This is part twelve of a thirteen part seriesBack in the early 1960s, Edgar Allan Poe was all the rage. Beginning with 1960’s “House of Usher,” American International Pictures began churning horror films based on the short stories of the American master of the macabre. Eventually, AIP produced eight films which ran from 1960 until 1965. Each one was directed by Roger Corman - a then relatively unknown B movie specialist who would eventually go on to foster such talents as Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, and Ron Howard. Besides Corman, four of the eight films were written by the novelist Richard Matheson, while three of the eight were written by Charles Beaumont - a short story writer who saw his greatest fame as a script writer for “The Twilight Zone.” Only one of the films - 1965’s “The Tomb of Ligeia” - was not written by either Matheson or Beaumont, and as a result it is one of the weakest films in the entire series.
Besides the unholy trio of Corman, Matheson, and Beaumont, the other big name associated with the AIP Poe films is Vincent Price. Price starred in each film except for 1962’s “The Premature Burial,” which featured the versatile Welsh actor Ray Milland (of “The Lost Weekend” fame”). In 1963, Corman and Beaumont once again tapped Price for the lead role in a horror film, and once again the film was inspired by Poe.
But unlike the others, “The Haunted Palace” only has a tenuous connection to Poe. Although its title is taken from the poem that the doomed Roderick Usher recites in “The Fall of the House of Usher,” “The Haunted Palace” lifts its plot from another American writer of dark fantasy - Howard Phillips Lovecraft. In particular, “The Haunted Palace” is based on Lovecraft’s novella “The Case of Charles Dexter Ward.”
Set in Lovecraft’s hometown of Providence, Rhode Island, “The Case of Charles Dexter Ward” concerns the possession of one Charles Dexter Ward, who is inordinately interested in the seventeenth century wizard Joseph Curwen. As Ward goes deeper and deeper into alchemy and the assorted black arts, the line between him and Curwen blurs, and the great horror of “The Case of Charles Dexter Ward” concerns how the undead past, with all its forbidden knowledge, can impinge upon the present.
Lovecraft himself thought that “The Case of Charles Dexter Ward” was an inferior product, calling it a “cumbrous creaking bit of self-conscious antiquarianism” in a 1934 letter to R.H. Barlow. Others disagree, and “The Case of Charles Dexter Ward” is generally seen by most Lovecraft scholars and enthusiasts as one of the author’s best. Furthermore, besides “The Haunted Palace,” “The Case of Charles Dexter Ward,” which is one the more traditional horror stories that Lovecraft ever penned, has been adapted several times for film, radio, television, and, as recently as 2012, a graphic novel.
Back in 1963, Lovecraft’s grip on popular culture wasn’t so prevalent. In fact, AIP went against Corman’s wishes by renaming the film in order to keep it in line with the other Poe films. Ultimately, the name change does little, for although “The Haunted Palace” has the trademark look of Corman’s Poe films, its plot and atmosphere make it standout from its seven peers.
Set in the Lovecraftian locale of Arkham, Massachusetts (yes, Bob Kane, the creator of Batman, was a Lovecraft fan), “The Haunted Palace” opens in the year 1765, which is a good one hundred years later than the timeline set forth in “The Case of Charles Dexter Ward.” Corman’s Arkham is a fog-shrouded sea town with constantly suspicious residents. Like the Universal monster movies of the 1930s, which were set in generic Central European landscapes, “The Haunted Palace” is about a cursed village and the diabolist who made it that way. In “The Haunted Palace” the original demonic entity is Curwen, and in the first few minutes of the film, we watch as Curwen (played by Price) and his raven-haired mistress Hester Tillinghast (played by Cathie Merchant) lead a local girl named Miss Fitch (played by Darlene Lucht) to the basement of their castle. There, the blonde Miss Fitch is subjected to a strange ritual that involves green smoke, garbled Latin, and a trapdoor that houses some sort of entity that makes moaning noises of the highly unusual kind.
Before Curwen and Hester can go through with their infernal blasphemies, the locals barge in and burn the place down. Earlier in the night, Micah Smith (played by Elisha Cook, Jr.) and Ezra Weeden (played by Leo Gordon) had seen Miss Fitch wondering off to Curwen’s castle, and suspecting that Curwen had put her under his thrall, they gathered up a small army of torch-wielding townsfolk and turned them into a mob. After burning down the castle that Curwen had imported stone by stone from Europe, the mob burns Curwen alive. But before being roasted, Curwen places a curse on the entire village and its inhabitants.
