THE HAUNTED PALACE 1963

Hosted By Cinematic Catharsis & Realweegiemidget Reviews

"…While, like a ghastly rapid river, Through the pale door, 
a hideous throng rush out forever and laugh – But smile no more"

    Although cinematically placed in Roger Corman's "Poe" cycle for A.I.P. (and marketed as such by A.I.P. who by this time were highly attuned to the cash cow the series had become) 1963's THE HAUNTED PALACE is based (however nominally) on the H.P. Lovecraft novella The Case Of Charles Dexter Ward with Price narrating the closing verses of the Poe poem that lends itself to the film's title.
    Written by Charles Beaumont (Rod Serling's THE TWILIGHT ZONE) the story while being saddled with Poe references, based upon a Lovecraft story and with a script by Beaumont does sometimes has the feel of a mix of different cooks, none of which are fully developed. In interviews, Roger Corman has bemoaned the fact that he was forced to link Poe to all these projects and that he was looking forward to doing a Lovecraft adaption. The film itself is a beautiful looking production with Floyd Crosby's cinematography (HOUSE OF USHER), art direction by Daniel Haller (THE DUNWICH HORROR) and set direction by Harry Reif (PANIC IN YERO ZERO) all lending themselves to a production that's Gothic eye candy all done in somber browns & blacks, with mist-shrouded matte paintings and gnarly trees.

    Coming 6th in the series (after the comedic THE RAVEN from earlier in 1963, THE HAUNTED PALACE was the last of the series to be filmed in America and coming in the latter half of the series it benefits from the studios slowly up ticking budget for each film and although still technically a "B" picture it has the sumptuous look that Corman and his crew brought to these films. Although all the Poe films always had some adult themes lurking just under the surface, THE HAUNTED PALACE brings these more to the forefront with rape and women being possessed in order to breed with otherworldly entities. The film is also the first theatrical picture to directly reference Lovecraft with such cosmic horrors as Elder Gods, Cthulhu, and Yog-Sothoth along with the town of Arkam all being mentioned. It contains the first utterance of the fabled Necronomicon (by the mad Arab Abdul Alhazred) with the book being shown on-screen in its film debut.
     Like all the Poe films, THE HAUNTED PALACE opens with some atmospheric credits (designed by Armondo Linus Acosta THE YOUNG RACERS) as a spider spins a web across a black screen with the web moving over the credits. A group of angry townsfolk is gathered in a local tavern (although we're never given a specific year we're led to believe the films opening narration takes place in the mid-1700s before jumping ahead to the next century for the remainder of the film) and they're mounting angry with local warlock Joseph Curwen (Vincent Price) comes to a head when Edgar Weeden's (Leo V. Gordon TOBRUK) wife is wondering off in a trance to Dexter's castle where she is to be indoctrinated into some evil proceedings. Doing what townfolks do best in this type of situation they gather the pitchforks and torches and proceed to the castle where they take Ward and burn him at the stake. Like all good warlocks (and witches) he proceeds to invoke a curse upon the townfolks and their descendants as a thunderstorm rages overhead.

     Flash forward 110 years and Curwen's great-grandson Charles Dexter Ward (again Price) and his wife Ann (Debra Paget TALES OF TERROR in her last theatrical role) arrive in Arkam to claim their inheritance of the Curwen castle. Stopping in the Burning Man Tavern they come across the same surly group of townsfolk (in fact the exact same as they're played by the same actors portraying the original mob's relatives). Among them are a gaggle of familiar character faces including above mentioned Leo V. Gordon along with Elisha Cook Jr. (THE MALTESE FALCON), John Dierkes (THE ALAMO) and ubiquitous TV presence Frank Maxwell (MR. MAJESTYK). Finding them not too receptive to his looking to settle in the Dexter house, the couple proceeds to the newly inherited adobe with only Maxwell's doctor character showing them some friendship. There's also a sequence showing the physically deformed offspring of some of the Arkam residents that still packs a jolt.
    Once inside the castle, Charles Ward gazes upon the portrait of his ancestor Joseph Curwen and immediately begins channeling his evil great-grandfathers personality while hooking up with his two assistants one of them being Simon Orne (Lon Chaney Jr.), here making his only appearance in a Corman film along with this being his only pairing with Price. Charles Ward/Joesph Curwen begins moving forward with his old plans which include resurrecting his previous mistress (Barbara Morris THE WASP WOMEN and who appeared in over 15 A.I.P. films from 1956 to 1970), and (hopefully) getting Debra Paget to get acquainted with "the thing in the pit". At the same time, the same group of angry villagers (Leo V. Gordon spends his brief screen time in a perpetual rage) us fuming in the same pub before the now possessed Price begins knocking them off in gruesome fashion as revenge for his previous century stake burning.

