Haunting Presence

While looking for some other DVD, I discovered an unopened copy of The Haunted Palace (1963), a Roger Corman/Vincent Price movie supposedly based on an Edgar Allen Poe story, but mostly a version of Lovecraft's Case of Charles Dexter Ward. 

It starts in colonial days in Arkham MA, with Vincent Price using hypnotic powers to get young women under his power for some hideous purpose. The townspeople, including Elisha Cook Jr., and Bruno VaSoto, drag him out, tie him to a tree and burn him alive. He cursed the town and its people, unto the last generation, and promised to return.

One hundred ten years later, Price, a descendant of the burnt witch and his bride Debra Paget come to Arkham in a coach. They have inherited the great palace that the witch lived in - although it has been uninhabited the entire time (?). They stop in a pub where they meet some of the hostile locals, including descendants of the witchburners. They advise him to leave, then when they find out that he has inherited the haunted palace, they get really nasty. The doctor, Frank Maxwell, is at least friendly, but also suggests that they leave and don't look back. But Price refuses to leave without at least looking at his palace.

When they arrive, they find it in pretty good shape. That's because caretaker Lon Chaney Jr. has been alerted to their presence and has made preparations. It makes the creepy place a little homier. And the mad painting of the original owner is disturbingly familiar. Done in a vaguely van Gogh style, it had a bit of the Ivan Albright (Picture of Dorian Gray) creepieness.

At first, Price agrees with Paget that they should leave as soon as possible, but the place begins to grow on him. Soon, he is talking like the old witch reborn. And what is in the mysterious tank in the deep dungeon? Some ancient aquatic abomination? 

I felt like this is on of the best of the Price/Corman/Poe (?) pictures. The cast is good (Paget wasted?), and the sets/art direction as well. But after a few days, I wonder if this is recency bias - I guess I have to do a rewatch.

In conclusion, I was pleased that the evil Price never lusted after his good self's wife. In fact the only time he made advances was to terrify her into leaving him alone.