Customer Reviews

The Masque of the Red Death [VHS]

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Vincent Price is wonderfully sinister as the evil Prince Prospero, who in medieval Italy has large parties at his castle while the countryside is devastated by a deadly plague called "The Red Death". His equally evil wife, Juliana (played by the beautiful Hazel Court), worships Satan with even more passion than he does. When Prospero discovers a beautiful young Christian woman, Francesca (played by Jane Asher), in the poor village, he begins a determined campaign to corrupt her soul, eventually even stabbing her father to death.

The village is virtually wiped out by the plague, and six lonely survivors (including a very young girl) come to the gates of Prospero's castle, begging sanctuary in his castle which is still uncontaminated by the "Red Death". He orders his archers to kill them all, but he spares the little girl. It is things like this that change Francesca forever and make her realize just how cruel and merciless some people can be. Finally justice (in the form of the "Red Death") prevails and Prospero's reign of terror comes to an end.

Filmed in just five weeks, Roger Corman's gothic horror classic was based on two of Edgar Allen Poe's short stories, "Masque of the Red Death" and "Hop Frog". It was one of Corman's best films and was also one of his most stylish. Corman had been given a bigger budget than usual and it really shows. From the beautiful photography of England to Juliana's (Hazel Court) nightmare sequence, this classic is a visual feast! And Vincent Price, the master of the horror genre in my humble opinion, gave a typically outstanding performance in one of his most evil roles. If you enjoy Edgar Allen Poe stories and classic horror films, this one is a must!

For "The Masque of the Red Death," one of the seven Edgar Allan Poe films that Roger Corman made for American International in the early 1960s, the producer-director had the advantage of Charles Beaumont, one of the scripters from "The Twilight Zone" who also wrote "The Seven Faces of Dr. Lao," and science fiction author R. Wright Campbell, doing the adaptation for this 1964 film. What you have to keep in mind is that Poe's originally tale is barely long enough to be considered a short story in the first place, but it is a neat title and it did have a pretty good twist. Beaumont and Campbell come up with an elaborate story to set up how it is that the Red Death attends Prospero's masque. One of the things they did was incorporate "Hop-Frog," another Poe story, but another is to turn Prospero and his sister in worshippers of Satan (reformed, apparently, compared to what we would see from other Hollywood films such as "Rosemary's Baby" in the next decade).

When young Francesca (Jane Asher, Paul McCartney's muse in the early 1960s when he was writing songs for her older brother Peter of Peter & Gordon) begs for the lives of her father (Nigel Green) and Gino (David Weston), the young man she loves, Count Prospero (Vincent Price) tells her she can choose who will live and who must die. However, that is just a prelude to the main part of the film where Prospero and his court and holed up in his castle. The Red Death is spreading around the countryside and Prospero needs to find ways to keep himself amused. The result is a series of sadistic games and actions at Prospero's order. Meanwhile, a hooded figure in red comes to pay a visit.

Corman remade "The Masque of Red Death" in 1989, but he should not have bothered, because this is the better version. This is arguably the best looking of the Corman films and when you see some of these interior sets you can only marvel at how far Corman has come from the days of making movies quick and dirty for no money (the fact Corman was shooting in Britain for the first time had a lot to do with it as did the fact that they simply used the sets from "Becket"). Price gets to be relatively restrained, even when he is ordering people garroted or tossing a woman a dagger so she can kill herself, and this one ends with an appropriate whimper. But I think the best performance comes from Skip Martin as Hop Toad, who does a lot with the similarly sadistic subplot of this one.

This Roger Corman Film Adaption of the Book By Edgar Allen Poe(I have yet to read the book)is Okay good,the only reason to watch it is for Vincent Price,the movie can be over dramatic and boring, The Imagery and this type of stuff I don't care for.*Spoiler*: ..but I like the Ending and How fitting it was for those who think they can escape death.

The only thing masked by this movie is content/enjoyment. I always loved Vincent Price but this is one of the worse movies I have ever seen but comes from one of the best short stories. They really destroyed a good piece of literature with this. It's absolutely ridiculous. Very little, if anything, other than the title is true to the original literature. Please don't waste your money. Building a little fire and watching your money burn would be more enjoyable.

Also stars Hazel Court and Jane Asher (ex beatle Paul McCartney's one time girlfriend.)

Well, the tape doesn't play well at all, but it does play. I guess I got what I paid for, as it was extremely cheap. If I need a good copy, I'll buy the dvd.

A classic tale with a religon view. Instead of christions ruling there, they are the peasants and sananists are the rules. Vincent Price as the Prince. In an isalated casle with the Red Death Plague is killing peole all over the country.