THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH [1964 / 2020] [Blu-ray] [UK Release] Easily The Finest of Director Roger Corman for Edgar Allan Poe Adaptions! Death Has No Master in Roger Corman’s film!
A stunning new restoration by the Academy Film Archive and The Film Foundation, with funding provided by the Martin Scorsese's Film Foundation of Roger Corman's 1964 classic ‘THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH.’ Vincent Price stars as evil Prince Prospero who sells his soul to the devil and then enjoys the latter's patronage by living the most decadent and lavish lifestyle he can manage. Prince Prospero derides even more pleasure from the perverse satisfaction he takes in seeing his impoverished subjects fall victim to a painful and devastating plague that is sweeping the land. Based on the short stories of Edgar Allan Poe, the film also stars Hazel Court and Jane Asher.
FILM FACT: Roger Corman later said that he always felt ‘THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH’ and ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’ were the two best Edgar Allan Poe stories. After the success of ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’ [1960], Roger Corman strongly considered making ‘THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH’ [1964] as the follow-up. In 1961, Roger Corman announced he would make ‘THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH’ from a script by Charles Beaumont to be produced for his Filmgroup Company. However, Roger Corman later said he was reluctant to move forward because it had several elements similar to ‘The Seventh Seal’ [1957’, and Roger Corman was worried people would say he was stealing from Ingmar Bergman. "I kept moving ‘THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH’ back, because of the similarities, but it was really an artificial reason in my mind," he later said. Eventually, Roger Corman decided to go ahead and do it anyway. Another factor in the delay was that Roger Corman had a great deal of trouble coming up with a screenplay he was happy with. Drafts were written by John Carter, Robert Towne and Barboura Morris, but Roger Corman was not happy with any of them. Roger Corman was pleased with an early draft from Charles Beaumont, which introduced the concept of Prince Prospero being a Satanist. Roger Corman felt this draft still needed work, but Charles Beaumont was too ill to come to England for rewriting. So he hired R. Wright Campbell, who had just made ‘The Secret Invasion’ [1964] with Roger Corman, to come with him. Roger Corman says it was R. Wright Campbell who introduced the subplot of the dwarf, from another Edgar Allen Poe story, "Hop-Frog."
Cast: Vincent Price, Hazel Court, Jane Asher, David Weston, Nigel Green, Patrick Magee, Paul Whitsun-Jones, Robert Brown, Julian Burton, David Davies, Skip Martin, Gaye Brown, Verina Greenlaw, Doreen Dawn, Brian Hewlett, Sarah Brackett, John Westbrook [The Red Death] (uncredited), David Allen (uncredited), Dorothy Anelay (uncredited), Gerry Atkins (uncredited), Jill Bathurst (uncredited), Julian Bolt (uncredited), Norris Boyd (uncredited), Peter Brace (uncredited), Ricky Clarke (uncredited), Ronnie Curran (uncredited), Alan Dalton (uncredited), Gladys Davison (uncredited), Robert de Warren (uncredited), Rosemarie Dunham (uncredited), Jane Evans (uncredited), Dorothy Fraser (uncredited), Edith Gey (uncredited), Terry Gilbert (uncredited), Sally Gilpin (uncredited), Bertie Green (uncredited), Harvey Hall (uncredited), Janet Hall (uncredited), Janet Kedge (uncredited), Brigitte Kelly-Espinoza (uncredited), Joanna Kubik (uncredited), Seraphina Lansdown (uncredited), Gale Law (uncredited), Delia Linden (uncredited), Jean Lodge (uncredited), Tony Manning (uncredited), Len Martin (uncredited), Norman McDowell (uncredited), Stanley Meadows (uncredited), Hugh Morton (uncredited), Bill Owen (uncredited), Joan Palethorpe (uncredited), Fred Peters (uncredited), Maureen Sims (uncredited), Roy Staite (uncredited), John Stone (uncredited), Angela Symonds (uncredited), Caroline Symonds (uncredited), Jenny Till (uncredited), Stanley Tiller (uncredited), David Wishart (uncredited), Fred Wood (uncredited) and Selina Wylie (uncredited)
Director: Roger Corman
Producers: Roger Corman and George Willoughby (uncredited)
Screenplay: Charles Beaumont, R. Wright Campbell and Edgar Allan Poe (from a short story)
Composer: David Lee
Costume Supervisor: Laura Nightingale
Cinematography: Nicolas Roeg, C.B.E. B.S.C. (Director of Photography)
Image Resolution: 1080p (Technicolor)
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 (CinemaScope)
Audio: English: 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio
English: 2.0 Dolby Digital Stereo Audio
Subtitles: English
Running Time: 90 minutes (Restored Extended Cut)
Running Time: 89 minutes (Original Theatrical Release)
Region: Region B/2
Number of discs: 1
Studio: American International Pictures / Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer / STUDIOCANAL
Andrew’s Blu-ray Review: ‘THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH’ [1964] is an uncanny tale from the pen of Edgar Allan Poe, and directed by Roger Corman and starring Vincent Price and definitely a match made in Heaven or even Hell!
