House on Haunted Hill is a 1959 American
B movieA B movie is a low-budget commercial motion picture that is not definitively an arthouse or pornographic film. In its original usage, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified a film intended for distribution as the less-publicized, bottom half of a double feature....
horror filmHorror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...
from Allied Artists. It was directed by
William CastleWilliam Castle was an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and actor. Castle was known for directing films with many gimmicks which were ambitiously promoted, despite being reasonably low budget B-movies....
, written by
Robb WhiteRobb White was a writer of screenplays, television scripts, and adventure novels; most of the latter had a maritime setting — often the Pacific Navy during World War II. White was best known for juvenile fiction, though he has proven popular with adults as well...
, and starring
Vincent PriceVincent Leonard Price, Jr. was an American actor, well known for his distinctive voice and serio-comic attitude in a series of horror films made in the latter part of his career.-Early life and career:Price was born in St...
as eccentric millionaire Fredrick Loren. He and his fourth wife, Annabelle, have invited five people to the house for a "Haunted House" party. Whoever stays in the house for one night will earn
$The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
10,000 each. As the night progresses, all the guests are trapped inside the house with ghosts, murderers, and other terrors.
Exterior shots of the house were filmed at the historic
Ennis HouseThe Ennis House is a residential dwelling in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, USA, south of Griffith Park. The home was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright for Charles and Mabel Ennis in 1923, and built in 1924....
in Los Feliz, California.
Plot
House on Haunted Hill is the tale of five people invited to stay the night in a haunted house by an eccentric millionaire, Fredrick Loren (
Vincent PriceVincent Leonard Price, Jr. was an American actor, well known for his distinctive voice and serio-comic attitude in a series of horror films made in the latter part of his career.-Early life and career:Price was born in St...
), who is throwing the "party" for his fourth wife, Annabelle (
Carol OhmartArmelia Carol Ohmart , better known as Carol Ohmart, is an American actress and beauty pageant title holder who appeared in B movies of the 1950s.-From pageants to Paramount:...
), with the stipulation that the power will be out and all doors will be locked at midnight, allowing no accessible escape. Anyone who stays in the house for the entire night, given that they are still alive, will each receive $10,000.
The five guests all arrive in separate funeral cars with a
hearseA hearse is a funerary vehicle used to carry a coffin from a church or funeral home to a cemetery. In the funeral trade, hearses are often called funeral coaches.-History:...
leading, which he explains may be empty now, but they may be in need of it later. He explains the rules of the party and gives each of the guests a .45 caliber pistol for protection. Loren's wife tries to warn the guests that her husband is
psychoPsycho is a suspense novel by Robert Bloch. It was adapted into Alfred Hitchcock's seminal 1960 film of the same name.-Plot:Norman Bates is a middle-aged bachelor who is dominated by his mother, a mean-tempered, puritanical old woman who forbids him to have a life away from her...
tic, causing them to be very suspicious of him, especially Nora Manning (Carolyn Craig), who becomes convinced that he's trying to kill her when she keeps seeing mysterious ghouls, including the ghost of Annabelle, who had hanged herself after being forced to attend the party.
Almost as frightened as Nora is Watson Pritchard (
Elisha CookElisha Vanslyck Cook, Jr. was an American character actor who made a career out of playing cowardly villains and weedy neurotics in dozens of films...
), the house's owner and another of the party's guests. He is fully convinced that the house is genuinely haunted by the ghosts of those killed there in the past, and that those ghosts have the power to "come for" and kill anyone in the house that they wish.
Eventually it is revealed that Annabelle faked her death in league with one of the guests, Dr. Trent (
Alan Marshal----Alan Marshal was an Australian-born actor who co-starred with Marlene Dietrich, Irene Dunne, Greta Garbo, Ginger Rogers, and Mae West....
). The two have been attempting to frighten Nora so badly that she will be spooked into shooting Frederick. Indeed, after being driven into a fit of hysteria by the repeated frights she has experienced during the evening, Nora does fire upon Frederick, assuming he is going to kill her. After she flees the room, Dr. Trent slips in and tries to get rid of Frederick's body by pushing it into a vat of acid, but the lights go out, and when they come back on, both of the men are gone.
After hearing the sound of the gunshot, Annabelle enters to confirm that her plan to kill her husband has come to fruition. Suddenly, a skeleton emerges from the acid accompanied by Frederick's voice. The spectre approaches Annabelle as she recoils in terror. In this panic, the screaming Annabelle accidentally backs into the acid herself. The real Frederick walks out of the shadows, holding the contraption that he was using to control the skeleton. In his triumph, he watches Annabelle
disintegrateDisintegration is the eighth studio album by English alternative rock band The Cure, released on 1 May 1989 by Fiction Records. The record marks a return to the introspective and gloomy gothic rock style the band had established in the early 1980s...
.
Nora tells the other guests that she's shot Loren in the wine cellar, and they all rush down there. When they arrive, they see that he's actually alive, and he tells Nora that the gun she had fired at him had been loaded only with blanks. He then explains to guests that his wife and Dr. Trent had been trying to kill him and that they each have met their end in the vat of acid. He says solemnly that he is "ready for justice to decide" his guilt or innocence.
