The Fall of the House of Usher

Intriguing early experimental treatment of Poe from the same filmmakers who would bring us the even more astonishing "Lot In Sodom" in 1933. Doesn't compete with the equally avant-garde feature length version made at the same time by Jean Epstein & Luis Bunuel, yet stands well on its own. More of a tribute to UFA & German Expressionism than an outright imitation, with specific nods to Caligari, Der Golem, and Faust. Visually rewarding for lighting, cinematography, sets, makeup. Compiled in a skewed fashion reminiscent of the structure of a nightmare. Captures the wonderfully gloomy, morbid atmosphere of Poe's work, the claustrophobic ambiance of "Usher" in particular. A treat for fans of the genre, in addition to being sufficiently unusual & brief (just over 12 minutes) to hold the average viewer's attention. At one time, this film was available on an anthology videotape called "American Avant-Garde" along with the aforementioned "Lot In Sodom." Great stuff if you're lucky enough to track it down.

This low-budget thriller was one of the first independent experimental films made in the USA. Heavily influenced by German Expressionist filmmaking (and in particular "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari") this film makes effective use of odd camera angles and stylized sets, and is still quite interesting to watch today as a sort of Gothic mood piece.

Considering the large number of early horror films that drew inspiration (however loosely) from the writings of Edgar Allen Poe, I'm left asking myself why I'm so inexperienced with the author's work. 'The Fall of the House of Usher (1928)' compresses Poe's 1839 short story into thirteen convoluted minutes, and I don't think I understood a moment of it. Beyond the inkling of a supposedly-dead sister coming back to life, the film made no clear sense to me, and I suspect that at least a vague knowledge of Poe would be useful prior to viewing. Nevertheless, my ignorance didn't prevent me from being entranced by every single second of James Sibley Watson and Melville Webber's avante-garde excursion into German Expressionism. Clearly drawing stylistic inspiration from Robert Weine's 'The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920),' as well as the numerous artistically-similar pictures that emerged from Germany during the 1920s, 'The Fall of the House of Usher' is a superbly-spellbinding montage of creative photography, used to tell, without a single intertitle, a morbid tale of family terror.

The directors utilise every trick in the book (and some they made up themselves) to give their film the dreamy, deranged visual logic of a dream – or, more accurately, a particularly nasty nightmare. The camera often tilts steeply and woozily to simulate the characters' mental disorientation – a technique that Carol Reed would later use, to a lesser extent, in 'The Third Man (1949)' – and much of the shooting took place through prisms that distorted and reproduced images. Slow motion, both forwards and backwards, all adds to the tone of a drug-induced haze, as ominous, fragmented phantoms tower overhead. The warped and exaggerated set design directly references 'The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari' and, on more than one occasion, Melville Webber's Traveller appears to emulate Dr. Caligari (Werner Krauss) himself. Shadows and lighting are used wonderfully to complement the mood, another technique borrowed from German Expressionism, and the gnarled outlines of unseen figures on the wall emphasise the overstated photography and set design, further stressing the Gothic overtones of Poe's story.

A traveler arrives at the Usher mansion to find that the sibling inhabitants, Roderick and Madeline Usher, are living under a mysterious family curse: Roderick's senses have become painfully acute, while Madeline has become nearly catatonic. As the visitor's stay at the mansion continues, the effects of the curse reach their terrifying climax.

This is a very odd film, and one that can quite correctly be called "Avant garde" or "experimental". Some rudimentary special effects were tested here, all of which had to be done in-camera. The camera itself is often off-kilter, giving a disorienting effect. We also have plenty of double exposures and what looks like kaleidoscope vision. The words "beat", "crack" and "scream" take on a life of their own.

Roderick is particularly creepy, and one wonders what influence -- if any -- this had on later versions of the Usher story. Today, the best known one is likely the Roger Corman and Vincent Price picture, but to compare that to this film would be difficult... even the most basic plot elements here are mysterious.

This film is also not to be confused with another film that came out the same year with the same name, starring Charles Lamy and Jean Debucourt. This other version had Luis Buñuel as Assistant Director, and is probably the better of the two.

Fall of the House of Usher, The (1928)

*** (out of 4)

While this thing is missing the wonderful Vincent Price performance it does manage to outshine the Corman film with its use of brilliant visual effects, which are quite remarkable considering when this was made. The infamous Poe tale is retold in this short, which uses various visual effects to get the horror across. Those into weird cinema will certainly want to check this film out, which manages to have a couple creepy spots

Certainly worth checking out.