11/25/2023 0 Comments House of usher 1960![]() ![]() Such material is rich pickings for cinematic adaptation, and 1928 saw two film versions. The physical house reflects the state of the family (with a pun on ‘house’). A life of effete luxury has left them too weak to cope with the “thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to,” as Shakespeare put it. ![]() The Ushers seem like the image of a decaying aristocratic class. The house suddenly collapses, and sinks into the surrounding tarn (a word for lake).Īs with many of Poe’s stories, it is open to many interpretations, not all of them necessarily intended by the writer. Both die, perhaps due to the shock caused to their weak temperaments. His sister, now insane, escapes, and attacks her brother. ![]() Madeline apparently dies, but Roderick realises to his horror that he has nailed her in the coffin alive. The narrator’s attempts to give cheer to his morbid friend are stymied by Madeline’s declining health, and the dark and gloomy atmosphere of the house. Roderick lives with his equally sickly sister, Madeline, a cataleptic. The narrator notices a large crack in the wall. This takes the narrator to a decaying house that shows signs of coming apart. An unnamed narrator responds to a call for help from his ailing friend Roderick Usher. With its concentrated atmosphere of doom and its pessimistic conclusion, it is surprising to find that this story was written in 1839, and not fifty years later when the public was beginning to develop a more pronounced taste for the macabre.Īs the two film versions I will be examining both deviate from the original story, it may be worth offering a short precis of Poe’s original tale. One of Poe’s most popular stories is ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’. From the beginning of the twentieth century to the present day, there has not been a decade in which a film has not been made that is based on either Poe’s life or his stories. Nonetheless this has not deterred directors from enthusiastically finding ways to adapt Poe’s stories to the big screen. To turn this into a production that lasts for over an hour, it is necessary to pad out the script with fresh material, or even combine two or more Poe stories in one film. Not only are the stories short, but they are heavy on description, and thin on action. At first sight, Poe’s stories might seem curious material for a feature-length film. Few writers of short stories have interested moviemakers more than Edgar Allan Poe. ![]()
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