Thu 5 Nov 2009
Dan Stumpf Reviews Three OCTOBER HORROR MOVIES.
Posted by Steve under Horror movies , Reviews[3] Comments
● La chute de la maison Usher. [The Fall of the House of Usher.] Films Jean Epstein, 1928. Silent. Jean Debucourt, Marguerite Gance, Charles Lamy, Fournez-Goffard, Luc Dartagnan. Based on the story by Edgar Allan Poe; adaptation by Luis Buñuel. Screenwriter-director: Jean Epstein.
● The Fall of the House of Usher. G.I.B., 1949. Gwen Watford, Kay Tendeter, Irving Steen, Vernon Charles. Based on the story by Edgar Allan Poe. Director: Ivan Barnett.
● The Queen of Spades. Associated British Picture Corp., 1949. Anton Walbrook, Edith Evans, Yvonne Mitchell, Ronald Howard, Mary Jerrold. Based on the short story by Alexander Pushkin. Director: Thorold Dickinson.
After The Phantom of the Opera [reviewed here ] I followed up with two versions of The Fall of the House of Usher: first, a French silent film from 1928 by Jean Epstein and Luis Buñuel (whom I hold responsible for frequent meaningless cutsaway to shots of frogs enjoying a night of passion) and secondly, the British quota quickie from 1949.
I recommend both films to viewers who can enjoy a creepy mood for its own sake, and ignore some (well, a lot… make that an awful lot of) narrative deficiencies. The ’49 film in particular suffers from a bad script, dreadful acting and low budget, but it conveys such a sense of absolute horror that I find myself shuddering, even after repeated viewings.
The Queen of Spades, made the same year, in the same country as the second House, is in fact its polar opposite: lavishly produced and directed, brilliantly written and acted, it’s a film I can recommend to anyone who loves a fine, gothic chiller, with ghosts, obsession and satanic bargains.
And it also has a used bookstore.
November 5th, 2009 at 2:49 am
Queen of Spades is a magnificent film, the use of chiaroscuro lighting is particularly effective. The 1960 Russian film of the opera is not as good, but worth seeing. The story is worth reading too.
Haven’t seen the other two, but the silent Usher sounds interesting, and lest we forget the Vincent Price Corman version is actually pretty good.
My own Halloween horror fest was a bit more eclectic — Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Val Lewton’s The Leopard Man, Dark Intruder a made for TV film with Leslie Neilson as a Sherlockian 19th century sleuth hunting a supernatural killer, and the French film of John Dickson Carr’s The Burning Court. Topped it off the next day with the Gene Roddenbury pilot Spectre with Robert Culp and Gig Young as supernatural sleuths and Dirk Bogarde in The Mind Benders about an experiment of sensory deprivation gone wrong.
November 5th, 2009 at 12:11 pm
David
And then you came up for air?
Of the various Usher movies, the only one I’ve seen is the Vincent Price one. I thought it was pretty spooky at the time, but that was nearly 50 years ago.
I really ought to watch it again, with the lights off and the wind howling outside. A full moon would be good, too.
I’m getting goosebumps right now.
— Steve
November 5th, 2009 at 6:50 pm
I should point out Dark Intruder is only about an hour long and Leopard Man not a lot longer, and I started on the 30th, so it wasn’t as much of a marathon as it sounds. Not like I tried to watch three David Lean films at a sitting or something.
Eventually I’ll be reviewing Dark Intruder, in the meantime see it. It was made for television as a pilot and released theatrically. It’s a dandy little film with Neilson having a ball chewing the scenery an amateur Sherlockian sleuth and master of disguise and fine villainy by Mark Richman.