‘THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH’ title sequence opens up in the similar fashion that all 1960’s cult films do. Strong music, and wonderful colours that have great wonderful warmth to the image of the film. What is interesting about this film is the first scene that absolutely confirms that this picture is considerably potent from a brilliant director like Roger Corman, especially when we first meet the dark stranger doing the tarot reading sitting amongst the foggy craggy forest.
This was Roger Corman’s seventh Edgar Allan Poe screen adaptation is set in Medieval Italy, where the Devil-worshipping Prince Prospero [Vincent Price] is holed up in his castle with his acolytes, to avoid the plague devastating the country. Here he stages decadent entertainments in his opulent ballroom (the sets were reused from ‘Becket,’ and won a British Academy Award), during which Prince Prospero indulges his sadistic whims, relishing humiliation and torture in the pursuit of gratification. Into this den of evil comes innocence and faith in the shape of a Francesca [Jane Asher] a peasant girl, making Prince Prospero question the sinful path he has chosen.
Actor Patrick Magee who plays Alfredo gives a wonderfully sickening performance as Prince Prospero’s strange nasty evil side kick nobleman. Alfredo is “not without influence and power” as he states, but wields power far less honed than Prince Prospero. Patrick Magee’s character is constantly bathing in the notion of corrupting young women, the anatomy of terror, and dark power. Remember for these noblemen there were no rules and certainly no morals.
Let’s not forget the brilliant actress Hazel Court [Juliana] who plays Prince Prospero’s woman. It seems Prince Prospero seems he could have as much of whatever he wants, beautiful peasant girls, and pompous nobility. So many Edgar Allan Poe adaptations have been created but the honest truth is some of them are quite below mediocre, whereas ‘THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH’ on the other hand will not let you down!
This is easily the finest of director Roger Corman's Edgar Allan Poe adaptations, with Vincent Price, who is the very essence of evil as the sadistic devil-worshipper trying to keep the plague at bay in 12th-century Italy by indulging in degenerate revelry. While there are touches of deliciously wicked humour, the aura of terror comes from the doom-laden tone director Roger Corman creates by reaching as much into sombre Ingmar Bergman territory (the poignant tableaux showing crimson-cloaked Death stalking through fog-shrouded woods) as atmospheric homage to Hammer Horror shock and especially shot in England by the brilliant cinematographer Nicolas Roeg.
In the twelfth century, the decadent and sadistic Prince Prospero is sheltering in his castle from the mysterious Red Death, a plague that is ravaging the countryside around him. Seemingly oblivious to the suffering the plague is causing, Prince Prospero arranges for a lavish masked ball for his fellow nobles only to find that he has an uninvited guest – a mysterious figure in red appears who may well be Death itself.
Daniel Haller, is given the free run of Elstree Studio’s extensive scene sets, excelled himself in the creation of Prince Prospero’s lavish castle, giving the film a huge, almost epic feel that even the best of the rest of the cycle couldn’t match. The grandiose settings were filmed beautifully by a young Nicolas Roeg whose glorious, floating camerawork is quite simply breath-taking and the combined talents of Roger Corman and Vincent Price, combines to particularly stunning visual effect in the film’s standout sequence, the eerie, hallucinogenic pursuit of the Red Death by Prince Prospero through a series of wonderful colour-coded rooms.
‘THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH’ which has been restored and released by SUDIOCANAL, was Roger Corman’s penultimate Edgar Allen Poe film. Roger Corman had delayed making it, suspecting that the climactic encounter between Vincent Price’s Devil-worshipping Prince Prospero and the shrouded figure of Death would prompt accusations he had stolen the concept from Ingmar Bergman’s ‘The Seventh Seal’ [1957].
