...a minor cult classic in the haunted-house genre, and while it may not be very scary, it sure is entertaining.
Video:
The movie is presented in two versions: the original black-and-white and a new colorized edition. Both versions are presented in what a keep-case blurb claims is the original aspect ratio, 1.33:1. From this, I infer that Legend Films and Fox Home Entertainment have gone back to the original camera negative (before the image was matted for widescreen) and transferred the fullscreen picture to disc. However, I do not recall the film being in fullscreen the first time I saw it in a theater in 1959. By the late fifties almost every movie was being shown theatrically in some sort of widescreen, and in this case I seem to remember its being something like 1.75:1 or 1.85:1. In any case, from everything I can gather we appear to be seeing more of the total image, top and bottom, than ever before, so I'm not complaining.
I do have a small complaint about the colorized version, though. The folks at Legend make a big deal about how their new process is so much better than what most of us remember from the Ted Turner days of colorization; but from what I see on this disc and from I see in their promo for colorization in the bonus features, the picture still looks washed out and lightly tinted, never bright or natural. I wonder if it occurs to these colorization specialists that B&W films were designed to look good in black-and-white, and that B&W photography conveys degrees of intensity and tone and atmosphere that color cannot match. In a haunted-house film, the black-and-white works to the story's advantage. Nevertheless, William Castle loved attention-getting contrivances, they were his stock-in-trade, so I'm sure if he were still alive he wouldn't mind the Legend people luring in a few more viewers with the promise of color.
Anyway, I was quite content after a few minutes of watching the colorized version to switch to the black-and-white, the way the movie was intended. The restored B&W shows up quite well in its light-to-dark contrasts, but a small degree of grain tends to make the picture look a little rough, especially in the outdoor shots. Moreover, while object delineation is certainly more than adequate, there are instances of wavy or shimmering lines that occasionally distract the eye My rating below is for the B&W version of the movie only.
Audio:
The sound is nothing to write home about. It's a very ordinary 2.0 monaural, cleaned up via Dolby Digital processing. As we might expect, there is little in the way of frequency range, dynamic impact, or deep bass involved. Yet it conveys fairly good clarity in the midrange and gets the job done, the better to hear the screams, my dears.
Extras:
I've already mentioned that the disc comes with a restored black-and-white version and an all-new colorized version, both located on the same side of a dual-layered disc. Since the movie is only seventy-five minutes long and there's nothing anamorphic needing added information, it's easy to see how the studio could fit two versions on one side. The most compelling extra, though, is an audio commentary by Mike Nelson, the former host of TV's "Mystery Science Theater 3000." He's a very funny fellow, and you may remember his commentary for another of Legend Films' restorations, "Reefer Madness." Here, Nelson has less to poke fun at because most of "House on Haunted Hill" is intentionally harebrained to begin with; and for some viewers a little of his whimsical wisecracks may go a long way. He's kind of like the teenager sitting behind you at a movie theater that you have to keep turning around and asking to keep quiet about a dozen times. Still, Nelson approaches the film with high good humor and manages to rib it while not wholly deriding it.
In addition, there are twelve scene selections; a two-minute montage of press material for the film; an original theatrical trailer; and theatrical trailers for several other Legend horror films. English is the only spoken language available, and there are no subtitle options. It's English or bust.
Parting Thoughts:
I still get a kick out of this film, all these decades later. Everything about it is so remarkably comfortable, from its exaggerated histrionics to its schlocky special effects. Yes, "House on Haunted Hill" remains a minor cult classic in the haunted-house genre, and while it may not be very scary, it sure is entertaining.
And if you're wondering about number of dead in the house, well, as Elisha Cook says at the end of the movie: "Now there are nine. There'll be more; many more. They're coming for me now. And then they'll come for you."
The movie is presented in two versions: the original black-and-white and a new colorized edition. Both versions are presented in what a keep-case blurb claims is the original aspect ratio, 1.33:1. From this, I infer that Legend Films and Fox Home Entertainment have gone back to the original camera negative (before the image was matted for widescreen) and transferred the fullscreen picture to disc. However, I do not recall the film being in fullscreen the first time I saw it in a theater in 1959. By the late fifties almost every movie was being shown theatrically in some sort of widescreen, and in this case I seem to remember its being something like 1.75:1 or 1.85:1. In any case, from everything I can gather we appear to be seeing more of the total image, top and bottom, than ever before, so I'm not complaining.
I do have a small complaint about the colorized version, though. The folks at Legend make a big deal about how their new process is so much better than what most of us remember from the Ted Turner days of colorization; but from what I see on this disc and from I see in their promo for colorization in the bonus features, the picture still looks washed out and lightly tinted, never bright or natural. I wonder if it occurs to these colorization specialists that B&W films were designed to look good in black-and-white, and that B&W photography conveys degrees of intensity and tone and atmosphere that color cannot match. In a haunted-house film, the black-and-white works to the story's advantage. Nevertheless, William Castle loved attention-getting contrivances, they were his stock-in-trade, so I'm sure if he were still alive he wouldn't mind the Legend people luring in a few more viewers with the promise of color.
Anyway, I was quite content after a few minutes of watching the colorized version to switch to the black-and-white, the way the movie was intended. The restored B&W shows up quite well in its light-to-dark contrasts, but a small degree of grain tends to make the picture look a little rough, especially in the outdoor shots. Moreover, while object delineation is certainly more than adequate, there are instances of wavy or shimmering lines that occasionally distract the eye My rating below is for the B&W version of the movie only.
Audio:
The sound is nothing to write home about. It's a very ordinary 2.0 monaural, cleaned up via Dolby Digital processing. As we might expect, there is little in the way of frequency range, dynamic impact, or deep bass involved. Yet it conveys fairly good clarity in the midrange and gets the job done, the better to hear the screams, my dears.
Extras:
I've already mentioned that the disc comes with a restored black-and-white version and an all-new colorized version, both located on the same side of a dual-layered disc. Since the movie is only seventy-five minutes long and there's nothing anamorphic needing added information, it's easy to see how the studio could fit two versions on one side. The most compelling extra, though, is an audio commentary by Mike Nelson, the former host of TV's "Mystery Science Theater 3000." He's a very funny fellow, and you may remember his commentary for another of Legend Films' restorations, "Reefer Madness." Here, Nelson has less to poke fun at because most of "House on Haunted Hill" is intentionally harebrained to begin with; and for some viewers a little of his whimsical wisecracks may go a long way. He's kind of like the teenager sitting behind you at a movie theater that you have to keep turning around and asking to keep quiet about a dozen times. Still, Nelson approaches the film with high good humor and manages to rib it while not wholly deriding it.
In addition, there are twelve scene selections; a two-minute montage of press material for the film; an original theatrical trailer; and theatrical trailers for several other Legend horror films. English is the only spoken language available, and there are no subtitle options. It's English or bust.
Parting Thoughts:
I still get a kick out of this film, all these decades later. Everything about it is so remarkably comfortable, from its exaggerated histrionics to its schlocky special effects. Yes, "House on Haunted Hill" remains a minor cult classic in the haunted-house genre, and while it may not be very scary, it sure is entertaining.
And if you're wondering about number of dead in the house, well, as Elisha Cook says at the end of the movie: "Now there are nine. There'll be more; many more. They're coming for me now. And then they'll come for you."
Average user rating (1-5):
Not yet rated.
Not yet rated.
[release]16791[/release]