Masque of the Red Death (1964)

 

Masque of the Red Death (1964)

 

Duke Alfredo: "You promised me entertainment but I never expected this. Have such eyes ever seen sin?"

 

Prince Prospero: "They will."

  

Roger Corman's is without doubt the King of B-movies, he Directed more than 50 Low-Budget Genre films and was Producer on another 300. His directorial out-put included Horror, SF, Biker movies, Crime Thrillers, Acid-Flicks, etc. Basically, anything that could be made cheap and sell popcorn, he did it. In the midst of this often-blindingly fast production of lowest-common-denominator entertainments, many observers failed to recognize he was also, occasionally, a consummate Artist. His first three films as Director came out in 1955 and Critics dismissed him completely as his twenty-three features came out in the next five years. His reputation improved somewhat after that, but he didn't really earn respect until after the next forty-or-so years had passed. Still, under his tutelage, more than two generations of this nation’s greatest Screenwriters, Directors, Actors, Cinematographers, and Editors learned their craft; there were several years when Corman “alumni” dominated almost every major category in the Oscars. He also introduced, as a Distributor, USA’s Audiences to the supreme Artistry of Ingmar Bergman, François Truffaut, Federico Fellini, and Akira Kurosawa (in a ten-year period, his house, New World Pictures, won more Academy Awards for Best Foreign Film than all other studios combined).

 

Though many of his films are terrible, a more-than-goodly-number are highly distinctive and beautifully realized. Regarding his work as a Director, his critical assessment started (but did not completely) change only with a series of eight feature-films made in a mere five years while also Directed another seven films not related to that series. These were all done under the auspices of American International Pictures (AIP), the other Production House the Corman was most associated with. These were adaptations of the works of Edgar Allen Poe (actually, one of them, “The Haunted Place” (1963) was credited to Poe, but it was actually an adaptation of a HP Lovecraft, but whatever) were mostly exceptional. This one, “The Masque of the Red Death,” as the finest of that lot.

 

Corman always had two favorite Poe short stories, “Fall of the House of Usher” (1839) which was the basis of his first adaptation (1960) and proved hugely successful; and “The Masque of…” (originally published in 1842), which Corman considered as the immediate follow-up, but wasn’t actually produced until near the end of the series. For most of these films he worked with the legendary Scriptwriter from TV’s “Twilight Zone” (first aired in 1959, so it was running co-currently with much of the film-series), Richard Matheson but he was tiring of the series and it showed. This one was special to Corman, a great deal more time was allotted to the Writing and Rewriting, with multiple drafts submitted by a number of other talented Writers like John Carter, Robert Towne and Barboura Morris but Corman found them all unsatisfactory for a story so close to his heart. Finally, he chose a draft produced by another “Twilight Zone” Writer and sometimes Matheson and Corman Collaborator, Charles Beaumont (whose fame would’ve easily been equal to Matherson’s had it not been for his death at the shockingly young age of 38). Beaumont’s first draft of “Masque…” impressed Corman, but Beaumont quickly became too ill to do the revisions, so the final version was penned by Robert Wright Campbell, who made major contributions, such as weaving into the plot a second Poe story, “Hop Frog” (1849).

 

Beaumont made the back-bone of the film was many an entertainingly Grandiose speech about the Glory of Evil with lines like, "If a God of love and light ever did exist, He is long since dead. Someone... some...thing rules in his place." Also, “Each man creates his own Gods from within himself—his own Heaven, and his own Hell.” But the Dialogues and semi-Monologues were never let to slow the film, largely because of how well-timed the Murders were. It also didn’t degenerate it a mere “Body-Count Film” (a disparaging moniker seemingly coined to mock another film of the same-year, the actually quite good “Blood and Black Lace” Directed by the Italian Horror Master Marion Bava), because it was legitimately a complex narrative, ripe with subplots and multiple payoffs as each Death was the resolution of its own story, and most of them nudging the trajectory of the main story.

