The Fall of the House of Usher (1928)
1928 · Short film · 12 min · dir. James Sibley Watson
- Horror
- silent film
Synopsis
Convinced that his family is tainted by generations of evil, Roderick Usher is hellbent on stopping his sister Madeline’s wedding to prevent the cursed Usher bloodline from expanding. When her nameless traveller fiancé arrives at the crumbling estate to claim his bride, Roderick goes to ruthless—even deadly—lengths to keep them apart.
Synopsis from TMDb
Details
- Director
- James Sibley Watson
- Writer
- Edgar Allan Poe
- Cinematography
- James Sibley Watson
- Released
- 1928-12-31
- Running time
- 12 minutes
Cast & crew
- James Sibley Watson Director
- Hildegarde Lasell Watson
- Melville Webber
Reviews on the Internet Archive
★★★★★ · What a masterpiece! · adalbert_f · 2009-01-02
This film is nothing less than a great work of art. Obviously influenced by expressionistic cinema (esp. "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari"), but also by modern abstract photography (esp. Man Ray, I'd say), this film comes like a weird but beautiful dream into your imagination. Great pictures, great cuts, great rhythm. Just the music sounds distorted and is a bit boring, anyway - I just shut it off and was happy. Enjoy!
★★★★★ · Wow! · DiamondPaul · 2009-03-22
I don't know which I liked better, the music or the video. I don't remember enough of Poe's story line but this is one awesome work of art. I loved it. I would give it 10 out of 5 stars.
★★★★★ · AMAZING. · nighthouse66 · 2009-06-03
I can't believe that this film isn't required viewing for all film students. I also can't believe its so obscure. This is a work of art. Probably the best example of German Expressionism that one can find.
★★★★ · I dont know the Poe Story · Fireball Steve Zodiac · 2009-01-07
But off hand some interesting things that are symbolistic come to mind. The sets are very M.C. Escher-esque, staircases to staircases, some conventional, some abstract, but I point out it's escher-esque becuase it's the House of Usher, and can't help wondering if there is a deliberate link via this pun calling us to that similarity of names. The story seems to start right off with the couple seperating, she seems to walk off into a dream. There are visions of stacked books. Purposefully stacked so as to give them a staircase look. This leads me to think we are symbollically referencing…
★ · What's the big whupp? · four hooves · 2009-11-30
Ain't nothing special...just a head scratcher is all. Looks like someone was playing around with the new camera they got for Christmas back in 1928 and decided to have a few drinks, test it out, and try to create a few special effects along the way. Once they burned through enough cognac and film to splice it together into a 12 minute and 49 second sequence, they got to work and added a then hip title to it.
