“The Fall of the House of Usher, shot in CinemaScope and colour, is punctuated by shocking moments, but is more notable for its claustrophobic, doom-laden, necrophilic atmosphere and elegant camerawork.”—Philip French, The Guardian
Roger Corman’s celebrated cycle of Edgar Allan Poe adaptations begins with The Fall of the House of Usher. Convinced that his family’s blood is tainted by generations of evil, Roderick Usher (Vincent Price) is hell-bent on destroying his sister Madeline’s (Myrna Fahey) wedding to prevent the cursed Usher bloodline from extending any further. When her fiancé, Philip Winthrop (Mark Damon), arrives at the crumbling family estate to claim his bride, Roderick goes to ruthless lengths to keep them apart.
Shot in rich, vivid color and CinemaScope, from a literate script by genre master Richard Matheson, this is stylish gothic horror in a melancholy key. It was such a success that Corman reunited his core group of collaborators for the follow-up The Pit and the Pendulum the very next year and Corman's “Poe Cycle” was born. 1960, U.S., DCP, 82 minutes.