This is a beautiful film to watch. The set design and costumes are colourful and sumptuous. Coloured gels are used throughout to highlight particular scenes. The chamber where Prospero worships is all black with one single, red-glassed window. Roger Corman, who produced and directed the film, has a definite vision with his cinematographer Nicolas Roeg. As the revels become more macabre, the camera movement becomes more discordant to match. The choreography of the actors is key here, particularly in the dance sequences, where they move back and forth from chaos to smooth, stylised dance. There is a particularly memorable scene when Prince Prospero returns to his castle and appears to walk a complete circle around the main ballroom. The camera follows him on his circuit, and it is only with careful inspection that you realise that the backdrop is moving at the same time, giving the appearance that Prince Prospero is indeed walking around the edge of the room. Without that bit of smooth trickery, the audience would literally have seen the people behind the camera!
Screenwriter Charles Beaumont, a visionary horror and sci-fi screenwriter who would sadly passed away of early-onset ageing diseases at 38 in 1967, wrote the first draft, which introduced Prince Prospero’s Satanism, but he was too ill to accompany the production to England, where it was filmed – on the recently vacated ‘Becket’ film sets at Shepperton Studio to take advantage of tax breaks. Roger Corman enlisted another writer, Robert Wright Campbell, to flesh out the thin Edgar Allan Poe’s two short stories.
With ‘THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH’ you automatically get plenty of vintage screams, pretty maidens, satanic focus, cruelty, darkness and blood will satisfy. Let’s not forget that wonderful devil Vincent Price. All in all it is totally and utterly Brilliant!
PLEASE NOTE: ‘THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH’ [1964] was remastered in 2018 by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Science Film Archive and The Film Foundation. Restoration funding was provided by the George Lucas Family Foundation. The restoration was based on the 35mm original amera negative and original sound elements. Missing censored scenes from the American release were replaced using shots from a 35mm Technicolor print from the Dante/Davison collection at the Academy Film Archive.
Special thanks: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Joe Dante and Jon Davison.
4K Scanning and Image Restoration was done by Roundabout Entertainment, Burbank, California, USA.
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Blu-ray Image Quality – STUDIOCANAL presents us the film ‘THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH’ with a stunning 1080p image that has been sourced from a 4K master and the film is enhanced with a stunning 2.35:1 (CinemaScope) aspect ratio that adds to the film-like appearance. What are also really outstanding and equally stunning are the different coloured rooms you get view that are decorated and illuminated in wonderful and outstanding specific colours: blue, purple, green, orange, white, and violet which are really vibrant. The last room is black and bathed in light which shines a deep colour of blood red which again looks totally amazing. All of the furniture, including the amazing clock is shown in wonderful outstanding colours. The other outstanding visual element of the film is all the wonderful and glorious colourful costumes the actors are wearing. The new transfer is a real stunner with gorgeous Technicolor throughout the film, with so much outstanding detail, and a totally much cleaner overall appearance, so definitely gets a top five star rating from me and also well done STUDIOCANAL for their sterling effort in upgrading the image performance. Please Note: Playback Region B/2: This will not play on most Blu-ray players sold in North America, Central America, South America, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Southeast Asia. Learn more about Blu-ray region specifications.
Blu-ray Audio Quality – STUDIOCANAL brings us the film ‘THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH’ with one standard 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio experience that is oddly enough a little softer than the previous release’s audio mix. You can hear the level shift now and again, and it’s not a dramatic difference, but just enough that I felt the need to push up the volume a notch or two for this particular release. Other than that odd anomaly, this is a very clean and clear audio track offering an impressive range to the soundscape experiences. The castle setting offers an immersive atmosphere, especially during the party sequences with a range of voices and background noises to inhabit the screen. The dialogue is very clean and clear throughout the run of the film. The composed film score by David Lee is really excellent and very rich, and the film’s active scenes during the opening gathering and Prospero orders everyone to act like animals or the final ball have again a very rich ambient atmospheric sound experience. So all in all, this audio is free of any hiss or any other serious age-related issues and this is another terrific audio track from STUDIOCANAL.
PLEASE NOTE: Audio Restoration was done by Audio Mechanics, Burbank, California, USA.
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Blu-ray Special Features and Extras:
With this special STUDIOCANAL Blu-ray release of ‘THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH,’ you have a choice of viewing the film as the Restored Extended Cut or the Original Theatrical Release.
