The Masque of the Red Death **** (1964, Vincent Price, Hazel Court, Jane Asher, Patrick Magee, Nigel Green) – Classic Movie Review 2847

Director Roger Corman’s highly stylish and imaginatively achieved 1964 horror movie is his seventh adaptation of an 1842 Edgar Allan Poe short story (with another, Hop-Frog, as a sub-plot). A second sub-plot comes from Torture by Hope by Auguste Villiers de l’Isle-Adam.

Once again Vincent Price stars, this time as a 12th century Italian nobleman, Prince Prospero, who renounces God for the Devil, revelling in cruelty and ungodly pleasure as a Satanist. In his imposing castle, Prospero holds a feast, while the Red Death plague rages outside…

The always admirable Price is superbly villainous, there’s an intelligent screenplay this time by Charles Beaumont and R Wright Campbell, and there’s a splendidly gothic atmosphere too.

Corman is working here at the peak of his talent. But what makes this chiller especially notable is Nicolas Roeg’s outstanding, gorgeous colour cinematography, as well as Daniel Haller’s imaginative production designs – as always beauty on a budget.

Hazel Court plays Juliana: it proved her final movie as a star, aged 38, after a 20-year film career.  Her horror queen popularity started with her role as Elizabeth in The Curse of Frankenstein (1957) and she played in five Corman films.

Also in the cast are Jane Asher (Francesca), Patrick Magee (Alfredo), Nigel Green (Ludovico), John Westbrook, Gaye Brown (Señora Escobar), Paul Whitsun-Jones (Scarlatti), Jean Lodge, Brian Hewlett, Robert Brown, David Weston (Gino), Skip Martin and Julian Burton.

Corman’s greatest acclaim came with his eight movies based on the works of Poe, made through American International Pictures. They are: House of Usher [The Fall of the House of Usher] (1960), The Pit and the Pendulum (1961), The Premature Burial (1962), Tales of Terror (1962), The Raven (1963), The Haunted Palace (1963), The Masque of the Red Death (1964) and The Tomb of Ligeia (1964). All but The Premature Burial star Vincent Price.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2847

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