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{{Use American English|date=January 2025}}
{{Infobox film
| name           = House of Usher
| image          = House of Usher (1960) - Poster.jpg
| caption        = Theatrical release poster by [[Reynold Brown]]
| director       = [[Roger Corman]]
| producer       = Roger Corman
| screenplay     = [[Richard Matheson]]
| based_on       = {{based on|"[[The Fall of the House of Usher]]"|[[Edgar Allan Poe]]}}
| starring       = {{plainlist|
*[[Vincent Price]]
*[[Mark Damon]]
*[[Myrna Fahey]]
*Harry Ellerbe
}}
| music          = [[Les Baxter]]
| cinematography = [[Floyd Crosby]]
| editing        = Anthony Carras
| color_process = [[Eastmancolor]]
| studio         = Alta Vista Productions
| distributor    = [[American International Pictures]]
| released       = {{Film date|1960|06|18}}{{sfn|Eagan|2010|page=565}}
| runtime        = 79 minutes
| country        = United States
| language       = English
| budget         = $300,000<ref name="AIP">Mark McGee, ''Faster and Furiouser: The Revised and Fattened Fable of American International Pictures'', McFarland, 1996 p. 179</ref>
| gross          = $1,450,000 (US/Canada)<small>(rentals)</small><ref>"Rental Potentials of 1960", ''Variety'', 4 January 1961 p. 47. Please note figures are rentals as opposed to total gross.</ref><ref>{{cite magazine|magazine=Variety|url=https://archive.org/details/variety-1963-10/page/n104/mode/1up?q=%22beach+party%22|date=9 October 1963|page=17|title=Poe & Bikinis}}</ref>
<br />213,785 admissions (France)<ref>[http://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?depth=1&rurl=translate.google.com.au&sl=fr&u=http://www.boxofficestory.com/box-office-roger-corman-c25219334&usg=ALkJrhhPRR4k6t8SO7XOpFPK6Cs9OEHuHQ Box office information for Roger Corman films in France] at Box Office Story</ref>
}}

'''''House of Usher''''' (also known as '''''The Fall of the House of Usher''''') is a 1960 American [[Gothic film|Gothic]] [[horror film]] directed by [[Roger Corman]] and written by [[Richard Matheson]] from the 1839 short story "[[The Fall of the House of Usher]]" by [[Edgar Allan Poe]]. The film was the first of [[American International Pictures#List of Corman-Poe films|eight Corman/Poe feature films]] and stars [[Vincent Price]], [[Myrna Fahey]] in her final feature film, [[Mark Damon]] and Harry Ellerbe.

In 2005, the film was listed with the United States [[National Film Registry]] as being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."<ref>{{Cite web|title=Librarian of Congress Adds 25 Films to National Film Registry|url=https://www.loc.gov/item/prn-05-262/librarian-of-congress-adds-25-films-to-national-film-registry-2/2005-12-20/|access-date=2020-10-30|website=Library of Congress, Washington, DC}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Complete National Film Registry Listing |url=https://www.loc.gov/programs/national-film-preservation-board/film-registry/complete-national-film-registry-listing/|access-date=2020-10-30|website=Library of Congress, Washington, DC}}</ref>

==Plot==
[[File:Tri-City Drive-in, Crest Theatre ad - 20 July 1960, CA.png|120px|left|thumb|Advertisement from 1960]]
Philip Winthrop ([[Mark Damon]]) travels to the House of Usher, a desolate mansion surrounded by a murky swamp, to see his fiancée Madeline Usher ([[Myrna Fahey]]). Madeline's brother Roderick ([[Vincent Price]]) opposes Philip's intentions, telling the young man that the Usher family is afflicted by a cursed [[Heredity|bloodline]] which has driven all their ancestors to madness and even affected the mansion itself, causing the surrounding countryside to become desolate. Roderick foresees the family evils being propagated into future generations with a marriage to Madeline and vehemently discourages the union. Philip becomes increasingly desperate to take Madeline away; desperate to get away from her brother, she agrees to leave with him.

During a heated argument with Roderick, Madeline suddenly falls into [[catalepsy]], a condition in which its sufferers appear dead.  Roderick knows that she is still alive, but convinces Winthrop that she is dead and rushes to have her entombed in the family [[crypt]] beneath the house. As Philip is preparing to leave following the entombment, the [[butler]], Bristol (Harry Ellerbe), lets slip that Madeline suffered from catalepsy.

