REVENGE IN THE HOUSE OF FRANCO- Part 2

Let's begin where we left off at the end of my first blog post on the evolution of this Jess Franco project. Listen to what Franco himself has said about the three versions, one of which remains lost in the mists of time.

Taped in 2008, Franco's comments (click on CC for English subs) were made some 25 years after the fact. Here were my final comments, keeping in mind that I still haven't seen the Blu-ray release of NEUROSIS: REVENGE IN THE HOUSE OF USHER. No one has seen, and probably never will see, the original version which had a disastrous showing at Imagfic 1983. So what we have left are a Blu-ray edition of the radically reedited Eurocine version, which is far from the director's original intent. A number of nearly unwatchable videos of LOS CRIMENES DE USHER, sans credits or proper English subtitles, while the director's original version, heckled to death during its debut over 40 years ago, seems forever lost. It remains doubtful if Franco's first reedit, LOS CRIMENES... will ever appear in a restored HD edition. The supposedly haunted Castillo de Santa Catalina still stands and does business as a parador in Jaen. Franco did return to his Dr. Orloff mythology in his 1988 larger budgeted gorefest, FACELESS. Perhaps REVENGE IN THE HOUSE OF USHER, as hopelessly compromised as it is, can be viewed as the director's last desperate attempt to expand and evolve his original version into something approaching critical analysis. It must be remembered that he still had nearly 30 years ahead of him to continue to film various comedies, horror, war films, neo-noirs and outright experimental videos during his final digital era. That said, the Eurocine cut is much less interesting, both as an adaptation of a literary work and as what has become known as a "Jess Franco" film.

It's important to watch this interview before reading the rest of this post. Franco says that the original cut was his most "personal" film, and also his least commercial one. He calls his version "a poem" based on a poetic story by Edgar Allan Poe. We'll be discussing both the limited Spanish release of the LOS CRIMENES DE USHER version along with the existing Eurocine cut. The Eurocine cut I've seen is the DVD seen next to Franco in the interview, the 2001 "Euroshock Collection" REVENGE IN THE HOUSE OF USHER Image Entertainment release. It's an interesting irony that a film which the director considers his most personal and was made not as a commercial project ia only available in its most commercial and least personal condition. The first cut I saw with the 1993 EDDE DVD, ZOMBIE 5 (not to be confused with the 1987 Joe D'Amato/Claudio Lattanzi zombie film, featuring Robert Vaughn and made in Louisiana). The back of the box features a still of Franco murdering a victim in the 1979 DEMONIAC/THE SADIST OF NOTRE DAME! My first impression was one of extreme disappointment and confusion. It seemed that there was too much Jess Franco and not enough "Jess Franco". Probably the best way to work our way back to an approximation of the original 1983 cut is to take a look at the 1928 Jean Epstein and the 1960 Roger Corman versions.

Before going to the Epstein and Corman versions it's important to note here that the reshot CRIMES OF USHER did indeed have a Spanish theatrical release circa September 1986. Records tell us there were a paltry 5,430 tickets sold before this version disappeared from sight. This contradicts the claim in FLOWERS OF PERVERSION: THE DELIRIOUS CINEMA OF JESUS FRANCO, VOL. 2 that, "For reasons that are still unclear, Los crimenes de Usher failed to find distribution, making it the only version of the film never to have been shown or released officially." Not only was there a theatrical release, there is a public record of attendance. Understandably, the time elapsed since this very limited release makes research difficult. The best way to see this second version is probably via the VSOM bootleg, titled REVOLT OF THE HOUSE OF USHER, which is at least English subtitled and relatively watchable. This contains all the added footage from THE CRIMES OF USHER and footage from the original cut.

