THE HAUNTED PALACE in '60s Horror and Sci-Fi Forum

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THE HAUNTED PALACE

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Arch Stanton	THE HAUNTED PALACE	Lead	[-]
Jan 26 06 12:42 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	This is, by far, my favorite Corman/Price film. I'm watching it right now, in fact. I love the mood of it, the mutated villagers (especially the little girl with no eyes), and the slightly overwrought music score. But has anyone ever seen what the thing in the pit really looks like? Drives me crazy trying to see it during the finale...
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jimrnemeth	Re: THE HAUNTED PALACE	#1	[-]
Jan 26 06 3:09 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	*Quote:* This is, by far, my favorite Corman/Price film Mine also. I think it's a vastly underrated film, with a great dual performance by Price. I love the music score and I even think Chaney Jr. does a good job here! I wrote a piece in MAD ABOUT MOVIES #1 concerning the reasons why this is my favorite Corman/Poe. Jim N
JPChe	Re: THE HAUNTED PALACE	#2	[-]
Jan 26 06 5:08 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	*Quote:* But has anyone ever seen what the thing in the pit really looks like? I have--just put your DVD player on frame advance and you can see it clearly. Nothing to get too excited about, I'm afraid.
Ardley Remlap	Re: THE HAUNTED PALACE	#3	[-]
Jan 26 06 5:17 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	*Quote:* I wrote a piece in MAD ABOUT MOVIES #1 concerning the reasons why this is my favorite Corman/Poe. I'd like to read that. Without a doubt it's my favorite too, one that gets played religiously every Halloween. One thing I rarely hear about is the great perf by Vincent Price.
TomWeaver999	Re: THE HAUNTED PALACE	#4	[-]
Jan 26 06 9:08 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I don't know if it's the best but, between the cast and the monsters and a great score and action well-spaced-out throughout the picture, it's the one I most enjoy watching.
Rick	Re: THE HAUNTED PALACE	#5	[-]
Jan 27 06 1:19 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	*Quote:* it's the one I most enjoy watching. I might agree with that, though for pure quality I'd go with maybe USHER, definitely LIGEIA.
Arch Stanton	Re: THE HAUNTED PALACE	#6	[-]
Jan 27 06 10:17 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	*Quote:* I have--just put your DVD player on frame advance and you can see it clearly. Nothing to get too excited about, I'm afraid. Unfortunately, I don't have the DVD. Yesterday, I was watching it on FLIX. But it did look clearer than I remembered. What I'm really wondering is, what is it? Since it never moves, it could be just a model or even a drawing of some kind. Maybe even something that already existed and the blurring was trying to hide, or something. Of course, Corman was never one to invest in decent visual effects. This is another case where I think it would have been advantageous to not even show it. I remember being terribly disappointed in the monster when I was a kid.
Joe Karlosi	Re: THE HAUNTED PALACE	#7	[-]
Jan 27 06 10:31 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	*Quote:* the cast and the monsters and a great score and action well-spaced-out throughout the picture... That's about how I feel regarding this one. Great to see Lon Chaney with Price, too. ---------------------- "It's MORE ... than a hobby!"
Wolfman Joe	HAUNTED PALACE	#8	[-]
Jan 27 06 10:46 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	*Quote:* This is another case where I think it would have been advantageous to not even show it. I remember being terribly disappointed in the monster when I was a kid . Agreed. Especially since the monster doesn't even seem to be any sort of articulated puppet; it just floats there in one position, growling. Since most of Lovecraft's monsters were "indescribable", it would've been much more effective to just hear hideous noises emitting from the earth.
Arch Stanton	HAUNTED PALACE	#9	[-]
Jan 27 06 11:00 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	What makes it even worse is that Frank Maxwell does this great, "Good Lord!!!" look when he sees it in the pit. Then, it's 'ho-hum' from us...
hnicolella	Re: HAUNTED PALACE	#10	[-]
Jan 27 06 11:17 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	*Quote:* Since most of Lovecraft's monsters were "indescribable", it would've been much more effective to just hear hideous noises emitting from the earth. Maybe but I would have felt cheated not to see anything at all. The film is not quite up to Lovecraft's story but it's still one of the better adaptations and quite enjoyable in its own right. Always liked Price's line "We don't always understand...we just obey" Brrrrrr....