Just when everyone thinks the trauma is finally over Watson Pritchard looks into the acid and asserts that Annabelle and Dr. Trent have now joined the ranks of house's ghosts. Then, with a terrified expression on his face, he announces that the ghosts are now coming for him. Breaking the
fourth wallThe fourth wall is the imaginary "wall" at the front of the stage in a traditional three-walled box set in a proscenium theatre, through which the audience sees the action in the world of the play...
, he looks at the camera and adds, "and then they'll come for
you."
Cast
- Vincent Price
Vincent Leonard Price, Jr. was an American actor, well known for his distinctive voice and serio-comic attitude in a series of horror films made in the latter part of his career.-Early life and career:Price was born in St...
as Frederick Loren, a millionaire whose first three wives all died suspicious deaths
- Carolyn Craig
Carolyn Craig was an American actress who was perhaps best known for her performance as Nora Manning in William Castle's 1959 shocker House on Haunted Hill. Her other film credits include a supporting performance in Giant as Lacey Lynnton, and a lead role in the 1957 film noir Portland Expose ,...
as Nora Manning, a secretary for one of Mr Loren's companies supports her whole family
- Richard Long
Richard Long was an American actor better known for his leading roles in several ABC television series, including The Big Valley, Nanny and the Professor and Bourbon Street Beat.-Early life:...
as Lance Schroeder, a pilot
- Elisha Cook
Elisha Vanslyck Cook, Jr. was an American character actor who made a career out of playing cowardly villains and weedy neurotics in dozens of films...
as Watson Pritchard, a man whose sister-in-law and brother were murdered in the house; the owner of the property
- Carol Ohmart
Armelia Carol Ohmart , better known as Carol Ohmart, is an American actress and beauty pageant title holder who appeared in B movies of the 1950s.-From pageants to Paramount:...
as Annabelle Loren, Frederick's fourth wife
- Alan Marshal
----Alan Marshal was an Australian-born actor who co-starred with Marlene Dietrich, Irene Dunne, Greta Garbo, Ginger Rogers, and Mae West....
as Dr. David Trent, a psychiatristPsychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the study and treatment of mental disorders. These mental disorders include various affective, behavioural, cognitive and perceptual abnormalities...
- Julie Mitchum
Julie Mitchum was born Annette Mitchum in Bridgeport, Connecticut, to James Thomas Mitchum and Ann Harriet Gunderson. Along with her brothers Robert and John, Mitchum worked in the entertainment industry as an actress...
as Ruth Bridgers, a columnist with a gambling problem (Mitchum strongly resembles real-life columnist Hedda HopperHedda Hopper was an American actress and gossip columnist, whose long-running feud with friend turned arch-rival Louella Parsons became at least as notorious as many of Hopper's columns.-Early life:...
)
- Leona Anderson as Mrs. Slydes, a housekeeper
- Howard Hoffman
Howard Hoffman is a voice actor and a radio imaging producer in Los Angeles, CA. He also operates the internet radio station . He was previously a host of Top 40 radio shows in New York City, Chicago, San Francisco, Providence, Phoenix and Houston....
as Jonas Slydes, another housekeeper
- Skeleton - Himself (This is in the end credits cast list)
Style
The theatrical trailer promoted the film as
The House on Haunted Hill, although all advertising material, and the title on the film itself were simply titled
House on Haunted Hill. The film is best known for a famous promotional gimmick used in the film's original theatrical release called "Emergo":
William CastleWilliam Castle was an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and actor. Castle was known for directing films with many gimmicks which were ambitiously promoted, despite being reasonably low budget B-movies....
placed an elaborate pulley system in some theaters showing the film which allowed a plastic skeleton to be flown over the audience at the appropriate time. In August and September 2010, the
Film ForumFilm Forum is a nonprofit movie theater located at 209 West Houston Street in New York City. It began in 1970 as an alternative screening space for independent films, with 50 folding chairs, one projector and a US$19,000 annual budget. Karen Cooper became director in 1972 and under her leadership,...
in
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
had a revival of the film (along with several other Castle pictures) that included the original gimmicks. This was the first time since the late 1980s Film Forum had done this.
Thanks to Castle's gimmickry, the film was a huge success.
Alfred HitchcockSir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE was a British film director and producer. He pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in British cinema in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood...
took notice of the low-budget film's performance at the box office, and set out to make his own low-budget horror film, which became the critically acclaimed hit
PsychoPsycho is a 1960 American suspense/psychological horror film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Janet Leigh and Anthony Perkins. The film is based on the screenplay by Joseph Stefano, who adapted it from the 1959 novel of the same name by Robert Bloch...
(1960). Castle was himself a Hitchcock fan, and would try to imitate Hitchcock's work in later films such as
HomicidalHomicidal is a 1961 thriller film produced and directed by the self-proclaimed "King of Showmanship", William Castle. Written by Robb White, the film stars Glenn Corbett, Patricia Breslin, Eugenie Leontovich, Alan Bunce, Richard Rust, and Joan Marshall...