Audio Commentary with Film Critic and Author Kim Newman and Filmmaker and Author Sean Hogan: Here Kim News first introduces himself and informs us that he is here to host the audio commentary for the SRUDIOCANAL Blu-ray release of the Roger Corman’s 1964 classic film ‘THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH’ and next to introduce himself is Sean Hogan, and is asked when he first watched the film, and could not remember exactly when, but feels it was when he was a young boy, but most striking of all was when he saw a still from the film in a book on Hollywood Films in the horror section of the book, and of course watched again when it was shown on British television and probably in black-and-white and especially pan and scanned, but despite this, he was really impressed with the film. They mention that with the title sequence they actually spell the name Edgar Allan Poe correctly, compared to the film ‘Haunted Palace’ [1963] and also other Edgar Allan Poe films. They say that epically American directors wanted to come to England to film Edgar Allan Poe films because of the influence of Hammer Horror films. Kim Newman says any of you viewers listen to this audio commentary keen to watch the extended scenes in the film to see something extra, well it is only a couple of extra frames of the film that has been added in and some of those scenes were Jane Asher naked in the bath scene, so punters, don’t get too excited. We find out that because Roger Corman wanted to come to England to shoot the film in ‘THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH’ was because he got a lot more money, that would happen if he had shot the film in America, but of course one thing that annoyed Roger Corman was the stipulation that the UK crew had a tea break, which of course held up the shooting schedule, whereas in America this does not happen. They also comment that having Nicolas Roeg as his cinematographer is the most professional director of photography that Roger Corman has ever worked with before. Sean Hogan feels watching this film, especially with Jan Asher walking through the different coloured rooms, reminded him of Deborah Kerr in the film ‘The Innocents’ [1961] especially with light and shadows. From chapter nine onwards, Kim Newman and Sean Hogan go off into a stupefied tangent and start rambling other aspects of films, especially horror films, and talk nothing about the film ‘THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH’ and as for the idiot Sean Hogan, really pissed me off, as all he talked about was nothing but vacuous garbage and is constantly laughing out loud at stuff that was not at all funny, which really annoyed me and was totally bored 100%. Whereas Kim Newman should have been on his own to do the audio commentary, as then we would have had a much more intelligent audio commentary, whereas having Sean Hogan with him was a total distraction. So up to chapter nine was quite interesting, but from then on until the end of the film was a complete waste of time and I feel short changed and because of this, I cannot give any star rating and I think it should have been deleted from this Blu-ray disc.
Special Feature: On Colour and Censorship in ‘THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH’ [2020] [1080p] [2.35:1 / 1.78:1] [10:12] Here we get to view a brand new interview with Keith Johnston, who is a Professor of Film Studies from the University of East Anglia, during which he waxes lyrical about the set design and lighting used in the film and talks about the cuts requested during the film’s initial release. Keith Johnston informs us that cinematographer Nicolas Roeg, mainly worked in the 1950’s on Black-and-White films, but by the early 1960’s Nicolas Roeg he was a second unit work on the film ‘Lawrence of Arabia’ and also worked with British director Clive Donner on the Black-and-White film ‘The Caretaker’ [1963] and also worked on his first ever colour Comedy/Satire film ‘Nothing but the Best’ [1964]. Then eventually Nicolas Roeg was asked by Roger Corman to be his cinematographer on the film ‘THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH’ and of course Nicolas Roeg does such a brilliant professional job in bringing out the best of the wonderful colour images for each of the different rooms. But very ironic, at the end of the film you have the different plagues turn up where The Red Death is sitting under the tree playing cards with the young child and of course all their robes are the same colours as those six different special rooms at Prince Prospero’s Castle. On top of all that, Nicolas Roeg’s cinematography shows us the peasant village and surrounding wood very grey and gloomy, whereas in Prince Prospero’s Castle it is all full of opulent bright colours and also the vast spectrum of the colours of the costumes. Keith Johnston gets onto the subject of the different cinema releases of ‘THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH,’ especially in the UK and the USA, and of course there are always the differences with the censorship in each of those countries, especially cutting out certain scenes they deemed not suitable for the general public in either the UK or the USA, also the film was filmed on 35mm Eastmancolor stock and in the UK it was processed by Technicolor and in the USA it was processed in Eastmancolor and of course having two types of film colour processing, you in the end get vast differences on how the film will look when viewed in the cinema, and again especially in cinemas in the UK and the USA, and we get to view two trailer clips, one in the ghastly and atrocious Eastmancolor that is so very grainy, but we also get to see the Technicolor one which is 100% far superior and totally spectacular. Also Keith Johnston explains what cuts were made to the UK and the USA film releases, which have now all be put back into this brand new upgraded UK Blu-ray release of ‘THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH.’ Although this special feature is sort of interesting, but what spoilt it for me was Keith Johnston who was utterly boring and especially hearing his droning monotone voice, which is totally annoying.
