The Fall of the House of Usher / The Pit and the Pendulum (Midnite Movies Double Feature) [DVD]

Another volume of MGM's 2-on-1 discs of classic horror brings us two of Vincent Price's most famous films this time around, 'The Fall Of The House Of Usher' (aka simply 'House Of Usher') and the 1961 version of 'The Pit And The Pendulum'. Both are based on Edgar Allan Poe short stories, both are adapted by Richard Matheson and both directed by Roger Corman. This particular clique brought out a lot of good horror mysteries in the 60s. In Usher, a young man arrives at the vast manor of the Usher family looking for his missing fiancee, only to find her there very ill and in the care of her older brother Roderick (Price) and the family's servant. Roderick is mentally unwell, that's easy to see from the start, and his senses seem to have sharpened to a superhuman degree. Aware of the bloody history of some of the Usher family's more brutal ancestors, Roderick considers the entire Usher bloodline a bane upon the world, that'll go on to do even greater harm in the future unless it's eradicated, as the recently arrived suitor (Phillip, played by Mark Damon) of Madeline Usher (Myrna Fahey) realizes to his horror, and with the surviving members of the clan present, Phillip fears that Roderick is going to take it onto himself to do just that. This is one of Vincent's more sympathetic and tragic roles - Roderick isn't evil, just insane, and even through that insanity loves his family dearly, which makes what he's contemplating all the harder. 'House Of Usher' is very well done - certain technical aspects aren't as good as they would have been if done just a decade or so later (it was released in 1960), but the use of color, sound and atmosphere combine for good effect. The movie works on many levels, and on its own would get a four-star rating. In 'The Pit And The Pendulum' - perhaps packaged with 'Usher' because of similar themes - Price is once again subject to paranoia and delusions, this time as Nicolas Medina, son of one of the most notorious and sadistic torturers of the Spanish Inquisition, the late Sebastian Medina. Price is terrified the cruelty and the madness of his father will pass down through the blood, and though Nicolas is a kindly family patriarch, he fears eventually becoming just like his father. New events in the family home are indeed threatening to drive Nicolas over the edge - his recently deceased wife (Barbara Steele) is appently haunting the place, blaming Nicolas for her untimely demise. Or is someone merely trying to make him think his bride has come back from the dead? Or is it all in poor Vincent's head? The movie is admittedly too slow-paced for at least the first half of its running time (not a bad first half, but definately could have been punched up a bit) but improves in its latter sections, with a brilliant final fifteen minutes or so that gives us perhaps Price's singlemost memorable moment on film (I believe you'll know it when you see it). On its own, I'd give Pit And The Pendulum 3-and-a-half stars. By the way, the 1991 version of The Pit And The Pendulum is so radically different from the Price/Corman one that it shouldn't even count as a remake. (The original short story was so short that, if filmed literally, it would have been maybe five to ten minutes long, so it was greatly embellished for its filmings, just in different ways). That version is also very good - totally different story and much bloodier. It's available in  The Stuart Gordon Presents Box Set , along with 'Castle Freak' and 'Deathbed', for anyone who's interested in seeing both adaptations. Great two-movie set; the similarity of the two to each other means one may want to watch each one with an alternate second title instead of watching both 'Usher' and 'Pendulum' in the same night; myself I'd recommend getting  The Masque of the Red Death / The Premature Burial  and/or  Hammer Horror Series (Brides of Dracula / Curse of the Werewolf / Phantom of the Opera (1962) / Paranoiac / Kiss of the Vampire / Nightmare / Night Creatures / Evil of Frankenstein)  and mixing and matching. If you like any one of these 3 sets you're likely to enjoy the others as well.

This series of 2 film DVD's from MGM in their "Midnight Movies Double Feature" collection is a great deal. Keep in mind the films is the series may not be MGM pictures, they are just the DVD distributor. The movies are decently priced, and they usually do a good job of matching up 2 movies in a theme. This set is no exception, with two American International Pictures films based on stories by Edgar Alan Poe, both featuring the great Vincent Price and both directed by Roger Corman with screenplays by Richard Matheson, and both feature music by Les Baxter.First up we have the "Fall of House of Usher", from 1960, in color. It is presented in 16x9 Widescreen, and it runs a brisk 1 hour 20 minutes. Screenwriter Richard Matheson gives the Poe story a good treatment with plenty of plot twists, scaring the pants off of us as a family lusting for power is driven to savagery. The Film Daily in its review at the time described the stories "brooding evil and sinister suspense". The film was a big hit with the movie going public at the time, hitting the top 5 of box office sales for the year, and encouraged the studio to produce more Poe stories.Next film is "The Pit and the Pendulum", from 1961, in color, presented in 2.35:1 Widescreen letterbox format. This movie is also 1 hour 20 minutes in length and is a fast paced film. The Hollywood Reporter described this film on release as "eerie and excellent", and they hit the mark. Corman improved on the formula for Usher, and the Pit was a smashing success. The story builds suspense as British man (John Kerr) visits a castle in Spain, owned by his wife's brother (Vincent Price), in order to investigate her death. She is played by Barbara Steele. The inquisition has recently ended, but Price fears he has inherited has sadistic and murderous traits of his father, who was an inquisitor. Price, who also plays his father, was given a more complex role with some meat on it and seems to be enjoying himself. A real spine-tingler, the scenes with the pendulum were incredible. The castle and dungeon scenes are very atmospheric partly due to the talented art design for the set by Daniel Haller.EXTRAS & DVD ISSUES:: There is an audio commentary by Director Corman for "Usher", and the Theatrical Trailer. The "Pit" has the original trailer, audio commentary by director Corman who regales us with explanations about his camera trickery and techniques. We are also gifted with a rare prologue filmed for the Pit movie's TV release in 1968. No insert or booklet included. The image and sound are very clean and appear to be remastered, the colors are bright for the period. The only complaint is, on the DVD I purchased the second movie "the Pit and the Pendulum" is on the reverse side, side B. I have other movies like this and it seems to work OK, but on this one it just would not play. I tried it on other players and same story. I did buy another copy later that worked fine. Make sure you at least "test" the DVD when it arrives. All in all, I highly recommend this DVD, it is a keeper.

