El palacio de los espíritus

Roger Corman directed this film in the midst of his Poe cycle. It has most of the typical features of those films. Lots of eerie atmosphere, swirling fogs, and wonderfully painted back-drops, a fine acting troupe headed by the incomparable Vincent Price, and ably assisted by a sober-looking Lon Chaney Jr. and a beautiful Debra Paget, a fairly tight script, a marvellous score by Ronald Stein, and always the look of a lot of money spent despite the knowledge that you know it was cheaply made. The film is titled based on a small Poe poem found within "The Fall of the House of Usher" and this film has little to do with it. It really is much more of an H. P. Lovecraft film as its main protagonist is called Charles Dexter Ward(Price), but also bears little relation to that great story. It does, however, incorporate many Lovecraftian touches. The names of characters and the town(Arkham) come from the works of Lovecraft, as does the plot thread dealing with an elder god of sorts in a well for the purpose of breeding and the fabled book of supernatural knowledge, the Necromonicon. Despite the complexity and borrowing nature of the script, the story makes sense and is entertaining. Vincent Price plays a man with two personalities, and he does so brilliantly. As always, he is a joy to watch. The rest of the cast is very good. One scene in particular stands out as Price and Paget walk alone in the streets of Arkham only to be slowly surrounded by human mutants. The scene is quite eerie with all its swirling fog, and creeping pace.

Centuries ago in Arkham, New England, the warlock Joseph Curwen (Vincent Price) abducts young ladies from the local village and brings them to his castle to use in experiments with the Necronomicon. The local Edgar Weeden (Leo Gordon) raises a lynch mob that go to the castle and burn Joseph Curwen alive at the stake. Before dying, he curses the village, the villagers and their descendants.

One hundred and ten years later, Charles Dexter Ward (Vincent Price), who has inherited the manor, comes to Arkham with his beautiful wife Ann Ward (Debra Paget) to visit the real estate and has a cold and hostile reception by the dwellers. Only Dr. Priam Willet (Frank Maxwell) helps him and tells that the village has many mutants and the villagers believe that it is a cursed town.

When Charles arrives in the castle, he meets two former associates of Joseph Curwen that also worship the devil, and Charles is possessed by the evil Joseph Curwen that wants to revenge on the descendants of those who killed him and to bring his beloved mistress back to life. Ann and Dr. Willet try to help Charles to escape from Curwen's power.

"The Haunted Palace" is a classic Gothic horror by Roger Corman that follows the same style of the Hammer films. The plot is very simple but works perfectly well, supported by Vincent Price and the gorgeous Debra Paget. Further, this is the last feature of this beautiful actress that retired after getting married for the third time. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "O Castelo Assombrado" ("The Haunted Castle")

Note: On 25 December 2020, I saw this film again.

The darkest of Roger Corman's Poe chillers, though this yarn owes more to HP Lovecraft than Edgar Allan's poetry. Vincent Price gives his all time greatest performance in a dual role as possessed and possessor, aided by a wonderfully literate script by Charles Beaumont. It gives Price no leeway to indulge his tendency to sometimes ham it up.

Here, he keeps tight dramatic restraint on himself, making his gradual transformation from kindly innocent to the reincarnation of his warlock ancestor a virtuoso portrayal of inner turmoil overwhelmed by fiendish evil. Corman even provides a last good role for Lon Chaney Jr (as he'd done previously for Boris Karloff, Peter Lorre and Basil Rathbone) as a ghoulish henchman.

Undeniably, 'The Haunted Palace' does have a rather ponderous pace and music score that makes the film seem stretched as Price wanders down just one more hidden corridor. Floyd Crosby's widescreen cinematography is also unrelenting, capturing the drab, muted blue and brown pastels of a Puritan village plagued by witchcraft. And the barely glimpsed green demon lurking inside the vault was perhaps a mistake.

But Corman's skill on a 15-day schedule and a cheap budget is evident throughout. He introduces Chaney in a splendidly done sudden shock appearance that will still make unwary audiences jump (asked why he is preparing a room in the dark, he tells Price, "One becomes accustomed to the darkness... here").

True Corman fans will rank this chilling piece of American Gothic among his best. Not least where an exasperated Chaney asks the possessed Price when he will be satisfied avenging himself on the descendants of those who burned him at the stake. "Not until this village is a graveyard," Price promises Chaney sibilantly. "Not until they too have felt the kiss of fire on their soft flesh... all of them."

Charles Dexter Ward (Vincent Price) arrives at a small village to visit the house he inherited from his ancestor (also Price) who died there 110 years ago.

The full title of this film is "Edgar Allan Poe's The Haunted Palace", which is not only incorrect and misleading to the audience, but an insult to H. P. Lovecraft, who had virtually no films made of his stories up to this point. Sure, in the 1980s and after Stuart Gordon championed Lovecraft... but hardly a peep before that!

Where else are you going to hear the words Cthulhu, Arkham, Necronomicon and more in one film? Talk about the Elder Gods? You are not, at least not in the 1960s. This film was groundbreaking, and Corman deserves a lot of credit for bringing the Charles Dexter Ward story to a bigger audience.

Vincent Price looks great in this film, perhaps better than ever. Certainly, this is among his most menacing roles, not only killing but threatening sexual assault. This was Debra Paget's final role, and she did excellently as the story's heroine. As Ivan Butler says, Corman has a "skill in finding beauty in the conventional misty landscapes, huge baroque rooms, unending stone-flagged passages" and more. AIP and Corman never failed to give us some beautiful sets and costumes.

Howard Maxford says the film "never quite shifts into first gear." I see his point, as the suspense is not strong and the movie seems to idle for quite a bit (to continue his analogy), but I think this can be overlooked by the great things this film has to offer. For example, the child called "it" is pretty great. So much potential here.

While this is not my favorite Corman-Price collaboration (that award goes to "The Raven"), this is still well worth checking out. Price never disappoints, and this has all the trappings of a decent film, both for its time and today. I am sad such films do not get made anymore, and that this one seems to be among the least known and appreciated among Corman's "Poe" series.

Vincent Price once again stars in a Roger Corman produced and directed film, this time only partly inspired by Edgar Allen Poe, but more directly by H.P. Lovecraft, with Price playing two roles, first that of Joseph Curwen, an evil warlock who is burned to death by the angry citizens of the New England town of Arkham, then 110 years later his descendent Charles Dexter Ward, who arrives there with his lovely wife Ann(Debra Paget) to inherit the "palace", but instead finds that his evil ancestor wants to possess him in order to avenge himself on the town, then take over his body permanently...

Eerie and atmospheric tale combines both authors' stories well, with effective direction and acting. Still a bit protracted and slow, but otherwise a first-rate thriller with an ambiguous end.