THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER

US, 1960, 79 Minutes, Colour.
Vincent Price, Mark Damon, Myrna Fahey.
Directed by Roger Corman.

The Fall of the House of Usher is one in the series of Edgar Allan Poe stories filmed cheaply but spectacularly by Roger Corman during the early 60s. Corman took great interest in transferring Poe to the screen in colour and widescreen lurid melodrama. Critics and the public were in acclaim for this series which included such films as The Masque of the Red Death, The Tomb of Ligeia and The Haunted Palace. Vincent Price was to star in most of these films. They form quite an interesting series as versions of Poe and for the work of Roger Corman.

1. The quality of this film as horror, its creation of horror atmosphere and menace, the title, the theme in the physical collapse and the family collapse?

2. Audience interest in Edgar Allen Poe, his mentality, horror and madness, an American Gothic horror writer? The madness underlying American society? The 19th century?

3. The attitude and mentality that director Roger Corman brings to this film? The first in a series of eleven films of Poe's work? Quality production, commercialisation, insight into what Poe was communicating? These films as visual equivalents of Poe's language?

4. The quality of wide screen, the use of colour, special effects, devices for showing madness, fright? The lurid colours and the gaudy effects?

5. The use of wide screen with the confined scope of the plot: the fewness of the characters, their interactions. the confined space of the house and the various rooms, the confined time in which the plot took place? The effect of this for involving the audience?

6. The device of having the audience enter into the plot via the character of Winthrop: Winthrop as the young dashing hero, his heroics when confronted with the peril for his fiancee, the madness of the brother, the impeding butler? His participation in the terror, the importance of his nightmares and the way that these were visualised, his becoming a victim of the Ushers, the narrowness of his escape from the collapsing house and the collapsing family? The audience sharing his terror and escape? The understanding of what was happening through Winthrop's eyes?

7. How well did the film show the normality of Winthrop, his attitude towards the exotic and menacing house, towards Roderick and Madeline? The role of the butler in providing a balance between the madness and the normality? The character of the butler, his service of the Ushers, his service of Winthrop, the house collapsing on him?

8. The character of Roderick Usher and the epitome of this kind of madness? His explanation of what had happened in the family, his fears for Madeline, his wanting to kill her? The result of such an inbred family, his relationship with his sister, his explanation of his ancestors, the device of having him so sensitive to sounds and touches? Vincent Price's personality and style for this role? Cruelty and madness? The final destruction and the collapse of the house on him?

9. The contrast with Madeline and her seeming normality, the gradual revelation of her madness, the horror of her death and her being buried alive, her place in Winthrop's nightmares revealing his attitude towards her, throwing light on the impression of her madness? Her being a victim of Roderick, making Roderick a victim of her madness, wanting to destroy him and Winthrop?

10. How important are dreams and nightmares in this kind of horror? what do they reveal in their visual presentation, characters, symbols and colours?

11. The importance dramatically of the final confrontation between Winthrop and Roderick, Roderick's death? The culmination of themes?

12. The house destroying itself, the preparation of the various collapses during the film, the final fire and the consuming of the house?

13. How interesting as an expression of American Gothic and 19th century madness?