The Haunted Palace
Tags: revenge, gothic, murder, haunting

Plot synopsis:
In this chilling adaptation of H.P. Lovecrafts The Case Of Charles Dexter Ward, Charles Dexter Ward (Vincent Price) travels with his wife Ann (Debra Paget) to Arkham to inspect a mansion he has inherited. The original lord of the manor was his Great Grandfather Joseph Curwen, a disciple of the devil, who placed a hideous curse on the villagers as they burned him at the stake. Slowly Ward feels the spirit of his ancestor possessing him and seeking a desperate vengeance on the descendants of those who previously thwarted his plans. Accursed mutants...evil possession...will anyone escape The Haunted Palace?In the town of Arkham, in 18th century New England, Ezra Weeden (Leo Gordon) and Micah Smith (Elisha Cook Jr.) follow a young woman named Fitch at a distance. She seems to be in a trance as she walks through a cemetery to a palace door where she knocks and is ushered in by a woman named Hester. Declaring this is the home of Satan himself, Ezra and Micah go to get help. Meanwhile, Hester takes the Fitch woman to Joseph Curwan (Vincent Price), who leads her through a secret door downstairs to a platform in an ancient dungeon cellar. He chains her between two posts on the platform and then he chants in Latin. The woman finally awakes screaming at the sound of some beast growling from below.The townspeople armed with torches arrive at the palace door and knock. Curwan opens it and produces the Fitch girl alive and well, but still in a trance. She answers yes to his claims that she came of her own free will, but when asked by Weeden for her name she cannot answer. The townspeople accuse Curwan of being a warlock and tie him to a tree. He calls out their names: Ezra Weeden, Micah Smith, Benjamin West, Priam Willet (Frank Maxwell), and Gideon Leach. He declares that he will rise from the dead and that this town and they and their families will bear his curse. Then he is set on fire and burned to death.110 years later, a man who looks identical to Curwan, his great-great-grandson Charles Dexter Ward, arrives in Arkham with his wife Ann (Debra Paget), looking for the palace that he has inherited. They are warned that the village is cursed to which Charles scoffs. They enter a tavern called the Burning Man Tavern and tell the people theyre looking for the Curwen family house. Edgar Weeden (a dead ringer for his own ancestor, as are all the other main characters) warns them it is a palace of unknown origin brought stone by stone from some European country. Mr. Willet, a doctor, gives them directions there and shows them where the palace is on the side of a cliff. After they leave, Edgar warns the townspeople that Joseph Curwan has come back to Arkham.The Wards enter the palace and note that the portrait of Joseph Curwan looks just like Charles. Charles seems momentarily possessed by it. As they explore other rooms in the house, a caretaker named Simon (Lon Chaney Jr.) greets them. The attorney had contacted him and he was preparing it for their arrival. Not wishing to stay in a town with such unfriendly people, they tell him they plan to leave at once. But he encourages them to at least spend the night, since there is no place else to go.In his home, Edgar feeds some creature that is behind his locked and barred attic door. It grabs his hand through the bars and Edgar has to use a candle to chase it off. He tells his wife that "it" knows Curwan has come back to Arkham. At the palace, the more Ward looks at the painting, the more it seems to possess him. The next morning, Charles tells his wife that he is now planning to stay, just for a few weeks to get the place ready to be sold. She doesn't like it, but agrees to remain.As Charles and Ann walk through town early on a foggy morning, they find the tavern door locked. Then a series of mutated people - a young girl with no eyes, and four other similarly blind, half-blind or otherwise deformed men slowly approach the Wards menacingly until they are surrounded. But the sound of a bell tolling in the distance causes them to disperse and walk away. Later, Dr. Willet tells them all those people were born mutated. Weeden had gathered them together to try and chase the newcomers away.He tells the story of Joseph Curwan, who came to town 150 years ago. His first wife died in childbirth so he took the most beautiful woman in town, Hester, as his mistress a woman who had been promised to Ezra Weeden. Over the years, terrible noises were heard from the castle, and young girls often disappeared at night then were returned with no memory. They concluded he was a warlock a conjurer of the dead. He was thought to have found a legendary book, the Necronomicon, which gave him formulas to summon dark gods from beyond, who had once ruled the world, and now were waiting to take it back again. He was trying to mate the gods with humans to create a new race through which the gods could gain control. The townspeople feel that the mutations were failed experiments. Willet himself can't explain the mutations and advises them to flee the village as if a madman with a knife was chasing them.That night, Charles hears the sound of voices outside but there is no one there. He goes outside to look and Simon finds