La chute de la maison Usher

Original title: The Fall of the House of Usher

1960
Approved
1h 19m

IMDb RATING

6.9/10

16K

YOUR RATING

Upon entering his fiancée's family mansion, a man discovers a savage family curse and fears that his future brother-in-law has entombed his bride-to-be prematurely.

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Drama Horror

Upon entering his fiancée's family mansion, a man discovers a savage family curse and fears that his future brother-in-law has entombed his bride-to-be prematurely.Upon entering his fiancée's family mansion, a man discovers a savage family curse and fears that his future brother-in-law has entombed his bride-to-be prematurely.Upon entering his fiancée's family mansion, a man discovers a savage family curse and fears that his future brother-in-law has entombed his bride-to-be prematurely.

Director
- Roger Corman
Writers
- Edgar Allan Poe
- Richard Matheson
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.9/10

16K

YOUR RATING

Director
- Roger Corman
Writers
- Edgar Allan Poe
- Richard Matheson
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

Awards
- 3 wins total

Ghost
(uncredited)

Mario Bellini

Ghost
(uncredited)

Bill Borzage

Ghost
(uncredited)

Eleanor LeFaber

Ghost
(uncredited)

Nadajan

Ghost
(uncredited)

Ruth Oklander

Ghost
(uncredited)

George Paul

Ghost
(uncredited)

Géraldine Paulette

Ghost
(uncredited)

Phil Sulvestre

Ghost
(uncredited)

John Zimeas

Ghost
(uncredited)

Director
- Roger Corman
Writers
- Edgar Allan Poe
- Richard Matheson
All cast & crew
Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

Storyline

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Did you know

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Trivia
Roger Corman learned that there was an old barn in Orange County, CA that was about to be demolished. He was able to strike a deal that would allow him to burn the barn at night and film it. The resulting footage was so good that it was used not only in the climax of this film but in later "Poe" films as well.

Goofs
Roderick is shown playing a lute, but the sound we hear is a muted harpsichord.

Quotes
Roderick Usher: Last night you asked me about the singular aridity of the land around this house. Once this land was fertile, farms abounded. Earth yielded her riches at harvest time. There were trees and plant life, flowers. Fields of grain. There was great beauty here. At that time this water was clear and fresh. Swans glided upon its crystal surface. Animals came to its bank, trustingly, to drink. But this was long before my time.
Philip Winthrop: Why do you tell me these things?
Roderick Usher: And then something crept across the land and blacked it. The trees lost their foliage. The flowers languished and died. Shrubs grew brown and shrivelled. The grain fields perished. And the lakes and ponds became black and stagnant. And the land withered as before a plague.
Philip Winthrop: [puzzled] A plague?
Roderick Usher: Yes, Mr. Winthrop: a plague of evil.
Roderick Usher: [showing some pictures of his ancestors] Anthony Usher: thief, usurer, merchant of flesh. Bernard Usher: swindler, forger, jewel thief, drug addict. Francis Usher: professional assassin. Vivian Usher: blackmailer, harlot, murderess, she died in a madhouse. Captain David Usher: smuggler, slave trader, mass murderer.
Philip Winthrop: [reluctant] Mr. Usher, I don't see that this has anything to do with Madeline and myself. I don't believe in the sins of the fathers being visited upon the children.
Roderick Usher: [ironic] You do not, Sir?

Alternate versions
The original UK cinema version was cut by the BBFC to remove a shot of Madeline's bloodstained hands held to her face. All later versions were uncut.

Connections
Edited into The Trip (1967)

User reviews132

Featured review

A Masterpiece of Gothic Horror Cinema

Roger Corman's brilliant adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe's chilling tale is one of the greatest achievements in cinematic horror. It's hard to pick one of Corman's Poe adaptations as the best, but this, the first, might be it.

The movie is fairly faithful to the story, but extremely faithful to the tone of Poe's writing. No one but the team of Corman and writer Richard Matheson could pull it off like this. Poe's deranged sense of dread and sardonic humor are all here, in every shot.

Vincent Price turns in one of his finest performances as Roderick Usher, a man who is glad that he and his sister, Madeline (the wonderful Myrna Fahey) are the last of their bloodline, as he believes the family is doomed to all eventually go mad. He also suffers from hyper-sensitivity, and must have quiet, dim light, soft clothing and bland food, otherwise he suffers extreme pain. Whether this is a physical or psychological anomaly is never confirmed.

Madeline's fiance Philip (Mark Damon) comes to the house to claim Madeline as his wife. Roderick forbids it, believing he and his sister should die together, thus ending the Usher line of insanity. But it may be too late, as Madeline is already showing signs of flipping out, and Roderick has some pretty twisted ideas of how to stop that from happening.

The movie leads up to a spine-tingling finale that's as intense and scary a climax as anything I've seen. HOUSE OF USHER is a great horror movie, and perhaps the most faithful adaptation of Poe, both in content and style, ever filmed.