The Fall Of The House Of Usher (1928) aka La Chute De La Maison Usher

3.5 / 5 Apr '11
Tagline: N/A
Directed by: James Sibley Watson, Melville Webber
Written by: Edgar Allan Poe
Actors include: Herbert Stern, Hildegarde Watson, Melville Webber
Genre: Horror, Surrealism
Length: 14 minutes
Banned: Nope

Review:
Even though I've seen other versions of this tale, I've got to say that this was incomprehensible. Maybe I'm a moron, or maybe it's just entirely unclear, and they got carried away with surrealism. It's spectacular as far as the visuals go, the interplay of light and dark and shadows and movement are impressive. The technics used with the layering and reverse cinematography and so forth are also very notable for the time. It's elegant and even creepy, perhaps the not knowing helps this. Still I couldn't help but want more from the actual story, even for a short film. It's something to see on an artistic level most definitely but I thought it was lacking in some departments.

Availability:  On DVD as part of this set:

Das Wachsfigurenkabinett (1924) aka Waxworks

3.5 / 5 Mar '11
Tagline: N/A
Directed by: Paul Leni, Leo Birinsky
Written by: Henrik Galeen
Actors include: Emil Jannings, Conrad Veidt, Werner Krauss
Genre: Horror
Length: 83 minutes
Banned: Nope





Review:
Visually this is a stunning movie, the sets are divine and ever so detailed, and the costumes are perfection. The film is hand painted in various colors that switch between scenes and add a degree of interest to the picture. It's probably the first horror anthology that I've come across. The story that ties the three segments together is about a museum with wax figures that needs someone to write back stories for them. So this fella creates stories of what happened to each of the three figures. The first one is the longest (and the least entertaining), is about a Sultan who falls for the Baker's wife, but the Baker isn't exactly going to go away quietly. The second story is about Ivan the terrible, it was quite interesting thanks to Conrad Veidt's excellent acting. Ivan likes to watch people die from poison, he has an hourglass that represents the time they have left that he adores watching. When he orders the execution of the Chemist who makes the poisons things get a little difficult. The last story is only like 5 minutes long, and it's about Jack the Ripper (or rather Spring Heeled Jack as they call him). The last tale feels like they weren't even trying which is too bad because definitely interesting films have been made from this story. Pretty neat in some ways but the actual stories themselves are what is wrong with this one. Still worth a watching for early film fans, it's impressive to see what they accomplished visually.

Availability:  On DVD

The Fall Of The House Of Usher (1928) aka La Chute De La Maison Usher

4.5 / 5 Feb '11
Tagline: N/A
Directed by: Jean Epstein
Written by: Edgar Allan Poe, Luis Buñuel
Actors include: Jean Debucourt, Marguerite Gance, Charles Lamy
Genre: Horror
Length: 63 minutes
Banned: Nope

Review:
This is insanely imaginative, and lovely to look at, it's very much art in the form of a film. Great care seems to have been taken to ensure that just about every shot looks amazing, even the experimental technics are fascinating. To add to this Jean Debucourt and Marguerite Gance were spectacularly creepy and both were brilliant in their portrayals. The plot is about a fellow named Allan who is a friend of a fellow named Usher who people seem to be terrified of. Usher lives with a Doctor, and his sickly wife Madeline. Usher is obsessed with painting Madeline's portrait, but with every portrait she gets sicker. The story as it goes on becomes a little less clear, but it was rather gripping regardless. It's hard to believe it's only 63 minutes long as a lot is packed into this film. Definitely worth watching for fans of early cinema, it was beautiful and haunting...it just could have used a bit of tightening towards the end.

Availability:  On DVD