House on Haunted Hill

Complete with Vincent Price as the star, this movie is the epitome of the 1950's style of thriller. A group of strangers are invited by a millionaire (Price) to spend a night in a supposedly haunted house with the promise of a $10000 reward to any who make it through. There's nothing particularly special about this. The usual fare (doors closing and locking for no reason, chandeliers shaking, strange apparitions) but nothing in it that seemed to me to be especially frightening. As the movie nears its end, we discover what's really going on here, and that creates more problems than anything. SPOILER Price's wife Annabelle (Carol Ohmart) is apparently having an affair with the psychiatrist Dr. Trent (Alan Marshal.) They use the "haunted house party" as an excuse to have Price bumped off without suspicion being cast on them. OK. Given that Frederick Loren (Price) apparently issued the invitations, how could they be sure that the psychiatrist would even be invited? Or, alternately, if Price knew about the affair, wouldn't the two have been suspicious at the "coincidence" invitation going mysteriously to Trent when everybody seems to be a stranger to each other? Anyway, nothing special here (although Carolyn Craig, who played Nora, has a great scream!) 4/10

this is probably one of the best black and white horror movies ever made in my opinion,, top 50 material. Vincent Price does his usual over the top great performance,, his is witty, and charming,, his wife on the other hand is cold , calculated , and cunning,, plot goes like this 5 strangers are invited to spend the night at an eccentric millionaire's house, if they survive they will be paid 10,000 dollars, not a bad offer, but apparently the house is very haunted, and people seem to have a bad habit of dying there,, each of the house guests are given one last chance to leave , but the caretakers take off a few minutes early so the house is thoroughly locked down,, the windows even have bars on them, and you just have to love all of the doors in the house,, and the acid pit,, that is just the cream of the crop ladies and gentleman.

Released in 1959, "House on Haunted Hill" stars Vincent Price as the host of a "party" at a mansion where several people are invited (e.g. Richard Long and Elisha Cook Jr.) and offered $10,000 to stay the night. Ghostly and spooky things start happening. Will they make it out alive? Some old horror movies stand the test of time even though they're extremely dated, like 1953's "House of Wax," but "House on Haunted Hill" isn't one of 'em. This is just a bad movie. It has one or two effective scares, but that's about it. Thankfully, there are some positives: Price is his entertaining self, Long is a quality protagonist and Carol Ohmart is palpably sultry, but there are way too many lame elements, like parts of the dialogue and the overall script. But there's more: The corny floating heads; the overacting and over-screaming (mostly by Carolyn Craig); the fact that the house (actually a veritable castle) only has one door; and the ridiculous skeleton at the end that was shorter than Annabelle and was supposed to be the remains of Price's towering character. Then there's the obvious questions the story provokes: Since the guests were only there for the night why not just stay in one room together and wait it out, making sure you're not sitting under a dubious chandelier? What was the purpose of the well of acid in the cellar? How did they possibly pull off Annabelle appearing outside Nora's window? How about the rope encircling Nora's feet and then going back out? Why didn't Nora simply step away from the rope? I could go on and on. Still, it's worth watching for the few positives and to roll your eyes at the rest. Shot in B&W, the movie runs 75 minutes and was shot Ennis-Brown House, Los Feliz, Los Angeles, California. GRADE: D

The movie is about a strange rich guy (Price) who pays five seemingly random people to come to a party in a haunted house where seven people were supposedly murdered. Each is told if they stay the night, they will receive $10,000 in the morning. However, soon after this, murders begin occurring and everyone is terrified for their lives. The film does have a somewhat interesting twist at the end, though otherwise it's a haunted house film. It does try very hard and William Castle threw practically everything into this film to make it entertaining--except a decent script. Sure, it's fun to watch, but also pretty brainless--with lots of dumb plot devices and holes. For example, the home that all the people are in has a vat of acid in the basement under a trap door! Huh?! And, later, someone trips into it! Pretty clumsy, huh?! As far as the acting goes, it's not especially inspiring. Price is amazingly restrained in his performance--and I really wished he'd acted with a little more energy. Most of the rest of the actors were okay, though Elisha Cook should have been a tad embarrassed for his over-acting--he really was quite silly. Overall, the film is mediocre and very skip-able unless you are a huge Price fan.

When I was a kid, watching this was a Halloween ritual. We made fun of the woman who kept asking for "Scotch and" (and...what?), and we pretended we weren't just a little creeped out. However, we grow up and even camp value only goes so far, and this thing can only survive on the very dregs of camp. Absolutely everything that occurs is laughably implausible and/or comically overdone, in particular Nora's sighting of the old lady ghost in the basement. This is a movie that sees no need to explain why, if this 'ghost' was really just the very unattractive caretaker's wife (as we see later on), she felt the need to hiss and hold out her hands in a ghostlike fashion while inexplicably in an empty cellar room. And, by the way, float and not walk. There's a lot more. Best moments: Richard Long plopping the severed head on a living room table, and Vincent Price reeling in the skeleton he used to scare his wife to death, a skeleton maneuvered by huge ropes somehow not visible earlier. Oh, whatever happened to Mystery Science Theater 3000??? This film was made for them.