     Price seems to be having a wonderful time playing the dual roles (especially toward the middle of the plot when he alternates between the two) and it's interesting to see him play somewhat of a   milquetoast character in the first scenes before he goes into the full arching eyebrows Vincent Price evil persona. Even though by this time this would the evil warlock would be a character Price could play in his sleep, he still brings a wonderful and entertaining level of professionalism to the role.  Chaney Jr.'s work had lately been regulated to guest spots on TV westerns and with the exception of Jack Hill's SPIDER BABY in 1967, this would be one of his last decent roles.
    Debra Paget had had roles in several major movies including DEMETRIUS AND THE GLADIATORS 1954, THE TEN COMMANDMENTS 1956, and Elvis's LOVE ME TENDER in 1956, but made the biggest impression in Fritz Lang's THE INDIAN TOMB 1959 where has Seetha she did a dance that was forever ingrained on many a young boy's brains during its frequent showing on Sat. afternoon TV. She doesn't get to do a lot here, seeming to spend most of her time cowering in her bed or wondering about the castle in her dressing gown - which to Paget's and cinematographer Floyd Crosby's credit do look ravishingly beautiful.
     The movie's plot is indebted to Mario Bava's LA MASCHERA DEL DEMOINO (aka BLACK SUNDAY 1960) and that films motif of witches/warlocks being executed while invoking curses on future generations would be carried over in countless Euro-horror films of the coming decade along with John Llewellyn Moxey's CITY OF THE DEAD  (aka HORROR HOTEL 1960) which also seems to be an influence on THE HAUNTED PALACE (Roger Corman during this period was a  prodigious movie watcher).
     Lovecraft's fiction often dealt with demonic cosmic entities, ancient evil religions of vast scope and unexplainable monstrous visages all of which are pretty much impossible to project on the screen (especially in 1963 on an A.I.P. budget) and THE HAUNTED PALACE attempts to marry some of this to a rather basic A.I.P. "Poe" plot. The result being is that's a great deal of exposition by characters in the film attempting to explain this which sometimes bogs down things in the middle and the films much talked about & hyped "pit monster" or "old one" is bound to disappoint if fully shown. Its wavy out-of-focus views during the plot's climax are more in line with what Lovecraft often described as horrors unable to describe. This film is my favorite of the Poe cycle and it's gorgeous to look at (it's Gothic overdrive to the max) and while only being nominally attached to the Lovecraft source novella it does an admirable job of invoking the spirit of H.P. and remains one of my favorite Lovecraft adaptions and one of my favorite Vincent Price roles.

THE DUNWICH HORROR 1970

Really Zonked Out & Creepy Wizard Dean Stockwell is Conjuring up a Bunch of LSD Inspired Lovecraftian Evilness by Way of a Virginal Sandra (Gidget) Dee & a Big Slithering Yog Sothoth !

H.P. Lovecraft Movie Night # 1 !

     H.P. Lovecraft has never faired too well as far as faithful movie adoptions are concerned. His sometimes dense (and occasionally overwrought) narrative style doesn’t translate well to cinema and his descriptions of vast cyclopean lost ruins and huge multi-tentacled beings from another dimension are always going to be a challenge to visually adopt. Stuart Gordon’s highly entertaining screen versions of RE-ANIMATOR, FROM BEYOND & DAGON took just the basic premise of the Lovecraft stories and catapulted them into updated territories beyond even ol’ H.P.’s imagination. DAGON although perhaps being the least known of the trio has the best Lovecraft vibe running thru it with probably the most faithful re-imaging of the Lovecraft “old ones” mythos and is based upon The Shadow over Innsmouth. Plus the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society has released a couple of excellent b&w feature adaptations of THE CALL OF CTHULHU and THE WHISPER IN THE DARKNESS.

    A.I.P’s 1970 version of THE DUNWICH HORROR was probably less envisioned as a Lovecraft vehicle but more as a way to cash in on Hollywood’s popular post ROSEMARY’S BABY craze for all things satanic. The company did do Lovecraft earlier with DUNWICH’s director Daniel Haller tackling DIE MONSTER DIE (based upon The Colour out of Space) and in 1963 there was Roger Corman’s excellent & atmospheric THE HAUNTED PALACE. Although titled after an Edgar Allan Poe poem (and marketed as such - complete with a Vincent Price Poe recital over the opening credits), PALACE is based upon Lovecraft’s The Case of Charles Dexter Ward and is also notable for being one of Lon Chaney Jr.’s last good roles and the very beautiful Debra Paget’s last role before retiring.

