House on Haunted Hill is a 1959 horror film about an cccentric millionaire who invites five strangers to spend one night locked in an old mansion on a dark and stormy night to earn $10,000 each. A twisted game of frights, suspicion and murder ensues.
The movie was produced and directed by William Castle (Strait-Jacket; 13 Ghosts; The Tingler; et al) from a screenplay by Robb White.
The movie stars Vincent Price, Carol Ohmart (The Spectre of Edgar Allan Poe; Spider Baby; Lights Out TV series), Richard Long (Death Cruise; Cult of the Cobra), Alan Marshal (Lights Out TV series; The Hunchback of Notre Dame ), Carolyn Craig, Elisha Cook Jr (Salem’s Lot; Dead of Night; Messiah of Evil; Blacula; Black Zoo; Voodoo Island; and many others), Julie Mitchum, Leona Anderson and Howard Hoffman.
Plot:
Eccentric millionaire Frederick Loren (Vincent Price) invites five people to a party he is throwing for his fourth wife Annabelle (Carol Ohmart) in an allegedly haunted house he has rented, promising to give each $10,000 with the stipulation that they stay the entire night in the house after the doors are locked at midnight.
The guests are test pilot Lance Schroeder (Richard Long), newspaper columnist Ruth Bridges (Julie Mitchum), psychiatrist Doctor David Trent (Alan Marshal) who specialises in hysteria, Nora Manning (Carolyn Craig) who works for one of Loren’s companies, and the house’s owner Watson Pritchard (Elisha Cook). All are strangers to both the Lorens and each other, with their only commonality a desperate need for money…
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Choice dialogue:
Frederick Loren: “Of all my wives, you are the least agreeable.”
Annabelle Loren: “Darling, the only ghoul in the house is you.”
Filming locations:
Exterior shots of the house were filmed at the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed 1924 Ennis House in Los Feliz, California. The bulk of the film was shot on sound stages, depicting the interior of the house with a combination of styles, including 1890s Victorian, with gas chandeliers and sconces.
Technical specs:
1 hour 15 minutes
Aspect ratio: 1.85: 1
Black and white
Influence:
The film was remade as the 1999 film House on Haunted Hill. A sequel titled Return to House on Haunted Hill was released in 2007. Both films received mostly negative reviews.
Film Facts:
House on Haunted Hill is in the public domain and is free to view online.
There is a clip of House on Haunted Hill in Tales from the Hood 2 (2018)
Trailer:
Free to watch online [4K]:
Free to watch online [1080p, no ads]:
Free to watch online [1080p, with ads]:
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