Corman’s ‘Usher,’ ‘Pit’ Hold Up Well

When director Roger Corman tried to sell B-movie mogul Sam Arkoff on the idea of bringing Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher” to the screen, a bewildered Arkoff, whose American International Pictures had made a fortune producing monster movies, asked him, “Where’s the monster?” Corman was ready with the answer: “The house is the monster.”

Satisfied, Arkoff approved the project and Corman, with his band of technical wizards, shot the film in 15 days on a budget of about $270,000, much of the money being spent on the wisest investment Corman ever made: hiring actor Vincent Price. It was the first of eight memorable Corman ventures into Poe-land and the film became one of the biggest hits of 1960, winning rare critical acclaim for B-director Corman.

Now “The Fall of the House of Usher” and the second film in the series, “Pit and the Pendulum,” have been issued together in a digitally mastered widescreen edition presented in their original 2:35.1 CinemaScope and Panavision aspect ratios (Orion Home Video/Image Entertainment, $50, letterboxed), with excellent detailed liner notes. The good news is that they hold up surprisingly well.

Few ever did a better job of bringing the diabolical Poe stories to the screen. One reason was that Corman surrounded himself with first-rate talent. The key was the literate adaptation of the Poe novel by Richard Matheson, the veteran science-fiction writer who wrote “The Incredible Shrinking Man” and many fine “Twilight Zone” scripts. Matheson created words and Corman created cinematic images that never violated the original. Another key member of Corman’s creative team was Daniel Haller, who had a legendary ability to find second-hand sets, scenery and props and turn them into expensive-looking backgrounds. Veteran cinematographer Floyd Crosby gave the films a lavish veneer with matte shots of the castle and exteriors. Musician-composer Les Baxter fashioned an appropriate score and Price and an articulate cast of actors did the rest.

Corman also saved money and came up with a realistic beginning and ending by sending a second unit to then-burned Griffith Park to show a bleak, blackened landscape. Price is his menacing best as the doomed, sensory-sensitive Roderick Usher, who ultimately brings the house of Usher down, but even Price and Corman can’t do much with the hokey, unrealistic fire at the climax of the film. That fire is the only indication that the film was done on a shoestring.

The 1961 “Pit and the Pendulum” reunited the principal “Ushers”--Corman, Price, Matheson and Baxter, who created an atonal score for the frightening film. “Pit” has a more exaggerated look and feel than the first Poe film, from the broad gestures and dialogue to the set itself, which feels remarkably similar to the previous “House.” But it’s a frightening tour-de-force.

John Kerr ends up in the demented Nicholas Medina (Price) Inquisition-era torture chamber. Barbara Steele as Price’s treacherous wife, who meets her own ignominious end, almost steals the show.

Art director Haller is credited with deciding that the rubberized blade of the pendulum had to be scrapped for one with a sharp metal blade for close-ups, something that may well have helped Kerr (“Tea and Sympathy”) eventually choose law over acting. Vintage photos from both films accompany the handsome two-disc set.

*

If you think docudrama started with television, take a look at another fine double bill, this one on MGM/UA Home Video starring Paul Muni: “The Story of Louis Pasteur” and “The Life of Emile Zola” ($60). These ‘30s biopics almost feel interchangeable in tone and approach, with Muni distinguishable as the French author Zola basically by a pair of pince-nez.

The 1936 “Pasteur” brought Oscars to Muni and to screenwriters Sheridan Gibney and Pierre Collings, under the direction of William Dieterle. At the time the film was made, when microbes seemed to be coming under control, Pasteur’s achievements in developing vaccines for anthrax and rabies might not have seemed so significant. But in an era when AIDS research still seems in its infancy and bacteria and viruses seem to now be able to outwit science’s most powerful arsenal, there may be lessons to be learned here. And they’re told with great feeling and fine craftsmanship.

Similarly, the 1937 “Life of Emile Zola” seems, unfortunately, to be as current as today’s headlines. Injustice never seems to go out of style.

Dieterle again directed, with Oscars going to supporting actor Joseph Schildkraut as the wrongly accused Capt. Dreyfus (whom the novelist exonerated with his heralded “J’accuse” defense, which today would have made all previous court TV sensations seem like warm-ups). The film also features Gale Sondergaard, Donald Crisp and Louis Calhern in fine supporting roles. Writers Norman Reilly Raine, Heinz Herald and Gez Herczeg won Academy Awards and the film a best picture Oscar. Max Steiner’s music covers up any historical inaccuracies.

The two-disc set includes the original theatrical trailers for both films, which are as sincere an effort in trying to be true to the original stories as Hollywood was capable of in the 1930s.

Laserbits

New Movies Just Out: “The Good Son” (FoxVideo, $40); “A Bronx Tale” (HBO, $40); “M Butterfly” (Warner, $35); “Fatal Instinct” (MGM/UA, $35); “A Home of Our Own” (PolyGram, $35); “Fearless” (Warner, letterboxed, $35); “Dazed and Confused” (MCA/Universal, $35); “Undercover Blues” (MGM/UA, $35); “Money for Nothing” (Hollywood, $40); “Gettysburg” (Image, $90); “Mr. Wonderful” (Warner, $35); “Bopha!” (Paramount, $35).

Old Movies Just Out: “The Gold Rush” (FoxVideo, 1925, $70), the classic Charlie Chaplin comedy; “All the King’s Men” (Columbia TriStar, 1949, $35), the best picture Oscar winner with Broderick Crawford (best actor); “Gandhi” (Columbia TriStar, 1982, letterboxed, $50), Oscar winner for best picture, best actor (Ben Kingsley).

Upcoming: Paramount plans to release “Flesh and Bone,” starring Meg Ryan and Dennis Quaid, on April 20, at $40. Columbia TriStar’s “The Age of Innocence,” with best supporting actress nominee Winona Ryder, is due May 4, at $40.