(1961).
Release
House on Haunted Hill was originally released by Allied Artists. The film has since become
public domainWorks are in the public domain if the intellectual property rights have expired, if the intellectual property rights are forfeited, or if they are not covered by intellectual property rights at all...
, and is available in a number of issues. Two major studios have released the film in remastered versions.
Warner Home VideoWarner Home Video is the home video unit of Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., itself part of Time Warner. It was founded in 1978 as WCI Home Video . The company launched in the United States with twenty films on VHS and Betamax videocassettes in late 1979...
released the film on
DVDA DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
as a tie-in to the release of the 1999 remake. In 2005, the film was
colorizedColorization or colourisation may refer to:*Film colorization - a process that adds color to black and white, sepia or monochrome moving-picture images...
by
Legend FilmsLegend Films, a San Diego-based company, was founded in August 2001. The company specializes in the conversion of feature films, both new release and catalog titles, and commercials from their native 2D format into 3-D film format utilizing proprietary technology and software...
. The color version was released on DVD the same year by
20th Century FoxTwentieth Century Fox Film Corporation — also known as 20th Century Fox, or simply 20th or Fox — is one of the six major American film studios...
. Extras prepared by Legend Films for the Fox DVD release included an
audio commentaryOn disc-based video formats, an audio commentary is an additional audio track consisting of a lecture or comments by one or more speakers, that plays in real time with video...
track by comedian
Michael J. NelsonMichael John Nelson is a U.S. comedian and writer, most famous for his work on the cult television series Mystery Science Theater 3000 . Nelson was the head writer of the series for most of the show's 11-year run, and spent half of that time playing the on-air host, also named Mike Nelson...
of
Mystery Science Theater 3000Mystery Science Theater 3000 is an American cult television comedy series created by Joel Hodgson and produced by Best Brains, Inc., that ran from 1988 to 1999....
fame, two versions of the trailer, and a slideshow of images from the film's original press book.
Johnny LegendJohnny Legend is an American Rockabilly musician, film producer, actor and wrestling manager.-Biography:Johnny Legend was born Martin Margulies on October 3, 1948, in San Fernando, CA.Inducted into the "Rockabilly Hall of Fame"...
released a 50th Anniversary DVD containing a whole slew of extras such as both original theatrical trailer and TV spots plus several
William CastleWilliam Castle was an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and actor. Castle was known for directing films with many gimmicks which were ambitiously promoted, despite being reasonably low budget B-movies....
and
Vincent PriceVincent Leonard Price, Jr. was an American actor, well known for his distinctive voice and serio-comic attitude in a series of horror films made in the latter part of his career.-Early life and career:Price was born in St...
theatrical trailers, a
Carol OhmartArmelia Carol Ohmart , better known as Carol Ohmart, is an American actress and beauty pageant title holder who appeared in B movies of the 1950s.-From pageants to Paramount:...
profile and "
Golden ageThe term Golden Age comes from Greek mythology and legend and refers to the first in a sequence of four or five Ages of Man, in which the Golden Age is first, followed in sequence, by the Silver, Bronze, and Iron Ages, and then the present, a period of decline...
" TV shows starring
Vincent PriceVincent Leonard Price, Jr. was an American actor, well known for his distinctive voice and serio-comic attitude in a series of horror films made in the latter part of his career.-Early life and career:Price was born in St...
. A
DivXDivX is a brand name of products created by DivX, Inc. , including the DivX Codec which has become popular due to its ability to compress lengthy video segments into small sizes while maintaining relatively high visual quality.There are two DivX codecs; the regular MPEG-4 Part 2 DivX codec and the...
file of the colorized version with the commentary embedded is available as part of Nelson's
RiffTrax On DemandRiffTrax are downloadable audio commentaries featuring comedians Michael J. Nelson, Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett heckling films in the style of Mystery Science Theater 3000, a TV show in which Nelson was the head writer, and later the host. The RiffTrax are sold online and delivered by digital...
service. In 2009, a newly-recorded commentary by Nelson,
Kevin MurphyKevin Wagner Murphy is an American actor and writer best known as the voice and puppeteer of Tom Servo on the Peabody Award-winning comedy series Mystery Science Theater 3000.- Early career :...
and
Bill CorbettBill Corbett is an American writer and performer for television, film and theatre. He was a writer and performer on the cult television show Mystery Science Theater 3000 , for which he voiced the robot Crow T. Robot during the show's later seasons on the Sci Fi Channel and played the character...
was released by RiffTrax.
The RiffTrax team performed a Live RiffTrax of The House on Haunted Hill on 10/28/10.
On September 28, 2011, the estate of William Castle released an annotated screenplay from "House on Haunted Hill" which is a copy of the shooting script along with Castle's "margin notes" and the leather-bound style in which Castle used for his shooting script. This edition includes introductions from Joe Dante and Castle's daughter Terry. It also features its own version of "Emerg-o" in which the skeleton appears to readers via a "flip page" method.
External links
- House on Haunted Hill on YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....