him and suggests he "ask Mr. Curwan." He takes him to the portrait room. After Ward has stared at the portrait for a time, Simon addresses him as Joseph. Ward begins to speak in a different sinister tone of voice. Curwan is now possessing Ward's body, but he tells Simon he feels Ward is still fighting him and he will lose possession of him shortly. He tells Simon and another old friend Jabez to keep Ward there so that he can soon possess him completely. They present him with the Necronomicon. Ann comes downstairs hearing them talk, but when she arrives they are all gone except Ward, who is back to his normal self for now.A week passes, and Ward is still there. The townspeople discuss putting a stop to him. Meanwhile, late one night, he digs up the grave of Hester Tellinghast and he and his crew bring the body into his palace down to the secret cellar. When Ann asks where hes been, he cruelly scolds her and sends her back to her room alone. Joseph's voice calls to him declaring he will never leave him alone and that his will is too strong to fight. When Ann comes back to confront him, he tells her she must leave tomorrow. Ann goes downstairs later looking for Charles but finds Simon instead and faints. Meanwhile, Joseph is chanting in Latin for Hester to return to life, which she finally does, but she is too weak to stay alive. Joseph weakens from the effort and is taken back upstairs where Charles has no memory of what happened. He fears he is going mad, and tells Ann they must both leave in the morning.The next morning they try to leave quickly, but Simon says he must make out a receipt for the week's expenses first. Ann goes ahead to the cab, but Charles stays and falls under Joseph's spell again. Dr. Willet tells Ann about the grave robbery, and says Charles may have done it. Charles emerges from the house, acting like Joseph and blaming the others for trying to frame him and scare him away. He declares he has decided to stay. Ann tells Willet how her husband changes personalities more and more since the first night he arrived. Inside, Joseph declares that Charles is dead and he now has full control. But before he does his work, he must get his revenge against the descendants of the ones who burned him alive.At the bar, Weeden talks about the grave robbery and tries to stir the townspeople into fighting back against Ward, saying if they do nothing to save themselves they deserve whatever they get. Meanwhile, the possessed Ward unbolts the door to Weeden's locked attic, releasing the creature. Weeden returns home to be attacked by the thing, and both die when they fall into the fireplace. Ward tears the name Ezra Weeden off his revenge list. Peter Smith is appalled when Ward later attends Weeden's funeral from a distance.Night falls, and while Peter Smith is out walking alone, Ward tosses gasoline on him and sets him on fire. Micah Smith's name is removed from the list. Simon warns him to stop feasting on revenge, but Curwan insists on continuing his task. He goes to make love to Ann, but she scratches him and makes him leave. She then summons Dr. Willet for help, telling him Joseph Curwan is killing her husband. Ward arrives suddenly in mid-conversation and tells the doctor the house is affecting his wife. He pretends he is unchanged, asking the doctor to take her to Boston. She reluctantly agrees, and leaves at once with the doctor. As they pass through the town, the townspeople show Willet and Ann the burned body of Smith and declare that her husband killed him. Willet decides they must get Ward out of the palace before the townspeople kill him.Alone with Simon and Jabez, Charles succeeds in bringing Hester completely back from the dead. Ann and Willet go back to the palace but can't find Ward. Willet remembers how Ward just appeared when they were talking by the picture. They look at the nearby wall and find the secret door to the cellar. In the cellar, they find the empty coffin of Hester and the Necronomicon. Charles, Simon, Hester and Jabez confront them. Joseph tells of a project - the most important ever attempted by humans - that they were working on "a few years ago". They don't fully understand it, they just obey. Simon takes Willet away while Ann is chained to the posts. Ward chants in Latin. Jabez tell Willet they are "honoring" her. The grate below the posts is opened, and an unearthly creature begins to rise from the depths below.The townspeople charge to the palace and open the door calling for Joseph Curwan and setting the place on fire. They toss the portrait of Curwan in the fire. When they do, Ward is freed of Joseph's possession. He runs to his wife and unchains her before the creature arrives. Simeon and Jabez attack him, calling him a traitor. He pleads for Willet to take Ann to safety. The doctor gets her outside safely and then goes back for Charles. He finds him alone and collapsed in the cellar, and barely manages to get him out the front door before the flames consume the palace. Leaning against a tree, Ward tells them he is all right now, thanks to Ann and Dr. Willet and that he looks forward to repaying their kindness. But the sinister tone of his voice and the half smile on his face as he turns back around indicate that he is once again possessed by Joseph.

