“Vast forms that move fantastically / To a discordant melody” – Edgar Allen Poe, The Haunted Palace (1839).
Who better to take on the prose of Edgar Allen Poe than Vincent Price? John Cusack, maybe. That is what Hollywood thought when casting for The Raven. Poe features an engaging, rich tapestry of work that has since inspired adaptation after adaptation. It is clear to see why. In just a few short lines his work would often form, he manages tone, mood and pace with sincerely gifted results. The same can be said, somewhat, for The Haunted Palace, an adaptation of one of his many pockets of prose. Fog machines and moody atmospherics open The Haunted Palace, a piece with plenty of heavy lifting to perform should it hope to gain narrative from the displaced brilliance of the original poem.
Where Poe wrote that “discordant melody”, it is taken as an excuse to engage with fantastical elements that linger as somewhat fairytale-like in this adaptation. The imagery of a red-hooded woman wandering through the forest, pursued by concerned pub patrons is an important, ruminating piece for this Roger Corman feature. Revenge is the heart of this feature, one that adeptly handles the warlocks and horrors of wizardry that were at the core of Spanish hegemonic history. It feels as though Price is in his element here, in these early moments of ruinous castles and post-Baroque Americanisms, the dilapidated structures and the spectacle that is a Corman piece. He is in full flight alongside the man behind the camera, who works on great form as expected.
It is that expectation that steers The Haunted Palace, a piece that is just as reliant on the period piece aesthetic as it is on the morbid horrors of a warlock at work. Mobs form, and all the classic structures of a Frankenstein-like siege are on display and have great power to them through Corman’s direction. His pacing and tone are revealingly dark and provide that essential horror charm. It is far removed from the Hammer Horror dominance of the time but incorporates the crucial pointers of the horror feature. Foggy forests, a man rallying the believers in a pub and all the while expressing a natural desire to help or harm those that are going to tear the town apart. Price is fantastic, but so too is Leo Gordon, whose work as Ezra Weeden is a supreme example of fine form in horror film.
Naturally it would be hard to pluck a story from just a slight few lines of poetry. Corman does well to adapt The Fall of Usher House into a piece that rewards the reader and those that have never come across Poe before. For those in the latter camp, there is a real, spirited feeling that carries over and through this piece. It is a reliable horror of the 1960s, one of the many to rely on Price but not sully him with the burden of his name carrying the entire piece. His presence is felt and utterly terrifying, but it is how it is used and often how it is implied that makes The Haunted Palace so good. Price’s ruminating presence is felt both on and off-screen, his shadowy figure is just as important as his dominance over victims. Corman and company understand that greatly, and there are more than a few truly chilling moments in this piece.
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