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The other remaining bit of Lovecraftian lore comes with the death of the elder Whateley (Sam Jaffe). As he lies dying on the floor of the Whateley mansion we hear the sound of birds – whippoorwills to be exact – and as the breath leaves his body the sound subsides. This was a myth used by Lovecraft to indicate the soul leaving the body but having to fend off the whippoorwills, who wish to take the soul to the underworld. The psychopomps, as they are known, is a concept found in Egyptian lore as well as Nordic mythology with the Valkyries, regarding the guiding of one’s spirit into the afterlife.

All in all, if AIP and Haller had set out to make a travesty of Lovecraft’s work (the film’s detractors seem to think they did), then why bother to put such details into the project in the first place? In view of the recent remake of THE DUNWICH HORROR by Leigh Scott I believe the original film needs to be reexamined as the first real attempt to put Lovecraft’s work on the screen and as such, despite the liberties taken, it still remains an entertaining film with much to recommend it if you keep in mind the time and place in which it was made.

I for one believe that to film the works of H.P. Lovecraft successfully you must remain true to the period in which he set them, which is always in the past. Dan O’Bannon’s film of Lovecraft’s THE CASE OF CHARLES DEXTER WARD, known as THE RESURRECTED, is perhaps one of the best Lovecraft films done so far, but it suffers from updating the material to present day as well as going for a Film Noir flavor that does not work. In the case of Haller’s film part of it’s charm is the time capsule it gives us of that moment in time when hippie communes flourished along the California coastline from Laguna to Big Sur, with topless chicks in full body paint passing joints to the cowled figures of the “old ones” as seen in the aforementioned drug-induced nightmare. She goes to sleep in a giant four poster bed which is then transported to a Vaseline-framed meadow filled with stony freaks in body paint humping each other madly in a manner Aleister Crowley would have approved.

Two of the things most admired about THE DUNWICH HORROR have always been Les Baxter’s unique score and Sandy Dvore’s imaginative animated opening titles. What I never realized until later on when I began collecting stills from the film was the discovery of a sequence that Haller filmed and then deleted which might have enhanced the proceedings. It appears he filmed the birth of the Whateley twins as seen in the credits. Sam Jaffe and Joanna Moore Jordan make their way to the Devil’s Hop Yard where the same figures draped in black hold ritual goblets while Jaffe performs a ritual as his wife gives birth. I have nine stills of this sequence, which proves it was done and then discarded. If Haller had retained this footage then his film would have had an Alpha and Omega, since it climaxes so to speak with Sandra Dee being impregnated by Wilber’s other-dimensional brother.

[The following stills are all that remain of the pre-credit sequence that was filmed and then removed from the final cut. Sam Jaffe as the elder Whateley leads his wife Lavinia (Joanna Moore Jordan) to the Devils Hopp Yard on top of Sentinal Hill to give birth to two twins one is half human the other is not of this world.]

Dvore was very popular at AIP at this time, having provided the titles for such films as DE SADE, one of AIP’s most expensive bombs, with the credits being singled out as the best thing about the film. BLACULA, the first Blaxpltation take on the Dracula myth, and THREE IN THE ATTIC, a sex romp with Christopher Jones. Dvore also did the credits for Otto Preminger’s SKIDOO, a film from which he never recovered even though it now has a large fan base as a cult film.

I made an attempt back in 1979 to interview Daniel Haller regarding not just this film, but an overview of his whole career. We met at his favorite restaurant/watering hole on Santa Monica Boulevard known as the Studio Grill. The interview began over a wonderful lunch with the white wine flowing. Dan did his best to fill me in, which is to say he was a hired gun at AIP looking toward Roger Corman for guidance in every way, so when it came his time to step up and finally assume the director’s chair he knew his way around the crew better than most, and with Corman as a mentor he also knew how to bring in whatever the project was on schedule and under-budget.

Haller seemed to enjoy recalling his two attempts at bringing Lovecraft to the screen even though until he started working with Roger he had never read any of the Lovecraft canon, nor really knew his background at all. His memories of THE HAUNTED PALACE were clouded by time as he remembered the whole thing as being hard work, involving sleeping on the set, being ready 24/7 to get the thing done on time and of course, what a great guy “Vinnie” was to be around since he was always prepared and more than willing to meet his fans when they chose to drop by the set.

When we finally got around to talking around THE DUNWICH HORROR he was getting a bit high from all the wine and the our conversation loosened up enough for him to reflect on the hazards of shooting too fast and in some cases wishing the effects could have been better. He had nothing but praise for Sandra Dee whom he found to be charming and professional at all times even through she was going through a rather rough time after her divorce from Bobby Darin. He laughed at the notion that Sandra was ever nude in the film saying to me, “Sandy’s mother made very sure her daughter was never in any situation that would paint her in a negative light. Unfortunately she was never allowed to really make up her own mind.” He felt Dean Stockwell knew his character and managed to bring as much of the Lovecraft flavor as the script would allow him to bring. Since he had actually read Lovecraft as a boy he knew the background inside and out. “At first Dean was a bit put out that we were moving too far away from Lovecraft’s original concept with the girl, but as soon as we began to block scenes he was totally committed to doing his job. Dean was a pro, as he had been in the business all his life.”

As our lunch was coming to an end I reached in my case for a photo of him directing Karloff in DIE MONSTER DIE. He looked at it for a moment and then wrote, “For David, Lovecraft be dammed.” Haller obviously enjoyed working with Boris Karloff, telling me, “When we did our picture together in London, Karloff was in the process of moving into a new flat, so he would call me to ask if there was anything he could be doing when we weren’t using him as he did not want to be home until all the moving was out of the way. He was such a pro to direct and the crew loved him.”

