“House on Haunted Hill” is one of the best films to come out of the 50’s starring Vincent Price, Carolyn Craid and Richard Long and directed by schlock master William Castle. This shocker of the century was a smash hit upon its 1959 release and has been haunting fans for nearly 70 years. For architecture buffs, the home used for the exteriors of the haunted house was actually designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and built in 1924. In it’s original release the theaters used to have a wire and a ghost came down and made everybody jump out of their seats. This film still delivers the goods despite being a little schlocky.
Official Premise: Eccentric millionaire Fredrick Loren and his 4th wife, Annabelle, have invited 5 people to the house on Haunted Hill for a “haunted House” party. Whoever will stay in the house for one night will earn ten thousand dollars each. As the night progresses, all the guests are trapped inside the house with ghosts, murderers, and other terrors.
The newly restored 1959 B&W (only) feature runs 75 minutes and is displayed in 1.85:1 aspect ratio with a DTS-HD Audio track. In previous releases of this film. The picture quality always received mixed reviews, with customers reporting poor quality. Film Masters didn’t hold out with delivering the goods here. The film looks great in Widescreen. In terms of special features though we just have a full-length commentary track by Heath Holland, who hosts of the popular podcast “Cereal at Midnight: Pop Culture in Analog”. and liner notes by professor and film scholar Jason A. Ney.