a vibrant color, is used here to depict morbidity and death. Red candles, red furniture upholstery, Madeline’’s blood red dinner gown, Roderick’’s jackets and Madeline’’s own blood---all vividly captured amid the dark gloom of the house. Price gives another of his patented eccentric performances but who else could deliver lines based on Poe so well? Richard Matheson’’s script is efficient and literate leaving little room for open ends. Damon and Fahey are well suited as the lovers if a little inexperienced next to Price. And Les Baxter’’s score is moody and spooky. For 80 minutes, this is a pretty tight little film. Certainly one of the better horror films ever made. If you’’re a fan of the Price/Corman/Poe films this is the first and a collector’’s item. Rated 2 out of 5
Not anything like Poe’’s story
In high school, my one Literature teacher insisted we watch movies instead of read the books like we should have I guess she was lazy or something. Anyway, some movies were good, others so-so, and then there was The Fall of the House of Usher. Well, being a HUGE Edgar Allan Poe fan, I was so excited to be covering one of my favorite Poe stories. Well, of course we watched the movie instead of reading it, which didn’’t really bother me because I read the story many, many times but I’’ve never seen the movie. I obviously expected too much from it. It was horrible! I guess I didn’’t like it mostly because there were extra characters and the story was changed. I guess as a movie it’’s a good one, but if you’’re a Poe fan, or you’’ve read the story, I suggest not even bothering. It’’s bad. I still don’’t understand why my teacher had us watch something so far-fetched from the origional story and try to pass it on as the story itself, but I do know it was a GREAT DISAPPOINTMENT!- Rated 2 out of 5
No way is this Poe
This movie is perhaps the worst movie based on a book that I have ever seen. The plot is so different from Poe’’s original story that I barely recognized it. I watched it in school with my class because we read the story, and we were rolling on the floor laughing at the badness! Whose idea is it to constantly swing the camera around the house? What do you mean those people looked dead/dying? I look more dead than that! The house itself looked nothing like the description
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