House on Haunted Hill (1959)

[trekgeezer]

House on Haunted Hill (1959 ) - Produced and Directed by the infamous William Castle

Twisted miilonaire Frederick Loren (Vincent Price) and wife number 4, Annabelle (Carol Ohmat) invite a group of 5 strangers to a house where seven grisly murders have occurred for a haunted house party. Each of them that manages to make it through the night will receive $10,000.

Elisha Cook appears as Watson Pritchard, whose sister in law killed his brother and her own sister in the house. Their heads were never found.  We also have a test pilot (Richard Long from The Big Valley), a psychiatrist, a secretary from one of Loren's companies, and a socialite.

Frederick and Annabelle have a definite hate thing going for each other from the beginning. Seems the other 3 Mrs. Loren's are all dead (one disappeared and the other two died form heart attacks in their 20's!). Then we have Nora the screamer (the secretary) and Lance the pilot as her protector. Ruth the socialite hasn't much to do and Dr. Trent seems to be the voice of reason in the lot.

Despite Elisha Cook's dire warnings, not much happens in the ghost department and the plot takes interesting turn in the last act.

I'm glad this thing only lasted 75 minutes. I think the movie is worth a watch just for its historical value. It was remade in  1999 with Geoffrey Rush and Famke Jansen. The setting was changed to an infamous psychiatric asylum.

Interesting things in the movie:

A wine vat filled with acid in the basement.

Loaded .45's in little caskets for party favors.

A house that from the outside looked more like a museum building.

The only scary thing in the movie was the caretakers blind wife.

Next up I will brave watching George Hamilton as Evel Knievel. This will be the first time I've watched it in 30 years.

[BeyondTheGrave]

I have this flim in a 19 horror classic collection. I loved the dialouge between Vincent Price and his wife In the movie

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You can’t give it, you can't buy it, and you just don't get it!-Aeon Flux

[Dunners]

This was a wonderful little film, nothing amazing but a damn fine one. it was dark and twisted enough but unfortunately had very little in the ghost dept and I cant help but feel it needed to be an extra 15 min longer.  More character development and maybe a few other scares.

Vincent Price gives one of his most charming performances here as Frederic Loren.
I bought the remake used for about $6 and sold it for about $2 a few months later. It was terrible and made little sense.

Crappy script and characters as well as an unconvincing ghost story added in made it a loud yawn.

[dean]

I didn't actually mind the remake.  Though it wasn't too great in the plot department, it did have some interesting sequences, like the mental patients breaking out scene, the wierd head flipping and the old school projector type thing.

Apart from that, the rest was average.

[onionhead]

William Castle was great for gimmicks and a twisted sense of humor.  My 2nd personal favorite is Homicidal, a terrific Psycho homage with a killer twist ending that I never saw coming.
First favorite:  The Tingler, hands down.  Vincent Price on an acid trip, a wire-dragged monster, and the ever classic "Scream!!  Scream for your lives!'
I also recalled a great fondness for Let's Kill Uncle, with Nigel Green--terrific black comedy
The Night Walker marked the first time I saw Hayden Rorke outside of his Dr Alfred Bellows giuse, and boasts a script by Robert Bloch
I Saw What You Did, Strait-Jacket--Joan Crawford puts to bed those rumors that she is a murdering b***h-from-hell

[LH-C]

I think the original is a great little horror comedy (and I do agree that it could have been 15 minutes longer). The strange part is that my dad hates it, and is a huge fan of the remake! He thinks the remake is awesome! He had me watch it one time and I was bored out of my skull.

[Scott]

HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL was one of my first DVD's. Good film that I would like to view again sometime. Mostly remember the old lady moving (sliding) towards the women and of course the skeleton and the strange house. It was on a double DVD with LAST MAN ON EARTH which is really one of my favorites.

[Ashley]

Help me!
Is this the movie where the creepy old lady glides across the floor with her hands out, with a scary look on her face. ?   Theres also a blonde screaming?  Am I totally off??

[Menard]

Ashley wrote:

> Help me!
> Is this the movie where the creepy old lady glides across the
> floor with her hands out, with a scary look on her face. ?  
> Theres also a blonde screaming?  Am I totally off??

This is that movie.

[Ashley]

Thank you!!!!