My experience with Dean Stockwell was not as much fun since we met at one of those autograph shows in Burbank in the mid-90’s so he was not in the best of moods. I was there working a table myself with Martine Beswicke, so I has an opportunity to catch him in between signings. When I first brought the film up he laughed a bit saying, “Hey man that was a very long time ago. I really don’t remember it all that well. Shit I can’t even remember what I did last week. What exactly is it you need to know?…The film was done very quickly since it was a Corman production, and it made a lot of money for AIP while I did not.” When I asked about Sandra Dee he softened a bit, recalling her with some affection, “Sandy was a better actress than she was given credit for in that film.” I asked him to sign a couple of stills, one as Wilber Whateley and then one as “Ben” from BLUE VELVET. When he asked me what to say on that one I replied, “Well, how about your famous line?” Dean looked at me for a moment and said “Listen kid, I have made over 300 motion pictures. How the fuck am I supposed to remember a line of dialogue from any of them?” I was a bit surprised since among even 300 films it would be hard to forget the one that restarted one’s career as BLUE VELVET did his…. So I reminded him by asking for him to write “For David, Here’s to your Fuck, Dean Stockwell.” After he wrote it he said, “Well, I dare you to hang this one in your office.” I replied, ” Well, Mr. Stockwell, that is just where it’s going.”

In the time since its original release THE DUNWICH HORROR has ceased somewhat to look as cheesy as it did compared (as it was) to ROSEMARY’S BABY which, like THE EXORCIST a few years later, would completely redefine the genre and all that would follow in its wake.

What I find so ironic in 2010 is that with all the technological advantages that have taken place since Haller made his version, when someone finally got around to remaking the film they not only employed Dean Stockwell to play the Ed Begley role of Dr. Armitage, but they made the same mistakes that dogged the original 40 years ago by making a film with a zero budget for special effects and a climax that makes you appreciate the original, which of course took its cues from the old Universal Horror films of the early thirties, with the venerable Edward Van Sloan essaying the essential prototype of the crusading monster-demolisher.

The new version was directed by a young man named Leigh Scott, who did his best under the circumstances, referencing Lovecraft in much the same way as the crew over at AIP had to do in 1970, updating the material and adding what they could from the master without actually doing him any favors. Aside from casting Dean Stockwell from the original film they also hired Jeffery Combs, who has made a career out of playing Lovecraftian parts like Herbert West in Stuart Gordon’s THE RE-ANIMATOR. Gordon is another director who has made his share of Lovrcraft films, all updated to the present as well.

The best moment in the new version lasts about a mega-second and it is worth seeking out for a true Lovecraft moment: our reluctant hero, who is also a professor and friend of Dr. Armitage, wanders with the girl (yes, they made that mistake as well) into an old house wherein lies a secret room. He begins to peel at the wallpaper until a small peephole is made where, for a moment, they observe an alien landscape that captures the pulp covers of the old WEIRD TALES that first published THE DUNWICH HORROR back in 1929. Otherwise, this remake must defer to the 1970 version as superior in every way. So much for waiting 40 years to take full advantage of all that time had given us in the way of special effects and CGI perfection. I think it is safe to say that the best Lovecraft adaptations to come will be animated without the problems of always having to cast women in parts that never existed in Lovecraft’s stories to begin with, and keeping the narratives in the 1920’s where they work best.

It is my contention that time has been more than kind to Haller’s version. After 40 years one can better appreciate the exceptional cast, all of whom have died except for Stockwell and Talia Shire. The passing of Sandra Dee made this film all the more bittersweet in that it was her swansong from films and she remains in the film a beautiful young actress who could have made the transition to more mature parts if Fate had been more forgiving and taken her in a different direction.

Lovecraft is now an icon in weird fiction second only to Poe, which is something Lovecraft himself would have applauded since he regarded Poe as a God in his personal worldview of fiction and letters. I think we can all safely assume, based on Lovecraft’s own observations of the Horror films he did live to see in the early 20’s and 30’s, that he would have loathed each and every adaptation that has been made from his works…that is, if he could have even made it through one of them. He famously walked out after watching 20 minutes of Lugosi’s DRACULA.

However some of us that have read his fiction and then seen the films made from them might be a bit more forgiving. I remember when I first watched THE HAUNTED PALACE: it was a thrill just to hear the familiar names from the Lovecraft canon being spoken in a film for the first time. When Frank Maxwell uttered the names Yog Sothoth while referring to the old ones, well, it was great just to realize Lovecraft was no longer such a well-kept secret among his followers. By the time Dean Stockwell was yelling his name on top of Sentinel Hill I felt like all we needed was Doris Day singing (SOMEWHERE I HAVE A) SECRET LOVE, which definitely was not a secret anymore.

The final moments in the original are still enjoyable while being faithful in execution to the source; the bursting out of the Whateley house of Wilber’s other dimensional brother who then rampages through the countryside until he arrives at the Devil’s hop yard to fulfill his date with destiny, not to mention Sandra Dee.

May I close with my personal favorite moment: when Dean Stockwell finally gets hold of the Necronomicon in the library at the beginning of the film he delves right into the text that is relevant to the ritual he is ready to perform to bring the old ones across. For reasons nobody needs to know, Dean reads the following to himself while Les Baxter’s score provides the proper mood:

“Yog Sothoth is the gate whereby the spheres meet…Only them from beyond can make it multiply and work. Yog Sothoth is the key…And with the gate open, the old ones shall be past, present, future…All are one…The old ones walk serene and primal, un-dimensional and unseen…The Old Ones broke through of old and they shall break through…

Well, you know the rest…One day even Death may die…

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