Special Feature: Roger Corman: In Conversation with Kim Newman at The BFI [2013] [1080p] [1.78:1 / 1.37:1 / 2.35:1] [61:36] Here we have an impressive interview with the “King of B movies,” which was filmed at the British Film Institute on the 25th October, 2013. Plus Kim Newman is himself impressive since he has no notes or questions written down! Kim Newman asks Roger Corman about his childhood and what films he liked to go and see when his was a young child growing up where he lived and said his favourite films in that period were ‘Frankenstein,’ ‘The Bride of Frankenstein’ and also there were some very favourite British film he loved to watch that were released at the same time as the horror Universal Pictures were released and could not remember the titles of the films. In his school days he was asked to do an assignment at 12 years of age to do an article on the Edgar Allan Poe novel “The Fall of the House of Usher,” because he loved all of the Edgar Allan Poe short stories and at Christmas he asked his parents to give him as a present the complete set of books of Edgar Allan Poe and his parents were really eager to give him the Christmas present he requested and of course this was the start of the infatuation and admiration for the Edgar Allan Poe film franchise. Kim Newman says that when Gothic Horror films were out of fashion, why was Roger Corman keen to resurrect this genre and basically said he always loved these types of film. The first genre horror film Roger Corman started to direct were low budget films for American International and Allied Artists, which he had to do a double billed film presentation in either horror, sci-fi or action films and each film had to be shot on a 10 day schedule on a budget of $70,000, but eventually over time he got fed up with this situation and so Roger Corman went back to American International and told them he was tired being shackled to this filming schedule and especially directing these low budget films, but asked them to let him direct one film on a 15 days schedule and in colour, and proposed to film ‘The Fall of the House of Usher,’ and one executive said yes, but another executive there were no monsters, and Roger Corman said, “The house is the monster,” and because of that comment, Roger Corman was given the green light to direct the film ‘The Fall of the House of Usher.’ Kim Newman goes back a bit and asks about some of his previous directed films, like ‘The Undead’ [1957] and explains a short history about why he filmed it and how the story came about due to a true story about a woman is sent back in time via hypnosis to the Middle Ages where she finds she is suspected of being a witch and also talks about another film he directed and that was ‘A Bucket of Blood’ [1959] which we get to see a clip of and wanted the main character in the club spouting pompous pretentious poems for a laugh at the same time we also get to view a clip from the trailer for the film ‘The Fall of the House of Usher.’ Kim Newman asks Roger Corman how he got everyone to come and work on the film ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’ and also the other Edgar Allan Poe film franchise, and contacted people who had worked with him on his earlier Black-and-White films, but most importantly, wanted to get Vincent Price on-board, as he felt he was perfect for these Edgar Allan Poe film franchise, and American International Pictures were also very keen to have Vincent Price in these films, and American International Pictures felt it would be a step up for them and would also get these films distributed to a much wider audience. Kim Newman wondered why the Edgar Allan Poe film franchise were shot in widescreen and Roger Corman says that this was out of his hands, as it was the American International Pictures executives who insisted these films must be shot in widescreen aspect ratio format, and on top of all that, it was American International Pictures who were putting up all of the money, so Roger Corman had no choice in the matter and for me personally, I am totally glad these films were shot in the widescreen aspect ratio format, whereas Roger Corman wanted to film the Edgar Allan Poe film franchise in the 1.37:1 aspect ratio, which again was his prefer choice. Roger Corman informs us that American International Pictures wanted a follow up to his first major Edgar Allan Poe film and was asked to do ‘The Pit and the Pendulum,’ but really want to do ‘THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH,’ but at the time the Ingmar Bergman film ‘The Seventh Seal’ [1957’ had just been released and Roger Corman felt people would say ‘The Seventh Seal’ was too similar to ‘THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH,’ so the project was put on hold. But of course eventually over a period of time, Roger Corman got his wish to direct the film ‘THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH,’ and especially to film it in England and mention that Jane Usher happened to be in the BFI audience. Kim Newman comments that with the film ‘The Pit and the Pendulum,’ in the book it is a very short story and Roger Corman agreed and said yes, as it was only two pages long, so Roger Corman got a good screenwriter in