    Originally envisioned by A.I.P in the early 60’s as vehicle for director Mario Bava starring Boris Karloff and Christopher Lee (which is pretty exciting to wonder about), Haller’s 1970 take on THE DUNWICH HORROR has always gotten a somewhat ill-deserved bad rap. Starring a seemingly perpetually stoned Dean Stockwell and a wooden post -Gidget Sandra Dee (looking to kick start her career), it’s sometimes uneasy collision of gothic ambiance combined with psychedelic trapping & clothes (you could almost land a jet on one of Stockwell’s ties) have all been a source of ridicule. It does however keep the basic core of one of Lovecraft’s best stories intact and in spite of its budget restraints has some excellent set pieces, along with a wonderful alternately trippy & creepy score by Les Baxter and is helped immensely by the presence of character actors Ed Begley (in his last role) and Sam Jaffe (who as here seems to be channeling Dr. Zorba from BEN CASEY into the elder Wizard Whateley role).

    Stockwell plays Wilbur Whatley who ventures from the family ancestral home in Dunwich to hopefully study The Necronomicon, a text of ancient and evil ritual practices for which he hopes to use to conjure all sorts of Yog Sothoth madness & mayhem. At Miskatonic University in Arkham (where else!) he finds the book is kept under lock & key and he persuades the seemingly already possessed Nancy (Sandra Dee) to allow him to look at the book whereupon visiting professor Dr. Henry Armitage (Ed Bagley) gets mightily upset at this (and even more upset when realizes Wilbur is descended from an infamous wizard who was lynched in the town square of Dunwich).

    Upon conveniently missing the last bus back to Dunwich Wilbur talks Nancy into giving him a ride back to Dunwich where they find surly residents aplenty and the Whatley house which looks to be a combination of The Addams Family & a hippie crash pad with Sam Jaffe as Wilbur’s grandfather wondering around with a large wizard-type staff warning of impending doom. Sabotaging her car and slipping her some potion induced tea Wilbur keeps Nancy in a sort of drugged up haze as she has dreams of wildly painted hippie orgies complete with distorted fish eye lens shots and pulsating colors. An increasingly wild eyed & spaced out Wilbur seems to have plans on using Nancy for a mother and/or sex partner (maybe sacrifice ??) to allow the “old ones” to enter our dimension and for her to give birth to Wilbur's offspring (which ties into the popular at the time ROSEMARY'S BABY scenario and hints at the open ending here).
     Dr. Armitage and a friend of Nancy’s show up looking for her which in turns leads to Armitage teaming up with local Dr. Cory (the always fun & scenery chewing Lloyd Bochner) whereupon we get the back story on the Whateleys including Wilbur’s insane mother and his evil “twin” which is kept up in the attic and eventually turned loose on the countryside. Plus there’s an early appearance by future ROCKY and GODFATHER alumnus Talia Shire.

    Haller, who had served as art director on many of the Corman Poe movies, certainly knew how to stretch a buck and is spite of its budget limitations THE DUNWICH HORROR is a handsomely mounted production with some wonderful set design and a pretty nifty matte painting of the devil’s hop yard and altar. One big drawback is the filming locations around Mendocino CA. filling in for Lovecraft’s (and supposedly the movie's) haunted Mass. settings. The bright sunlight, green grass and sun drenched rocky beaches pretty much scream California and the town filling in for Dunwich with its neat rows of brightly painted touristy gift shops & art galleries looks about as menacing as Disneyland’s Main Street U.S.A.

    There’s been much speculation concerning Dee’s participation in her kinda/sorta look real carefully and you might see something nude scenes as her face is not in view thru much of them (and its filmed thru a gauze filter) and although she had hoped to use this as a springboard for more adult roles (and on which it failed) she always maintained that it was a body double. None the less it’s still rather startling to see Gidget being laid upon an altar while being groped by devil worshipping hippies and having her thigh & breasts fondled by a demented looking Dean Stockwell. The MGM DVD restored the fleeting nudity here and present earlier during the monsters attack on the Nancy’s friend.
    Anyone who’s ever read Lovecraft’s description of Wilbur’s twin would realize the impossibility of bringing it to life in a pre -CGI production (in addition a low budget one such as this) so Haller keeps it to some quickly glimpsed widely flaying ribbon-like tentacles and pulsating lights – with a howling wind heralding its arrival in the out of doors. Even with its early 70’s psychedelic ambiance the film does keep in the spirit of Lovecraft with the opening scene showing the birth of the twins presided over by albino witches being straight out of the book. A tripping & evil Dean Stockwell, an (almost) nude Gidget and Yog Sothoth – I’m there!!