Epstein's THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER, co-scripted by the great surrealist Luis Bunuel, is a visually fascinating approach to the Poe story. However, LA CHUTE DE LA MAISON USHER is a rather difficult to absorb film.. Running little over an hour this silent version is heavily influenced by Expressionist/Romantic Art, as were the previous silent films of Fritz Lang (DIE NIEBELUNGEN) and F.W. Murnau (NOSFERATU, FAUST). Some versions have color tinted sequences which are very atmospheric and evoke the toxic mists of Poe's original story. There are numerous superimpositions and painterly tableau throughout. Two sequences often noted by critiques include the death and final interment of Lady Usher, during which time seems to stop as the dead swamp surrounding the Usher mansion is explored. Cutaways to such dwellers as frogs, who are seen copulating in the dismal tarn, are included acting as disturbing reminders that the natural world goes about its own reproductive business. It's really worth watching it with it's tinted sequences intact. Next, we have to consider Roger Corman's 1960 adaptation. Corman's HOUSE OF USHER opens with almost the exact same shot, from the same angle as Franco three USHERs, in a smiliar devastated environment, of the protagonist (Mark Damon) riding toward the cursed mansion.

Two films Franco mentions as his inspiration in the above interview were F.W. Murnau's NOSFERATU (1922) and Jean Epstein's 1928 adaptation. Both films examples of expressionist style in the silent era. FLoyd Crosby, the cameraman who shot Corman's USHER also shot Murnau's expressionist tragedy TABU in 1930. But expressionist films were not what horror movie audiences wanted by the 1980s when gory slasher films were the rage/

Corman's USHER is a fairly close adaptation of Poe's story. Usher is played with restraint by Vincent Price. Howard Vernon's Usher is very different. In his audio commentary on the HOUSE OF USHER DVD Corman makes a point of mentioning that he did not want any reality in the settings or in the way they were photographed. He also mentions that he was guided by Freud's theory of the unconscious mind in his staging. Franco's film goes even further, Vernon's performance as the 175 year old Usher is very expressionistic, he could be a character in such silent horror films as THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI or F.W. Murnau's NOSFERATU. There's an irreal flamboyance in this Usher's movements.

For THE CRIMES OF USHER Franco shot three additional scenes where Usher murders three local women. He's a stalking vampire who haunts the area. Vincent Price's Usher never leaves the mansion. There's a very morbid eroticism to the scene where he murders a prostitute after licking her outstretched leg and foot. As her head hangs over the bed the camera focuses on her mouth open in pleasure which suddenly turns to horror as Usher produces a large knife, skewering her again and again, lapping the blood off the blade as if it were needed nourishment. It's very grotesque, a repulsive representation of the parasitical nature of vampirism. Fangs aren't needed by Eric Usher to commit his bloody crimes. The parador in Jaen where the interiors were shot represent the unconscious mind of Eric Usher. The only "normal" characters in the film are Alan Harker (Antonio Mayans), the housekeeper (Lina Romay), a doctor (Daniel White) who attempts to treat Usher and a child (Flavia Hervas) who becomes another victim of Usher's bloodlust. Then there's ghoulish female vampire (Fata Morgana) who menaces Usher. This may be a red herring but one thinks of some references (see the review in THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE HORROR FILM) to a scene where Harker finally burns the body of Usher's dead wife. This scene does not appear in any of the extant versions. It was possibly cut out when Franco made THE CRIMES OF USHER iteration.

The ultimate destruction of house is represented by a few quick zoom ins to some cracks here and there in the walls to suggest crumbling masonry and a lot of shaking of the camera which gives the impression of an earthquake. Eric Usher is simply blotted out of the proceedings. There is no attempt to show the house sinking into the surrounding tarn as in Poe's story and Corman's adaptation. This may be a disappointing finale to some viewers but I would disagree with OBSESSION: THE FILMS OF JESS FRANCO which states the film fails as an expressionistic experiment. That is the most interesting aspect of the three vesions which Franco made. There is no "deep and dark tarn", as Poe wrote, which closes over the fragments of the house. The darkness is there in every image in the film, lurking beneath the surfaces and in the subconsious mind of Eric Usher.