 

In interviews, Corman spoke of another reason for the delay, he said the film he envisioned had had several elements too similar to Bergman’s “The Seventh Seal” (1957) which made him hesitant, "I kept moving ‘The Masque of the Red Death’ back, because of the similarities, but it was really an artificial reason in my mind." I believe this spoke of Corman’s to make something more of a B-movie out of this one, that the delays were a product of his quest for a Masterwork, maybe even Masterpiece.

 

(The Poe films were just one facet of Corman’s quest for greater legitimacy during this period, there was another Corman/Beaumont collaboration, “The Intruder” (1962), a film that should’ve gone down as a landmark in USA cinema as it was hailed on its release for its truly ground-breaking in its depiction of the organized subversion of the then-on-going Civil Rights movement. Instead, it would prove to be the only of Corman’s films to lose money up-to-that-point and was quickly forgotten.)

 

The decision to finally make the film may have been in part a reaction to outside pressure, there were several other rival adaptations of “The Masque of…” announced, one of which, from producer Alex Gordon, was approaching Vincent Price to star. Vincent Price starred in all the Corman Poe adaptations, as well as a few other related films made by other Directors at AIP. Another version by someone else, especially one starring Price, would’ve killed Corman’s Dream Project.

 

Corman is especially famous for pulling off more for less, and this, like almost all of his other films, was Low-Budget; but compared to the rest, it was a pretty lavish. AIP had reached a co-production deal with Anglo-Amalgamated in England, the film was made there so it could qualify for a government-sponsored “Eady Levy” which meant more money plus there would also there would be the luxuries pre-existing sets and costumes. The Edy Levy came with strings attached, the harshest ones being limits on non-UK citizens being involved, and this production relied on many of Corman’s frequent collaborators so, well, AIP lied, a lot. Examples: USA’s Dan Haller got no credit as Production Designer while UK’s Robert Jones did as Art Director; Corman got the Director’s credit, but gave the Producer’s credit to George Willoughby. As a result, “The Masque of…” got a shooting schedule like no other Corman film, normally an AIP film shot in three weeks, and Corman himself famously pulled off “Little Shop of Horrors” (1962) in an astounding two days and one night (which became a long-standing record for a feature-length film). “The Masque of …” was given a totally decadent five-week schedule.

 

While the film was shooting, President John F. Kennedy was Assassinated on the other side of the ocean. Corman, “We had a couple minutes of silence for the funeral of Kennedy.”

 

Corman complained English-crews were slackers, and five weeks in England was the equivalent to four weeks in the USA. Corman has expressed dissatisfaction with the final sequence, which he described as "the greatest flaw" in the film, feeling he did not have enough time to shoot it. He filmed it in one day which he said would have been enough time in Hollywood but that English crews were too slow and took too many breaks.

 

Regarding casting, Vincent Price was always a given, and his Character as Prospero stands out as one of the landmarks of his career. After a decade and a half recognized as a talented character-actor and occasional leading man, Price was forever pegged as a Horror-Icon because of his role in ‘House of Wax’ (1953). In the original story his Villainy was supposed to be a surprise revelation, but the script made the surprise explicitly obvious, so to a large extent the film’s relied of Price’s Serio-Comic gifts to beguile because there was no Mystery to solve. Critic Erich Kuersten described Price’s appeal well, “He dispels nightmares by the force of mellifluent theatrical ham diction; an inherent giddiness in his velvet voice makes him seem always as if it's somebody's special birthday and a surprise party is imminent.” Price was an Actor of more range than he gets credit for because his success was based on two things, he perfected one Character who could be placed in many of a film (so most Directors wanted the exact same thing from him), and he had (never diagnosed but obvious) Hyperthymesia, a not-so disordering disorder because what the word really means is meaning perfect memory. These two things combined meant he needed virtually no rehearsals; he could just read a script once show up. Price made five features during the year of “The Masque of …” and played more than 210 films and TV roles during his life-time, plus a little live-stage work, so he and Corman were a match made in Heaven.