to expand the storyline for the film, so that it is in the spirit of Edgar Alan Poe, on top of all that, they were keen to hire the actress Hazel Court because of her appearance in several horror films that Roger Corman admired. Kim Newman mentions the other Edgar Alan Poe films that Roger Corman directed that had other well-known actors appeared in them, like Peter Lorre, Basil Rathbone, Boris Karloff and Lon Chaney Jr., and the reason he wanted to hire these actors, because they were Roger Corman’s heroes from the old Universal Pictures Black-and-White horror films he loved so much. But with one particular actor he had a slight problem happened while filming ‘The Raven’ [1963], where Boris Karloff complained to Roger Corman about the actor Peter Lorre was not sticking to the script and improvising, whereas Boris Karloff informed Roger Corman he was a trained actor, always turned up on time and learnt his lines in the script and was very upset as it was putting him off his stride, so Roger Corman called Vincent Price, Boris Karloff and Peter Lorre to a meeting and praised Peter Lorre because of his work on films made in Germany, but asked the actor if he could try and stick to the script and also said to Boris Karloff to try and understand the way Peter Lorre likes to work in films, so they had some rehearsals to iron out any problems and eventually things started to gel. At around 29:25 we get to view a clip from ‘The Tomb of Ligeia’ [1964]. Kim Newman asks Roger Corman why he came to England to film two Edgar Alan Poe films and replies that Anglo Amalgamated were English distributors and were doing very well and Anglo Amalgamated had mentioned to American International that they were keen to have Roger Corman direct two films in England and Roger Corman reveals the two films was shot in England because of the Eady Levy and was a tax on box-office receipts in the United Kingdom, intended to support the British film industry. It was introduced in 1950 as a voluntary levy as part of the Eady plan, named after Sir Wilfred Eady, a Treasury official. The levy, paid into the British Film Production Fund, was made compulsory in 1957 and terminated in 1985 and Roger Corman was very keen to take advantage if this system and it also enabled Roger Corman to get a bigger look on the British market and was able to get a longer schedule filming of five weeks, whereas in America he would of only been allowed a three week film schedule, and of course working in England and with an English crew, but was very confused with the traditional British tea break, on top of all that, again being in England he was able to avail some of the top British character actors, at the same time Roger Corman wanted the actor Vincent Price because he found the actor to be a very impressive actor and an easy person to work with, but of course on the other hand, Vincent Price had to up his game against the British actors who had also worked in the British theatre. Also working on the films ‘THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH’ and ‘The Tomb of Ligiea,’ he got some really class acting out of all the actors and especially Vincent Price. When it came to filming ‘THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH’ and ‘The Tomb of Ligiea,’ he had to really upgrade the script and decided to change the whole concept of the two films and again expand the storyline, by incorporating other stories from the Edgar Alan Poe novels. One very funny comment is said from Roger Corman on something Kim Newman says to him, about that Roger Corman always makes films from death author’s novels, and Roger Corman says, “They don’t give you any trouble.” Roger Corman is asked about remaking some of his previous films, especially ‘The Man With X-Ray Eyes’ and feels today with modern technology and more advanced CGI special effects, that Roger Corman is very keen to make a modern version of the film especially ‘The Man With X-Ray Eyes.’ Roger Corman talks about the film ‘The Terror’ the 1963 American independent horror film produced and directed by Roger Corman and stars Boris Karloff and Jack Nicholson and had five other directors involved, that included Francis Ford Coppola, Jack Hale, Monte Hellman, Jack Hill, Dennis Jakob and Jack Nicholson (one final day director) and became a right mess and a very confusing ending, but Jack Nicholson demanded that he be allowed to do a new ending to the film, and Roger Corman allowed the actor to have a go and despite the confusing ending, Kim Newman says it is a joy to watch and has now become a cult classic and Kim Newman asks, “why is this,” and Roger Corman replies, “Talent, Chance and luck,’ with a wry smile. After Roger Corman’s run of Edgar Alan Poe films, he felt he wanted to go in another direction in directing different types of films and instead more of location shooting instead of always being in a studio setting and the first film he did was ‘The Trip’ [1967] is a counterculture-era psychedelic film released by American International Pictures, directed by Roger Corman, written by Jack Nicholson and starred Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, Susan Strasberg and Bruce Dern and was filmed in California, as were the films ‘The Wild