“She’s so amusing.” House on Haunted Hill (1959) is arguably horror schlock maestro William Castle’s finest piece of work, a funny, slightly wicked and not at all scary haunted house flick that finds an eccentric millionaire (Vincent Price) and his fourth wife (Carol Ohmart) inviting five strangers to be locked overnight in a supposedly spook-infested mansion, with anyone who lives ’til morning being rewarded $10,000 (Why? Why not?). The best thing about this spirited silliness (besides the walking skeleton, of course) is the constant (and constantly witty) bickering between Price and Ohmart as they try to outfox each other (guess who wins?). Alfred Hitchcock was inspired by this low-budget horror film’s success at the box office and set out to make his own low-budget horror flick — a little movie called Psycho.
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