 

In this film, Price was within his type-cast, but as he used to say, “Being type-cast means they want you.” The greatest work of his career was often outside his comfort zone, “Baron of Arizona” (1950), “Witchfinder General” (1968), and “Whales of August” (1987), but within that familiar persona, some Performances shined brighter than others, like this film “The Abominable Dr. Phibes” (1971) and “Theatre of Blood” (1973).

 

Price’s Prospero was a Satanist, but in this film that Satanism is not merely a plot devise, it is the foundation of an essential Idea; it is Prospero’s well-articulated Philosophical choice. He rejected all Conventional Morality because he believed that rejection elevated him, that breaking all the shackles of Moral Restraint could enable him to escape the Death and Decay that awaits us all. Think Dracula, except in most versions Dracula was Cursed as well as Curing others while Prospero tells us what he’s doing with great enthusiasm and recruits, not compels, others to his cause.

 

Prospero’s disrespect for Human Life is demonstrated in the first scenes, when his carriage almost runs over a child. He’s Despotic towards his serfs. He and his decadent followers retreat behind his castle walls and lock out all others trying to escape the ravages of plague called the “Red Death.” He holds all these so-called friends is disdain, enabling their debaucheries and indulging only somewhat less than they. He occasionally executes this one or that one on a whim. He holds himself above them, and he sees himself as a Saint of some sort – a Saint of Sin. Price’s marvelous performance is, in-of-itself, virtually a summary of the plot.

 

One of the crasser of Prospero’s toadies is Duke Alfedo, played by Patrick Magee, whom Corman cast based on their prior work together. Corman said, "He could find these strange little quirks which he would bring out during his performance, making it a richer and more fully rounded characterization."  

 

Alfredo is a is a Sexual Predator who suffers a very cruel fate during one of the film’s impressive set-pieces in which the second Poe story intersects “The Masque of …”). Alfredo is Murdered by Prospero’s Vengeful Dwarf, Hop Toad, played by badly under-rated Skip Martin Toad’s Sadism has the purest of motives, Love, making him one of very few Characters in this film with even a shred of Decency in their Hearts, but only a shred.

 

Satanist Prospero did not order the Assassination, nor had any stake in it, but it amused him, so Toad comes to no harm.

 

This underlines the film’s themes, Vengeance is the most degenerate of Virtues, its expression of the Conventional Morality corrupted (A.E. Housman famously wrote, “Revenge is a value passion, and the only sure pillar on which Justice rests”) so it belongs at the party just as all the other Parade of Vices, but the far Eviler Prospero would never touch a Vice stained by Virtue, he’ll just stand-back, watch it, and smile.

 

You see, even though there is some prattle about Christianity vs Satanism, and in the end the Evil doers do get their comeuppance, this movie isn’t really about a battle wherein Good triumphs over Evil, because what Comeuppance do the Evil really get? They Suffer the exact same Fate as those outside the castle, almost all the Good, the Bad, and the Indifferent. Moreover, the pure-at-heart but pretty nominal hero, Gino, played by David Weston, is dull compared to Prospero (or even Prospero’s wallpaper) and utterly Ineffectual. This film is really about a fallacy inherent in Decadence, because at its foundation Decadence is Fatalistic, but it needs to deny that foundation to sustain the frenzied Euphoria of Over-Indulgence. It tries to deny that Death coming for us all, and underlining that point isn’t really the same thing as saying Decadence is Evil, it’s about exposing Decadence as Pathetic.

 

Another minion of Prospero’s who suffers Death-by-Set-Piece is his mistress Juliana, played by Hazel Court who was already a veteran not only of Corman’s Gothics, but the competing Gothics then being produced at the same time by England’s Hammer Studios.

 

Character Juliana is driven by jealousy to betrayal because she sees Prospero is about to trade her in for a younger model named Francesca, played by Jane Asher. In a desperate attempt to win Prospero’s favor back, she agrees to became Devil’s literal Bride, and undergoes a private ceremony wherein costumed figures that represent other races and cultures (a bit dicey here as they presumably were meant to represent the more Primitive and therefore closer to Satan) mock-stab at her heaving bosom, distorted through sheet metal reflection and green tinting.  This is followed by her being left alone to greet her Groom, but in the end all she gets for her trouble is being shredded by an exploding mirror and an attacking crow.

