I Watched The Haunted Palace (1963) So Here’s My Random Connection to Vincent Price

The fine folks over at Shout Factory did a Halloween sale back in October, so naturally I picked up a few half-priced blu-rays (I love a good disc sale). Of the three things I bought, the one I was easily most excited about was this Vincent Price Collection featuring six of his more acclaimed feature films.*

I decided to start with The Haunted Palace, a Roger Corman classic co-starring Lon Chaney Jr. that is noteworthy because it’s one of the very first adaptations of an H.P. Lovecraft story—even though all of the marketing ties it to an Edgar Allan Poe poem. Some iconic Lovecraft creations make their first on-screen appearance here, though I don’t want to spoil that for you.

But the thing I was most drawn to was a painting. In this film, Vincent Price plays two characters: a New England warlock named Joseph Curwen and his great-great-grandson Charles Dexter Ward. After an exciting cold open, we jump ahead 110 years to find Ward visiting the titular palace for the first time, having just inherited it, and he and his wife Anne are soon beguiled by this painting of Curwen, noting the uncanny similarities between the two men. As the film goes on, Ward becomes hypnotized by the painting; he even has conversations with it as Curwen begins to possess him.

But enough about The Haunted Palace. Let me tell you about my connection to another painting that was once owned by Vincent Price. (Folks, this is about as good as segues get.)

The story starts with my father, who is not Vincent Price, but that would’ve been cool. Actually, wait, no it doesn’t. It starts with this painting of a sailboat that hung in the living room of my parents’ house all throughout my childhood.

Unlike Charles Dexter Ward, I was not exactly enchanted by this painting. At most, I would pass it by, give it a glance, and think “Yeah, that’s a painting alright.” Turns out there’s a cool origin story to this painting.

Now, back to my father. When I was growing up, my father primarily made his modest living as a traveling salesman peddling wholesale clothing and jewelry. But around the time I was born, he owned a fabric store called the Cotton Bowl in Downtown Homewood, the suburb of Birmingham where I grew up.**

He also owned a Cotton Bowl store in Selma, a good bit south of where we lived. When he decided to sell the Selma location, he couldn’t find a buyer right away. He eventually met a woman named Joyanne Beatty who wanted to buy it. The only problem was Joyanne didn’t have any money, which is typically very unhelpful in scenarios like this.

But what she did have was a diamond ring she was willing to part with…and this painting. Now, my father is many things, but a connoisseur of modern art is not one of them. This painting at face value would’ve meant nothing to him. However, the painting held a special significance: According to Joyanne, the painting used to belong to Vincent Price. Used to hang in his home and everything. So he took the deal, and he sold the ring to his sister, but he kept the painting.

Of course, it is known that people in the art world will just say anything. Thankfully, Joyanne had obtained an evaluation by a local art appraiser over in East Lake named Richard F. Howard.*** And in August of 1982, Richard F. Howard confirmed the origins of the painting. Well, sort of.

My mother actually dug up the appraisal itself a few years ago. I’ll save you the trouble of deciphering Richard F. Howard’s handwriting by doing my best attempt at a translation below.

“I have carefully examined a painting owned by Joyanne Beatty, by Vicente Aires, a Brazilian painter of the middle of the twentieth century.**** The subject is a coastal scene with fishing boats, 28” by 20”, signed on the face, lower left, and on the back. It is said to have come from the Vincent Price collection.”

Two things stand out here to me. First of all, what a flex to describe the painting itself in the appraisal, as if “a coastal scene with fishing boats” is not incredibly obvious. Secondly, I both hate and respect Richard’s careful choice of words here: “It is said to have come from the Vincent Price collection.” Well, who exactly said that, Richard? Was it someone who knew what they were talking about? Or was it someone who completely fabricated this origin story? In both scenarios, this statement would’ve been “said.”

So do I know for sure that this painting once belonged to Vincent Price? No, not really.***** But I am a native Southerner, and unconfirmed oral histories are kind of our thing.******

I love the idea of Vincent Price, vaunted actor of the stage and screen, legendary horror icon who played dozens of memorable roles, owning a painting of “a coastal scene with fishing boats.” I like to picture him walking by this painting in one of his many rooms, admiring it for a moment, and saying something like “Yes, yes, how quaint. How tranquil. What an image.” And one day, when this painting hangs in my own home, maybe I’ll do that too. (I hope I don’t get possessed by mine, though.)

*I also ordered blu-ray editions of Black Christmas (the Bob Clark original, obviously) and The Slumber Party Massacre. They’re both for “research.” No, really.

**Homewood folks, ask your parents. They might remember it.

***That’s right. Birmingham used to have its own resident art appraiser. Alabama ain’t all hillbillies, you know.

****At least “Vicente Aires” is my best guess. I spent a few minutes on Google and couldn’t find evidence of any such painter, but if you are knowledgeable about 20th century Brazilian painters and/or search engines, please let me know if you have any notions.

*****The only additional evidence I’ve obtained was when I tweeted about this painting and someone from a podcast called The Full Price said that this piece is “Price’s style.” Hey, it’s something!

******My personal favorite is the one coming from my mother’s side that Henry Wadsworth Longfellow is somewhere in our family tree. Or, if you asked Richard F. Howard, he would tell you that Henry Wadsworth Longfellow “is said to have” been in our family.

The Haunted Palace is now streaming on Amazon Prime, Paramount+, Hoopla, Kanopy, DirecTV, and Epix.