House of Usher

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House of Usher

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Legendary filmmaker, Roger Corman, sadly left us this year. House of Usher (aka The Fall of the House of Usher) is the first of our four-part tribute to his legacy as a director, producer, and all-around powerhouse in the film industry. Starring Vincent Price, directed by Corman, and written by Richard Matheson, this tale based on Edgar Allan Poe’s classic story of the same name proved so successful that it kicked off a cycle of 8 Poe films with the same team.

Join us as we spend the next four weeks discussing all-things-Corman with a curated selection of films that represent some of the best of his horror output, while showcasing his uncanny ability to make box office bank by nurturing up-and-coming talents and producing films that people want to SEE on shockingly low budgets and timelines.

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House of Usher (aka The Fall of the House of Usher) (1960)

Episode 402, 2 Guys and a Chainsaw Podcast

Todd: Hello, and welcome to another episode of Two Guys and a Chainsaw. I’m Todd

Craig: and I’m Craig.

Todd: Craig, it almost sounds morbid to say that I’ve been waiting for this moment for such a long time.

Craig: Yeah, it does.

Todd: So maybe I shouldn’t say that, but what I really mean is, I’m just super excited at the chance to talk about one of my idols and heroes, Roger Corman.

We’ve talked about him so much on the show, we’ve already done at least six or seven movies that he’s either directed or produced, and he’s directed and produced hundreds of films throughout his career. And sadly, he passed away. Uh, just a couple months ago in May, but he was a ripe old age of 98. Whoa! 98, man!

Can you believe it? Almost there to 100. Roger Corman has been an idol of mine since I was old enough to start being interested in the people behind the movies that were made. You know that I grew up, you know, when my dad was, loved these old science fiction movies, these black and white. Films that he would go to the theater and see when he was a kid and he would see on TV when he was a kid You know attack of the ape monster and the day the earth stood still and all these crazy things So he had these VHS tapes around our house all the time They’re some of the first movies that I gravitated towards because they were fun They’re all kind of cheap and some of them are not well acted and they’re fun for that too but they’re just Fun to watch their spectacle.

Their interesting, cool stories. Those were the kinds of movies that I started to grow up on. And so maybe that really influenced my taste in horror and taste in films as I got older. One of the things that, you know, watching these movies kind of impressed on me was just how Realistic it is to make them.

These movies were very low budget. They, they took place in suburbia. They weren’t huge on special effects, but they did what they could. And you’d watch these things by guys like Roger Corman or guys like Ed Wood, and you’d be like, you know, I could make a movie like this. Maybe I could even make a better one.

So he had that influence on me as well. Stirring up an interest in. Wanting to produce and make movies myself, and I’ve dabbled in that. I’ve always been in the creative industry in one way or another. I’ve made some movies very Roger Corman style on micro budgets, and I look to these guys for inspiration and for tips and tricks.

And so, if you can say I’ve ever studied anyone’s career, I’ve probably studied Roger Corman’s career more deeply than I have anyone else’s. Anybody else just because he was doing the kind of thing that even now I would love to be able to do. He’s in the business. He was producing films. He was making stuff that might not have been the best art on the planet, but was artful and people watched.

And that was his driving thing. He’s like, I want to make movies people are going to see. He still cared about the art of it though. You know, we, we review so many exploitation films and a lot of stuff that we see, especially from this era, people didn’t care. Movies have always been a business. And so there’s always been that balance between the art and the business of movies.

And there are, there are a lot of horror films that we watch that are obviously like the people behind it. They were just interested in cranking something out for a buck. And there’s nothing wrong with that either. We find joy in those films as well. But Roger Corman is really set apart from those guys, where, yeah, he was very interested in making a buck, but he was also interested in making good movies that people would see and enjoy.

And he did. So, I’m just so excited to be able to sort of celebrate his legacy. We’re gonna do four films. That four is far too few and it was so hard to pick but the first of those films is the house of usher What what’s your exposure to Roger Corman? Were you even really into him? I know this is not really like your slice of the pie as far as you know Your interest in horror movies and stuff goes I’m kind of wondering if if this is a thing that only in later years since we’ve been doing that Podcast and I’ve been sort of cramming these things down your throat that you’ve just started to watch or if you had some early exposure to him as well.

Craig: Well, yeah, of course I did. Of course I did. Being a huge horror fan. If you’re a horror fan who grew up when we did and when even when our dads were growing up, if you were seeing horror, you were seeing Corman somewhere. I mean, you talked about how we’ve talked about him a million times. Well, I can’t imagine how you could do a horror podcast at all, let alone for almost 10 years and not reference.

I mean, he’s just enormous in the industry. And did I have exposure to him when I was young? Yeah, I didn’t know it. As I got older and as I started really getting more interested and not just enjoying movies, but, you know, reading about how they’re made and what goes on behind the scenes. How the sausage is made, basically.

Of course, his name popped up everywhere. I mean, he has this huge, huge body of work. I do think that he was concerned about putting out things that people wanted to watch, but with a resume as lengthy as his, there are bound to be some misses too. And, and there are some, you know, there are some really silly or really not the kind of thing that I would necessarily call artful.

Not to say not still entertaining. Wasn’t he, I don’t remember. And that’s the thing too. Like I make a big distinction between director and producer. Corman directed this movie that we’re doing and I’m glad we picked one of those first. I don’t know if our plan is to stick with that or if we’re gonna branch out into just some of the other things that he was involved in.

The director and the producer play very different roles. And so in looking at his work, and, and not, I haven’t seen this movie, which is kind of ridiculous, but I was happy to see A movie that he directed because I feel like the director has more of an artistic influence I understand that the producer has influence too sadly too much often, right?

This was cool to see, you know We we threw around I don’t even remember what we landed on but we threw around some things and he Produced some really fun things that I really enjoyed growing up like watchers with cory hame Based on a dean coon’s book about a psychic dog that I found Loved when I was a kid.

The girl from happy days when we did a tribute for her, didn’t he produce planet of terror or planet terror or whatever it was galaxy

Todd: of terror. Yeah.

Craig: Galaxy of terror. Yeah. So, and so, you know, there’s, there’s fun stuff out there that is really, it’s fair to call them B movies, but they’re still fun to watch.

And this was because you’re right, this specifically, this type of film. Is not really my cup of tea. I just don’t really get into this older style. Right. That said, I’m not going to say anything bad about this movie. I don’t have anything bad to say about it. I didn’t love it. It didn’t, it didn’t change my life, but I appreciated seeing it and I’m looking at it and looking at all these choices and reading about all these choices that he made and, and looking at some things.

Some shots that were visually stunning and there are just some really super interesting choices, artistic choices that I really respect. So you don’t have to worry about me trashing, you know, uh, this, this film from one of your idols. I’m not going to, I, I think it’s. It’s a very good movie. It’s a shame that I haven’t seen it until now.

I don’t know that I need to see it again, but I needed it in my tool belt.

Todd: I know what you’re saying. I know exactly where you’re coming from on this. And, you know, it’s interesting because I think a big reason why I appreciate Corman is what he was able to do with so little. Right. You know, he’s Famous for people call him the king of B movies and Corman disputed that he said, I’ve never made a B picture what he means by that is look like nowadays we we use shorthand.

We say B movie and everybody just thinks it means low budget and that’s kind of become the term we use now. But B doesn’t stand for low budget back in the earlier days of film and a lot of people don’t realize this like in the thirties and forties when people were going to the cinema to see movies.

And I think this probably is an extension of theater. I’m trying to figure out why theater owners padded, you know, would give you one ticket to go see a whole bunch of shit in the afternoon or in the morning, but I guess it’s probably because before that people were going to see live performance and plays and things.