 

Standing over her corpse, Prospero quips, “I beg you do not mourn for Juliana, we should celebrate. She's just married an old friend of mine."

 

As for Actress Asher, she was a former child actress and by then just barely a woman onto whom puberty bestowed many blessings. At the time, she was more famous as Rock & Roller Paul McCarthy’s girlfriend than for any of her Thespian skills; in time her talent would mature, but here her greatest contribution were her breathe-taking beauty and a too-short peek-a-boo nude scene. In fairness to the still teen-aged girl, the role would be daunting for anyone. She’s a virtuous Christian forced to surrender to Prospero because of Life-or-Death extortion. By all reason she should Hate him, he had her father, played by Nigel Green, Murdered right in front of her (another great set-piece where Dad and Gino, who are friendly, are forced into a cruel game from which only one could survive) but as the story progresses she is excepted to swoon before Prospero's Charm and Power. Asher at least sells the doe-eyed thing well enough that we believe she dumb enough to fall for Donald Trump (sorry, couldn’t resist). As she says early on, "I have no learning!"

 

It also features one of Composer David Lee’s best scores, strongly influenced by Igor Stravinsky’s “The Rite of Spring” (1913) and in turn influencing the King of Film Composers John Williams’ “Ghostbusters’ (1984).

 

Unusual for a Horror film, but something that there seems to be universal agreement on, is that it is none of these marvelous Set-Pieces that have nestled into the dreams of the film’s Fans over the unfolding decades; we remember instead an overall feel more than the moments. There was a rare synergy between uncredited Halley’s Production Design, whatever Jones contributed, and the Cinematography of soon-to-be-acclaimed future-Director Nicolas Roeg. It leans heavily on both Corman and Halley’s understanding of Freudian Symbolism. Quoting an interview with Corman (which I can no longer find):

 

“Corman explained that the girl ‘must run down that corridor! That is very symbolic and extremely important. To me, the corridor is, simply, a vagina. You must set up two things in the movement down the corridor; I think it is a child’s approach to sex, in which he knows there is something great and wonderful out there but that child has also been told by the parents, “That’s bad—don’t do that!” So to recreate that feeling—because I think the sense of horror does have elements of sexuality within it—you go down the corridor, and the audience must be saying to the person—identifying with the person — “Don’t take another step. Get out of there right now! Don’t open that door!” At the same time, the audience must be saying, “Open the door. We must see what is behind that door!” If you set that sequence up correctly, it never fails to generate an emotional response.’”

 

Halley retooled the flats of the just completed “Beckett” (1964) so that everywhere there is opulence, often evoked by simple lighting tricks and the thematically color-code rooms and chambers. Easily this film represents most perfect realization of Poe’s always vibrant, heavy on the Symbolism, prose. Early on, when Prospero introduces Francesca to the court, the camera pans out to capture a display of extravagance and finery beyond anything in the girl’s experience. Prospero immediately, deliberately, destroys the impression he made, ordering his guests to start rolling around like animals, and the camera goes in closer, so they can’t hide behind their finery as they humiliate themselves.  

 

It is distinguished by contrasting long Tracking-Shots (like a 360-degree Pan of the Sycophants while Prospero makes one of his speeches) and Montage (like Reaction-Shots of the Sycophants while Francesca’s Dad and Gino play the Game of Death).

 

Little in cinema, and certainly nothing else feature-length, captured the tone of Poe better. For a Corman it is uniquely Sumptuous, exquisitely Dreamlike, easily one of the most beautiful-looking Horror films ever made. It compares to, and exceeds much, of the work of Cinematographer/Director Bava and clearly influenced Bava’s protégé, Director Dario Argento, as strongly as Bava did himself.

 

Trailer: