Ivan Barnett
When I think of classic British horror made prior to mid-50s Hammer Studio dominance, two films immediately come to mind: the highly influential anthology Dead of Night (1945) and The Queen of Spades (1948), a fantastic adaptation of the Alexander Pushkin short story of the same name. While those two efforts were each made with top talent and decent budgets for major studios (Ealing Studios for Night and Associated British Picture Corporation for Queen), this rough-around-the-edges early Poe adaptation has none of that luxury. Instead, this is an extremely rare example of a truly independent genre film made completely outside of the studio system by amateurs at a time when this seldom ever happened. Very few of the people involved in this particular production went on to do much of anything else in film. The director, for instance, has a few other credits (mostly industrial films and shorts) but none seem to be available anywhere, while only one person in the cast was ever seen again. As such, that turns this into a real curio item regardless of its shortcomings.
The film's freestanding status also likely explains both its obscurity and its patchy distribution history. According to the Turner Classic Movies website, this was shot back in 1947 and registered for copyright in 1948 yet would not be released until two years later. Supposedly, it ran for just one week at a single theater in London in 1950 before being pulled. Originally rated H (a 16+ rating standing for "Horrific"), it would later be cut for theatrical showings in 1955 and 1961. These must have been very limited reissues because I could not find a single theatrical poster for the film.
Perhaps the last thing you expect to see in a adaptation of a story first published in 1839 is the sight of a car driving down a road, but this is the first of many deviations from Poe's original story. The modern opening - with an elder gentleman at a club plucking the Tales of Mystery and Imagination compilation off a shelf and reading the Usher story to some of his pals - is merely used as a bookend. We're then off to the mid-19th Century period setting, with the unnamed narrator character from the story, here called Jonathan (Irving Steen), taking a long horse ride through the country toward the gloomy, remote Usher mansion. Jonathan has received a letter from his former childhood best friend, Roderick Usher (Kaye Tendeter), asking for both his assistance and his companionship.
Upon arriving, Jonathan is greeted by the family physician, Dr. Cordwell (Vernon Charles), who immediately tells him he's just entered into a miserable home and to turn around and leave while he still has the chance. Ignoring him, Jonathan moves on to the study where Roderick awaits with a neurotic, sad sack tale that would have most sane people running for the nearest exit. Depressed Roderick speaks of an inherited "family evil," a nervous affliction of the senses that includes only being able to stomach the blandest food, eyes feeling tortured by even the faintest of light and all sounds, aside from stringed musical instruments, being horrible to the ears.
Madeline (Gwen Watford), Roderick's sister and sole companion for many years, also suffers from a mysterious ailment, though hers is cataleptic in nature and finds her slowly wasting away in her bedroom. That may, or may not, have something to do with her being regularly served some mysterious fizzy cocktail that may, or may not, actually be poison and may, or may not, be the doing of the brother or the doctor or the butler, Charles (Gavin Lee), or perhaps some combination of the three. As for what's going on there, the filmmakers never even bother to tell us! Dr. Cordwell eventually comes clean and tells Roderick the sordid history of the home, which takes a major turn away from the original Usher story.
After finding out his wife was having an affair, Roderick and Madeline's father confronted them in a temple hidden past some marshland on the estate grounds. He chained up the lover, beat his wife and then decapitated the lover, but not before he was able to first place a curse upon the family. As a result of seeing her lover killed, the Usher family matriarch went mute and insane... but she's still alive and living in the temple, which also happens to house an ancestral torture chamber with a rack, chains, hangman's noose and other torture essentials. There, the ghoulish-looking mother (Lucy Pavey) keeps her deceased beloved's head on an alter and, though usually "harmless enough," will go into a murderous rampage if anyone attempts to touch the head.
Seeing how the curse is likely also responsible for the ill health of the surviving Usher children as well as the rapid deterioration of their home, Dr. Cordwell comes to the conclusion that the only way to end it is to incinerate the lover's head. Yet, actually getting to it is another story! When he, Roderick and gardener Richard (Antony Powell-Bristow) attempt to restrain the mad Lady Usher, she comes at them with a knife and then kills Richard after he steps on a bear trap (!) Afterward, she escapes the temple, makes her way to the house, sneaks inside via some catacombs and scares the hell out of Madeline, who expires shortly thereafter. This then goes the Premature Burial route as Madeline rises from her grave (we're unsure whether she's a ghost or has been driven mad by being buried alive) and heads out after her sibling.
Incredibly stiff acting, dull characters, terrible editing, a confusing plot structure (I'm pretty sure this went into flashback mode at some point but I could never quite tell where!) and a director who doesn't appear to have a clue how to generate suspense or set up a shock scene would seem like the death knell for something like this. Then again, there's this film's wonderfully dreary atmosphere, which is only enhanced by its more primitive technical aspects. The photography (by the director himself), art direction, lighting schemes and use of shadow and silhouette are really the saving graces here and help to create a palpably gloomy aura that does justice to Poe even if the newly-added subplots do not. This also has a few genuinely spooky moments, most of which center around the creepy mother character.
IMDb claims this was released on VHS by Sinister Cinema but they actually only carried the 1966 version starring Denholm Elliott made for the British TV series Mystery and Imagination, not this version. Though I don't believe this has ever been given a legitimate home video release, it's available for streaming on the BFI website (which is blocked to U.S. users unfortunately) and was occasionally run on TCM. A better quality print exists than what my screen caps would indicate, but I watched the version currently up on YouTube.
★★