They last like three hours long and movies were an hour, hour and a half tops. They’ve since become much, much longer, what the public is generally able to tolerate as far as a movie goes. Right. So, and the longer movies back then had like, intermissions, just like plays would. And so, theaters would have like, a schedule of things that you buy a ticket to go see.

You would start off with a newsreel, then there would be a short or two, usually animated. And then you would see an A picture, which is the movie you were going there to see. Yeah. You know, the big build, high, high level production. And then you’d see the B picture. And the B picture was generally lower budget because it was tacked on, you know, it wasn’t the big movie people were going to see, but it was usually like an, a lesser film without as big a stars or not as well advertised.

It was kind of hoping to capitalize on the popularity of the, of the A picture.

Craig: Can I, can I ask you a question because I’m genuinely curi Was thought put into how those films were put together beyond financial stuff? I mean, would it be like a theme? Like, would it be a night of two horror movies? Or would it just be two different movies?

Todd: Sometimes there were, sometimes there weren’t. I think as theater owners got more sophisticated, then yes, they started to put more thought. They thought, okay, well, this movie, we’re gonna show two horror movies back to back. Or we’re gonna show a horror and a sci fi. Or, or two dramas, you know. We’re not gonna, like, shock an audience that came here to see Gone with the Wind with, uh, you know, I Drink Your Blood.

Coming right after that. So yeah, some thought did go into that. I’m sure there was some mixing involved, but what got Corman really into the movie business was he started funding, directing, and producing films for a company pretty early on. It eventually became AIP, American International Pictures, but back then it was called American Releasing Company, ARC, by the legendary distributor, Sam Arcoff.

And uh, what they liked to do is they would package double features. And their main, at this point, this is like the fifties, and so car culture’s becoming a thing. Drive ins are being a thing. Smaller, independent theaters are becoming a thing. Because, not to get too deep into the woods of film history here, but it was at this point in the fifties.

Theaters started to become independent, because up until this point, the major studios of the era, the MGMs and the Paramounts, they all controlled the entire chain. They were producing the movies, they were distributing them, and they owned the theaters. And so they had a stranglehold on the theaters. If you were a guy who made a movie, you couldn’t get a picture into the theaters.

When drive ins opened up, those were more independently owned. And so independent filmmakers could get their films into drive ins. And then very shortly thereafter, the government came in and threatened to break all this up. They said, look, you guys have a monopoly on this stuff. The studios voluntarily gave up.

And so, suddenly all across the country, theaters are now independently owned, and they can show whatever movies they want. And so, theater owners got very aggressive, uh, not only about booking more independent films, but actually going out and saying, These are the movies we want! This is our audience.

We’re in small town America here, and we’ve got a chain of theaters in the Midwest. So, these are the kinds of movies we need in our theaters, because this is what the people in our towns want to see. They would either become distributors themselves, or producers themselves, or they would approach distributors and producers to specifically make films for their theaters.

And this is the role. Really, that companies like American Releasing Company, ARC, and AIP would fill. They would say, okay, we need these movies, these kind of movies. We need sci fi movies, and, and here’s the title, and we’ve already drawn up a poster. So, uh, they would find producers like Roger Corman to make those films.

And so he really came in at this sweet spot that doesn’t exist anymore. Where he was able to scrounge up funding and make cheap movies to fit the bill. And what he ended up making for ARC was double bills. So, ARC would immediately go to a theater with a package of two films. The She Woman from Outer Space and, you know, I.

E. or Flesh or something like that. And these would generally be black and white. Low budget films that were, as you asked, designed to be put together and sold as a package. And so, yeah, so, so this is how Corman got started. You know, he was born in 1926 in Detroit, Michigan. He studied to be an engineer.

They moved out to Hollywood. He went to Beverly Hills High School. He studied to be an engineer at one point after he got his degree. He moved to Paris. I think he studied out there, got a degree in English literature. He served in the Navy for a period of time, got out of it, spent like three weeks. At some engineering job and quit and was like, I’m sorry, this is just not what I want to do.

I want to be in the movie business.

Craig: Yeah, but that fascinates me because it sounds to me, based on the little bit that I read about him, is that he approached filmmaking almost from like, An engineering vantage. Yeah. Like everything was so planned out, and I was, I was so impressed reading how he would have the script, and on one side he would have the text of the script, the dialogue, and on the opposite page he would have hand drawn diagrams of the script.

The set, but from an aerial view so that he could move the actors around almost like, you know, like a football coach on his whiteboard, like mapping, mapping where the characters were going. Lights, camera angles. Yeah. How the set’s going to be laid out. How the set’s going to be laid out to the, to the smallest of details, which I found fascinating.

I mean, ultimately in this movie, and I know that he used a lot of these sets, some of these sets, in some of his other movies. I mean, they look familiar because they just kind of look like a big, old Victorian house. But, there is so much to look at. And, and I read that that was by design. And he had some had read some philosophy about always being something for them to look at.

And so there are so many, the, the design of the spaces in this movie, there’s these rugs everywhere, and tapestries, and paintings, and knickknacks, and bric a brac, and just the entire set piece is just full of things to look at. Not only was he economical in that way, but also in that Unlike Kubrick, who we just talked about recently, who would do upwards of or more than a hundred takes, Corman would usually get it in maybe three or four takes, or fewer.

And it, and I look at it, and I wouldn’t know. You wouldn’t know. No, I wouldn’t know. I would think he used whatever the best he got was, which is great. And if he was able to, Through planning with his actors and communicating with his actors what he needed and he got it in three to four takes I think that is damn impressive

Todd: in a way.

He shares a bit with hitchcock in this regard You know hitchcock meticulously pre planned his films Storyboarded them extensively and shot exactly what he storyboarded He found the film process of shooting the movie to be tedious, and that’s the part he hated the most. Ha ha! He really put his whole vision together in the pre production, and for Corman to have that same approach, that allowed him to be very economical.

Right. You’re not paying for anybody’s time when you’re planning.

Craig: Right. Right. Well, and he said, you know, like, I, I mentioned all of those things to look at, but he said that he found you can get those things for really cheap. And it, you adds so much to the atmosphere and the storytelling and I was like That I mean, I guess it doesn’t surprise me that he comes from an engineering background But it almost surprises me that he doesn’t come from a theater background because that’s right Working in theater is like it’s making the most of what you have usually on a very small budget And trying to make it look as interesting as you possibly can and you can With a little bit of skill and a little bit of luck, you can make things look brilliant from the audience.

If you were to look a little bit closer, you would see the cracks. No pun intended for this movie, but Right.

Todd: Yeah. I think that’s probably why, you know, he just, that was part of his brilliance. It’s why he was so successful. And it’s why he was I don’t want to say he was more a producer than a director, but I think that probably just like in any role, his director experience and he directed 56 films and this is like the 24th film he directed.

So having that experience allowed him to understand the process really, really well. So that he could mentor other directors so he knew what to spend money on he knew when people were wasting time You know, he knew what he could do because he had done it And so that’s why being on Corman’s set what everybody wanted to do it Everybody in the industry wanted to work for Roger Corman because they knew that he very quickly Would get them up to speed on almost anything Any act aspect of the business that they were interested in, and that’s why so many famous writers, directors and producers that we know as, as legends and gods in the industry got their start.

Thanks to Roger Corman.

Craig: I was also really impressed to read that his production. Staff was so highly regarded That when they weren’t working with corpsman people would try to get them as a group like not to necessarily hire them out One by one. No, we want the whole production crew Because they were so efficient.

