1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:09,417 A film by Jean Epstein
2 00:00:10,000 --> 00:00:15,667 The Fall of the House of Usher
3 00:00:16,292 --> 00:00:21,292 based on stories by Edgar A. Poe
4 00:00:21,875 --> 00:00:32,500 with Marguerite Gance, Jean Debucourt,
5 00:00:35,708 --> 00:00:39,542 and Charles Lamy
6 00:00:41,500 --> 00:00:44,500 Cinematography by Lucas Set decoration by Pierre Kefer
7 00:00:44,792 --> 00:00:49,083 Unit manager: Maurice Morlot Slow-motion operator: Hébert
8 00:00:49,375 --> 00:00:53,625 Costumes designed by Fernand Ochsé and executed by Muelle
9 00:00:53,958 --> 00:00:56,375 Goldsmith: Christofle
10 00:02:06,375 --> 00:02:07,750 ...sick...
11 00:02:09,042 --> 00:02:10,833 ..worried...
12 00:02:12,583 --> 00:02:17,208 ... my wife Madeline...
13 00:02:27,125 --> 00:02:38,208 "I need someone to drive me to Usher tonight."
14 00:05:18,625 --> 00:05:24,750 In the nearly decaying manor-house,
15 00:05:24,917 --> 00:05:31,958 Sir Roderick kept his wife Madeline in a strange seclusion,
16 00:05:32,125 --> 00:05:37,417 dominating her through his tyrannical edginess.
17 00:07:48,167 --> 00:07:54,583 "Oh no! I would not make my horse take a step further
18 00:07:54,750 --> 00:07:58,625 "for all your Lordship's gold!"
19 00:08:04,542 --> 00:08:11,917 The oppressive melancholy of Usher's surroundings seemed supernatural.
20 00:09:33,583 --> 00:09:35,667 "The doctor."
21 00:10:07,375 --> 00:10:13,917 The illness of Lady Madeline, Roderick Usher's wife,
22 00:10:14,042 --> 00:10:18,542 baffled the skill of her physician.
23 00:11:00,750 --> 00:11:05,958 As a result of a curious hereditary flaw,
24 00:11:06,083 --> 00:11:14,208 every Usher devoted himself to painting the portrait of his wife.
25 00:11:24,292 --> 00:11:28,000 "It is there that she is alive!"
26 00:12:51,958 --> 00:12:57,458 "My dear Roderick, you are burning with fever!"
27 00:14:54,875 --> 00:15:04,417 "Her Grace is feeling tired and begs you to excuse her from the table."
28 00:16:06,708 --> 00:16:09,750 "It is there that she is alive!"
29 00:16:55,583 --> 00:17:03,417 Roderick was seized again by his strange impulse to paint.
30 00:17:03,583 --> 00:17:11,750 His only thought was to be alone with Madeline, his sole model.
31 00:17:11,917 --> 00:17:19,292 How could he get rid of his visiting and now unwelcome friend?
32 00:18:25,125 --> 00:18:33,375 Twisted as by a tempest, the Ushers family tree weighed upon Roderick,
33 00:18:33,542 --> 00:18:41,625 who was the last survivor of the race, with all the weight of his heredity.
34 00:19:38,167 --> 00:19:45,167 "My dear and only friend, I am touched by your concern.
35 00:19:45,292 --> 00:19:50,375 "But you too must take care of yourself.
36 00:19:50,500 --> 00:19:57,625 "A few steps outside will do you good before you go to bed."
37 00:22:16,125 --> 00:22:22,125 Roderick's brush was like a magic wand.
38 00:22:22,250 --> 00:22:31,375 Each stroke gave more life to the portrait while making Madeline more pallid,
39 00:22:31,500 --> 00:22:41,458 as though the young girl gave to the painted picture the very strength she was losing.
40 00:27:05,625 --> 00:27:08,958 "This is indeed life itself!"
41 00:28:11,375 --> 00:28:20,333 Obsessed by all mysteries, Roderick had long meditated upon the theories of Magnetism.
42 00:30:23,750 --> 00:30:28,917 "I tell you, Doctor! She may not be dead!"
43 00:31:37,792 --> 00:31:42,750 "She shall not leave me! We shall bury her right here!"
44 00:33:48,750 --> 00:33:53,083 "I forbid, do you hear, I forbid anyone to nail..."
45 00:42:06,667 --> 00:42:13,667 After the burial of Madeline, the hours, the days went by
46 00:42:13,750 --> 00:42:20,750 in frightening dreariness and oppressive silence.
47 00:43:55,667 --> 00:44:04,250 Roderick, all his nerves on edge, seemed to be waiting for a sign of some sort.
48 00:44:04,375 --> 00:44:09,167 The slightest noise infuriated him...
49 00:47:13,833 --> 00:47:22,500 Roderick dared not repeat the mad thought that oppressed him... Madeline...
50 00:47:53,667 --> 00:47:56,208 This was a stormy night, charged with electricity.
51 00:48:20,542 --> 00:48:26,917 There is a two-fold Silence.
52 00:48:27,042 --> 00:48:33,417 One is the corporate Silence: dread him not!
53 00:48:58,708 --> 00:49:09,292 But should some urgent fate bring thee to meet his shadow,
54 00:49:09,417 --> 00:49:19,500 nameless elf, that haunteth the lone regions where hath trod no foot of man,
55 00:49:19,625 --> 00:49:23,708 commend thyself to God!
56 00:51:52,292 --> 00:51:55,000 "Now can you hear her?"
57 00:52:43,708 --> 00:52:47,625 "Roderick, you should not see that!
58 00:52:47,708 --> 00:52:52,042 "Let me read you something to amuse you."
59 00:54:43,750 --> 00:54:49,833 And Ethelred uplifted his mace outright, and, with blows,
60 00:54:49,958 --> 00:54:56,583 made quickly room in the plankings of the door for his gauntleted hand;
61 00:54:56,708 --> 00:55:03,625 and now pulling therewith sturdily, he so cracked, and ripped...
62 00:56:23,000 --> 00:56:28,958 And Ethelred uplifted his mace, and struck upon the head of the dragon,
63 00:56:29,083 --> 00:56:34,167 which fell before him, and gave up his pesty breath,
64 00:56:34,292 --> 00:56:39,833 with a shriek so horrid and harsh, and withal so piercing...
65 00:56:56,417 --> 00:57:05,292 And now, the champion approached valorously over the silver pavement
66 00:57:05,417 --> 00:57:14,167 of the castle to where the shield was upon the wall; which in sooth tarried
67 00:57:14,292 --> 00:57:22,125 not for his full coming , but fell down at his feet, with a mighty great and terrible...
68 00:59:23,583 --> 00:59:28,542 "Yes, I can hear. I have heard for a longtime, since the first day..."
69 00:59:59,792 --> 01:00:04,417 "We have put her alive in the tomb!"