The Haunted Palace *** (1963, Vincent Price, Debra Paget, Lon Chaney Jr) – Classic Movie Review 2849

Director Roger Corman’s fine 1963 chiller once again stars Vincent Price in the fourth in Corman’s cycle of eight films featuring connections with Edgar Allan Poe stories, released by American International Pictures.

This time Price plays New England warlock Joseph Curwen, who is reincarnated 100 years later as his own descendant Charles Dexter Ward in order to avenge himself on the villagers who burnt him at the stake.

An on-form Price thrills, the stalwart cast grab their chances, and it looks exceptionally handsome thanks to Floyd Crosby’s colourful cinematography and Daniel Haller’s beauty on a budget set designs.

The screenplay by Charles Beaumont and Francis Ford Coppola (additional dialogue) is ghoulishly enjoyable. Although marketed as Edgar Allan Poe’s The Haunted Palace, the film derives its plot from The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, a novella by H P Lovecraft. The title is borrowed from a poem by Poe, published in 1839.

Otherwise, the only connection the film has with the poem is a brief quotation at the end of the film spoken by Price. Corman wanted a change by doing a Lovecraft story but AIP altered the film’s name, against his wishes, to keep it in line with the popular Poe series.

It is Debra Paget’s final movie. Also in the cast are Lon Chaney Jr (in his only Corman film), Frank Maxwell, Leo Gordon, Elisha Cook Jnr, John Dierkes, Cathie Merchant, Milton Parsons, Bruno VeSota, Darlene Lucht, Guy Wilkerson, L Stanford Jolley, Barboura Morris and Harry Ellerbe.

Corman won his greatest acclaim with his eight movies based on the works of Poe: House of Usher [The Fall of the House of Usher] (1960), The Pit and the Pendulum (1961), The Premature Burial (1962), Tales of Terror (1962), The Raven (1963), The Haunted Palace (1963), The Masque of the Red Death (1964) and The Tomb of Ligeia (1964). All but The Premature Burial star Vincent Price.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2849

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