I mean this movie was shot in 16 days Again, I don’t I don’t know how the episodes are going to air or in what order Todd and I recently talked about a stanley kubrick film that took a year You And yet, this guy and his production company can pump out a movie in 16 days. And I feel like I interrupted you a little bit, too, because this was halfway through his career as a director, technically.

But at this point, he was so highly regarded that He had a lot of sway, right? Because they usually wanted him to shoot two films back to back for like 000, something like that, in black and white. Yep, yep. And for this, and I think for the first time, he convinced them, give me all that money, give me 300, 000, and let me shoot one movie in color.

And and they did

Todd: yeah, they took a chance on that. That’s that’s interesting This was probably the first I would say big Big in terms of like how it looks on the screen, you know film that he did He did many more and produced many more after this but this as a director You’re right. It’s very unusual.

They took a gamble on this. He said I Think I can see which way the winds are blowing. He got a little more skeptical about how much longer the market for these double bill black and white films was going to be. And he said, let’s do a bigger, a bigger budget production, make it look more grand and true to form.

He thought, well, we’re going to do a horror picture cause they’re big and we’re going to hire, we’re going to spend a good almost third of the budget on a well established talent. Who’s going to bring people in and that’s Vincent price. And that was a good choice.

Craig: Was this the first time they had worked together?

I know that they worked Many times together after this, but was this the first time they had worked together?

Todd: I think this was the first time the two of them had worked together. Vincent Price being no stranger to low budget, uh, sci fi and horror films. And film radio god, we could talk about his career forever as well.

Craig: Yeah,

Todd: but yeah, I think this is the first time they had worked together and then he hired Richard Matheson who God, we just did stir of echoes, you know,

Craig: it’s not wild

Todd: based on his novel. I mean Richard Matheson another god of not just the movie industry, but, you know, just sci fi and fantasy in general.

Richard Matheson, by now, had done, I don’t know how many episodes of The Twilight Zone he wrote or were based on his work. He wrote so many novels. He’s written novels that have lingered and been remade multiple times, like I Am Legend. We talked about that. And so anyway, he hired him to write a Good script.

And this is also not the last time he worked with Matheson. He worked with Matheson on a couple more of these Poe productions, on a couple more movies after this. He really admired Matheson because he said, I would write his first, I would shoot his first draft of the script. It was that good. It needed almost no changes.

And then, basing it on a free property. Edgar Allan Poe is in public domain, even at this point, didn’t have to pay a dime for that. So, right away, you get established sci fi author, you can put up there, that everybody loves. You’ve got established actor to helm the film, Vincent Price, everybody loves.

You’ve got a genre that everybody is going to, uh, Enjoy horror never fails to sell as we all know. And you’ve got Poe, which everybody’s read in high school. And you know, even at this point, everybody would know the fall of the house of Usher. And so of course people are going to show up for this movie.

It’s just, it’s brilliant. And it was so successful that they made seven more in this series. Most, I think all of which were directed by, by Corman. So, it just kicked off a whole new direction for Corman’s career. And it was kind of around this point that he did less directing and a lot more producing.

And he eventually said he could produce in his sleep. It was so easy for him. Yeah, I was just going to

Craig: say, that seems much That just, uh, I’m sure There’s a part in Amy Poehler’s memoir where she talks about the different levels of, if you are the talent, you know, how things work for you, and if you’re the director, how things work for you, and if you’re the producer, how things work for you, and she really focuses on You Like all the pains in the ass that you have to deal with in each role.

And so I’m sure as a producer, there is, but when you’re the money and you’re kind of the top dog, like the buck kind of the buck stops at you, like in more ways than one, I would think, especially if you’ve already established a career and you’re getting older, I’d be like, yeah, I’ll just, I’ll, I’ll produce this one.

Todd: Right. Well, I would think so too, especially if, I mean, again, that just seems to be his wheelhouse. You said it earlier. He had this engineering mindset. He was really good at putting resources together and planning things out. He loved that aspect of it. And that’s what allowed him to do these movies cheaply and yet put so much of the money on the screen.

And then when you have a reputation for this, you can get people to work for less. Nobody I’ve ever read about has ever said they felt exploited by Roger Corman. All of them were super happy to work with him, said it was almost like film school, you know, loved it and was happy to work with him for less than they would probably make on, uh, on, you know, making some other movie or doing something union, you know, it paid off.

For most people

Craig: involved. Well, and, and bing, bang, boom. As you know, as an actor, as a crew, whatever, like boom, boom, you knock these movies out. No, I’m sure you can tell me again. I think that I know this sometimes the, like when they were doing those two movies back to back, they would keep not only the same production crew, but some of the actors would stay on and do both movies too, right?

Oh yeah.

Todd: Oh, absolutely. Yeah, that was big. He was known for that. He was known for getting a movie done under budget and ahead of time. He would still have actors under contract. He would still have sets and rental things and cameras that didn’t need to be torn down or returned. And he’d quickly, sometimes he’d have nothing prepared, but he turned to a writer and say, Hey, write a quick script for me.

I can shoot in three or four days. And he would do that. And, you know, interestingly enough, sometimes those, those movies that were just kind of shot because of opportunity. would end up becoming the more profitable picture.

Craig: I would like to give kudos not only to Corman, cause I think that this movie is very well directed and well cast.

And like, I think, again, I don’t really have any criticisms of the choices that he made, but I give kudos to Richard Mattson. One of the reasons that I have never seen this movie is because I taught this story for I mean, it’s been a long time, but I can’t tell you how so many years I taught this story and it is a good story.

Sometimes it’s a little hard to get students into, especially today because it’s, it’s one of his longer, it’s still not terribly long, but it is a longer story. But I was skeptical of this movie because even in just reading the description, I thought, Oh, that sounds like it’s not a faithful adaptation.

Watching the movie today, I was wrong. This is actually a really, really faithful adaptation, aside from the fact that Richard Matheson had a certain amount of story to deal with, and it wasn’t enough for a feature film. Yeah. Had he not added some things, I don’t think that there was enough material for a feature film, and ultimately, the things that he added really don’t take anything away from the story.

It’s uh, I was, I was really kind of fascinated because this, the story is very simple and depending on what we decide to talk about, I can tell you specific differences, but the primary difference is that the main guy who is not named, he’s the narrator, but he’s not named in the story. His name is Philip Winthrop.

He’s coming to the Usher, the house of Usher, literally. But he’s not named. In the story, he’s coming there because he’s an old friend of the brother of Roderick’s, and Roderick is ill and has called him there just for companionship because he’s sick and lonely. And there is the sister, Madeleine, and pretty much everything that happens to her in the story happens to her in the movie.

Movie two except for the fact that the reason that they bring the narrator philip here is that he has a relationship with madeline They are affianced. So that’s a difference And the addition of the butler character is different There are there are only the three in the story And then there’s a trippy dream sequence at the end that has nothing to do with the real story But other than that, it is really Real Faithful.

I was impressed. I actually was like, man, I missed out 10 years ago when I was teaching this story. I could have shown them this as a companion because it really is a very faithful adaptation.

Todd: Yeah, that’s a good point. I think it’s a bold story. It would not be my first choice of post stories to adapt because it’s, It’s a bit, what do I want to say?

Heady now, again, it’s been decades since I’ve read it, so please correct me if I’m wrong, but like a number of post stories, it’s very light on plot.

Craig: Yeah,

Todd: it’s, it’s all atmosphere. It’s people talking. It’s a sense of dread. It’s, it’s very thematic and metaphorical,

Craig: symbolic, lots. So like it is. And I think that that’s probably why we teach it in high school, because it’s an excellent example of symbolism.

Like it’s just. It’s kind of bold on its face, really. Um, but that’s good. That’s good for teaching a concept. Like, let’s not make you work so hard. Let’s, let’s show you some fairly obvious examples, and that will help you to figure out the lesson. Obvious examples moving forward, right? And I love the symbolism in this.