William Castle liked to promote his films with gimmicks, and the gimmick for THE HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL was Emerg-O: at the peak of the action, a glowing skeleton "emerged from the screen" and flew out over the audience on a wire. By most accounts Emerg-O caused more laughter than chills, but fortunately Castle never relied on gimmicks alone: he also liked bona fide stars, and for HAUNTED HILL his star of choice was none other than the legendary horror star Vincent Price. Like most Castle films, HAUNTED HILL's plot reworks a well-worn theme. Millionaire Price and his wife Carol Ohmart give a "haunted house party" for five strangers chosen at random and promised ten thousand dollars if they last the night. The catch: the doors lock at midnight, after which there is no escape until the caretakers return in the morning. While the story itself doesn't hold many surprises, the script is unexpectedly witty, and Price plays it in a slightly prissy, very high-camp manner with a tremendous dose of the black humor for which he was so famous--and the little-known Carol Ohmart is every bit his match, snapping out memorable lines ("Darling, the only ghoul in the house is you!") in every scene. Together they elevate the film well above what you might otherwise expect, and when combined with the largely wooden supporting cast and some of the silliest this-is-supposed-to-scare-you effects imaginable the result is a cult classic with plenty of camp appeal. In addition to Price and Ohmart, the film is also surprisingly atmospheric. Shot in and around one of Frank Lloyd Wright's more famous structures, the grainy "late show" look of the film (due more to accident and age than deliberate intent) is very entertaining, the cinematic devices (everything from disembodied heads, irises, and jump-cuts) are very appealing, and the sound track (which sounds like a mix of piano bass keyes, synthesizer, and soprano vocals) is exactly what you'd want for this obvious but extremely entertaining flick. Of all the Castle films, THE HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL is my personal favorite, and it should rate very high with fans of cult, camp, and Vincent Price. And I'll go further than that: of all his memorable appearances, I do believe this was among Price's best. A great choice for both family movie night or a sophisticated Halloween howl--very recommended! Gary F. Taylor, aka GFT, Amazon Reviewer

Of the many William Castle directed shockers of the '50's and '60's, this one is probably the most traditional in terms of being a "ghost story". The set up is irresistible (derivative of "Ten Little Indians" in a way.) Five unrelated people are chosen to spend the night in what is purported to be a haunted house. Several murders have taken place in the house in the past. If the participants stay the night, their host (Price) will give them each $10,000 (a nice chunk of change in 1958!) The house is surprisingly non-Gothic on the outside. It more closely resembles a piece of the 1937 "Lost Horizon" set. Inside, it has the more expected old woodwork, creaky doors, curtained alcoves, etc... Price is wonderful, as always, as the sardonic, mysterious host. His wife is played by a former beauty queen (Ohmart) who is attractive, if a bit frosty. They have some interesting repartee which reveals their mistrust and hatred for one another. The guests include leading man-type Long, ingenue Craig, nervous Cook, crusty Mitchum and debonair Marshal. Macabre Price gives the guests loaded guns as party favors! It doesn't take long for the unusual occurrences and minor creeps to begin. Soon, the inhabitants are locked in and couldn't leave even if they wanted to! Long and Craig play Fred and Daphne as they try to unravel the goings-on. Cook drinks and gets more paranoid. Marshal tends to the wounded, getting more involved as the story progresses. Mitchum (Robert's sister!) is given little to do and doesn't appear to be a very significant actress. The film is hokey, campy and illogical...full of contrivances and inanities. Yet, it is undeniably entertaining. All of the hallmarks of an old-fashioned scary movie are in place....the eerie music, the undependable lights, swinging doors, secret passages and without question the most hilarious, terrifyingly ugly housekeeper ever put on film! Price is right at home in these surroundings and does much to make the film palatable. There are a couple of fun plot twists to keep it from being too stale and the running time is a very comfortable hour and fifteen minutes. It's just a fun, entertaining way to waste an hour or so. Sadly, Craig (who had a real set of lungs on her...one of the greatest screamers ever!) was felled by a gunshot in real life about twelve years after this film was made at age 36. In fact, Marshal was dead within three years of heart ailments at 56 and Long died 16 years after from a heart attack at 47! And they say "Poltergeist" was cursed!

Vincent Price plays a millionaire who (for no discernible reason) offers five people $10,000 each IF they survive the night in a haunted house. He and his beautiful wife (Carol Ohmart) will be along with them. Once everyone is inside strange (actually boring) events occur putting everyone in danger. Deadly dull and not even remotely scary. Everybody who likes this has fond memories of seeing it AS A KID. I never saw it a kid only now as an adult so I don't have childhood memories clouding my judgment. The script makes little sense, the dialogue is boring and all the characters are clichéd. With the sole exceptions of Price and Ohmart the acting is terrible with Elisha Cook Jr. being downright embarrassing. Lousy music score too. See the 1999 remake. It's much better.

This film is truly awful. A revamp of the old Cat & the Canary formula. A theme done to death. Yet I love it for the shallow and stiff characters, lazy script and muddled story line. None of it works. The writer feels the need to 'explain' everything - but a psychological intepretation would have been better? But who could forget that final scene of the skeleton trundling out from the vat of acid - a giant string puppet!!! Oh what rubbish but I've seen this film time and time again and it IS a little scary in parts. I have to say I enjoy it more than the recent Gosford Park. Ahhh they don't make them like this anymore. Unintentionally funny throughout!!!

This movie is a very good tale of a house that may or may not be haunted. This version is better than the newer one, mainly because Vincent Price is so good here, much better than anyone in the new version made in 1999. It is also relatively short and goes by quickly. This movie has some of the same plot elements of the one from 1999, but thankfully the ending to this one is a lot better. I really enjoyed it, as I was hoping the one character would come out on top. This one is about a party being held in an old house that is supposed to be haunted. The people were invited by Price's character and offered $10,000 dollars if they were to stay the entire night. There is tension between Price's character and his wife, there is a girl who is very nervous and wants to leave immediately, and then there is the doctor who does not believe in ghosts. There are three others as well who are invited to stay the night. During the night strange things happen as one of the guests is murdered and there seems to be supernatural things happening. A very well done movie that for me ended perfectly.