If I'm making it seem coherent, believe me, it's just from years of watching and digesting B-movies. Because this plot is all over the place. What of Curwen's curse against the people of Arkham, you might think? Well, Ward/Curwen lets loose one of the mutant-spawn to kill Weedon (Leo Gordon burns well, one must admit) and then douses Smith in kerosene before flicking a cigar at him (Elisha Cook Jr... did the man ever survive a pic he was in?). After this, Curwen's bloodlust seems a bit sated, but his revenge-killings waited until after the hour-mark to take place.
Curwen also keeps trying to revive Hester, and when that doesn't work, he tries to "enjoy his husbandly perogative" with Ann. Now that was actually a pretty creepy scene, but Ann scrapes up his face and pisses him off, so rather than trying to sex up the un-willing wife, he goes to try and ressurect his dead mistress again. Guy has a one-track mind. But then, he has been dead for one hundred and ten years (he also keeps mentioning that. "I've lain dormant for, how long? One hundred and ten years!" We know, Vincent, we know).
On an interesting note, the Dialogue Director on this gem was Francis Ford Coppola, whom Corman would later mentor and executive produce for his directorial debut, a rather entertaining little AIP thriller entitled Dementia 13.
Finally Hester is revived, and Dr. Willet and Ann are trying to pull Curwen/Ward away from the castle (thinking that the prevalent superstition and fear of the local yokels is responsible for his funky mood swings), but Curwen decides to chain up Ann so that the Big Plastic Elder God can have it's way with her... fortunately while this is going on, the pissed-off villagers have set fire to yet another AIP set (and for a stone palace, even a Haunted Palace, it burns quite well) and the portrait of Joseph Curwen is set aflame... when this happens, Ward seems to come to his senses, and cuts down Ann. Willet drags the coughing Ann from the blazing ruins, and goes back to save Ward (Simon, Hester, and whats'isname have disappeared, seriously, they just up and left the movie) who staggers from the smoke and flaming styrofoam stone to lean against the same tree Curwen was burned at. Ann seems relieved when Ward thanks Dr. Willet for saving his wife, and his, lives, but when he looks back his eyebrow is all arched and he is all smug and grim... and we fade out on Arkham with the second bit of Poe.
Not a bad little flick. As I've said before, Stein's score is terrific: moody and dark, and even somewhat memorable. As in most AIP films, the art direction and set design was solid, and more effective here than in many, so kudos to art director Daniel Heller. The actors all deploy themselves honorably, even if Chaney seems a little lost (as well he should have been, what the hell was his character supposed to be doing, other than occaisionaly lurking about?). Paget was a servicable fainting femme, her scream was terrific. Cook and Gordon are appropriately bitter and scared, and as always Vincent Price was spot on. Perhaps not the most brilliant of actors, Price (like Karloff) always brough a certain grace and touch of class to even his most pedestrian roles, and is well aquitted here. Corman's direction goes from solid to stale, and back again, but is always professional. Actually, three scenes had real menace to them. The first, when Price and Paget are menaced by the shambling mutant-spawn (terrible makeup, but their slow and measured steps, combined with the music and the sets, make for a bit of a chill), the second the almost-rape sequence (Price could, under even the circumstances of an AIP set, bring a great deal of sinister to his performances), and the best when Ann is searching for her seemingly lost husband in the catacombs of the haunted palace... a large figure barely seen in the torchlight approaches her slowly... and is revealed to be Simon (Chaney Jr). The false-concern on Simon's face as he lumbers towards her is actually quite effective.
So, a few chills, some giggles (especially at the first on-screen appearance from the Necronomicon, now so entrenched in B-horror that it might as well get special billing), and a plot that unravels utterly during the last ten minutes... The Haunted Palace was a tasty cheeseburger.