I love the symbolism in the book Not the story not all of it translates But they do at least make attempts like the big crack the big fissure in the house is one of the big symbols The mist and and the pond they call it a tarn Out in front are big time symbols. I guess another difference is that And maybe it’s suggested, maybe it’s suggested in this movie, I don’t know.

But this feels a little bit more like a classic ghost story. That’s really not what the actual source material is. In the source material, Poe makes it pretty clear that some maneuvering force has descended upon this house and this family and is actively destroying them. And has

Todd: been for years, right?

Not, not just recently, yeah. Yeah, right. The

Craig: family is cursed, absolutely. But, the movie expands upon that by making it out that they’re cursed because they’re terrible people.

Todd: Well, to be honest with you, that’s kind of how I remembered interpreting the story. Because I saw it as so metaphorical. I wasn’t willing to entertain.

The idea that this was truly supernatural, you know, I felt, oh, it’s the house of, of this family, but then it’s their literal house, and as the family is going into moral decay, and, you know, wasting away, and now there’s nobody left in the bloodline, so the house, The literal house now is following suit and so I just saw it as one big metaphor, but but maybe I’m wrong Maybe I need to go back and reread that.

Craig: No, you’re not wrong That is true, but there are parts of the story like in the movie There’s a big crack in the house and it starts to break at the climax Which I would love to talk about the climax eventually, but it starts to break in the story At the very same time, the moon, the blood moon is descending right behind the house.

So as it’s splitting in the front, this blood red light is flowing right through it. And it almost looks like a force that’s ripping the house apart. And there’s lots of that stuff. There’s like, the opening of this movie is One of the closest adaptations to the opening of a story I’ve ever seen. The narrator, the main guy, is riding on horseback through this desolate, burnt out land and approaches this old, gothic, European renaissance mansion.

It is in America, but they make a point of saying that, like, the whole structure was brought over from Europe or whatever. And it’s clearly in disrepair, and there’s fog everywhere, and it’s super spooky, and all of that is exactly how the story is. The story goes a little bit further to talk about how the fog from the lake, like, glows in an eerie incandescence.

And even that can be explained through natural phenomenon, but it goes, it does make a point of showing that things are supernatural, but in a more subtle way. That I don’t know that you could really accomplish well on film or not with the resources that they have. So in this movie, in this movie, the way that they established a supernatural force is different and a little cheesy, but it didn’t bother me.

Well,

Todd: yeah, I mean, it is a movie and it is, You know, trying very hard, I think very early on, like a lot of horror movies to immediately capture your interest. And so it starts out in a very typical way, right? Haunted house movie. Let’s show a big, decrepit, scary, spooky looking haunted house surrounded by mist filled the dead woods.

And interestingly. Just to talk about how, what little resources they had, Corman discovered that there was a section of the city that had recently, uh, some woods near L. A. that had recently burned down. And so he quickly sent his film crew out there with some fog machines, and they were able to film this opening sequence of him walking through the woods.

It looks great because it’s totally real, right? It’s totally a burned out forest. And he had a theory when he started these Poe films because, again, he’s a thinker. Corman’s a thinker. He had this artistic theory he was working on that Poe, most of his stuff takes place in the mind. And that is true. And I agree with him.

That’s why I said, you know, this is a bold adaptation is because so much of it’s just in your head. It’s not. It’s not what this character is doing to this character and the intrigue behind that. It’s heavy thematic. It’s heavy in style and the idea it’s trying to get across. Incidentally, the Mask of the Red Death, which is one in this series, which is widely recognized as probably being the best one, that hopefully we’ll get to cover at some point, that has almost no plot.

It’s hard to imagine that short story being adapted into a full length film, and yet, not only did he do it, but it’s regarded as maybe the best in this series. So, in going with this, he made the artistic choice. He thought that everything needs to look unreal. And so, he deliberately tried to make things look real.

Unreal and kind of fake to get you into that idea of like the dream state, visually speaking. And I think by the last movie in the series, he said, maybe I’m wrong about all this. We’re going to scrap that. And the last one he did, Tomb of Ligeia, he deliberately made very realistic. They filmed it in old ruins and things like that and had it very well lit and just tried to make it very Actually, very real, like it’s actually taking place in the real world.

So I think that really helps with this movie. It certainly helps with the setup. It makes it interesting. That big spooky mansion that definitely looks unreal.

Craig: Yeah, it’s like a matte painting, clearly

Todd: a matte painting and stuff. And the sets themselves are heightened on realism. You know, these. Cobwebs and spiderwebs stretched over everything and

Craig: everything’s lit by candle.

It’s like the house of usher. I mean, I have no idea. I know that these were sets that they built on stages and I know that when they were done, they didn’t disassemble some of them so that they could reuse them again, but they’re Huge. There are these huge cavernous spaces, especially like the main hall, but even the bedrooms are larger than life.

I mean, this looks like an estate and it’s beautiful to look at. It looks like I’ve never even seen Gone with the Wind, but you’re right. The famous images that I’ve seen, that’s what it looks like. It looks grandiose and decrepit. Like, it looks like a place that was once grand. And has fallen into terrible disrepair, which is exactly what it’s supposed to be.

I can’t say enough about how good it looks. It looks amazing. The production value is gorgeous. The set pieces are gorgeous. And so intricately thought out. It looks like a big studio picture. Yes. And one of the other things I was going to say was, Usher, Roderick Usher, who’s played, of course, by Vincent Price, who is an icon in and of himself, Interesting choices in this movie.

He’s very vampiric, very pale, blonde haired, no mustache. Yeah, I mean, Vincent Price is unmistakable. Like, he can’t hide himself. But that doesn’t, that doesn’t mean he’s not a good actor. He just lives there with his sister, and they’re super weird, and we can talk about how shady he is and what all’s going on there.

But, eventually, he shows their visitor, Philip, this artwork in his house. And the first thing is like a painting of the house itself. And it’s a little bit surreal and very stylistic. And then later, he shows him, A series of portraits of his ancestors, and they are so stylistic, they, they’re, they’re haunting, they’re not realistic at all.

These people look like ghosts or phantoms or ghouls, some of them have like glowing red eyes, some of them are very wispy as though they’re not entirely physical. But there’s a whole series of them. Later in the film, there’s also a portrait of Madeline that is, The sister that is very ethereal as well.

And there’s one scene in particular where Vincent Price is standing almost in profile right in front of that painting and he’s standing off to the side of it so that their faces are almost next to each other in frame and it’s held there for a few seconds. And I thought I would hang that in my house, but it just looks, I was so impressed with the stylistic choices.

I know that they commissioned an artist to do all of that artwork. It’s stunning. I would say that the movie is worth watching just for that. And it almost felt a little bit eerie in that it didn’t match the, Yes.

Todd: It looks more modern. Yeah. Yeah. It, it almost looks a little more modern. It’s almost an impressionistic style of painting in this old Gothic mansion, where you expect to see these old English style, you know, portraits and that’s unsettling.

And also they’re mounted high on the wall and they’re everywhere. And it’s just like, they’re looking down in a very evil way, always imposing. Upon the future generations, you know, this is your legacy and we’re watching you and we’re all evil and all of them have done the worst things you could imagine.

Terrible, terrible things. Anthony Usher.

Clip: Thief. Usurer.

Merchant of flesh. Bernard Usher. Swindler. Forger.