Review: Lots of eerie atmosphere, swirling fogs, and wonderfully painted back-drops, a fine acting troupe headed by the incomparable Vincent Price, and ably assisted by a sober-looking Lon Chaney Jr. and a beautiful Debra Paget, a fairly tight script, a marvellous score by Ronald Stein, and always the look of a lot of money spent despite the knowledge that you know it was cheaply made.
P. Lovecraft film as its main protagonist is called Charles Dexter Ward(Price), but also bears little relation to that great story.
Roger Corman's "The Haunted Palace" has very little in common with Poe's poem, with the exception of the title and a few lines recited by Vincent Price.
Price is excellent as usual in his double role, but he also gets strong support from Lon Chaney, Jr. as Ward's servant and Debra Paget as his wife (This was her final film before her retirement the following year) The sets by Daniel Haller are the best yet in a Poe film.
With low budgets, great stories and Vincent Price; Corman has created a legacy that is hard to react to with anything but admiration, and it's certainly a style of film-making that will never be utilised again.
From the moment it begins, with an incredibly malevolent Vincent Price being burned for witchcraft shortly after putting a curse on the village of Arkham in one of the man's finest monologues ever; this film grabs you doesn't let go until the words 'The End' appear on your screen.
Lovecraft's Necronomicon joins the party as well...I don't know how much American International paid Vincent Price for making this and other Corman films, but whatever it was, it wasn't enough.
Vincent Price gives away another staggering performance (in a double role!) as a New England warlock who's burned alive for his evil practices by the inhabitants of Arkham.
Corman even provides a last good role for Lon Chaney Jr (as he'd done previously for Boris Karloff, Peter Lorre and Basil Rathbone) as a ghoulish henchman.Undeniably, 'The Haunted Palace' does have a rather ponderous pace and music score that makes the film seem stretched as Price wanders down just one more hidden corridor.
Centuries ago in Arkham, New England, the warlock Joseph Curwen (Vincent Price) abducts young ladies from the local village and brings them to his castle to use in experiments with the Necronomicon.
One hundred and ten years later, Charles Dexter Ward (Vincent Price), who has inherited the manor, comes to Arkham with his beautiful wife Ann Ward (Debra Paget) to visit the real estate and has a cold and hostile reception by the dwellers.
Ann and Dr. Willet try to help Charles to escape from Curwen's power."The Haunted Palace" is a classic Gothic horror by Roger Corman that follows the same style of the Hammer films.
In 1765,evil warlock Joseph Curwen(Vincent Price)is lynched by the villagers and burnt alive for performing sorcery and for abducting some of the local women.Before he perishes,he puts a curse on the inhabitants of Arkham and their offspring.One hundred and ten years later,his kind descendant Charles Dexter Ward(Price again),visits Arkham with his beautiful young wife to claim the inheritance of Curwen's castle.The spirit of Curwen begins to possess him".The Haunted Palace" is actually based on H.P.Lovecraft's story.The film relies heavily on Gothic atmosphere with plenty of fantastic,cobwebby and shadowy sets.Price is amazing in the dual role and Curwen is one of his most despicable characters.The film offers some creepy scenes and is simply great.Give it a look.9 out of 10..
Roger Corman's "The Haunted Palace" of 1963 is a truly brilliant Gothic Horror film, and, alongside the ingenious "Pit and The Pendulum" of 1961 and "The Masque Of The Red Death" of 1964, the greatest installment of Corman's superb Poe cycle with the great Vincent Price.
