Episode 30 – The Haunted Palace (1963)
This month, Andrew and Matt discuss the Corman/Price Lovecraft/Poe mashup “The Haunted Palace”. Matt struggles through his Massachusetts accent to pronounce “era”! Andrew revels in the ham faced babies!
The Haunted Palace was released in 1963 – it is an adaptation of the HP Lovecraft story “The Case of Charles Dexter Ward” and the first feature film to include references to Lovecraftian touchstones like “The Necronomicon” and Cthulhu. AIP named it “The Haunted Palace” to create continuity with it and the other films in the Corman/Price series. It fits nicely in with the others – the story is gothic and lends itself nicely to the typical set work and Price scenery chewing that characterized the series. Despite some stylistic differences with the Lovecraft story, in the end, (I think) it turns out to be one of the better Lovecraft adaptations available.
Note that the same story was also filmed in 1991 by Dan O’Bannon as The Resurrected, which is a worthy film bogged down by some unfortunate period touches.
Mentioned within our Haunted Palace podcast
The Case of Charles Dexter Ward
The Haunted Palace (The Edgar Allan Poe poem)