Jewel thief, drug addict

Francis Usher, professional assassin

Vivian Usher, blackmailer pilot, murderess

Todd: Yet you’re wondering well, what about this guy? Why does he feel so he seems not okay

Craig: and his sister who has seemingly done nothing wrong Now in the story Usher basically explains to his friend that our house is cursed, we’re the last of our line, people sometimes think that they are meant to be incestuous.

I don’t think that that’s accurate in the story. The reason that people misinterpret that sometimes is because Usher, in talking to the narrator, says our family tree Is a single branch and and people think that that means that they were like inbreeding and so it was only one branch But what he really means is they it’s a single branch because they’re the last of the last so there’s only one Yeah, there’s only one branch of the tree lab.

No kids No kids they and they’re they’re both terribly ill and they have had these maladies all their life and his main one Is that all of his senses are incredibly heightened to the point where it’s very uncomfortable for him He can only wear the softest of materials. He can only eat the flavorless of foods, you know Any kind of loud sound is torturous to him That’s his main thing in the movie.

They give it to madeline, too I don’t think that’s true in the story because in the story madeline isn’t really much of a character keep in mind The guy who is her fiancee In the movie has no connection to her at all. And is in fact surprised to find that Usher has a sister. And the only way that Madeline is really a character is that the narrator sees her walking around like a ghost at night.

Oh, they never interact. And all of this happens over like one night. Uh, that’s in the story. Yes. Yes. And also, so also in the story, Usher explains to the narrator. Everything that’s going on and he does tell the history of his family just like he does in this. Like there’s a whole flashback where he tells the history of his family and how their property was once thriving and beautiful and blah blah blah but then some force came in and everything died and the lake turned to black and was stagnant and they started getting sick and all of his relatives went crazy and Basically that’s all true.

In the story He does it. It’s really weird. He reveals it in a totally different way in the story Roderick is freaking out As he often does and to try to calm him the narrator reads him a story from a book That is that backstory.

Todd: Oh, it’s like the family, uh Memoirs or something.

Craig: Well, it’s actually a poem It’s called like the haunted palace or whatever and it’s all very symbolic and metaphoric But it’s obviously the backstory of what we’re seeing And I apologize if i’m rambling i’m just trying to get the basic plot out So it people who haven’t he the the narrator only sees Madeline in like walking around like a ghost at night until the next day he wakes up and Rogers like, yeah, she died.

And so they put her in the family vault, which is under the house. And at some point, I think it’s even earlier in the story. It happens in the movie too, but at some point it comes out that one of the ailments that their family. struggles with is catalepsy. Catalepsy is an actual medical condition where your body seizes up and your vitals slow down.

Now, I don’t know that, first of all, it’s probably treatable with modern medicine. I don’t know, I didn’t research, but I can imagine it’s probably treatable with modern medicine. But even if it were not, I would imagine that with modern technology it would be very easily to detect that that person was in fact, Still alive, but you know, you hear all these stories in these days about people being buried alive because they thought they were dead or whatever in the story.

It really seems like it has just not occurred to usher that his sister may have been in one of those cataleptic events, even though she had been through them before, even though, even though as they are staring, God, the movie makes this even. So much more obvious, but it kind of changes things in the story.

The narrator and Usher are just standing over the casket and Usher is talking about how it’s so painful to look at her because she still has a flush in her cheek. She still looks like she’s alive. It still looks alive. And they put her in the crypt and then It’s a dark and stormy night, and the narrator’s trying to calm Usher down, but, uh, Usher keeps saying, Can’t you hear it?

Can’t you hear it? Can’t you hear it? And the narrator can’t hear anything. And at the very last climactic moment, the corpse ghost, it’s unclear, of Madeline BREAKS THROUGH THE DOOR, throws herself on her brother, who just Dies of fear.

Todd: As one did at the turn of the 19th century. He just,

Craig: they, they go down on the ground.

He is dead. He is scared to death. And then the narrator rides away on his horse and he talks about how, like, it’s specifically said, it’s not even subtext. It’s. Texts in the story that this whole journey is really a journey into the darkest side of the human mind. And that’s what he was experiencing through all of that, which is, you know, very typical.

Yeah. And the house comes down. I mean. And. Poe was a dark romantic and that was one of the things that they focused on. They were really interested in looking at the darker psychological side of humanity and human existence. So it’s really typical. It plays in the movie a little bit. The movie adds a little bit of stuff that we can talk about if you want to or not, whatever.

But that’s the basic story. Thank you.

Todd: Thank you, Craig. I feel like we all just got like an English lesson. I taught

Craig: that story. I taught that story for 10 years. I just gave you my best spark notes version.

Todd: I was just going to say your students could just listen to this episode and then they could just goof off during your lecture.

I think. You were probably a lot more concise this time around.

Craig: I hope so. You know that when I get talking, I

Todd: can

Craig: talk.

Todd: Well, I do. And let’s talk about the differences a little bit. Because I think, you know, if I’m going to criticize this movie and the script, that I think that’s one of the weaknesses of it.

So Philip, in the film, is actually engaged to Madeline. He is coming back to visit her. Having Spent time with her and building a relationship with her. Recently. And recently in Boston. So it’s like, Oh, I guess she decided she needed to go back to her family home for some reason. That’s not really explained why.

Craig: It is really weird that like, he just shows up and he’s like, yeah, I’m here to see my fiance and the butler’s like, I don’t know anything about that. And he’s like, she’s bedridden. And that’s just, that’s just the whole narrative. Like, yeah, I know you were just hanging out with her a couple of weeks ago and you got engaged, but I swear to God, she’s dying now and she can’t leave the house.

Even though. She seems fine.

Todd: That’s

Craig: the

Todd: other problem. It’s almost comical. Madeline, get ready to leave.

Craig: I want to, Philip.

Todd: Then you will.

Clip: Why? Because very soon I shall be dead. I forbid you to say that ever again. It’s true, Philip. It is not true, Madeline. You’re full of life.

Craig: Look at me, Philip. Do I look full of life?

Todd: Yeah, look at her. She’s gorgeous. She looks great. She doesn’t look frail or sickly at all. All to the point where you start to feel like maybe the real problem here is Roderick.

Maybe Roderick is just convincing her because he’s so doom and gloom about his family that she is also doomed like the rest of them, and she might as well give it up now. That’s the sense. It is that Roderick feels this compulsion that my whole family line is horrible. We thank God are the last of it.

We’re all destined to die. and rid the world of our evil. And so we just need to usher it along. You like that? That’s the sense you get from the movie because you watch it and you’re like, no, this girl’s perfectly fine. Like it’s her brother who’s keeping her here. Like maybe there’s hope for this family yet.

She’s got life in her. She’s got this guy who loves her, who wants nothing more to take her away. And after all of this. It’s, it really amounts to a good old turn of the century hospitality. You know, I was remarking to, I was watching this with Liz and I was like, I was remarking to you where I was like, boy, hospitality sure was different back in those days.

You know, you could show up at a house where you were not welcome, but you would be invited in any way. They would ask you to leave, but you would say, nah, I don’t feel like it. And they’d be like, all right, well, let me show you your room.

Craig: All right. Breakfast in the morning. Yeah, exactly.

Todd: You have a nice dinner and everything like that.

Like, really, I would like you to leave. Okay, I’ll think about it. And then he’s insisting, I’m gonna take her away from here and there’s nothing you’re gonna do about it. And Asher just turns his back on him and, you know, walks out of the room. So For a little while, Madeline’s whole response is, Oh, you don’t understand, I’m so sick, and blah blah blah, I can’t leave.

And Roderick’s like, Yeah, she’s right. You know, you can’t leave, Madeline. Don’t you know how futile that is? This sort of sense of, of destiny that he’s got going there. And so then Philip has a lot of time to wake up in the middle of the night and walk around the house and almost get a chandelier dropped on him and almost fall off of the, the banister because it’s falling apart and hear sounds

Craig: and a giant cauldron of gruel almost burns him.

