Masque of the Red Death (1964)

Masque of the Red Death (1964)

A European prince terrorizes the local peasantry while using his castle as a refuge against the "Red Death" plague that stalks the land.
Director: Roger Corman
Writers: Charles Beaumont (screenplay), R. Wright Campbell (screenplay), Edgar Allan Poe (from a story by)
Stars: Vincent Price, Hazel Court, Jane Asher

Taglines
LOOK INTO THIS FACE - SHUDDER... at the blood-stained dance of the Red Death! TREMBLE... to the hideous tortures of the catacombs of Kali! GASP... at the sacrifice of the innocent virgin to the vengeance of Baal!

Trivia
Jane Asher asked Roger Corman if a friend could visit the set and join them for lunch. She explained that her friend was a musician who was about to do his first gig in London that night. At the end of lunch, Corman wished him good luck with his concert. Roger Corman had never heard of Paul McCartney until he read of the concert's success in the next day's newspapers.

Goofs
Despite Prospero warning the guests not to wear red to the masque, several people are wearing red: capes, hats etc.

Quotes
Prospero: Somewhere in the human mind, my dear Francesca, lies the key to our existance. My ancestors tried to find it. And to open the door that separates us from our Creator.

Francesca: But you need no doors to find God. If you believe...

Prospero: Believe? If you believe, my dear Francesca, you are... gullible. Can you look around this world and believe in the goodness of a god who rules it? Famine, Pestilence, War, Disease and Death! They rule this world.

Francesca: There is also love and life and hope.

Prospero: Very little hope I assure you. No. If a god of love and life ever did exist... he is long since dead. Someone... something, rules in his place.

Crazy credits
"And Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all."- the final line of the original Poe story.

Alternate versions
The original UK cinema version was heavily cut by the BBFC to edit lines of implied sexual dialogue, the killing of Juliana by the falcon, and scenes of burning people (including Alfredo in the ape costume), and to completely remove the entire black mass dream sequence. Video and DVD releases fully restore the BBFC cuts though the print used is an edited U.S version which misses some dialogue as well as a shot of Francesca being slapped across the face by one of Prospero's soldiers.

Connections
Featured in Aweful Movies with Deadly Earnest: The Masque of the Red Death (1971)