Madeline revives inside her sealed coffin, goes insane from being buried alive, and breaks free.  Philip rips open Madeline's coffin and finds it empty. He desperately searches for her in the winding passages of the crypt but eventually collapses.  Madeline confronts Roderick and attacks him, throttling him to death. Suddenly the house, already aflame due to fallen coals from the fire, begins to collapse, and the two Ushers and Bristol are consumed by the falling house, ending the Usher bloodline. Philip alone escapes and watches the burning house sink into the swampy land surrounding it. The film ends with the final words of Poe's story: "...&nbsp;and the deep and dank [[tarn (lake)|tarn]] closed (sullenly and) silently over the fragments of the 'House of Usher'".

==Cast==
* [[Vincent Price]] as Roderick Usher
* [[Mark Damon]] as Philip Winthrop
* [[Myrna Fahey]] as Madeline Usher
* Harry Ellerbe as Bristol

==Production==

The film was important in the history of [[American International Pictures]] which up until then had specialized in making low budget black and white films to go out on double bills.<ref name="AIP"/> The market for this kind of movie was in decline so AIP decided to gamble on making a larger budgeted film in color.

The film was announced in February 1959 and was dubbed the company's "most ambitious film to date".<ref>{{Cite news|title=Chase Still Critical Element in Comedy: Tempo and Crescendo Applied by Veteran Norman McLeod|author=Scheuer, Philip K.|date=Feb 13, 1959|work=Los Angeles Times|page=B7}}</ref>

A number of other companies announced Poe projects around this time: [[Alex Gordon (writer-producer)|Alex Gordon]] had a version of ''Masque of the Red Death'', Fox had ''Murders in the Rue Morgue'', [[Benedict Bogeaus|Ben Bogeaus]] ''The Gold Bug'', and Universal ''The Raven''.<ref>{{Cite news|title=Poe Scenarists Tell a Sad Tale: Couple Working on 1 of 6 Films Being Adapted From Writer Encounter Pitfalls|author=Murray Schumach |date=Aug 21, 1959|work=New York Times|page=12}}</ref>

It was shot in 15 days.{{sfn|Eagan|2010|page=565}} The budget was $300,000, $100,000 of which went to star Vincent Price.{{sfn|Eagan|2010|page=565}} Production designer Daniel Haller purchased sets and props from Universal Studios for $2,500 and redressed them to create the Usher mansion.{{sfn|Eagan|2010|pages=565-566}} The misshapen trees seen on the Usher estate were actual trees which had burned in a fire in the Hollywood Hills.{{sfn|Eagan|2010|page=566}} To depict the burning manse, Corman had two cameramen film the burning of a barn in Orange County.{{sfn|Eagan|2010|page=566}}

''House of Usher'' made $1 million in the summer of 1960.{{sfn|Eagan|2010|page=566}}

==Score==
In February 2011, Intrada made the world premiere release of the [[Les Baxter]] score from music-only elements in mono.<ref>[http://store.intrada.com/s.nl/it.A/id.6926/.f CD-page on Intrada's site]</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Intrada Soundtrack Forum • View topic - INTRADA Announces Les Baxter's HOUSE OF USHER |url=http://www.intrada.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=47528#p47528 |access-date=2025-10-21 |website=www.intrada.net}}</ref>
{{Track listing
|title1 = Overture
|length1 = 3:03
|title2 = Main Title
|length2 = 2:00
|title3 = Roderick Usher
|length3 = 4:02
|title4 = Madeline Usher
|length4 = 2:50
|title5 = Tormented
|length5 = 2:24
|title6 = Lute Song
|length6 = 1:00
|title7 = Reluctance
|length7 = 3:58
|title8 = The Sleepwalker
|length8 = 4:12
|title9 = The Vault
|length9 = 2:36
|title10 = The Ancestors
|length10 = 2:58
|title11 = House of Evil
|length11 = 4:53
|title12 = Catalepsy
|length12 = 4:13
|title13 = Pallbearers
|length13 = 2:03
|title14 = Buried Alive
|length14 = 8:14
|title15 = Fall of The House of Usher
|length15 = 13:50
|total_length = 1:02:16
}}

==Reception==
Eugene Archer, in the September 15, 1960 edition of ''[[The New York Times]]'' wrote, "[[American International Pictures|American-International]], with good intentions of presenting a faithful adaption of Edgar Allan Poe's classic tale of the macabre...blithely ignored the author's style. Poe's prose style, as notable for ellipsis as imagery, compressed or eliminated the expository passages habitual to nineteenth-century fiction and invited the readers' imaginations to participate." He further opined, "Under the low-budget circumstances, Vincent Price and Myrna Fahey should not be blamed for portraying the decadent Ushers with arch affectation, nor Mark Damon held to account for the traces of Brooklynese that creep into his stiffly costumed impersonation of the mystified interloper."<ref>[https://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9402E6DC1631EF3ABC4D52DFBF66838B679EDE ''House of Usher'' review] ''New York Times'' Retrieved 23 September 2008.</ref>

