The House of the Seven Gables

Vincent Price was brought in at the last minute to substitute for Robert Cummings, who had become indisposed through illness. Price was cast most likely because he had forged a good working relationship with producer Burt Kelly and Joe May in October 1939 while working on The Invisible Man Returns (1940).

The deed to Maine Jaffrey discovers in the attic was granted by Charles II and dated 1653. In the 1650s, Britain was ruled by Oliver Cromwell; Charles II wouldn't become King of England until 1660.

The Foreward is presented as several book pages, being turned by a human hand followed by the Prologue.

FOREWARD: "In the middle of the 17th Century in New England, there lived one Colonel Jeffrey Pyncheon, a powerful leader of the Colonial Government."

"In order to acquire a valuable piece of land, Pyncheon cold-heartedly accused its owner, a simple carpenter named Matthew Maule, of practicing Witchcraft."

"The innocent man was promptly condemned to hang. From the scaffold Matthew Maule had hurled this curse: 'God hath given him blood to drink!'"

"Colonel Pyncheon defiantly built his mansion on the dead man's ground. On the day of its completion he was found dead in his new library... blood trickling from his mouth. His descendants lived on at Seven Gables. Succeeding generations of villagers clung to the belief that 'Maule's Curse' dwelt there with them."

Featured in Twice-Told Tales (1963)