Second, it doesn't matter what this film is based on, since it is simply a brilliant film, regardless of which literary model it used.In 1756, the vicious warlock Joseph Curven (Vincent Price) is dragged out of his palace in the New England town of Arkham by an angry mob furious about his evil ways of hexing innocent young women.
110 years later, Curven's great-grandson Charles Dexter Ward (also Price) comes to Arkham with his wife Ann (Debra Paget) to accept his inheritance - Joseph Curven's castle.
There are strange things happening in the town of Arkham, however, people have terrible deformities and when the Wards arrive they immediately notice an eerie huge painting of Joseph Curven, which has a strange effect on Charles...There is no doubt in my mind that Vincent Price is one of the greatest actors who ever lived, and his performance in "The Haunted Palace" is one of his best.
Debra Paget's performance as Anne Ward is also excellent, and the cast furthermore includes Lon Chaney Jr., who proves his greatness in an eerie role.
Good thriller with Vincent Price and Lon Chaney in the same movie for the first and only time.
Charles Dexter Ward (Vincent Price) arrives in the creepy village of Arkham with his wife Ann (Debra Paget) to look at a large mansion he inherited.
Ward soon finds himself being possessed by the spirit of his ancestor, who seeks revenge on the descendants of the villagers who killed him.Another great Roger Corman 'Poe' movie, though this owes only the title to Poe. The story is H.P. Lovecraft's "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward" and it's one of the better adaptations of a Lovecraft story to film, even if it's a loose one.
Charles Dexter Ward (Vincent Price) arrives at a small village to visit the house he inherited from his ancestor (also Price) who died there 110 years ago.The full title of this film is "Edgar Allan Poe's The Haunted Palace", which is not only incorrect and misleading to the audience, but an insult to H.
This film was groundbreaking, and Corman deserves a lot of credit for bringing the Charles Dexter Ward story to a bigger audience.Vincent Price looks great in this film, perhaps better than ever.
"The Haunted Palace" stands as one of the best of Roger Corman's little films of the early 60's based freely on Edgar Alan Poe's horror stories.
The monster-spirit in the dungeons is a highlight in special effects if you consider this movie was made more than 40 years ago.Once more Vincent Price renders an acceptable and masterly overacted performance in the leading role as the descendant of a warlock noble whose mind is controlled by his ancestor who seeks revenge on the descendants of the villagers that burned him for whitchcraft a hundred years before.
Classic supporting actors of the 40's and 50's are there too in good performances such as Lon Chaney Jr., Leo Gordon and the always frightened Elisha Cook.Not very pretentious "The Haunted Palace" stands as an enjoyable and watchable little horror film for fans of the genre..
This is probably the best horror movie that Vincent Price and Roger Corman made together and this was adapted from a H.P. Lovecraft story instead of Edgar Allen Poe. The movie starts out in a small New England town with Price and his wife, played by Debra Paget, living in a castle above town while all the townspeople think he is evil.
Roger Corman directs; Vincent Price acts; and the beautiful Debra Paget is on the screen for the last time.
There is very little to associate with Poe, although the story line is chilling and creepy.Price and Paget are ably supported by Lon Chaney Jr, Elisha Cook and Frank Maxwell.
The Haunted Palace is directed by Roger Corman and adapted to screenplay by Charles Beaumont from H.P. Lovecraft's story, The Case of Charles Dexter.
It stars Vincent Price, Debra Paget, Lon Chaney Jr., Frank Maxwell, Milton Parsons, Leo Gordon and Elisha Cook Jr. A Panavision/Pathe Color production, music is by Ronald Stein and cinematography by Floyd Crosby.
100 years later and Charles Dexter Ward (Price) arrives in Arkham with his wife Anne (Paget) after inheriting the Curwen Palace from his great great grandfather, Joseph Curwen...Bsed on Lovecraft's novella with the title taken from a Edgar Allen Poe poem, this is unmistakably a Corman/Price Gothic.
It's a cracking Gothic horror that deserves to be better known, a must see for those who have enjoyed the films from the Poe/Corman/Price cycle.
well, all the ingredients are there.Along with Corman we got his faithful friend, Vincent Price, and the mythical Lon Chaney in one of his last performances.Horror and mystery in the good old way.
