PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *drama*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTIONS: *psychological*
I haven't read Lovecraft's novel THE CASE OF CHARLES DEXTER WARD in many years, but Charles Beaumont's adaptation seems a serviceable translation. The biggest difference would seem to be that this time, when modern-day Ward gets caught up by the influence of his long-dead sorcerer-ancestor, Ward has a wife along for the ride.
Justified witch-hunting is the name of the horror here. In the early 1800s the New England town of Arkham (not the name used in the original novel) finds its womenfolk being kidnapped for human sacrifice by the evil aristocrat Joseph Curwen (Vincent Price). The locals capture and execute Curwen, but he curses the whole town and the ringleaders who organized the execution of both Curwen and his mistress Helen Tillinghast (whose surname is also borrowed from another HPL tale).
Over a hundred years later, Charles Dexter Ward (Price again) and his wife Anne (Debra Paget) arrive in Arkham, having been informed by someone that he's inherited the old Curwen castle. (It's later intimated that the spirit of Curwen has been lingering about, and through human agents has been luring other descendants to Arkham, though no one prior to Ward proved suitable to the warlock's needs.
The script builds the menace of the old house and its weird servants (one of whom is played by Lon Chaney Jr.), with able assistance of Ronald Stein's score. While Ward and Anne aren't fleshed out characters, Beaumont gives them both compelling personalities, with Anne particularly standing out in this regard as "more than your average distressed damsel." Price's performance is more restrained than many of his other "Corman/Poe" entries, and even when Curwen successfully possesses the body of his descendant, Price makes credible the warlock's plans to summon the elder gods and gain dominion over the earth.
I can't say that I think PALACE captures the deeper appeal of Lovecraft's horror fiction, not least when Corman couldn't bother to spring for decent makeup on his mutated freak-people (see above). But it's a watchable entry.
Thanks, Gene, for posting your thoughts on The Haunted Palace. I like it a lot more than you do. The ambiance early on I felt was genuinely spooky, and in a way not typical of horrors of its period (the film's, I mean, not the story). It felt much closer to Lewton than Corman to me, even with the color and different looking back lot.
ReplyDeleteVincent Price was about as good as I've ever seen him in a horror. Fine work from Juniors Chaney and Cook, with the latter handling the period aspects of the story better than I'd have expected. What I love about Price is how subtle his playing is in this flm. Leo Gordon was in fine form as well, and portraying a (for him) benign character.
Also fun, the joy of seeing Milton Parsons, so aged looking, and on his home turf (New England, not AIP), being a son of Gloucester, Massachusetts. Only Frank Maxwell struck me as out of place; and this the fault of the casting director, not the actor. Maxwell just couldn't shake off his 20th century man persona sufficiently to be credible as a man of an earlier time. It wasn't just his manner and voice that was wrong for his part; even his hair looked out of place.
For all that I can see that is wrong with this picture I'm still hugely fond of it. Either a movie works, develops a style, a beat, all its own, or it doesn't The Haunted Palace did. One can sense it in the first ten minutes that the movie's got the goods. It's gonna work; and so it did.
You're welcome, and if it seems that I didn't like the film, that's on me. I wouldn't say that THP was an old favorite, but on my recent re-screening I felt that I probably underestimated it. This may be one of Corman's few really unsettling horror-films, and though I like the more frenetic Poe-films as well, it's fascinating to see Corman being so restrained. Ditto Price. Fans have praised his restraint in the main role of CONQUEROR WORM, but I think his Ward is much more nuanced. And as I said, I admire how Paget's Anne comes off, like she's really a wife and not just a damsel in distress.
ReplyDeleteThe sets were good, but I'd underrated the appeal of Ronald Stein's music in my previous viewings. It's rare for me to go out of my way in my reviews to praise the music, not because I don't enjoy that facet but because I often have little to say about the subject. The fact that I mentioned Stein's score means that it really, really impressed me. I liked the cast in general as well, particularly the always twitchy Elisha Cook Jr. Didn't spot Milton Parsons, whom I still appreciate muchly as the weirdo from the DICK VAN DYKE episode "Ghost of A. Chantz."
The "Lovecraftian sacrifice" at the climax didn't work that well for me, and I can't say exactly why, but that seems to be the weakest aspect of the flick.
My pleasure, Gene. First, Milton Parsons. I wonder: have you seen him in his prime, in his (relative) youth? He deserves iconic status for if nothing else his mild-mannered, prematurely bald appearances in the Forties. He's wonderfully neurotic as a gentleman from Boston, a Mr. LaFarge, suffering suffering from a nervous disorder of some kind on board the ship in the 1941 Charlie Chan entry, Dead Men Tell. That's the first film I saw him in and remembered him; his face, his voice.
ReplyDeleteParsons was rather a "victim" actor. Not a fall guy or someone put upon by barroom bullies, just the unlucky guy who doesn't get a mention in his uncle's will; a witness to a murder whom no one believes; an escaped mental patient who would be better off at Happy Glades who suffers the misfortune of not being apprehended by the white coat boys.
He can be seen in many films through the war and postwar period, from Edison The Man through Leave Her To Heaven. Plus, the 1949 White Heat and Dick Tracy Meets Gruesome. Small parts for the most part, he did better on stage, appeared in a number of Broadway plays. It has been put forth by some classic movie buff that Mr. Parsons must hold the world record for portraying more undertakers and coroners than any other actor in film history.
To get back on track here: I agree about the sacrifice scene not quite coming off. I think that a major part of this is that a climax was rather foreshadowed throughout the film, thus it raised viewer expectation for something different from what actually happened. Still, one can almost sense the ghost of H.P. Lovecraft lurking in the shadows somewhere.