Angels’ [1966] and ‘Gas-s-s-s’ [1970] a Comedy/Satire film. Roger Corman has made over 200 films and worked with the likes of William Shatner, Ron Howard, Martin Scorsese and in many cases, giving them their start. A prolific producer/director for films like ‘The Little Shop Of Horrors’ [1960], ‘Death Race 2050’ [2017] and ‘Piranhaconda’ [2012], only 12 films of his hundreds didn’t make a profit. Even though Roger Corman is a renowned and established businessman, he still keeps a pen and paper by the bed, for those film ideas that come in the middle of the night. He has always had, and recommends, the habit of watching films from a broad spectrum, because he was not influenced by any one director, but learned from watching any films he could, even the less critically acclaimed because “you really learn something from a bad film.” However, Roger Corman felt that he learnt the most about storytelling from life in general, from “absorbing the world around him” and being a part of it. As we get to the end of the interview, Roger Corman talks about films like ‘Jaws’ and ‘Star Wars’ who he felt these directors of those films were totally influenced by Roger Corman films, but of course they also got massive big budgets to make these films compared to the money that Roger Corman got for making his films and could see he could not compete with these directors, so instead he decided to make more contemporary films and at that point in the interview, it quickly fades and finishes abruptly. The only one annoying feature of this interview, why didn’t they allow people from the audience ask Roger Corman questions? But despite this anomaly, it was a really fascinating and intelligent interesting interview with Roger Corman and Kim Newman did a really excellent superb job. This interview is chock full of interesting and sometimes very funny anecdotes, and this is definitely worth buying the Blu-ray for on its own. This definitely gets a five star rating from me.
Special Feature: Behind The Scenes Stills Gallery [1964] [1080p] [1.78:1] [0:47] Here we get to view eight really interesting black-and-white and colour stills including one of Vincent Price and Jane Asher on a break.
PLUS: Set of Five glorious colourful Art Cards.
BONUS: A brilliant 20 page booklet entitled BEHIND THE MASQUE: Restoring the original cut of ‘THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH’ by Tessa Idelwine at the Film Preservationist at the Film Academy Archive. We also get to view lots of colour and black-and-white photos from ‘THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH.’ Also images of the Original USA Script Continuity from the New York State Archives and also images of the Original UK Script Continuity from the British Film Institute. Also lots of other archive material.
Finally, ‘THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH’ lavish costumes and sets are photographed in sumptuous colour and expansive CinemaScope by Nicolas Roeg, making this one of Roger Corman’s most visually exciting Gothic offerings yet. The decision by American International Pictures to relocate their series of Edgar Allan Poe adaptations to the UK seemed to re-energise director Roger Corman who had already started to show signs of tiring of the series, resorting to lampoon in ‘The Raven’ [1963] and trying, not altogether successfully, to swap Edgar Allen Poe for H.P. Lovecraft in ‘The Haunted Palace’ [1963]. The infusion of much needed new blood from the then flourishing UK industry, as well as financial input from new production partners Anglo Amalgamated, seemed to spur Roger Corman on, resulting in ‘THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH’ and the undoubted jewel in the American International Pictures/Roger Corman/ Edgar Allen Poe series. ‘THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH’ had been a long time coming for Roger Corman. The wait was certainly worth it though, resulting in one of his finest films and easily Roger Corman’s best in the horror genre. The cloying atmosphere of sickly decay is unsettling in ways that few films of its time could be and the powerful, literate script gave Roger Corman more expansion of the work of Edgar Allan Poe’s two short stories. The supporting cast rise to the occasion too, British and Irish voices like Hazel Court, Jane Asher, Nigel Green and Patrick Magee making a nice change from the not-always-convincing Transatlantic or even flat Californian accents of the earlier films. ‘THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH’ afforded Vincent Price one of his most memorable film roles to date. The themes inherent in the film make it so very memorable. Vincent Price’s performance is pitched at the level the film deserves, neither too hammy nor too pretentious. The supporting cast is brilliant, particularly Hazel Court as Juliana, who plays the character with a frustrated sexuality that drips from the screen. However, it is Roger Corman’s visual masterpiece that makes ‘THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH’ linger long in the memory, and made it a film that rewards a definite repeat viewing. Very Highly Recommended!
Andrew C. Miller – Your Ultimate No.1 Film Aficionado
Le Cinema Paradiso
United Kingdom
