The Fall of the House of Usher [Revenge in the House of Usher] * (1983, Howard Vernon, Antonio Mayans, Lina Romay, Fata Morgana, Daniel White) – Classic Movie Review 6385

Jesús Franco [Jess Franco] acts as writer/ producer/ director/ musician and cameraman in his desperately cheap and muddled, but cheerful and good-looking 1983 Spanish film version of the Edgar Allan Poe story, originally called El Hundimiento de la Casa Usher and also known as Revenge in the House of Usher in America.

Howard Vernon stars as the insane Roderick Usher, who kills his wife Edmunda (Fata Morgana), who comes back to haunt him to death. Antonio Mayans (billed as Robert Foster) plays Dr Alan Harker, who gets an invite from Usher, his old professor at Prague University, to come to stay in his ancient castle where he lives with his housekeeper Maria (Lina Romay).

A couple of things start to bother Harker big time. (1.) Usher’s doctor, Dr Seward (Daniel White, billed as Daniel Villiers), tells him Usher is delusional and seeing hosts. (2.) Usher tells Harker he has developed a way to reanimate his long-dead daughter Melissa using the blood of prostitutes.

Franco is unable to make much sense of all the various elements he chucks in to the movie in a frenied effort to keep it lively, interesting and different, while Vernon is unable to eradicate the memory of Vincent Price as Roderick Usher in Roger Corman’s 1960 The Fall of the House of Usher [House of Usher].

The full length running time is 93 minutes, with just 78 minutes in the censored version. It was filmed in Madrid in Spanish, English and French, all with differing plots.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 6385

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com