House on Haunted Hill (Colorized / Black & White)

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

This was when they made good sci-fi movies.

This review is for:House on Haunted Hill (Colorized / Black & White) (DVD)Format: Black & White, Color, Dolby, Full Screen, NTSC, RestoredLanguage: EnglishRegion: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only.)Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1Number of discs: 1Rated: NR (Not Rated)Studio: Legend FilmsDVD Release Date: July 1, 2008Run Time: 75 minutesVincent Price stars as millionaire Frederick Loren in this 1959 horror film directed by William Castle. Loren rents a creepy old haunted house because his fourth wife Annabelle (Carol Ohmart) originally had the amusing idea of having a haunted house party with friends. (I should mention that Loren's first wife disappeared and his second and third wives both died of heart attacks in their twenties.) Loren nixes the idea of inviting friends, and instead chooses to invite five guests who are badly in need of money. He offers each guest ten thousand dollars if they will spend the entire night in the house.Seven murders have already occurred in the house, and Castle gives us another alleged murder made to look like suicide early on, along with ghosts, secret passages, doors that open and close on their own, blood dripping from the ceiling, etc. Naturally this is all done with 1950's gimmickry so I have fun trying to imagine how audiences of that time experienced this movie vs. what we would think today.Don't be too analytical when you watch this. The story is good but there are logical loopholes with certain events though this may have been intentional, hinting that the house is actually haunted after all. This movie is a product of its time and should be viewed as such. It is an acclaimed horror classic.Legend films specializes in restoring and colorizing old films, and they did a really nice job with this movie. This DVD contains both the color and black & white versions, and an optional humorous audio commentary by Mike Nelson of Mystery Science Theatre 3000. It also contains images from the film's original press book. The skillfully colorized movie looks great and the Dolby audio is very good. Details in so many scenes come to life as never seen before so I think it is much better to watch than the original black and white movie.I highly recommend this excellent colorized DVD version to any fan of the original movie. Personally, I don't think I'll ever go back to watching the original black and white film.

Supposedly, this film went into public domain years ago and there are numerous public domain DVD releases. But Warner Brothers supposedly owns the film elements and released an excellent DVD in 1999. It's a two sided disc with the wide screen (original) version on one side and a full screen version of the other side.Shout Factory had released this film on blu ray as a part of a Vincent Price bundle but that bundle is very expensive. So unless and until Shout Factory releases a stand alone blu ray, the Warner Brothers DVD is the best release.

Alle bestens. Vielen Dank.

Love all things Vincent Price.

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.

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.