I've had this “Midnite Movies” double-bill DVD in my collection for some time and It's been a really good buy.The two films are directed and produced by Roger Corman and are acknowledged horror classics from the early 60s.The Pit And The Pendulum was the first horror film I ever watched, so it has a particular place in my cinematic memories.Both films have their origin in the works of Edgar Allan Poe (as do a number of Corman`s other horror films) and depart considerably from those sources. Influenced by Hammer horror films, they were quickly shot, low budget productions, but effective and delightfully lurid. They were particularly fortunate to have good casts and some very distinguished talents providing the screenplays (Richard Matheson) and music (Les Baxter).Vincent Price is the star of both movies and their success did much to enhance his standing with younger audiences at the time.This is a double-sided disc and will (probably) only play on a multi-region or region 1 player; it is NTSC and both films are in letterbox 16x9 format with English or French soundtracks and French or Spanish subtitles; there are no English subtitles.A very recommendable disc if you can get it at a reasonable price, though both films should now be available on region 2 format (which wasn't the case when I bought it).

THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER (1960) & THE PIT AND THE PENDULUM (1961)Midnite Movies Double Feature R1 DVD NTSCBack in the 1980s I replaced most of my collection of 8mm movies with VHS and I have been going through a same process of upgrading to DVD for the last few years. This has given me the excuse to revisit many films that I have not seen for some time and I have watched these two movies again just recently for the first time in several years.These were the first two movies directed by Roger Corman based on the stories of Edgar Allen Poe in a series of eight; all but one starring Vincent Price, the intention was to film ten but suitable screenplays were not forth coming for other Poe stories and the filming ended after `The Tomb of Ligea' in 1964.THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER was the first attempt by American International Pictures to move `up-market' into main stream feature movies, their speciality at that time having been the making of black and white B movies for which there was a rapidly shrinking market. `The Fall of the House of Usher' was directed by Roger Corman who had a reputation for bringing in productions under schedule and under budget which suited AIPs dwindling resources; the screenplay was by Richard Matheson and this first film featured Vincent Price as the only well known star in the casting list. The film was shot in only fifteen days and came in well under the $300,000 budget and was received less than well by the critics who criticised Price's over-the-top, tongue in cheek style and Corman's loose interpretation of Poe's short story, but was a success in the US theatres, and then as now was a great favourite with audiences in Europe. I missed the first UK release and first saw this film in the late-sixties as part of a four movie Sunday `Horror Night' of Vincent Price films.Philip Winthrop played by Mark Damon arrives at the House of Usher, a gloomy mansion, to meet his fiancée Madeline Usher, Myrna Fahy to find that Madeline's brother Roderick, played by Vincent Price opposes the union as the Usher family is afflicted by a cursed bloodline which has driven all their ancestors to madness. Roderick foresees the family evils being propagated into future generations with a marriage to Madeline and tries to discourage Philip, who becomes increasingly desperate to take Madeline away; she agrees to leave with him, desperate to get away from her brother. During a heated argument with her brother, Madeline suddenly dies and is laid to rest in the family crypt beneath the house, but is she really dead or has her brother buried her alive?THE PIT AND THE PENDULUM 1961This was the follow-up movie to The Fall of the House of Usher, with a massive budget of $1,000,000 due to the box office success of the previous film; again Corman brought it in in fifteen day and with an actual budget of less than $300,00. Due the to success of the previous year's film, Price demanded a payment of £125,000 plus a share of the returns, which was off-set by designer Daniel Haller's re-use of many of the sets from the previous year and `borrowing' scenery and props from any studio that was left unguarded. The cast was upgraded with veterans John Kerr and Barbara Steele and supported by AIP contract players.In 16th Century Spain, Francis Barnard, John Kerr, visits the castle of his brother-in-law Nicholas Medina played by Vincent Price to investigate the cause of the mysterious death of his sister, Elizabeth, Nicholas's wife, Barbara Steele. Nicholas and his sister, Catherine, Luana Ander explain that Elizabeth died from a rare blood disorder; however,d uring dinner with the family doctor, Francis again asks about his sister's death. Dr. Leon tells him that his sister had died of massive heart failure, literally "dying of fright". Francis demands to be shown where Elizabeth died. Nicholas takes him to the castle's torture chamber, where he reveals that Elizabeth, became obsessed with the chamber's torture devices. After becoming progressively unbalanced, one day she locked herself into an iron maiden, and died after whispering the name "Sebastian".The screen play was again written by Matheson but was extensively altered by Matheson and Price during filming. The torture chamber scenes were quite spectacular, in particular the pendulum, a copy of a real blade used by the Spanish Inquisition. The blade was originally made of rubber but filmed badly and so was replaced with a sharp metalised blade and John Kerr wore a steel band beneath his shirt as the blade needed to cut through the garment without disembowelling the actor. He commented after filming that his sweat was absolutely real.The movie was an instant success both with the public and the critics and is still considered to be one of the best of the Corman AIP productions.Both films are absolute classics of the genre and this pairing is of the theatre release versions of 79 mins and 85 mins respectively, not the shortened cuts usually seen on television. This is a R1 double sided disc and so may not be compatible with older players but should present no issues with more recent equipment.

bon service et bon produit