A century after the people of Arkham burned warlock Joseph Curwen (Price) alive, his descendant Charles Dexter Ward (also Price) moves into the still-haunted palace.
Price's evil presence, plus neat support from Debra Paget, Frank Maxwell, Leo Gordon, Elisha Cook, and Lon Chaney Jr., make this a pretty cool movie..
Anyway, the film had the look of the previous Poe features but the story was clearly that of Lovecraft's (The Strange Case of Charles Dexter Ward), with the atmosphere being shared by both writers.
A-Haunting We Will Go. Roger Corman directed this 1963 adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's The Case Of Charles Dexter Ward, then gave it an Edgar Allan Poe title.
The basic plot: Charles Dexter Ward comes to the town of Arkham to inherit his palace, but there is inhabited by the evil of his ancestor Curwen.The praise: Price .
110 years later his descendent, a very kind man named Charles Dexter Ward (Price again), comes to Arkham with his beautiful wife (Debra Paget) to claim his inheritance--the warlock's castle.
Good entry in the Price/Corman/Poe series but it's NOT based on a Poe tale--it's from the "Case of Charles Dexter Ward" by H.P. Lovecraft.
The Haunted Palace is a pretty damn good gothic horror movie when all the elements to create the eerie and creepy out of this world atmosphere are all here and the presence of Vincent only turn everything up to eleven.
The movie itself, however, is pure Lovecraft - that most famous of exploitation/b-movie studios, American International Pictures, insisted on a Poe-derived title to link this movie with Corman's popular series of films that actually were based on the famous writer's works.The "palace" of the title isn't even really haunted.
When the great-great-grandson of the evil aristocrat-cum-warlock shows up in the village, of course he is played by the same actor who played the warlock in the opening flashback (Vincent Price here), and of course when he re-enters the palace that has been bequeathed to him - which seems remarkably well preserved considering it apparently hasn't been entered in over a hundred years - yes, he gets possessed by his dead relative and starts taking revenge.As far as I know, this story was usually done in Europe; I know Paul Naschy did it with his Alaric du Marnac character, and I think Mario Bava might have done it as well.
The Haunted Palace is another great movie by the brilliant Vincent Price, again directed by Roger Corman and again based on a work by Edar Allan Poe. I especially love the coloring of the movies of that decade and the "old-school" feeling of horror.The Haunted Palace belongs on every must watch list of everyone interested in the works of Vincent Price and the Hammer Film Productions and other movies of that particular "gothic" style which made the Hammer Studios so famous.The story: a warlock places a curse on a group of villagers before they burn him.
P. Lovecraft and and It's title taken from a poem by Edgar Allen Poe. The Haunted Palace tells the story of a necromancer named Joseph Curwen(Vincent Price).
In his final moments Curwen vows to return and exact vengeance upon the townspeople, and places a curse on them.One hundred and ten years later his descendant Charles Dexter Ward(Vincent Price In a duel role), and his wife Ann(Debra Paget) arrive in Arkham after Inheriting the palace of Joseph Curwen.
The set design Is a fairly standard B movie Gothic town, but one that has a lot of charm, and has a good atmosphere In the fog ridden town, that Is plagued with fear and animosity from the malformed residents that have been effected by Curwen's curse.Vincent Price gives a fantastic commanding performance, which at times can feel a bit stagy, but works well when he's portraying two different personalities.
Debra Paget also does good work In her final film role as Wards wife Ann. She becomes more robust, and hands on, In finding out what's happening to him as she notices the change In him.
The film Is also helped along by good supporting performances from Lon Chaney Jr. as the Palace's caretaker, and Frank Maxwell the town doctor that helps Ann Investigate the strange occurrences.The film also contains of the best scores Iv'e heard from a Horror film.
Extremely atmospheric Gothic Horror movie strings together all the cliché ingredients - a warlock put to death who promises a torturous revenge, an ominous castle, creepy graveyards, fog and shadows galore - and a nice hammy performance by Vincent Price as the cursed warlock and his grandson.
Among the lavish literary adaptations that Roger Corman made during the 1960s, "The Haunted Palace" stands out, mainly for not being a Poe adaptation, but rather a film version of the Lovecraft tale "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward" (with some utterances of lines, and the title, taken from the Poe poem).
