The first of Roger Corman's Edgar Allan Poe adaptations from American International Pictures, The House of Usher opens as Philip Winthrop (Mark Damon) arrives at the Usher ancestral home—a crumbling pile in an arid, foggy landscape—looking for his bride-to-be, Madeline Usher (the lovely Myrna Fahey). He is greeted there by Madeline's brother Roderick (Vincent Price),who asks him to leave. Not one to take no for an answer, Philip remains, staying for the night, determined to take Madeline away with him the next day. Roderick, however, is resolved to keeping his sister at home whatever it takes, believing his family to be under a curse that causes strange maladies, evil ways, and premature death.

House of Usher is about as Gothic as it gets, featuring a foggy landscape, an old dark house full of cobweb-strewn secret passageways, an elderly butler who knows more than he is letting on, a dusty old crypt, and a raging thunderstorm; but as atmospheric as the setting is, I didn't find myself all that engrossed in the mystery that unfolds. Instead, I found it all rather boring, Roderick's repetitious insistence that his family is cursed and Winthrop's steadfast refusal to believe what he is told becoming rather tiresome. Admittedly, the production is sumptuously mounted, with impressive sets and lovely colour cinematography (used particularly effectively during a hypnotic dream sequence),but on the whole I was left rather unimpressed by this much-loved horror 'classic'.

In one of the many classic adaptations of Edgar Allan Poe tales, Vincent Price creepily shines yet again. When Philip Winthrop (Mark Damon) goes to an estate to pick up his fiancée Madeleine Usher (Myrna Fahey),he learns from her brother Roderick (Price) that she and he both suffer from a degenerative disease that gives them both acute senses. Sure enough, it turns out that all is not quite what it seems.

Probably the most noticeable thing about this movie is that Vincent Price lacks his famously eerie moustache. But in a way, that almost makes him more mysterious. Roger Corman scored another triumph here. You're sure to love it.

It's interesting that in recent years people have begun looking at Vincent Price's films for American International Pictures as "classics". This really seems to be stretching the term, though I will admit they are often fun to watch but very slight films with pretty low budgets. I see them mostly as time passers. However, of these films this early one is perhaps the best. It's about a man who shows up at his sister's mansion to see her, but is told by her husband that she is dead. While the movie is only superficially related to the Poe story by the same name, it's closer than the later movies based VERY LOOSELY on Poe stories. I give the film high marks for making the absolute most of a low budget and for decent performances and mood throughout. It's worth seeing, but not great.