Joe Dante on THE HAUNTED PALACE

Although seeming quite a bit like one of Roger Corman's period Edgar Allan Poe adaptations, it's actually a slight digression in that it's not based on Poe at all but on an H.P. Lovecraft story. Economical but imaginative, it offers two Vincents for the Price of one and pairs them with Lon Chaney for the first time since Casanova's Big Night. Features one of the best opening title sequences of the series.
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ABOUT JOE DANTE
JOE DANTE is a lifelong film buff who turned his obsession into a career. He got his start cutting trailers for Roger Corman and later directed the hit movie Gremlins, as well as Gremlins 2: The New Batch, for producer Steven Spielberg. His feature films include The Howling, Innerspace, Matinee, Small Soldiers and The 'Burbs. His latest is a 3-D thriller titled The Hole, due out later in the year.
Among his TV work is The Second Civil War, Eerie, Indiana and the "Masters of Horrors" titles Homecoming and The Screwfly Solution
ABOUT TRAILERS FROM HELL:
TFH is the premier showcase for a breathtakingly eclectic assortment of trailers from classic era films both in their original form and punctuated with informative and amusing commentary by contemporary filmmakers.
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[@toonbat]

Holy cow! A Roger Corman Lovecraft flick? With Vincent Price and Lon Chaney Jr? Oh, I've GOT to see this!

[@jamiebraswell5520]

It only takes the barest plot of "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward", while stealing quite a bit of ideas from "The Shadow Over Innsmouth", mixing it all into something not nearly as Lovecraftian as it should have been. Vincent Price and the beautiful cinematography save the film from its poor script.

[@johneshuis1215]

I was eleven years old. Seen it in an old 600 places cinema with little balconies on the sides. The movie was rated above 14 and it was a attack on my nervous system. The start with the spider and the music said it all. A tough ride for a kid and I did not slept for weeks!

[@juanaltredo2974]

Ronald Stein's main theme is one of my favorites, beautiful and romantic. The movie is also very good, one of the top 3 Corman adaptations, alongside the masterpiece that is the masque of red death, and the pit and the pendulum, which is also very good if not as good as the masque

[@alpyki2588]

Considering how much H. P. Lovecraft admired Poe, he'd probably consider it an honor that an adaptation of his work was under the Poe Cycle of films. Especially in The Outsider, you can see how much he loved Poe's works.

[@danielleking1171]

Corman always used the same shot of the roof on fire collapsing but i still like the films

[@danielsweet858]

Saw this on a triple bill at The Riverview Drive-in with Dr. No & Donovan's Reef. Vincent, Connery & The Duke. Good times.

[@AnthonySmith-ty7ij]

Watched it on TH-cam yesterday, loved it.

[@AnthonySmith-ty7ij]

One of Vincent Price's finest portrayals. Lon Chaney's only Corman movie role and is excellent.

[@jamiebraswell5520]

@@AnthonySmith-ty7ij , I thought it wasted London Chaney.

[@Popcultureguy3000]

@@jamiebraswell5520Same. He had a few scenes where he could act genuinely sinister, but most of the time he’s just fawning over his master like a low rent Igor. I hate Spider Baby for a number of (mostly personal) reasons, but that’s a low budget horror feature that really draws out Lon Chaney Jr’s strengths as a horror actor.

[@sam21462]

"It's all there in The Necronomicon, if you want to look it up." hahahahahahahahhahahahahahahah lol nice!

[@hallking7441]

Omg Debra Paget 🖤

[@TheSinisterSimon]

I LOVE "The Necrononicom,"
I LOATHE "The Adventures of Cinema Dave in the Florida Motion Picture World."

"va va voom". You and I are both old men, Mr. Dante. But I ain't " va va voom" old.

[@Scion-cy6wj]

" it's actually a slight digression in that it's not based on Poe at all but on an H.P. Lovecraft .... " - hmmm? Lovecraft is every bit as respected as Poe.

[@Popcultureguy3000]

Now. He’s respected as an author now. But in the Sixties his reputation was still picking up steam, especially in Hollywood.

[@jamiebraswell5520]

My problem with this film is that the script is very lazy, not holding up to the standards set by others who worked on these films at the time. Vincent Price is great and does a marvelous job with both characters, but his performance can't overcome that script. Was it really neccessary to cram in elements of "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" by way of a small decrepit town, deformed denizens, and breeding humans with Elder Things? Did we really need a poorly incorporated exposition scene that name drops the Necronomicon, Cthulhu, and Yogg Sothoth? Why not focus more clearly on "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward", which had plenty of good material that could have been used to better flesh out the story. The two necromancers just magically appear and then at the films end just disappear, which makes no sense because no explanation is even attempted. London Chaney was wasted here. It is a beautiful looking movie with lovely cinematography and heavy atmosphere, and as mentioned earlier, Price ' s great performance. That script, though, is half baked.