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Arch Stanton	Re: HAUNTED PALACE	#11	[-]
Jan 27 06 11:23 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	*Quote:* Always liked Price's line "We don't always understand...we just obey" Brrrrrr.... Odd you would mention that line. Yesterday was the first time I noticed how great that was. It's wonderful when an actor does something absolutely perfectly.
opticalguy	Re: HAUNTED PALACE	#12	[-]
Jan 27 06 5:34 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	On January 27, 2006 Arch Stanton wrote: *Quote:* Unfortunately, I don't have the DVD. Yesterday, I was watching it on FLIX. But it did look clearer than I remembered. What I'm really wondering is, what is it? Since it never moves, it could be just a model or even a drawing of some kind. Maybe even something that already existed and the blurring was trying to hide, or something. Of course, Corman was never one to invest in decent visual effects. This is another case where I think it would have been advantageous to not even show it. I remember being terribly disappointed in the monster when I was a kid. Gee, I can actually answer that one. Jim Danforth was asked to sculpt a little figure that was then used. He was rather disappointed that they didn't have him animate it but as you correctly observed, Corman wasn't one for spending money. opticalguy1954@yahoo.com (Spencer Gill) Last Edited By: opticalguy Jul 1 10 9:54 AM. Edited 1 times.
Arch Stanton	Re: HAUNTED PALACE	#13	[-]
Jan 27 06 5:39 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Thanks, opticalguy. Can't believe I've never heard about that being a Danforth creation. I used to follow his career almost as much as Harryhausen's.
BijouBob8mm	Re: HAUNTED PALACE	#14	[-]
Jan 27 06 6:11 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	If you look over Danforth's credits, he's been a very busy guy, but I don't think he's ever been given his due. I recall, a few years ago, reading about some of the projects he wanted to do and test footage he'd done...a book giving an in-depth look at his work would be very welcome.
Arch Stanton	Re: HAUNTED PALACE	#15	[-]
Jan 27 06 6:36 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	*Quote:* If you look over Danforth's credits, he's been a very busy guy, but I don't think he's ever been given his due. I just hope he's documenting everything he's done, otherwise it's going to be tough for someone else. Not only all the non-stop-motion shots, but some stop motion, too. Very few people even know he did that exceedingly brief stop-motion shot of the submarine that gets hit by Blofeld's ray in DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER. (I don't understand that shot at all. Why do it in stop motion when a model would have served just as well? It must have originally been a longer shot, or something.)
Count Gamula	Re: HAUNTED PALACE	#16	[-]
Jan 28 06 2:23 AM Burgomaster Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	This movie holds a special place for me since I saw it at the movies as a kid. I had gone to the theater the week before to see a Jerry Lewis movie (THE DISORDERLY ORDERLY, I think) and saw the poster out front for the next attraction, THE HAUNTED PALACE. I still remember getting very excited when I saw Lon Chaney's picture on it. I was there next week with bells on. Very moody and pretty scary in parts to a 9 year old kid in a dark theater. The music score always stuck with me too. It's one of Ronald Stein's best, although I can't help wondering if he didn't borrow a little from the theme from THE ALAMO.
Jameson281	Re: HAUNTED PALACE	#17	[-]
Jan 29 06 3:41 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Beaumont's screenplay describes the monster thusly: "In a quick, shadowy insubstantial flash we catch the merest glimpse of the Dark One. We see nothing clearly, but receive instead a kaleidoscopic impression of something unutterably horrible. Some of us will remember the image of a snake, others the image of a squid, or octopus, still others the surrealistic image of a moving mountain of moist green jewels." Hmmmm. Not quite what they ended up with in the finished film. Beaumont and Corman seemed to have trouble settling on an ending. One draft had Curwen/Ward dying, another had both Curwen AND his wife possessed at the end. ("We're both . . . quite . . . all right. And you shall be repaid, my friend" Curwen/Ward menacingly tells Dr. Willet.)
rvoyttbots	Re: HAUNTED PALACE	#18	[-]
Jan 29 06 11:57 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I, too, saw the one sheet at the theater for this film. But I didn`t go see it. I think I was 10 at the time. I did go see THE COMEDY OF TERRORS the next year. That is my favorite memory as a kid of the 60`s. The one sheets, newspaper movie ads, radio spots, & TV ads for horror/sci-fi films.
Ted Newsom	Re: HAUNTED PALACE	#19	[-]
Jan 30 06 3:52 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I think Bob Burns reported in his (& Blaisdell's) monster magazine at the time that Corman had requested Blaisdell do a monster for HAUNTED PALACE-- and that this didn't happen because Corman offered money that was insulting, particularly in view of the things Blaisdell had none for next to nothing over the years. Regarding the Stein score-- I can't imagine lifts from THE ALAMO were deliberate. What does seem deliberate is the similarity between the ominous four-note PALACE theme and the four-note theme in DUNE. But then, how many combinations of notes are there in the world?
BijouBob8mm	Re: HAUNTED PALACE	#20	[-]
Jan 30 06 4:10 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	re: Jim Danforth *Quote:* I just hope he's documenting everything he's done, otherwise it's going to be tough for someone else. Not only all the non-stop-motion shots, but some stop motion, too. Very few people even know he did that exceedingly brief stop-motion shot of the submarine that gets hit by Blofeld's ray in DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER Pretty sure stop-motion was also used in one shot for the satellite (perhaps when it initially opens up). Would that have been Danforth, as well?
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