Other reviewers have been kinder, however; a positive assessment in ''[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]'' declared, "It's not precisely the Edgar Allan Poe short story known to high school English that emerges in ''House of Usher,'' but it's a reasonably diverting and handsomely mounted variation ... The film has been mounted with care, skill and flair by producer-director Roger Corman and his staff."<ref>{{cite journal |date=June 29, 1960 |title=House of Usher |journal=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]] |page=8 }}</ref> ''[[Harrison's Reports]]'' called it "fairly good entertainment. Although a bit too wordy, the abundant gore, photo gimmicks, special effects and unusual theme, help keep the viewer on his seat's edge."<ref>{{cite journal |date=July 2, 1960 |title='House of Usher' with Vincent Price, Mark Damon and Myrna Fahey |journal=[[Harrison's Reports]] |page=106 }}</ref> ''[[The Monthly Film Bulletin]]'' praised the film's "unusually resourceful" camerawork as well as "an excellent central performance" from Vincent Price, finding that although Corman's direction "does not suggest a great stylist in the making, he brings off the big scenes with some invention, as well as making the most of what was probably only a medium-sized budget."<ref>{{cite journal |date=November 1960 |title=The House of Usher |journal=[[The Monthly Film Bulletin]] |volume=27 |issue=322 |page=151 }}</ref> Betty Martin of the ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'' called it "a better than average horror film – if that's saying much", adding that Price "does a masterful job" in his role.<ref>Martin, Betty (July 21, 1960). "Horror and Hoke Keys to 'Usher.'" ''[[Los Angeles Times]]''. Part III, p. 10.</ref>

''House of Usher'' has an 83% "fresh" rating on [[Rotten Tomatoes]] based on 53 reviews and a critics consensus: "Scary, strange, and maybe a little silly, ''House of Usher'' represents an early high mark for Vincent Price and a career triumph for director Roger Corman."<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_fall_of_the_house_of_usher_1960/ |title=The Fall of the House of Usher |website=[[Rotten Tomatoes]] |access-date=August 24, 2025 }}</ref> {{Metacritic film prose|75|8|ref=yes|access-date=21 October 2025}}<ref>{{Cite web |title=House of Usher Reviews |url=https://www.metacritic.com/movie/house-of-usher/ |access-date=2025-10-21 |website=www.metacritic.com |language=en}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[List of American films of 1960]]
*[[American International Pictures#List of Corman-Poe films|The Corman-Poe cycle]]
*[[Midnite Movies]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Bibliography==
*{{cite book|last=Eagan|first=Daniel|title=America's Film Legacy: The Authoritative Guide to the Landmark Movies in the National Film Registry|location=New York|publisher=Continuum|date=2010|isbn=9780826418494|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=deq3xI8OmCkC}}

==External links==

{{Commons category}}
* {{IMDb title|0053925|House of Usher}}
*{{TCMDb title|id=23674}}
* [http://www.mgm.com/#/our-titles/628/The-Fall-Of-The-House-Of-Usher ''House of Usher''] at [[Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer|MGM]]
*[https://books.google.com/books?id=deq3xI8OmCkC ''House of Usher''] essay by Daniel Eagan in America's Film Legacy: The Authoritative Guide to the Landmark Movies in the [[National Film Registry]], A&C Black, 2010 {{ISBN|0826429777}}, pp.&nbsp;565–66

{{Roger Corman}}
{{Richard Matheson}}
{{The Fall of the House of Usher}}


{{DEFAULTSORT:House Of Usher (Film)}}
[[Category:1960 films]]
[[Category:1960 horror films]]
[[Category:1960 English-language films]]
[[Category:American International Pictures films]]
[[Category:Films based on The Fall of the House of Usher]]
[[Category:Films directed by Roger Corman]]
[[Category:Films produced by Roger Corman]]
[[Category:Films scored by Les Baxter]]
[[Category:Films set in country houses]]
[[Category:American gothic horror films]]
[[Category:Films with screenplays by Richard Matheson]]
[[Category:United States National Film Registry films]]
[[Category:American psychological horror films]]
[[Category:American exploitation films]]
[[Category:1960 American films]]
[[Category:English-language horror films]]

{{Wikipedia attribution|original_title=House of Usher (film)|access_date=2026-03-03}}