Vitals

Vincent Price as Frederick Loren, eccentric millionaire

Los Angeles, Fall 1958

Film: House on Haunted Hill
Release Date: February 17, 1959
Director: William Castle
Men’s Wardrobe: Roger J. Weinberg

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

I am Frederick Loren, and I have rented the house on Haunted Hill tonight so that my wife can give a party. She’s so amusing. There’ll be food and drink and ghosts, and perhaps even a few murders. You’re all invited. If any of you will spend the next twelve hours in this house, I will give you each ten thousand dollars… or your next of kin in case you don’t survive.

Vincent Price leaned into his villainous screen persona for the camp horror classic House on Haunted Hill as Frederick Loren, a wealthy but sinister host who offers a $10,000 cash prize to whichever of the seven guests he invites can last the night in a haunted mansion. Including Loren and his wife Annabelle (Carol Ohmart), the arrangement of four men and three women eerily mirrors the seven who had been previously murdered in the house, according to its paranoid owner Watson Pritchard (Elisha Cook Jr.), prompting Dr. Trent (Alan Marshal) to observe that this allows “a ghost for everybody!”

The film’s exteriors made distinctive use of the Frank Lloyd Wright–designed Ennis-Brown House, perched on Glendower Avenue in Los Feliz with sweeping views over Los Angeles. (Less than half a mile away on Glendower Place, life would uncannily echo art just a year later when Dr. Harold Perelson murdered his wife Lillian with a ball-peen hammer before taking his own life on December 6, 1959.)

Directed by William Castle (who co-produced with the film’s writer Robb White), House on Haunted Hill was promoted with Castle’s famous “Emergo” gimmick, in which a plastic skeleton flew over theater audiences. Its box office success is often credited with inspiring Alfred Hitchcock to pursue his own low-budget horror project the following year: Psycho.

Over his prolific career, Price accumulated more than 200 screen credits—alongside cookbooks and voice work that showcased his wit. He died 32 years ago today on October 25, 1993, just days before Halloween—a fittingly macabre send-off for one of horror cinema’s most enduring icons.

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What’d He Wear?

Frederick Loren dresses for the evening in a suit tailored from a dark sharkskin, also known as pick-and-pick, woven with alternating warp and weft yarns that create a subtly semi-solid iridescence. Legend Films’ 2005 home video release colorized Loren’s suit as a dark blue, but I haven’t seen any contemporary photography to prove this.

The long three-button suit jacket balances Vincent Price’s 6’4″ height. The cut is consistent with 1950s American tailoring, structured with straight yet narrow shoulders, a full and boxy fit through the torso, and a single-vented skirt that subtly flares out below the waist—accentuated by Price typically keeping the top two buttons fastened, pulling the jacket closer over the chest than if he only buttoned the center. The single-breasted jacket features the conventional welted breast pocket and straight flapped hip pockets, though the two vestigial buttons spared apart on each cuff were particularly trendy during the late ’50s into the early ’60s.

Loren never removes his jacket on screen, so we can only speculate how his trousers are styled above the thighs, aside from knowing that they appropriately rise high to Price’s natural waist. Based on contemporary trends and behind-the-scenes shots of Price playfully dancing with House on Haunted Hill‘s famous skeleton, we can surmise that they are rigged with belt loops, double reverse-facing pleats, side pockets, and jetted back pockets. The bottoms are finished with turn-ups (cuffs), which break cleanly over the tops of his black calf leather cap-toe derby shoes.

Loren’s white cotton shirt is conventionally styled with its point collar, front placket, and double (French) cuffs, but he injects some creepy character by fastening a small metal skeleton-shaped pin amid his necktie, just above the jacket’s buttoning point. The tie itself is dark, just barely contrasted with tonal satin-finished hairline stripes in a downhill direction, closely spaced apart for a shimmery texture.

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The Gun

“We have some party favors for you in these little coffins,” Loren announces as he begins flipping open the seven miniature coffins, each revealing an identical Colt Model 1903 Pocket Hammer pistol inside.

“I suppose you all know how to use one of these things, but—in case you don’t—you just press down on this lever with your thumb and then pull the trigger,” Loren explains, engaging the hammer and casually firing a round into a vase to demonstrate that the pistols are, indeed, loaded. He hands the one in question to Pritchard, who evidently doesn’t take issue with having one less bullet than his fellow guests as he responds that “these are no good against the dead, only the living.”

Not to be confused with more widely produced Colt Model 1903 Pocket Hammerless pistol which was also designed by John Browning and produced by Colt, the Model 1903 Pocket Hammer was introduced as a downscaled version of the Colt Model 1902 Sporting Model. Like the Model 1902, the Model 1903 Pocket Hamer is a short-recoil, single-action semi-automatic pistol fed with seven-round magazines of now-obsolete .38 ACP.

Browning had designed the semi-rimmed .38 ACP round at the turn of the 20th century for the Colt M1900. It was exclusively reserved for Colt pistols—and the occasional Webley handgun produced across the pond—during the 1900s, quickly falling out of favor after the Browning-developed .380 ACP and .45 ACP rounds eclipsed it in popularity for compact pistols and service pistols, respectively. The Colt Model 1903 Pocket Hammer essentially kept the .38 ACP round in circulation until Colt discontinued the pistol’s production in 1927, after which point Colt introduced the .38 Super as a higher-pressure alternative that could also be fired through its venerated 1911 series.

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What to Imbibe

After drinking champagne with Annabelle before the party (accompanied by his gesture threatening to shoot the bottle’s cork at her), Loren pours a round of Scotch-and-Soda highballs for himself, Dr. Trent, Watson Pritchard, and the columnist Ruth Bridgers (Julie Mitchum). Consisting of simply any amount of Scotch whisky topped with soda water, this is one of the simplest and most classic alcoholic combinations.

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How to Get the Look

Frederick Loren’s dark sharkskin worsted suit, white French-cuffed shirt, and black derbies may be standard business attire for the mid-century gent, but he takes it one macabre step farther with a shimmering-striped tie held in place with a skeleton pin.

• Dark sharkskin suit:
  • Single-breasted 3-button jacket with notch lapels, welted breast pocket, straight flapped hip pockets, spaced 2-button cuffs, and single vent
  • Double reverse-pleated trousers with belt loops, side pockets, jetted back pockets, and turn-ups/cuffs
• White cotton shirt with semi-spread collar, front placket, and double/French cuffs
• Dark tie with tonal satin hairline-width downhill stripes
  • Metal skeleton-shaped tie pin
• Black calfskin leather cap-toe derby shoes
• Black leather belt

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Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie.

I have to admit, twelve hours at even the creepiest party sounds worth it for the favors being $10,000 and a gun.

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The Quote

Don’t let the ghosts and the ghouls disturb you, love.