Tuesday, October 27, 2009

The Fall of the House of Usher


(1928)*1/2

I thought I was done reviewing the film versions of The Fall of the House of Usher. Then I looked it up further, and saw there were about 8 versions filmed, most unavailable. However, there was a link to this 13-minute, silent film version.

There were no words shown at all during this short film. It actually looks more like a bad student film than anything professional. And, for all I know about its production, this was a student film. It appears that it was made mostly to showcase some new special effects. Most of this focuses on the actual house of Usher, which would put M.C. Escher to shame. So, it's neat, if you're studying 1920s cinema. Otherwise, not worth the 13 minutes.

2 comments:

Octopunk said...

You should include the link!

This is another parallel phenomena to my attempted H.P. Lovecraft roundup two years ago. Lots of very short, very independent versions of his stories that barely exist beyond the imdb page.

You know, Czech animator Jan Svankmajer made a film of the story in 1981. I think it's on one of his two anthology discs (which Netflix has) and I also just found it on YouTube. Sixteen minutes, but it feels like more.

Trevor said...

Oh! I think I'm done with seeing these. Although I don't think I've ever seen Czech animation before.

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