The Chained Coffin

[Gothick]

Fans,

a month or two ago, I revisited Roger Corman's exquisitely mounted film of THE PIT AND THE PENDULUM starring the Immortal Vincent Price, and I noticed a number of plot devices and images that seemed to have been re-staged in DS.

Just a little while ago, a friend of mine posted this trailer for HOUSE OF USHER (1960) on a film page we're both on:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QslKMIOeME8

I'd forgotten about that gruesome image of a bloodied hand groping its way out of a chained coffin.  Interesting to speculate that that might have inspired Malcolm Marmorstein, if he was the one who came up with the idea of the vampire being released from such a coffin.

G.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Back in the mid-'60s I saw House of Usher on a double-bill with one of Vincent Price's other films, and I remember really enjoying it. Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure I haven't seen it since. But I would love to see it again to see if it holds up to my memory. That trailer certainly brings back great memories - thanks for posting the link to it, Gothick! 

On the other hand, I saw The Pit and the Pendulum a few months ago (on TV, so I don't know if it was edited) and I really enjoyed that as well.

If I knew I could get good quality copies of such films on DVD, I would buy them in an instant. But sadly a lot of the time the versions out on DVD are simply the old worn copies that were repeatedly used for TV stations' late night showings back in the day...

[Gothick]

This one, from 2001, seems to be the standard print available now.  I just bought some of the Corman Poe films on DVD and they looked great.  THE PIT AND THE PENDULUM was done in a letterbox format that made it kind of small on my computer screen, but I think you can improve that by changing settings.  I still found it quite watchable and enjoyed seeing it again so much.  There was a note on Amazon about the redaction of this film included in a five movie Vincent Price set that I recently bought.  Of course, now everything is moving to "streaming" but I find that physical media play much better for me, because of my ISP or the fact that I don't have up to date tech--don't really know and don't much care, at this point...

http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/2143/fall-of-the-house-of-usher-1960-the/

G.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Looks like a great DVD version of the film. I will definitely have to check it out. Thanks for the link, Gothick!

[Mysterious Benefactor]

The DVD Talk review says the list price is $9.99 - Amazon is selling it for $27.99 - what am I missing?    Especially when it says "Buy now and save at Amazon"...