E X T E N S I O N A FILM DIRECTOR WHO LOVED POE Edgar Allan Poe inspired many filmmakers and some of his stories have been adapted to produce movies; one of his most famous tales, The Fall of the House of Usher, has produced seven different films from Jean Epstein s avantgarde French silent movie (1928) to Ken Russell s demented variation (2002). Among these seven versions there is one by Roger Corman, who became a legend thanks to this film. Corman was clearly inspired by the success that England s Hammer Films had had with their new colour adaptations of the Universal classics, The Curse of Frankenstein (1957) and Dracula/The Horror of Dracula (1958), in the previous few years. The success of these and other remakes, sequels1 and original subjects that Hammer would conduct over the next decade inspired a huge international interest in Gothic horror. Corman turned to the American writer Edgar Allan Poe for his subject matter. He had a big problem in persuading his production company (AIP) to allow him to make a film in colour and with a substantially greater budget than the rest of his films. Moreover it was a time when AIP often used to make their monster movies by first coming up with a novelty poster and then creating a film to go with it. That s why Corman had difficulty getting them to understand The House of Usher: in his film there wasn t a proper monster, but he managed to persuade them during a meeting that the real monster of his film was the house itself. Eventually Corman s The House of Usher was shot2 in 1960 and became very successful. 1. sequel: seguito, continuazione. 2. shoot, (shot, shot): girare un film. The Fall of the House of Usher. 29