What Scared The Roof Off In 1959

A Nerve Test For The Bravest Only

Would be great if I could write of House On Haunted Hill scaring pants off me at age five, but alas, I wasn’t there when the Liberty played it, though legend was passed down by others of the neighborhood lucky enough to have seen William Castle’s spook-fest and the “Emergo” process that launched a skeleton past heads of a screaming audience (less screaming than jeering, actually, where they weren’t trying to yank the prop down or disable it with thrown detritus). You had to be present then to embrace House On Haunted Hill now. There will come a day when no one is left to speak of Emergo from first-hand knowledge, just as there is scant testimony as to how great a cowboy Fred Thomson was. When does nostalgia finally wear itself out? House On Haunted Hill was sixty years ago. I can be objective in part for having missed it theatrically. Where we first see a classic does matter. Matters a lot. House On Haunted Hill for me was a 1965 Saturday morning, as bright indoors as out, Channel 8 from High Point chopping down a totem built by those who guaranteed me that here was hands-down a scariest film yet. Had I been kidded along, or did they lack my thick skin for screen thrills? 1959 being six years past seemed far longer --- was its viewership more fragile? I’d now go smug among peers who lacked my fortitude in the face of fear.

Rare, Pricey, Desirable Poster Today --- Will It Stay That Way?

Price Poses For Key Art --- Posters Will Later Add a Dismembered Head To His Accessories

Poster art for House On Haunted Hill was inspired, beyond that even. There’s good reason why sheets routinely sell in the thousands … as in dollars … for a 1959 release. You won’t see memorabilia from Hound Dog Man moving like this. What makes merchandising magical? In this case, artist Reynold Brown perhaps. He’s famed for design of horror and sci-fi posters. Vincent Price holding a candle in one hand, a dismembered head in the other. Not in the film, but it sure captures the spirit of House On Haunted Hill. A skeleton dangling a hanged woman was stuff of boy dreams that Brown fulfilled (yikes, what does that say about boys?). Given an original one-sheet, wouldn’t you display it on a den wall for all guests to see? (or auction it for the grand or two you’d easily get) Collectors who scarfed this stuff in the 60/70’s when it was cheap bought better pensions than employers supplied. Of all dumb or peculiar things we fans do, hoarding posters isn’t one of them. This is art, and don’t let anyone tell you different.

Variety estimated $1.5 million in domestic rentals for House On Haunted Hill. Foreign, which they did not address, may have doubled that total. Think of gravy this was for bare minimum William Castle spent on the negative. Alfred Hitchcock noticed, and by all accounts was pea green, Psycho his effort to beat House On Haunted Hill at a shock game. Then Castle copied him with Straight-Jacket, Homicidal, more. Hitchcock came to realize that he would have to play horror’s game. He had not forgotten the “Blood Punch” reception that Paramount staged for Vertigo. The late 50’s made everyone monster mad, so filmmakers played, or did without (profits). Hitchcock and others of exalted status must have thought the show world had itself gone a little mad. Even Gary Cooper finished on a fake-Psycho where he might be the knife killer, us watching The Naked Edge now and wondering whose kooky idea that was. Bill Castle was happily unburdened by needs to maintain dignity, hiding peas under shells and letting us pay to guess which one. Surely this man died with a fortune. I hope so, because he was a maestro showman (but not a generous one … read writer Robb White’s interview w/ Tom Weaver in Science Fiction Stars and Horror Heroes).

Vincent Price should have had an Academy Award for knowing exactly how to pilot material like this. I watched House On Haunted Hill again this week and marveled at how great he was. The man could be sinister and subtly send the thing up, in short scare kids and amuse parents, or more specifically teens who got fill-up of horror hosts they stayed up late for. Price was forever hep because he understood the mood of generations behind his. He was the coolest old guy making spook faces (age 47 when he did HOHH). I admire the way Price worked like a dog so he could collect more art. Let Castle’s direction be leaden so long as Price is there to purr lines and warn viewers that they might not survive a night in his ghost mansion. The kick we forget, even between repeat looks, is that there is no for-real risen dead in House On Haunted Hill. As with so much of movies, it is human agency behind what appears supernatural. A cheat? You could argue that, but so long as a skip-to-lou skeleton pushes Carol Ohmart into an acid bath, who cares if Price ends up working the strings? (further detail omitted, and yes, this is a ludicrous plot device) There’s an old witch with white eyes that turns out to be a “caretaker,” so why does she assume fright pose and glide toward ingenue Carolyn Craig as if on roller skates. It won’t bear scrutiny, but OMG, the effect.

Above Puts Lie To Notion That Grown-Ups Avoided House On Haunted Hill in 1959

Fun aspects of House On Haunted Hill were what counted most. “Emergo” as practiced on first-run audiences at least taught smallest fry the meaning of the word, or did they go through primary grades thinking we “emergoed,” or were “emergoing” from adjacent classrooms? How do you un-teach lessons driven in by sledgehammers at a Bill Castle screening? FYI for those slumming but briefly at Greenbriar (the rest know all too well): Emergo was where a skeleton was slid down a rope and over heads of patronage. A 50’s showman told me that the trick was to keep it out of reach to grubby and grasping hands. Imagine the badge of honor accorded to those who could bring a skeleton down. There may be trophies yet in unnamed attics. Was it worth the guff for exhibs to rig the silly things up? Probably so, as we can but imagine word-of-mouth those skeletons inspired. In case anyone was misled to take House On Haunted Hill serious, there were cartoon ads to disabuse them (or abuse in event too mature customers went to see the movie). The gag was used before on William Castle’s Macabre, then purloined by others for The Stranglers Of Bombay, The Wasp Woman, heaven knows what others, above being ones I found for HOHH. Looked to me like the same artist did them all. Make no mistake then, House On Haunted Hill is a classic, all the more so now that it plays TCM in HD and available on Blu-Ray as part of the Vincent Price Collection --- Volume Two. Sit close to the screen when you watch, for it looks best that way, but don’t let toes get too near the acid bath.