William Castle's House on Haunted Hill' (1958) is quite appealing camp, endlessly more fun and enjoyable than the remake forty years later. Who needs CGFX when you've got Vincent Price leading an ensemble cast of eccentrics and misfits?
Price is at his devilish best as a sickeningly wealthy industrialist who, rather curiously, offers $10,000 to each of five strangers if they dare spend the entire night in a supposedly haunted mansion. But Price, his ice cold trophy wife (beautiful Carol Ohmart), and a few of the guests have other goals in mind during this evening's mysterious event. Elisha Cook, Jr. (Kubrick's The Killing') plays, with perfection, the impotent owner of the mansion and one of the five guests. His catalogue-like knowledge of the mansion's many murders provides the background necessary to instill fear in the minds of the guests and the audience.
If you know and like Castle's style, this comedy-drama is worth a look. Strange thing here is the title: There's no `haunted hill', and the `house' looks like a metropolitan library, not your classic haunted house. But this doesn't present a problem. -- david ross smith
Price is at his devilish best as a sickeningly wealthy industrialist who, rather curiously, offers $10,000 to each of five strangers if they dare spend the entire night in a supposedly haunted mansion. But Price, his ice cold trophy wife (beautiful Carol Ohmart), and a few of the guests have other goals in mind during this evening's mysterious event. Elisha Cook, Jr. (Kubrick's The Killing') plays, with perfection, the impotent owner of the mansion and one of the five guests. His catalogue-like knowledge of the mansion's many murders provides the background necessary to instill fear in the minds of the guests and the audience.
If you know and like Castle's style, this comedy-drama is worth a look. Strange thing here is the title: There's no `haunted hill', and the `house' looks like a metropolitan library, not your classic haunted house. But this doesn't present a problem. -- david ross smith