Overall "The Haunted Palace" is not as good as the best in the Corman-Poe cycle, but it's still consistently enjoyable.Vincent Price again is in fine form, as he delineates two characters: one a cheery man, Charles Dexter Ward, who comes to the small New England town of Arkham to claim family property, and the other his great-great-grandfather Joseph Curwen, an evil warlock burned alive by an angry group of villagers worthy of a Universal horror flick.
Soon Curwen (who, quite naturally, placed a curse on the town and the townspeople who targeted him) is exerting a malevolent influence over his descendant, while Charles's scared wife Ann Ward (gorgeous Debra Paget ("Tales of Terror"), in her final feature film) teams with a well-meaning doctor, Marinus Willet (Frank Maxwell) to try to save her husbands' soul.The film is impressive to look at; Corman had Crosby shoot this film darker than the Poe adaptations, feeling that style suited Lovecrafts' writing better.
Adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's story "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward" (with a title borrowed from a poem by Edgar Allan Poe), begins as a ghost story and revenge thriller (with Price eliminating names from a list) before morphing into a monster movie.
He is kinder, gentler Vincent Price (as Charles Dexter Ward), loving husband of very pretty Debra Paget (as Ann).
It turns out Price is a dead ringer for his wicked great-great grandfather – and the latter's spirit wants to return..."The Haunted Palace" is Corman doing H.P. Lovecraft material with some of the style given his Edgar Allan Poe-inspired movies.
TV character actor Frank Maxwell, who ended up in a sweet older romance role on the serial "General Hospital" in the 1980s, gets one of his best parts, as helpful doctor Willet.****** The Haunted Palace (8/28/63) Roger Corman ~ Vincent Price, Debra Paget, Lon Chaney Jr., Frank Maxwell.
He has returned to Arkham and although "The Haunted Palace" is a poem by Edgar Allen Poe, this is really based on "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward" by H.
The story of 'The Haunted Palace' is loosely based on H.P. Lovecraft's "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward".Vincent Price plays Charles Dexter Ward/Joseph Curwen so brilliantly!
Paget is very good in this film too playing the part of a wife tormented by the love of her Charles and detesting the other personality within Charles - Joseph Curwen.It is also nice to see Lon Chaney Jr in this movie too.
Simon is also the one to help Joseph Curwen get his revenge on all that burned him over a century ago.Interesting story -- good for fans of older horror, the occult, Vincent Price, Lon Chaney Jr, Edgar Allan Poe and H.P. Lovecraft.8.5/10.
With The Haunted Palace, Corman takes his inspiration from another great horror writer  H.P. Lovecraft  and creates an eerie, atmospheric bloodcurdler.
Over a hundred years later, Charles Dexter Ward (Price again)  an ancestor of Curwen  arrives in the village of Arkham with his beautiful wife Ann (Debra Paget) to claim his inheritance of the Curwen castle.
Before going up in flames, Curwen puts a curse of the village and their generational offspring vowing to return to seek vengeance on those culprits behind his being burned alive.That comes 100-or-so years later as a descendant of Curwens, named Charles Dexter Ward(also Price)with his wife Ann(the beautiful Debra Paget)arrives in Arkham to see his ancestor's castle due to his receiving it in a will.
Price delivers another great performance as always as Charles Dexter Ward, who turns from a good person into a monster.
Vincent Price, Debra Paget, Frank Maxwell and Lon Chaney Jr. star in Roger Corman's 1963 horror film adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's short story, "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward." This begins in 1765 in New England town, Arkham where we meet wealthy man, Joseph Curwen (Price) who gets confronted by the townsfolk for being a warlock.
110 years later, we meet Curwen's great grandson, Charles Dexter Ward (Also played by Price) and his wife, Ann (Paget) who come to Arkham where they inherit Curwen's palace which makes some of the townsfolk suspicious.
Lon Chaney Jr. gets little to do as the palace's suspicious keeper and the beautiful Debra Paget does what she can playing a woman made uncomfortable by the hostile villagers, spooky new house, and strange behavior of her husband.In the end, not a perfect film, but Price fans will love it and I imagine most who enjoy the Gothic horror flicks of the 1960s will get a kick out of it as well.