Review of The Masque of the Red Death (1964)

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The Masque of the Red Death (1964) is a very loose adaptation of the Edgar Allan Poe story, produced by Roger Corman and starring Vincent Price as Prospero. It was my daughter, Little Miss, who suggested watching this film Saturday evening as she has become a big fan of Poe’s writings. Saturday is when we have a couple of friends over for dinner and movie night. Hopefully I will keep the spoilers to a minimum. Except for one – I made deep dish pizza that night for dinner, and yes, it was yummy. So, with family and a couple of close friends, we streamed the movie into our TV room.



The Masque of the Red Death - IMDB

As Poe’s story weighs in at just shy of 2,500 words. Corman needed a script that would embody the basic themes of Poe’s story, and yet expand on the material so he would end up with a 90 minute movie. As such, there is a lot of added material, including Prospero’s back story as a Satanist, and why the monocolor rooms were as they were; one solid yellow, purple, and so on, until a room that was decorated completely in black. The film also added a lot of characters to drive Prospero’s backstory and events surrounding the plague sweeping the countryside, among the characters are Prospero’s mistress, Juliana (Hazel Court) a devote disciple of Satan; Francesca (Jane Asher), a villager taken by Prospero to his castle; Gino (David Weston – I swear I have seen him in something before, but can’t place him) as Francesca’s beloved. Various court hangers-on, and so on.

There are a number of differences between the story and film, and if you take the film as a stand alone story, or had not previously read Poe’s “The Masque of the Red Death”, then you won’t notice it as much (my daughter, Little Miss, was a bit, um, disappointed by some of the changes). The film also incorporates elements and characters from at least one other story, which helped flesh out the film.



Juliana (Hazel court) with the pendulum in the foreground - IMDB

One thing that stands out in the film is the attention to detail: some of the castle interior decorations were stunning, especially the clock with the battle-axe pendulum; and how Corman made every shot count, every scene moving the story forward and building on the various characters. Even with the horrific deaths a couple of the characters suffer prior to the plague hitting. One scene that my bonnie Bride was uncertain of was a sort-of dream-quest scene involving Juliana, which appeared to me to be a stylized Satanic Mass. The climactic scenes when the plague hits the courtiers is very interestingly done, and not at all what I would have expected.



Jane Asher and Vincent Price - IMDB

The Masque of the Red Death to be a solid, and entertaining film to watch. It is a very serious story unlike the other of the Corman-Price adaptations of Poe’s works, The Raven (1963 – I’ll have to write about that one sometime). Performances for the mainline cast were very good, and Vincent Price is always a delight to watch. The costuming is also well done, although the fight choreography with sword and shield leaves a bit to be desired. Someone didn’t know how to fight using a round shield, which should be a very aggressive form using the shield to not simply block, but to beat the heck out of your opponent, or hook his shield with yours, creating an opening for a killing blow. So often all we see in some films is “hit my shield, I’ll hit yours” (I trained with a round shield and broadsword back in the day). Other than that, it’s a darn good film.

I had not read Poe’s story until after watching the film, which I think was the way to go – watch the film, read the story. Both are worth it. Although not having read this story before, I do remember reading two of Poe’s story back in my youth, probably Junior High School, or earlier. Not sure. Having read this story and watched the movie, it has rekindled my interest in exploring more of Poe’s works, both literary and film adaptations.

Thanks for stopping by.

Posted using CineTV



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