Tonight’s movie is the Roger Corman horror “The Haunted Palace”. Although considered part of the series of Edgar Allan Poe adaptations Corman did with Vincent Price in the 60’s (Starting with House of Usher in 1960), it is actually an adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft’s “The Case of Charles Dexter Ward”. Corman wanted to do something different but the studio didn’t want to take the risk so they worked in Poe’s poem “The Haunted Palace” and presented it as another Poe adaptation. Retrospectively this is a shame as this is actually the very first adaptation of Lovecraft’s work and as far as I can tell the first appearance of the Necronomicon in a movie. The “Haunted Palace” in Poe’s poem was actually a metaphor for the human mind, but here it is implied to be about the mansion in which most of the action happens.
October Review Challenge – Day 23
The movie is set in the fictional village of Arkham (A regular Lovecraft setting, though not actually the setting in the source material). A dark shadow looms over the town thanks to a curse placed by the evil warlock Joseph Curwen (played by Vincent Price) upon his death at the hands of the villagers. It is believed the curse has caused many of the new born of the village to have horrendous mutations (often missing one or both eyes) and after 110 years these mutants are numerous. The remaining non-mutated ancestors of those that killed Curwen live in fear of the second part of Curwen’s curse which was his promise to return and take direct vengeance on those that burned him to death. Curwen’s old mansion looms over the town from a nearby cliff and has remained abandoned since his death.
Into this comes Curwen’s descendent, Charles Dexter Ward (Also played by Prie) and his wife Anne (Debra Paget in her final motion picture performance before retiring from the business). Ward is a decent man and not a superstitious one, but having just been notified of his inheritance (Curwen’s mansion on the cliff top) he has decided to visit his new property and assess what to do with it. Due to his striking resemblance to Curwen the villages are on the whole hostile to him and they all encourage him to depart and burn the deed to the mansion. Ward ignores them and travels to the mansion where he is greeted by a painting of his ancestor. The painting seems to have a hypnotic effect on the man.
Yog-Sothoth and the Necronomicon
Over time Curwen’s evil presence starts to take over control of Ward and while in control he continues his plans which revolve around two things, his revenge on the villages and his original goal which he was engaged in prior to be lynched over a hundred years ago which was to use the ancient evil book, The Necronomicon to summon the Elder God Yog-Sothoth and then breed captured women from the village with the creature with the goal of creating a race of super beings and unlocking the door to Yog-Sothoths realm. This it turns out is the reason for the deformities amongst some of villagers.
Curwen with the assistance of two other necromancers manages to bring his fiancée (Cathie Merchant) back from the dead, meanwhile Anne has sought help from the local doctor, Dr. Willet (Frank Maxwell) and the townsfolk after finding two of their own dead are ready to form a new lynch mob to take care of Curwen’s descendent. Curwen and his evil group capture Anne and plan to give her to the Elder Gods, but as the mob reach the mansion and set it on fire, they burn the painting of Curwen giving Ward a chance to take back control. But will it be enough? I’ll leave that part for you to find out should you chose to watch.
Assessment
The movie features a strong cast. Vincent Price gives the kind of powerful and creepy performance you expect from his horror appearances, but getting to play a villain and a victim he also gets an opportunity to show more vulnerability (something he was also very good at when needed). The rest of the cast includes a number of recognisable faces, probably most notable is Lon Chaney Jr (A horror legend himself as 1941’s “The Wolfman”), but I was also happy to see character actor and Horror and Film Noir regular Elisha Cook Jr. (“The Maltese Falcon”, “Rosemary’s Baby”). To be clear though Price is who people are tuning in for though and he doesn’t disappoint.
The plot is a little messy. It certainly has interesting elements but it feels a bit like it should have been a little more simplified or increased in length to properly explore the different elements. The Elder Gods and Necronomicon are somewhat wasted on a plot that didn’t really need them, though the deformed villagers certainly give the piece a bit of a Lovecraftian tone but they too are underused. Ultimately as tends to be the case with Corman’s horrors the source material is largely pushed to the side to allow for something that seems a little bit generic and it’s a shame when dealing with something so unique as the first Lovecraft adaptation. Slapping on the Poe poem doesn’t add anything of worth, this is a Corman film first, a Lovecraft film second and Poe Film a very distant third.
Conclusion
The movie is above average for a horror, but far from exceptional and this isn’t a surprise as that was pretty much Corman’s thing. Regularly producing decent horror films on a low budget. Not many of them could be considered classics, but many managed a good enough standard to entertain the audience in the day and to entertain me decades later. This one was weak in some places almost descending into self parody but strong in others, especially in Price’s performance. Overall it made for an entertaining experience and I do recommend checking the movie out. I’m going to give this a firm 6/10.
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