|
The Haunted Palace (1963)
Starring Vincent Price, Lon Cheney, Jr., Debra Paget, and Frank Maxwell. Cinematography by Floyd Crosby. Edited by Ronald Sinclair. Produced by Roger Corman. Written by Charles Beaumont. Directed by Roger Corman.
The citizens of the small New England town of Arkham are suspicious of their recluse neighbor Joseph Curwen (played by Vincent Price). Living in a palace on the outskirts of town, Curwen is suspected of charming women into his home, doing unspeakably evil things to them, and returning them the next morning without any recollection of the night’s events. Finally the tension boils over and an angry mob marches up the hill to Curwen’s residence seeking revenge.
The confrontation ends with Curwen being tied to a tree and burned alive, but not before he delivers a curse on the simple townsfolk. One hundred and ten years pass and Arkham still lives in fear of the consequences of that night. These nightmares are rekindled when Charles Dexter Ward (also played by Vincent Price), the great, great grandson of Joseph Curwen, arrives to claim the palace, which has been bequeathed to him.
Ward and his young wife Ann (played by Debra Paget) move into the deserted palace to determine if it can be inhabited. But the ghost of Curwen still lingers within its stony walls and it is not long before Ward is possessed by the rancorous spirit. Curwen is now ready to pick up where he left off with his malevolent rituals, but before he does he has a score to settle with the Arkhamites.
Roger Corman discovered the equation for nearly guaranteed profit in the filmmaking business in the early 1950s. With the right combination of bizarre stories, eccentric characters, inventive special effects, young talent, a minimized budget, and an efficient shooting schedule, it was nearly impossible not to keep a project in the black. This formula found its stride in 1960 when Corman produced an adaptation of Edgar Allen Poe’s short story “The Fall of the House of Usher” which he simply titled The House of Usher.
The film was a success and would be the first in a long string of Poe/Corman collaborations that would include such classics as The Masque of the Red Death, The Pit and the Pendulum, and The Raven. Corman would also adapt the short Poe poem “The Haunted Palace” in 1963, but picked up most of his plot points from the H.P. Lovecraft’s novella “The Case of Charles Dexter Ward”. Though the film is fully titled Edgar Allen Poe’s The Haunted Palace, the credits cite both Poe and Lovecraft as source material.
While Corman was celebrating his newfound successes, Francis Ford Coppola was finishing up his post-graduate studies as UCLA. The two met in 1962 when Corman hired Coppola to reedit a Russian film that he had recently acquired titled Nebo Zowet. Corman was so impressed with Coppola’s efforts that he quickly picked him up as a full time production assistant. Over the next few months Coppola would fill various roles in a number of Corman pictures including The Premature Burial, Tower of London, and Coppola’s directorial debut, Dementia 13.
Coppola would also be around to do some uncredited script work on The Haunted Palace, as well as acting as its dialog director. The film can still offer some interesting moments to today’s audiences, but overall is one of the more forgettable additions to Corman’s expansive library.
Budget: $???
Total US Gross: $???
Genre: Horror
Runtime: 75 Minutes
US Release Date: 8/28/63
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Awards: none
Tagline: What Was The Terrifying Thing In The PIT That Wanted Women?
Quote: “Do you believe me now, Micah Smith? Now that you’ve seen with your own eyes… do you believe when I tell you that’s the home of Satan himself?”
|
