Book-To-Movie: Poe’s ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’

The promotion poster for the 1960 movie adaptation of Edgar Allen Poe's "Fall of the House of Usher" which starred Vincent Price. Photo Credit: Wikemedia Commons

  

Our Book-To-Movie for November is now crossing into December in which I apologise for. However, like myself, I’m sure many of you were too busy to read many blogs during the Thanksgiving weekend in which I hope you all had a great one. I didn’t post this during the week either because I was busy getting caught up on things that I got behind on mostly due to the holiday. Here’s November’s Book-To-Movie in December. In a Book-To-Movie, we review a work of prose fiction and its movie adaptation. We’ve reviewed many Roger Corman film adaptations of Edgar Allen Poe’s short stories here in the past. One we haven’t reviewed yet is his 1960 adaptation of Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher”. One of the most distinguished features of Poe’s horror tales is his morbid style in both setting and character. Vincent Price who starred in Corman’s movie adaptation of “Fall of the House of User” gives it Poe’s morbid style. 

Poe’s Short Story 

Poe’s short story, ‘Fall of the House of Usher’, is about the narrator, who is unnamed (as in many of Poe’s stories), staying with his ill and disturbed friend, Roderick Usher, at his family’s mansion. He learns that Roderick is dying and so is his sister, Madeline, both of who are the last surviving members of the Usher family. What’s also dying is the Usher mansion. The house not only has a life of its own, an element that’s common in many gothic horror stories, but its lifeforce or soul has been one with the Ushers themselves. So, when the last of the Ushers die off the house will die with them.

Illustration by Arthur Rackham for "The Fall of the House of Usher" from the book, "Poe's Tales of Mystery and Imagination", 1935. Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

Poe’s usual morbid style comes through the character of Roderick. It particularly comes through Roderick’s despairing talk of both his and Madeline’s oncoming death and so the death of the entire Usher line. Just as important is the morbid style coming out through the very setting of the story, the Usher House and its surroundings, especially the black tarn that literally reflects the gruesome house and landscape surrounding it. 

Poe’s “Usher” is a classic American gothic horror tale that’s influenced many horror tales that came after it. It's ending scene of the collapsing haunted house became a trope for many horror movies throughout the 20th century, in some cases to the point of cliche. 

Roger Corman’s Movie Adaptation

Corman’s film adaptation of Poe’s short story by no means over uses the falling house ending since it’s what gave original story it’s title to begin with. In this film, however, the title was shortened to “House of Usher”. It stars Vincent Price as Roderick. The basic plot is the same as in Poe’s original tale, but there are some major changes to the events and characters. The biggest of these is that the movie is more of a love story than its source material. But it doesn’t make it any less of a gothic horror tale, so if you’re not a romance fan like I’m not, you won’t be upset. If you are a romance fan, then this movie can be rightfully considered paranormal romance for it’s time.  

In Corman’s “House of Usher”, the protagonist, Philip Winthrop (played by Mark Damon), goes to the Usher mansion not to visit the sick Roderick (Vincent Price), but instead to visit Madeline. Madeline (Myrna Fahey) is Winthrop’s fiancé and so writer Richard Matheson gives the Madeline character a more actively significant role than she's given in the short story. When Winthrop arrives at the Ushers’ mansion, he meets Roderick for the first time who tries to prevent Winthrop's marriage to Madeline. Instead of a friend to the protagonist, Roderick is a blocking force between Winthrop and his beloved. 

Vincent Price does a really good job portraying the dreary and despairing Roderick and so provides the movie the morbid mood that Edgar Allen Poe’s style of writing gives the short story. It’s no wonder why he’s performed narrations of so many Poe stories such as in the 1970 TV special, “An Evening of Edgar Allen Poe”! Although he depicts Roderick as the antagonist to Winthrop and Madeline’s marriage, he shows a degree of sympathy to the former. However, he does this as a kind of prophet of doom by telling Winthrop that if he stays at Usher House or marries Madeline he will be affected by the family curse.

Although the setting in this movie can’t beat the gloomy description of the one in Poe’s story, it still does a fantastic job conveying the gothic elements. It does this in scenes such as of the vast front of the Usher house looming large and dark when Winthrop approaches it on horseback, and with certain interior scenes such as the catacombs beneath the house infested with cobwebs and skeletons. Also, while all of Poe’s story has a dream-like quality to it, this movie has a really good nightmare segment depicted with billowing fog and flood-lighted in a gloomy blue and purple tone, a common style element in many of Corman’s Poe-based films. 

Roger Corman’s “House of Usher” takes liberties with Edgar Allen Poe’s “Fall of the House of Usher” and changes the plot’s details considerably a lot, but leaves the basic details and themes in. However, what keeps a lot of the mood of the original story is Vincent Price’s portrayal of Roderick Usher which gives the movie the gloom and doom of Poe’s style of writing. This movie can’t beat the original story but, because of both Price’s high quality acting and Corman’s unique style of filming, it is the best cinematic interpretation of “The Fall of the House of Usher”. 

Newsletter and Book-In-Progress

I apologise for not being able to come out with a newsletter for November. There will be one for this month which will be the Holiday edition, so expect to see it in your in-boxes before Christmas. And yes, you may open before Christmas. If you’re not subscribed to my free newsletter, "Night Creatures' Call", then you can sign up here. In this newsletter, I go over the progress and behind-the-scenes of my latest fiction; I also offer exclusive discounts on books and cover other sci fi/fantasy news and info not covered here at A Far Out Fantastic Site. 

And speaking of progress of my latest fiction, I just finished another round of revision of a short story for my upcoming book, “Bad Apps”! I’ll be presenting it to my critique group in about another week. In the meantime, I’ll be finishing up the grammar edits for another short story to be included in the book, this one about a VR game that corresponds simultaneously to events in the real world. To find out more about this and the other stories in “Bad Apps”, again, sign up for my free newsletter!

Have you read Edgar Allen Poe’s “Fall of the House of Usher” or seen the Vincent Price movie adaptation? If so, what did you think of either of them? Have you seen any other movie versions of Poe’s short story?

Until next time . . .