This then is the catalyst for the film’s action. One hundred and ten years after Curwen’s death, Charles Dexter Ward (also played by Price) arrives in Arkham with his wife Ann (played by Debra Paget). Ward is the great great grandson of Curwen, and he has come to Arkham to claim his inheritance - the old palace of Joseph Curwen. When the Wards make their first stop at The Burning Man Tavern, it’s made quite clear that they are not wanted. Edgar Weeden (again played by Gordon), the descendent of Ezra Weeden, leads the warning party by practically telling the Wards to tuck tail and run away from Arkham. The Wards, unused to such New England hospitality, are stunned. Then they meet the friendly Dr. Marinus Willet (played by Frank Maxwell), who shows them the way to the Curwen palace.
The Curwen home, which is the film’s archetypal spooky house on the hill, is yet another entry in the storied history of haunted houses. Like the contemporary Hammer Horror castles of Europe, the Curwen estate seems to subsist only on evil, with each part of its foundation built upon blood and sin. In “The Haunted Palace,” there’s something more too, for, as a Lovecraftian production, “The Haunted Palace” also includes Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos.
Lovecraft’s cosmic mythology makes its first appearance after Ward’s personality becomes increasingly consumed by the warlock Curwen, who seems to enter into the world via a portrait that Ward cannot help but to stare at. As Curwen’s influence increases, Ward delves deeper and deeper into the wizard’s obsessions. One of these obsessions in the “Necronomicon” - Lovecraft’s primordial book of arcane rituals. Using the “Necronomicon,” Curwen (who clearly takes over Ward’s body by the film’s midway point) and his two assistants Simon Orne (played by Lon Chaney, Jr.) and Jabez Hutchinson (played by Milton Parsons), begin to call once again upon the dark gods from Earth’s first aeon.
Concurrent with Curwen’s revival, Arkham’s deformed residents - eyeless monstrosities who shamble around town like zombies - begin acting up, with one even going so far as to act as Curwen’s avenger by killing Edgar Weeden. Besides being a ghostly yarn about possession and occult practices, “The Haunted Palace” is also a revenge tale in the mold of “Black Sunday.” Curwen has not forgiven his original executioners, and one by one he attempts to kill off their descendants.
As the film runs towards its conclusion, Curwen revives his old love Hester just as he sends Ann back to Boston. The villagers, for their part, once again come together to form a lynching party, while Ann and Dr. Willet begin investigating the depths of the palace’s dungeon. There they find the monster that lurks beneath the trapdoor. For this sin, Curwen deems Ann suitable for a sacrifice, which is only halted because the invading villagers throw the portrait of Curwen into the hearth fire. This action causes Curwen’s grip on Ward to loosen, and Ward in turn frees Ann from the clutches of the castle’s antediluvian creature.
After the Curwen palace has been burned to the ground for a second time, Ward attempts to thank Ann and Dr. Willet for their successful rescue of his soul. But, as Ward gives thanks, the voice of Curwen can be heard, and “The Haunted Palace” ends with a shot that shows the face of Curwen instead of Ward. Before the final credits role, Price narrates the concluding section of Poe’s original “The Haunted Palace” almost as if to justify the film’s title. It’s a powerful ending, but illogical given the film’s reliance on the shadow of Lovecraft.
Eugene Archer, writing in the “New York Times” in January 1964, characterized “The Haunted Palace” as having Corman’s “usual obvious shock devices (sudden cuts to close-up emphasizing fantastic make-up) and his [Corman’s] usual inane dialogue.” While the film is definitely textbook Corman, it also the black sheep of the Poe Eight. Besides the film’s literary ancestor, “The Haunted Palace” is a noticeably muted film insofar as its color scheme and cinematography go. Swimming in a sea of gray, blue, and green, “The Haunted Palace” has a nightmarish quality that is more potent than the garish technicolor of such films as “The Masque of the Read Death” (1964). Similarly, Ronald Stein’s repetitive score creates an odd type of drone that involves shrill strings and horns. All in all, “The Haunted Palace” is not only less Gothic than its peers, but it is also weird in the tradition of Lovecraft’s weird tale.
Although few doom metal bands have name-checked “The Haunted Palace,” almost all doom metal bands have pledged their allegiance to Lovecraft. The hand of Lovecraft is almost as prevalent in doom metal as the hand of Tony Iommi, and as one of the earliest tributes to the reclusive writer from Providence, “The Haunted Palace” essentially opened up the field for all future adaptations. Since the 1970s, doomsters have flooded that particular field. All we can say is “Thank you, Roger Corman.”
Words:
Benjamin Welton