I think it's common knowledge that Vincent Price's mere presence elevates even the most mediocre movies nine times out of ten. This is one of those cases.
I have not read the HP Lovecraft novel The Haunted Palace (1963) was based on, so I will not be making comparison. For what it is, the plot is your standard Jekyll-Hyde sort of thing. Over a century after his warlock ancestor Joseph Curwell was burned alive for kidnapping village girls and mating them with a demonic creature, Charles Dexter Ward and his wife Ann come to claim Curwell's old castle. The residents go crazy, believing Ward's arrival to fulfill a curse Curwell put upon the village right before lit him up: that he would return again and destroy the descendants of the men who had convicted him. Ward dismisses these superstitions at first, but once he moves into the palace the spirit of his ancestor begins to consume him entirely.
Though the sets are creepy and the proper Gothic mood is achieved, this picture is made memorable solely by Price's compelling (and decidedly not hammy nor campy) performance. He makes both the innocent, gentle Ward and the cruel, lecherous Curwen fully defined and convincing personalities. Neither portrayal is the least bit hammy. In fact, the whole film lacks the camp one might associate with a Roger Corman movie.
Also of note is the score written by Ronald Stein. Perfectly creepy and befitting the movie. The make-up work on the mutated villagers is well done too. The scene in which they corner the astonished Wards is genuinely chilling.
The supporting players are good, if not as interesting as Price (then again few actors could be). Lon Chaney Jr. gets little to do as the palace's suspicious keeper and the beautiful Debra Paget does what she can playing a woman made uncomfortable by the hostile villagers, spooky new house, and strange behavior of her husband.
In the end, not a perfect film, but Price fans will love it and I imagine most who enjoy the Gothic horror flicks of the 1960s will get a kick out of it as well.
I have not read the HP Lovecraft novel The Haunted Palace (1963) was based on, so I will not be making comparison. For what it is, the plot is your standard Jekyll-Hyde sort of thing. Over a century after his warlock ancestor Joseph Curwell was burned alive for kidnapping village girls and mating them with a demonic creature, Charles Dexter Ward and his wife Ann come to claim Curwell's old castle. The residents go crazy, believing Ward's arrival to fulfill a curse Curwell put upon the village right before lit him up: that he would return again and destroy the descendants of the men who had convicted him. Ward dismisses these superstitions at first, but once he moves into the palace the spirit of his ancestor begins to consume him entirely.
Though the sets are creepy and the proper Gothic mood is achieved, this picture is made memorable solely by Price's compelling (and decidedly not hammy nor campy) performance. He makes both the innocent, gentle Ward and the cruel, lecherous Curwen fully defined and convincing personalities. Neither portrayal is the least bit hammy. In fact, the whole film lacks the camp one might associate with a Roger Corman movie.
Also of note is the score written by Ronald Stein. Perfectly creepy and befitting the movie. The make-up work on the mutated villagers is well done too. The scene in which they corner the astonished Wards is genuinely chilling.
The supporting players are good, if not as interesting as Price (then again few actors could be). Lon Chaney Jr. gets little to do as the palace's suspicious keeper and the beautiful Debra Paget does what she can playing a woman made uncomfortable by the hostile villagers, spooky new house, and strange behavior of her husband.
In the end, not a perfect film, but Price fans will love it and I imagine most who enjoy the Gothic horror flicks of the 1960s will get a kick out of it as well.