House on Haunted Hill (Colorized / Black & White)

Love all things Vincent Price.

I know purists would disagree that these old black and white films should in any way be tampered with, and I would normally sympathise , but as regards this particular title the Legend Films disc is the best version I have seen so far. Picture quality is excellent, and the dreaded colouring process has been very professionaly done. It's a pity that whatever version we see on our TV screens, we miss the very thing that sold the film to audiences in the first place; the floating skeleton that emerged from the cinema curtains, supposedly controlled by Vincent Price at the climax of the film. This gimmic was advertised (in big letters) as 'Emergo', and I can still remember hearing the woman in the row behind me screaming in terror at the sight of all this. (Looking back I suspect the screaming female was very likely planted in the audience for effect).In any case, the Legend version is the best I have seen on disc.Incidentaly, though I wouldn't encourage colorization, if it's a coloured version of an old back and white that you're after, check out Legend first, in my experience the best.Since this review have run this on the big screen with a DVD projector, and it's quite stunning.

House on Haunted Hill is one of my favourite horror fun films. I bought the 50th Anniversary presentation by Raunchy Tonk because the only other copy I have is one of those awful cheap quality copies you get on those 3 old films on one DVD pack. On my 37 inch plasma this widescreen anormorphic presentation certainly looks a lot better and does the film justice. I don't know how it compares in quality with the Legend presentation that comes with the colour print, but Legend is currently Region 1 only and this is Region Free and so has distinct advantages to us living in a region 2 area. The extras are a little disappointing in that there is very little about the making of The House on Haunted Hill itself. There is no documentary. However, it does include a couple of the original theatrical trailers, one mentioning Emergo, a couple of present day shots of the house and a very brief profile of the co-star Carol Ohmart. Also included are some historic William Castle and Price film trailers lasting about 25 minutes and 45 minutes of Vincent Price TV appearances, with the likes of Jack Benny and Red Skelton, the most interesting being a Reader's Digest presentation of "The Brainwashing of John Hayes". If you've already got a good print of this film then there is probably little reason to buy this edition unless you are an avid Vincent Price fan. I give 5 stars for the film itself, because I love it, 4 stars for the video quality and 3 stars for the extras.

I was very pleasantly surprised at how good the Colourised version was as I am not a big fan of the process generally.I watched it with friends who did not know the film well and they were fooled into believing it was filmed in colour and was just showing its age in terms of the quality of the colour, being a film from the 50s.I agree with all reviews that say it is the best quality print and so if don't like the colour, do as one other reviewer has said, turn it off and you still have by far the best picture quality version.Buy it if you love the film and only have a poor quality black and white fuzzy ersion as the price is starting to rise and it is still cheap. It really showcases Vincent Price at his very best .

If you have a horror film with Vincent Price in it then you are in for a good time. He was a master of projecting evil, horror and sheer creepiness just by talking. You just know that any character he plays is somebody you would not want to meet late at night after hearing him speak

The original version of a film is often the best, but this is not always the case, especially if the original film is not remembered kindly. In the case of `The House of Haunted Hill', it would appear that both versions are as rubbish as one another. Back in 1959 Vincent Price was a mainstay of horror films and `House' remains one of his most famous films. What a shame then that, although the film has some cheesy charm, what lies beneath is a poorly written and badly acted film that cannot hold a spooky candle to the likes of `The Haunting'.The plot itself is pure hokum, but that is no crime in the horror genre. Eccentric millionaire Frederick Loren invites guests to his haunted home with the promise of money for anyone who can stay the night and remain alive in the process. Price hams it up, as is the norm, in the role of Loren and he has a certain charm. It is the rest of the cast that are as bland as mauve flooring, only Elisha Cook adds anything as the twitchy former owner of the house.`House' is not scary at all, which may seem obvious for a film made in 1959, we have moved on. However, the similarly themed `The Haunting', made 4 years later, is a testament to great direction and sound - it is worrisome even today. What it boils down to is you can giggle along to `The House on Haunted Hill' as much as you like, but it is B movie rubbish. I don't want to watch a deliberately bad film for fun; I would like to watch a good film. With so many fantastic films made in the 50s across every genre, `House', is one to miss - the jokes on them.

Ok buying a copy of this dvd is confusing as ****...Seriously I bought the 2005 version which has the exact same description as the 1999 version, all be it with a different cover(so naturally I thought it was a re release of the remake) turns out it was the original. Ordered the 19999 version just will now. Will change my review to 2 stars if the film is any good, but based on people's critiques of the quality of this version I don't see that as very likely.

Baffled as to why Prime has given this 63 year old movie a 12 certificate highlighting content such as 'scenes of a sexual nature' and 'foul language' when there aren't any! Do the certificate moderators actually watch the movies?