Three people, including the butler live there. He is making a cauldron.

Todd: Maybe this was his day of the week to cook. Who knows?

Craig: Yeah, he’s meal prepping.

I do think that you’re right that the movie takes a different approach to it. I read it kind of somewhere in the middle because the movie tells us the house is haunted. But I also read it that Roderick is just so convinced of his fate that he genuinely believes it. He’s crazy, but he believes it. Yeah, I agree.

He believes it about Madeline too, and so the stuff that he’s doing, I think that he believes, yes, that he has the best of intentions. He’s just crazy .

Todd: Yeah. Yeah. I didn’t mean to suggest he was malevolent or whatever in doing this. No, I, I agree with you a hundred percent. He’s crazy. But then there comes a point.

Where Madeline starts to get excited about the idea that I could leave. Oh, you know what? Maybe I can leave. Just like, like a light switch. Philip said it five times instead of four. And now suddenly, she’s convinced that she can go. And it’s at that moment that, uh, Philip leaves his, the room. And the minute he leaves, Roderick is right around the corner.

Goes into the room. Philip is done packing the bags. And he hears the door open. Some argument he comes back to her room. He hears them arguing in there She screams seconds after she screams or they’re finished talking He opens the door and she is dead laid out in bed as though in a coffin Dead with a little smile on her face and Roderick is pensively looking out the window

Craig: I don’t understand that at all now.

I I did read that And I wonder if this is one of those times. I did read that Corman sometimes went back in and did stuff with ADR and he, I read that he a lot of the times liked to insert screams because he felt it was more dramatic. I wonder if that’s what happened here. Because it doesn’t make any sense.

You said it’s seconds. It’s not seconds. He’s outside the door. He they’re arguing. They are having a full out argument that you can hear. She’s like, No, I’m leaving. There’s nothing you can do to make me stay. And then she screams and a millisecond later, he burst into the room and she is laid out. And Roderick is just like at the window.

I don’t think he’s smoking a cigarette, but that’s the vibe, like, yeah, she’s dead. It’s your fault. And,

Todd: and, and he accuses Roderick, you know, but it’s so old timey movie, there’s nothing he really does about it, right? He accuses Roderick of, of causing this problem, but he’s like, no, you don’t, you know, she was so frail, she was, she was right on her deathbed, you know, even though, come on, like, she sure didn’t look like she was on her deathbed.

No, she

Craig: was fine.

Todd: But he checks her pulse, he holds a mirror up to her mouth, once again, okay, dubiously, he’s convinced she’s dead, he cries, and the next shot is they’re, they’re praying in the, the crypt, in the family, uh, cathedral, you know, in, inside the house. And, again, one of the differences from the story is that as they’re sitting there praying in front of her open coffin, Roderick has his head buried in, I’m sorry, Philip has his head buried in his hands.

And he’s talking with Roderick and Roderick is like, you know, reassuring him. No, you don’t understand. It was destined to be that way. And Roderick looking up, sees her fingers move. Obviously

Craig: he makes a point of, I see that. And then he real quick closes it. And the guy’s like, let me have one more look. And Usher’s like, No, I couldn’t bear it.

So it is very apparent in the movie that he knows that she’s alive when she’s buried. Now I am confused about what happens next because what’s his name? Philip. Philip has a conversation the next morning with the Butler and the Butler lets the catalepsy thing spill. So Philip immediately runs down and.

Busts open the coffin and she’s not in there. So Philip in a rage runs up and confronts Roderick and it’s like, where is she? And he’s like somewhere safe. And he’s like, take me to her. And, and Usher’s like, no, I won’t take you to her, but she’s dead. She really is this time. I swear

Todd: she wasn’t dead before, but she’s dead now is basically what he’s where.

And what’s the implication? That he, that he knocked her over the head with a hammer and finished the job? I mean

Craig: No, I think that he’s still lying because Then a storm comes and I don’t remember the exact sequence of events But Philip at one time gets really upset about something and the butler tells him to take a nap.

So he does

And he has a crazy dream that was all shot It was shot silently, so it’s just scored with weird things, and it’s like, it’s all kind of weird and ethereal, like monochromatic blues and things, and you see people in silhouettes, and there’s lots of smoke. It’s very strange, it’s very stylistic, but eventually, It’s cool.

It’s, it was a cool departure from the rest of it. It felt very dreamy.

Todd: It picked things up, you know, the movie needed this intrigue. First of all,

Craig: because it doesn’t feel, yeah, it doesn’t feel like a monster movie in the sense that these monster movies typically feel like a monster movie, uh, Corman justified that to the, I don’t know who his producers or whoever, that, uh, the, the house was the monster and they were like, Okay.

But there’s this whole ghost scene. Yeah, there’s this whole ghost scene in the vault where it’s like all of the ancestors like ghoulishly like reaching at him. And then he sees, you know, Usher like staring at him in a scary way. And then he sees the girl in the coffin and she’s still alive, but she’s screaming and.

Is it that he wakes up and he’s convinced that she’s still down there? I don’t remember exactly.

Todd: I love that in this dream sequence, it’s the rest of the ancestors out there too. It’s like, they’ve come alive and they’re cackling and you know, they’ve come to claim her, you know, it adds to that theme that, you know, they’re.

Roderick maybe is right, you know, this was all along, she’s, she was destined to this, this fate because of her bloodline, her lineage. I thought the dream sequence was, I mean, usually I roll my eyes at a dream sequence, especially in a Haunted House movie because it often feels like filler. In this case, it was, it was I think well needed and, uh, welcomed as far as I was concerned.

It was a nice departure from what’s otherwise a pretty slow burn.

Craig: It is, it is. I ultimately imagine that it is kind of filler, but it’s filler that works. Yeah. And it’s in keeping with the story. I mean, this movie is not trying, I don’t know, I don’t think Poe in his original story is trying to keep it a mystery whether or not the house is really haunted.

I think that you’re supposed to question the reliability, not of the narrator, but of Roderick who’s telling his own story and telling his own history, because he is crazy. There’s clearly something wrong with him, but you’re left to question throughout most of the story, is he just crazy or is there really something going on?

And I think by the end it’s clear that something is going on. And so I don’t mind that they’re a little bit more explicit about this. Subtlety sometimes just doesn’t play in film as well as it does in literature. And in this case, especially when you’re targeting an audience who is used to Frankenstein and Dracula and zombies and, and all these kinds of things, I think this I think people would be satisfied with this and I was too.

I liked it. I enjoyed it. But apparently still, what’s his name? Philip confronts Usher again and Usher has just entombed her again somewhere else. Yeah,

Todd: in a secret room next to that room.

Craig: And she’s still alive and he’s like, can’t you hear her? Can’t you hear her? And this is all from the story. And eventually she gets out.

Now, again, this is embellished. Philip chases her through the house, through all these secret passageways.

Todd: It’s like a second house, those secret passageways, really. And I think it’s interesting, I actually really liked that bit where she broke out of the coffin. I’m not sure how she did it, that thing was chained up five times over.

But there’s a bloody hand that reaches out, and that one gave me a bit of a shock. Corman mentioned that it got a good reaction from the audience too, and I guess for me, I wasn’t expecting in this movie to see any gore at all. So when I saw a bloody hand suddenly reach out, I was like, Oh! That’s something.

But yeah, we see her break out of her coffin, and run up a staircase, and Philip comes in and sees that the coffin’s empty, but it’s bloody on the inside like she scratched her way out of it. And then Roderick goes to pull out a gun, and I was like, what is he getting the gun for? Who’s he gonna shoot? I don’t know.

