HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL
US, 1959, 75 minutes, Black and white.
Vincent Price, Carolyn Craig, Richard Long, Elisha Cook Jr, Carol Ohmart, Alan Marshal, Julie Mitchum.
Directed by William Castle.
House on Haunted Hill (remade in 1999 with Geoffrey Rush and Famke Janssen) was one of many small-budget short horror thrillers devised by director William Castle. After beginning with conventional films like The Americano, The Saracen Blade, he moved into science fiction and horror with Macabre in 1958. Other films at this time include The Tingler, Thirteen Ghosts and Homicidal.
The film has a number of twists as a wealthy man invites a group to a haunted house, promising to pay them a large sum of money if they can survive the night. The twist involves his relationship with his wife and their plan and she and her lover’s plan to kill her husband. Since the husband is Vincent Price, he finally turns the tables on them.
Vincent Price had emerged by the late 50s as an icon for horror films, which was to be consolidated by his appearing in the Roger Corman Edgar Allen Poe adaptations. Some veteran character actors appear in support including Elisha Cook and Alan Marshal.
1.A horror film of the 1950s? A Vincent Price film? Haunted house? Murder mystery?
2.The black and white photography, the house, its size, imposing exterior, the vast interiors? The setting for this kind of horror film? Atmospheric score?
3.The basis of the plot: Frederick Loren inviting the strangers to the party in the house? The offer of ten thousand dollars? His contact with them? The scenes of their arrival? His welcome? His wife’s presence but her keeping her distance? The set-up for the evening, the caretakers gone, the locked doors?
4.The character of Frederick Loren, the suave Vincent Price manner, his relating with each of the guests? His relationship with his wife, the tension? His hosting the evening, the various appearances and disappearances, the deaths? The traps like the secret corridors, the acid bath …? His interaction with his wife as the evening went on? The finale, the unmasking of the plot, his turning the tables on them and destroying them?
5.Annabelle Loren, her distance from her husband, protestations of love? Her relationship with the rest of the guests, moving in and out? The final revelation of the relationship with the doctor? The acid bath? Her husband turning the tables on her?
6.The variety of guests: Nora, Lance and his attentions to Nora? Watson Pritchard and the voice-over? Doctor Trent? Ruth as the older woman? The way their characters were presented? Their interactions? The fears, especially with Nora and the irony of her being set up to be terrified? To give an alibi for Frederick and the killing of his wife? Her fears that she had killed Frederick? The relationship with Lance? The dashing hero? Ruth Bridgers and her age, her need of money? Doctor Trent and his being in the background, his offers of medical help?
7.The frights, the ghosts? The corridors? The deathly appearances on walls? The explanations – that Doctor Trent and Annabelle had set them up? Their manipulation, pretending that people had been hanged? The irony of Frederick Loren knowing this and counterbalancing?
8.How satisfying a horror thriller? Intriguing?