Es la historia de una casa encantada donde se supone los fantasmas van asesinando a invitados que quedan encerrados en ella. No es de lo mejor de William Castle, pues el guion disparata a ratos y se intenta asustar al espectador de los años cincuenta con recursos un tanto inocentes.Pero resulta entretenida y con un buen clima de misterio. La personalidad de Vincent Price añade un notable atractivo al film.Esta edición está remasterizada en DVD y tiene el aliciente de ofrecer una copia en color y otra en blanco y negro.

Zu dem Film selber wurde hier ja schon einiges geschrieben.Ich selbst finde diese alten Geisterhaus-Filme großartig, auch wenn der Grusel heute selbstverständlich etwas altbacken erscheinen mag . Nostalgiker und Vincent Price Fans kommen hier aber voll auf ihre Kosten. Alle anderen mögen zum Remake greifen.Da hier viele fragen welche Synchro / Bild etc.... habe ein Bild der guten DVD beigefügt, hier ist das Bild ok und die alte Synchro drauf, da macht man nichts falsch.Habe leider selber den Fehler gemacht und die schlechte DVD schon einmal gekauft, furchtbar :(

The storyline in this DVD was great as was the final dénouement (outcome). The all star cast makes it even more interesting. I would highly recommend it for all Vincent Price enthusiasts.

5 personnes ont accepté l’invitation du milliardaire Frederik Loren (Vincent Price), à passer une nuit dans une maison qui fut le théâtre de meurtres hideux et qui depuis a la réputation d’être hantée. La récompense pour ceux qui tiendront la nuit est de 10000 dollars. Chacun des convives a une réelle nécessité d’argent. A peine arrivés, d’étranges phénomènes commencent à se produire et ils semble se concentrer surtout sur une personne.Le film est délicieusement mis en scène avec tous les ingrédients du genre en cette fin des années 60. Même si les moyens techniques peuvent paraître ridicules aujourd’hui, l’ambiance y est macabre à souhait et Vincent Price très convainquant en milliardaire inquiétant.A noter que cette édition ne contient pas la langue française mais seulement le sous-titre. Cela dit, vu la qualité des doublages de l’époque, je pense personnellement que ce n’est pas un mal.

My original copy of House On Haunted Hill was a budget video cassette, so you can imagine how much of an improvement the DVD was! I noticed a tiny bit of noise on the film, especially near the beginning and the end, and often when a scene changed, but in general the picture was quiet to silent.I was struck by my ability to see the quality of the original film: in particular, the scene where the chandelier falls in the hallway near the beginning, the shot from the top of the room is softer than the surrounding shots... perhaps because stunt doubles were being used? I don't know and I'm not sure how to find out, but it sure wasn't noticeable in the video cassette I had! :)Another amazing difference was being able to read the ending credits! Again in my video tape the end credits were ghosts themselves, completely bleeding out any recognizable letters.The audio, to my ears, was excellent considering the source material. The noise floor was remarkably low, and dynamics were impressive as well. Some websites comment on a minor lack of bass, but again compared to the video, voices were remarkably warm.Only the slightest hint of stressing of the limits of the audio system were detectable only during screams or occasionally during complex organ chords... possibly due more to the organ than the recording. Any distortion was kept to an amazing minimum, such that I doubt your average person would catch it.The widescreen version was an eye-opener as well. This movie is laid out better than it appears if you've only seen the cropped version! Excellent subject balance shows up scene after scene... and the loss of this balance is obvious (and unavoidable) in the pan-and-scan version. In the opening credits as the doctor looks down upon the city so far below the house and the hill, the feeling of being way up above seems lost in the cramped pan-and-scan version.In pan-and-scan, shoulders are constantly cropped off, people feel stuffed into the scene, perspective is occasionally off, and to my eyes it is just not as appealing a presentation visually as the original widescreen.Pan-and-scan also occasionally gave motion in the room a jerky movement as the pan-and-scan tried to follow the focus of the action... often leaving out nice details available only in the widescreen version. Again, I have heard the pan-and-scan gives more detail for what is there, but I personally saw no loss in the widescreen version whatsoever.The scene on the front cover of the DVD with Annabelle recoiling from a gruesome hand isn't in the film; possibly it is taken from publicity stills? I believe the same is true for the shot of Norra Manning looking through the cobwebs... and the shot of Frederick & Annabelle on the front inside cover... and the shot of Jonas Slydes holding Norra on the back cover... makes you wish there was a collector's book of publicity stills to go with it, huh?Of course as a HOHH junkie I would have loved a full disc of extras, but the trailer is a wonderful addition by itself and will work well as a teaser for the movie to show my friends and get them hooked. :-) This is and will always been a classic Halloween movie; this DVD beautifully preserves it for Halloweens to come. I couldn't be happier with my purchase!"What husband hasn't at one time wanted to kill his wife?" - Frederick Loren, chapter 15