“with the first glimpse of the building, a sense of insufferable gloom pervaded my spirit”

Added my notes on several film adaptations of Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher” over at Alex on Film. First up are two versions from 1928: the poetic adaptation by Jean Epstein, which grows a little more on me with every viewing, and the more self-consciously experimental interpretation by James Sibley Watson and Melville Webber. Then I jump ahead to 1960 and Roger Corman’s House of Usher, the first of his Poe adaptations starring Vincent Price, who seems to have been born for the material. I think Epstein’s film is the best, but all three are of interest.