I guess it was her, right? Did he imagine that she was coming for him?

Craig: I don’t even remember him pulling out a gun, but he’s just upstairs, and, you know, She shows up and she’s all kind of like Bride of Frankenstein y. And he’s so scared he

Todd: just drops the gun out of fright.

Craig: Yeah, and then she attacks him. I mean, she attacks Philip a couple times too, like she’s gone.

I mean, he explains it like, oh, she has the family madness. Well, I think that it’s suggested in the story that she went mad from having Had to claw herself out of her early grave, which tracks. It

Todd: does. 100%.

Craig: But either way, she’s crazy. Now she attacks him. They fall to the ground in her fighting. Meanwhile, the house catches on fire and the whole house burns down and that looks good because.

They were able to actually burn a building and shoot it and

Todd: a barn and he’s reused that footage in a couple of these poe ones.

Craig: That’s what I heard. I mean, smart. I’ve read again. I haven’t seen them all, but I’ve read. He reused that footage. Sometimes he reused sets. Sometimes Smart. Why not? Yeah. Like, and, and I read that he thought, ah, nobody will notice.

You know what? Probably nobody does. Like how many movies, I mean, I noticed because I’m looking for those kinds of things, but we have watched a lot of horror movies and I’m like, Hey, that’s the exact same facility that was in that other movie that we’re watching. Most people, most people are probably not going to pick up on those types of things.

It’s smart. Again, economical. And Roderick ends up, you know, the whole house burns down and there’s a quote from Poe at the end about how the lake just like enveloped the house and you see the house sink into, you see the matte painting of the house sink into the lake. None of it’s bad. No, none of it’s bad.

Todd. I walked away, like, honestly, it was kind of a slow burn. I was a little bored. And I think that if I were not such a fan of the story that I wouldn’t have enjoyed it as much. But not only am I a fan of the story, but I’ve studied it extensively. I mean, that sounds really like hoity toity, but I just have because of my job.

So I appreciate what they did here because ultimately it is a pretty good adaptation.

Todd: I think that was part of his calculus, you know, he knew that everybody had at least read this story in high school and discussed it and studied it, and so everybody would be familiar with this story, and they were, and I think that’s part of why the movie is so popular, because otherwise, even for its time, it’s a bit of a slow burn, it doesn’t really follow Even his typical formula, you know, Roger Corman, faith famously said, I need blood like in the first five pages.

He wanted movies to kick off with action and something shocking in the beginning to really hook the audience. And this movie doesn’t have that at all, you know, except for the visual. Atmosphere, really. So it’s spooky. It’s very spooky. Took a big gamble. But look, I mean, it’s, it’s, it’s a movie for a different time.

I don’t I think a modern audience and a modern adaptation of this would have to insert a little more action in there. A little more plot, probably add things to what is ultimately a very heady story to kind of make it work for our attention spans nowadays. There are

Craig: 10 full length feature adaptations of this story, and that’s not all.

To mention television adaptations, shorts, anything like that. I haven’t seen them all, but I know some of them are really bad and trashy. I would venture to say that this is probably, if not the best, among the best. If you are interested in It being a fair and, and, and solid adaptation of the source material.

Like if you’re a fan of Poe and you’re a fan of that story, I think you’ll really like this movie. Oh, it’s very much in keeping with the tone and the feel. I, again, as I said, from the beginning, I didn’t love it. I may never watch it again, but I don’t have anything bad to say about it. I think it is well and competently made start to finish front to back.

And I, I would. Straight 100 percent recommend it to those fans of you out there like us who feel like you want to see as much essential stuff as you I would say that this is essential. Yeah, I would go so far as to say that this movie is essential.

Todd: Having seen almost all of the Poe adaptations. I think I don’t think I’ve seen the Raven all the way through but of the eighth that he’s done.

I would certainly not say this is the strongest. It’s definitely the one that kicked it off. That’s why we chose it. It was very successful for its time. It set them on the path to do seven more of these. I will also watch Vincent Price in anything. Yep. I will watch Vincent Price reading the phone book to me.

I just think he’s, he’s just such a compelling guy. So that’s a big strength of the movie as well. I’d seen it a couple times, but yeah, I, I will probably not revisit it either. But like you said, I would strongly recommend you see it if you’re into these things. It’s very gothic, you know, it’s very dreary and it’s fun.

Craig: I want to toss this in here that I was talking to Alan about. But. Watching this movie and I mentioned Vincent Price and I’ve mentioned on the podcast before that Vincent Price was from around the area that I live in. Um, so much so that he, he like was the band leader for parades, like homecoming parades around here and stuff.

And at the university that we all, yourself included, attended, there was a Vincent Price acting scholarship. And Alan said, you can, You can tell them I got it twice.

Todd: That’s hilarious. And he did. By the way, another fun bit of trivia, local trivia. Did you know that Richard Matheson got his degree from the University of Missouri School of Journalism? I did not. Then moved to California. Crazy, right? Wow. That’s also just down the road. Yeah. Very small world. Well, I’m super excited that we did this movie.

I’m super excited for the next three movies that we do in our tribute to Corman. We’re going to talk a lot more about the man and about his movies. Tried to pick a good selection because there’s so much to choose from. Obviously, the guy did so much more than horror. He was really just following the trends of the time.

So he did action movies and sci fi. Teenage romances and comedies and historical dramas and all kinds of stuff. Obviously, we’re just focusing on the horror. And I was really trying to focus around the stuff that he had a heavy hand in, either as a director or as a producer, as opposed to things that he just kind of put together and, and, you know.

You know, more or less let go. So I think you guys are going to enjoy the little retrospective that we have on Corman. I’m so sad to hear that he’s gone, but I’m so excited that we have this guy who can, we can look up to and the legacy that he’s left behind and the inspiration that he has been and will continue to be in the film industry is just mind blowing.

Craig: Well, and you said in the beginning, I’ve been looking forward to this day. That sounds kind of morbid. Sounds kind of morbid. I know exactly. Exactly what you mean. The man was 98 years old. We knew this was coming. Yeah, we’ve been anticipating this that that’s that’s what you mean Not that you were excited that he died But that we’ve that we’ve been both of us But the reason that I’ve been anticipating it is because I know how much he means to you And I’m happy to let you indulge in this because he has a career that warrants it.

So I’m looking forward to it too.

Todd: Thank you, Craig. And thank you all for listening as well. If you have a favorite Corman film, please reach out to us and let us know which one it is. Let’s get a discussion going. Chainsawhorror.com is our website. You can leave comments there. But also, if you just search Two Guys and a Chainsaw podcast, you can find our Facebook page, our Twitter feed, our Instagram.

Leave us some messages there. Tell us what your favorite Corman movie is and, uh, the impact. If anything that he’s had on your childhood, your life, maybe even your career. I know we’re going to have lots of great discussion behind the scenes and our, with our patrons, that’s a patrion. com slash chainsaw podcast.

If you are at all interested in becoming a part of that, go there, check it out. Consider becoming a patron of the show. We’ve got lots of great minisodes and articles and reviews and just a conversation happening there behind the scenes. That’s patreon.com/chainsawpodcast. Until next time I’m Todd and I’m Craig with Two Guys and a Chainsaw.

405 episodes

#Horror #Movies #Zombie #Monsters #Cinema #Todd Kuhns #Craig Higgins #Review #Critics

House of Usher

2 Guys And A Chainsaw - A Horror Movie Review Podcast

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House of Usher (aka The Fall of the House of Usher) (1960)

Episode 402, 2 Guys and a Chainsaw Podcast

Todd: Hello, and welcome to another episode of Two Guys and a Chainsaw. I’m Todd

Craig: and I’m Craig.

