Tue 11 Aug 2015
A Movie Review by Jonathan Lewis: THE HAUNTED PALACE (1963).
Posted by Steve under Horror movies , Reviews[4] Comments
THE HAUNTED PALACE. American International Pictures, 1963. Long title: Edgar Allan Poe’s The Haunted Palace. Vincent Price, Debra Paget, Lon Chaney, Frank Maxwell, Leo Gordon, Elisha Cook Jr. Screenplay: Charles Beaumont, based on the poem by Edgar Allan Poe and the story “The Case of Charles Dexter Ward” by H.P. Lovecraft. Director: Roger Corman.
Except for the poem that Vincent Price reads off screen at the film’s end, there’s nothing Edgar Allan Poe about Roger Corman’s The Haunted Palace. With a straightforward, although at times disappointingly flaccid, screenplay by Charles Beaumont, this alternatingly captivating, creepy, and quixotic film is actually a cinematic adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft’s novella, “The Case of Charles Dexter Ward.”
Price is perfectly cast in a dual role as the fiendish warlock, Joseph Curwen and as Curwen’s descendent, the one and only Charles Dexter Ward. Nearly two hundred years prior, an angry mob of New England townsfolk burned Curwen to death as a means of stopping the strange diabolical man from practicing sorcery in a little town called Arkham.
Young girls used to disappear in the middle of the night and end up in Curwen’s castle on the hill. The men of Arkham were going to have none of that. Not on their watch. There was even talk that Curwen was capturing them in order to breed their beautiful girls with a hideous monster, all in order to create a superhuman master race.
Flash forward. Enter Charles Dexter Ward. A man from all appearances a kind and gentle, if somewhat naïve man. He’s got a lovely bride Anne (Debra Paget) and a claim on his ancestor’s forbidding estate. As you might imagine, it’s not too long before the evil forces of the past storm the present and the spirit of Curwen takes possession of Charles Dexter Ward’s body.
What evil schemes does the resurrected spirit of Curwen have in mind? Does he even work for himself or for the old gods, those malevolent spirits of yesterday just waiting to reclaim their earthly inheritance?
The Haunted Palace reminds us that horror need not be gruesome, that it can be done tongue in cheek, with a wink to the audience, all the while raising issues about the ethics of science and, in this case, eugenics. Unlike so many contemporary horror films, this one is steeped in history, atmosphere, and the New England Gothic literary tradition.
Although at times it feels incomplete, with too many strands never fully sewn together, this outing by Price in a dual role as two men overtaken by forces they can’t fully comprehend is definitely worth a look.
August 11th, 2015 at 6:14 pm
I saw this in the theater as a youth. I hadn’t read Lovecraft’s story at the time, but I’d read Poe’s poem in “The Fall of the House of Usher.” In those days, as you can see in the poster, Poe’s name was above the title in a good many movies from American International. They made another one with the title of one of his poems, “The Conqueror Worm,” which had nothing to do with the poem.
August 11th, 2015 at 6:18 pm
THE CASE OF CHARLES DEXTER WARD is one of my favorite Lovecraft stories and it’s also the longest, along with THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS. This film was a well done adaptation of the novella.
August 11th, 2015 at 6:29 pm
The film manages to adapt Lovecraft well, which is no easy feat, so I give the film quite a bit of leeway and Paget makes a nice change from Hazel Court and Barbara Steele.
Not a great one, but very good.
August 11th, 2015 at 7:54 pm
There was another version of CHARLES DEXTER WARD in the early ’90s, THE RESURRECTED. directed by Dan O’Bannon, starring Chris Sarandon. It had its moments but I liked HAUNTED PALACE better, which I saw in the local second-run theater on a double-bill with THE TERROR, late November 1963.