House on Haunted Hill (1959) – Review

If a person were to find themselves in a horror movie a solid piece of advice to follow would be, “Don’t accept an invitation from Vincent Price!” By the late 50s William Castle had made a name for himself as a talented producer of low-budget entertainment, and also as a bit of genius when it came to promoting a film, and with his partnership with writer/producer Robb White and the landing of iconic horror actor Vincent Price audiences were definitely in for a treat as together they brought us a classic horror movie and an unforgettable ride.
For the House on Haunted Hill producer/director William Castle had originally intended to make a typical “Old Dark House” horror movie with a group of people trapped in an isolated location while being harassed by some supernatural threat but writer and collaborator Robb White decided against such an easy take on that old trope and instead twisted it around in a very interesting way. As a film House on Haunted Hill could almost be classified as a film noir/crime thriller as there are no actual supernatural elements and the plot surrounds the attempt of a femme fatale to murder her rich husband while he, in turn, plots to get rid of his wife and her lover. Rattling chains and ghostly apparitions were just window dressing for a plot that would work nicely as a double bill with a film like Double Indemnity.

“Would you adore me as much if I were poor? No, all you want to be is a lovely widow.”

As murder plots go the one outlaid in House on Haunted Hill is not only one of the more complicated of its kind but relies heavily on third-party individuals behaving in a way that would pretty much impossible to predict. Eccentric millionaire Frederick Loren (Vincent Price ) invites five people to a party he is throwing for his fourth wife Annabelle (Carol Ohmart ), a cold and calculating woman who seethes loathing for her husband, all to spend the night in an allegedly haunted house that he has rented from Watson Pritchard (Elisha Cook Jr. ), a man who ensures everyone that they are staying overnight in a “Murder House” that is populated by vengeful spirits, but with Frederick promising to give each person a $10,000 windfall if they stay the entire night these people are willing to overlook such pesky things as murder and ghosts.

“Only the ghosts in this house are glad we’re here.”

Along with the homeowner, the guests at this party include test pilot Lance Schroeder (Richard Long), newspaper columnist Ruth Bridges (Julie Mitchum), psychiatrist Dr. David Trent (Alan Marshal), who specializes in hysteria, Nora Manning (Carolyn Craig), who works for one of Loren’s companies. and all of these people could really use that $10,000 prize but only one of them is key to a certain murder plot coming to fruition. It turns out that Frederick Loren has every reason to be jealous of his wife as she is having an affair with Dr. David Tenant, and those two have cooked up a scheme to knock off poor Frederick, with a plan that relies on one particular party member being scared to the point of murder.

So the house is home to the Wicked Witch of the West?

Annabelle and David’s plan revolves around gaslighting poor Nora with a variety of horrifying encounters that include a menacing hag, a severed head appearing in her make-up case and the ghost of the presumed dead Annabelle – this after she was founding hanging by her neck above the stairway – and then her shooting Frederick dead with one of the handguns that were passed out as party favours to the guests. This plan could have easily fallen apart if test pilot Lance hadn’t been such a douchebag, chalking up anything Nora said as a result of female hysteria and, instead, stayed by her side rather than wander around the house like a low-rent Philip Marlowe. And what if, push comes to shove, Nora had just fainted at the sight of Frederick instead of shooting him? This murder plot had way too many variables and any of this working was more about luck than anything else. William Castle and Robb White also cheat quite a bit with this over-complicated murder plot as many aspects of this gaslighting endeavour are never explained and some elements would be impossible to pull off.

Things Never Explained:

• How could the blind caretaker glide like a ghost? How does she get past Lance without him seeing her?
• How did our killers get a rope to crawl along the floor and curl around Nora’s feet as if being manipulated by the ghost of Annabelle?
• Nora sees Annabelle floating outside her window and then seconds later she finds Annabelle hanging over the main staircase, does this mean Annabelle can teleport or does she have a twin in on this scheme?

What makes one forgive these cheats and the overall ridiculousness of the plot, is the inclusion of star Vincent Price in the cast as his sardonic wit and cheerful malevolence completely carries the film and without him, this would have been nothing more than an average murder mystery with a few cheap scares thrown in to spice things up, but with the king of the macabre on hand, everything is elevated to the next level. The scenes between him and Carol Ohmart were electrifying and equal to anything seen in such as Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolf? starring Burton and Taylor, and when we get the final act reveal – that Frederick knew all about the affair and had hatched his own spousal murder plot – well, it just doesn’t get better than that.

“It’s a pity you didn’t know when you started your game of murder that I was playing, too.”

Stray Observations:

• The film opens on a black screen with the sounds of screams, chains rattling and ghostly howls, which reminded me of those old Halloween sound effects records.
• The house exterior is that of Frank Lloyd Wright’s famous Ennis House but despite its Mayan Rival architecture the interiors look to belong to a Victorian mansion from the 1800s.
• The doors locking at midnight sort of defeats the bravery test element of the experiment. You can’t run away screaming if you can’t run away and none of the guests seem to question this.
• The caretaker Jonas advises Nora to leave with them at midnight if she wants to live, but then he and his “blind” wife exit and lock the house before midnight, giving Nora no opportunity to leave with them. This is a little more evidence that they are on Annabelle’s payroll.
• Is the severed head that Lance finds in Nora’s bedroom closet supposed to be real? If it’s just a prop to scare them it would have to be a very convincing fake to withstand any amount of scrutiny.
• After the “murder” of Mrs. Loren the group decides it’d be safer if they all went to their separate rooms alone, seriously, that’s up there with “Let’s split up and look for clues” as the dumbest thing to do when murder is afoot.
• William Castle’s House on Haunted Hill would have worked great as a Scooby-Doo mystery.

“I did get away with it, despite those meddling kids and their mangy dog.”

William Castle’s House on Haunted Hill was a creepy and campy delight with the ever urbane Price overseeing a cast of wonderful character actors – actress Carolyn Craig giving Fay Wray a run for her money in the screaming department – but it wouldn’t be a true William Castle production without a cool gimmick and for House on Haunted Hill moviegoers were treated to something he called “Emergo” which simply consisted of a large floating skeleton that would fly out over the audience to everyone’s delight.

But even seeing this film without the promised gimmick the House on Haunted Hill is still an incredibly entertaining outing and is also an example of one of those movies that actually improves with age as modern audiences can get even more fun out of a viewing of this William Castle classic than those back in the day.