Todd: Craig, it almost sounds morbid to say that I’ve been waiting for this moment for such a long time.

Craig: Yeah, it does.

Todd: So maybe I shouldn’t say that, but what I really mean is, I’m just super excited at the chance to talk about one of my idols and heroes, Roger Corman.

The girl from happy days when we did a tribute for her, didn’t he produce planet of terror or planet terror or whatever it was galaxy

Todd: of terror. Yeah.

Craig: Galaxy of terror. Yeah. So, and so, you know, there’s, there’s fun stuff out there that is really, it’s fair to call them B movies, but they’re still fun to watch.

I don’t know that I need to see it again, but I needed it in my tool belt.

It was kind of hoping to capitalize on the popularity of the, of the A picture.

I want to be in the movie business.

Todd: in a way.

Right. You’re not paying for anybody’s time when you’re planning.

If you were to look a little bit closer, you would see the cracks. No pun intended for this movie, but Right.

Thanks to Roger Corman.

And and they did

Craig: Was this the first time they had worked together?

I know that they worked Many times together after this, but was this the first time they had worked together?

Craig: Yeah,

Todd: but yeah, I think this is the first time they had worked together and then he hired Richard Matheson who God, we just did stir of echoes, you know,

Craig: it’s not wild

Todd: based on his novel. I mean Richard Matheson another god of not just the movie industry, but, you know, just sci fi and fantasy in general.

And he eventually said he could produce in his sleep. It was so easy for him. Yeah, I was just going to

For most people

Oh yeah.

Craig: I would like to give kudos not only to Corman, cause I think that this movie is very well directed and well cast.

I was impressed. I actually was like, man, I missed out 10 years ago when I was teaching this story. I could have shown them this as a companion because it really is a very faithful adaptation.

Todd: Yeah, that’s a good point. I think it’s a bold story. It would not be my first choice of post stories to adapt because it’s, It’s a bit, what do I want to say?

Heady now, again, it’s been decades since I’ve read it, so please correct me if I’m wrong, but like a number of post stories, it’s very light on plot.

Craig: Yeah,

Todd: it’s, it’s all atmosphere. It’s people talking. It’s a sense of dread. It’s, it’s very thematic and metaphorical,

Craig: symbolic, lots. So like it is. And I think that that’s probably why we teach it in high school, because it’s an excellent example of symbolism.

Todd: been for years, right?

Not, not just recently, yeah. Yeah, right. The

Craig: family is cursed, absolutely. But, the movie expands upon that by making it out that they’re cursed because they’re terrible people.

Todd: Well, to be honest with you, that’s kind of how I remembered interpreting the story. Because I saw it as so metaphorical. I wasn’t willing to entertain.

Well,

So I think that really helps with this movie. It certainly helps with the setup. It makes it interesting. That big spooky mansion that definitely looks unreal.

Craig: Yeah, it’s like a matte painting, clearly

Todd: a matte painting and stuff. And the sets themselves are heightened on realism. You know, these. Cobwebs and spiderwebs stretched over everything and

Craig: everything’s lit by candle.

Terrible, terrible things. Anthony Usher.

Clip: Thief. Usurer.

Merchant of flesh. Bernard Usher. Swindler. Forger.

Jewel thief, drug addict

Francis Usher, professional assassin

Vivian Usher, blackmailer pilot, murderess

Todd: Yet you’re wondering well, what about this guy? Why does he feel so he seems not okay

Todd: Oh, it’s like the family, uh Memoirs or something.

Todd: As one did at the turn of the 19th century. He just,

Craig: they, they go down on the ground.

But that’s the basic story. Thank you.

Todd: Thank you, Craig. I feel like we all just got like an English lesson. I taught

Craig: that story. I taught that story for 10 years. I just gave you my best spark notes version.

Todd: I was just going to say your students could just listen to this episode and then they could just goof off during your lecture.

I think. You were probably a lot more concise this time around.

Craig: I hope so. You know that when I get talking, I

Todd: can

Craig: talk.

Even though. She seems fine.

Todd: That’s

Craig: the

Todd: other problem. It’s almost comical. Madeline, get ready to leave.

Craig: I want to, Philip.

Todd: Then you will.

Clip: Why? Because very soon I shall be dead. I forbid you to say that ever again. It’s true, Philip. It is not true, Madeline. You’re full of life.

Craig: Look at me, Philip. Do I look full of life?

Todd: Yeah, look at her. She’s gorgeous. She looks great. She doesn’t look frail or sickly at all. All to the point where you start to feel like maybe the real problem here is Roderick.

Craig: All right. Breakfast in the morning. Yeah, exactly.

Todd: You have a nice dinner and everything like that.

Craig: and a giant cauldron of gruel almost burns him.

Three people, including the butler live there. He is making a cauldron.

Todd: Maybe this was his day of the week to cook. Who knows?

Craig: Yeah, he’s meal prepping.

He believes it about Madeline too, and so the stuff that he’s doing, I think that he believes, yes, that he has the best of intentions. He’s just crazy .

Todd: Yeah. Yeah. I didn’t mean to suggest he was malevolent or whatever in doing this. No, I, I agree with you a hundred percent. He’s crazy. But then there comes a point.

Craig: I don’t understand that at all now.

I don’t think he’s smoking a cigarette, but that’s the vibe, like, yeah, she’s dead. It’s your fault. And,

No, she

Craig: was fine.

And he’s talking with Roderick and Roderick is like, you know, reassuring him. No, you don’t understand. It was destined to be that way. And Roderick looking up, sees her fingers move. Obviously

Craig: he makes a point of, I see that. And then he real quick closes it. And the guy’s like, let me have one more look. And Usher’s like, No, I couldn’t bear it.

Todd: she wasn’t dead before, but she’s dead now is basically what he’s where.

And what’s the implication? That he, that he knocked her over the head with a hammer and finished the job? I mean

So he does

It’s, it was a cool departure from the rest of it. It felt very dreamy.

Todd: It picked things up, you know, the movie needed this intrigue. First of all,

Is it that he wakes up and he’s convinced that she’s still down there? I don’t remember exactly.

It was a nice departure from what’s otherwise a pretty slow burn.

I liked it. I enjoyed it. But apparently still, what’s his name? Philip confronts Usher again and Usher has just entombed her again somewhere else. Yeah,

Todd: in a secret room next to that room.

Craig: And she’s still alive and he’s like, can’t you hear her? Can’t you hear her? And this is all from the story. And eventually she gets out.

Now, again, this is embellished. Philip chases her through the house, through all these secret passageways.

I guess it was her, right? Did he imagine that she was coming for him?

Craig: I don’t even remember him pulling out a gun, but he’s just upstairs, and, you know, She shows up and she’s all kind of like Bride of Frankenstein y. And he’s so scared he

Todd: just drops the gun out of fright.

Craig: Yeah, and then she attacks him. I mean, she attacks Philip a couple times too, like she’s gone.

Todd: does. 100%.

They were able to actually burn a building and shoot it and

Todd: a barn and he’s reused that footage in a couple of these poe ones.

So I appreciate what they did here because ultimately it is a pretty good adaptation.

Craig: 10 full length feature adaptations of this story, and that’s not all.

Todd: Having seen almost all of the Poe adaptations. I think I don’t think I’ve seen the Raven all the way through but of the eighth that he’s done.

And at the university that we all, yourself included, attended, there was a Vincent Price acting scholarship. And Alan said, you can, You can tell them I got it twice.

So I’m looking forward to it too.

405 episodes

#Horror #Movies #Zombie #Monsters #Cinema #Todd Kuhns #Craig Higgins #Review #Critics

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