The Masque of Red Death (1964)

[Zone Fighter]

The Masque of Red Death (1964)

Vincent Price - Prospero
Hazel Court - Juliana
Jane Asher - Francesca
David Weston - Gino
Nigel Green - Ludovico, Francesca's father
Patrick Magee - Alfredo
Paul Whitsun-Jones - Scarlatti
Julian Burton - Senor Veronese
Skip Martin - Hop Toad
Gaye Brown - Senora Escobar
Verina Greenlaw - Esmeralda
Doreen Dawn - Anna-Marie
Brian Hewlett - Lampredi

As the Red Death ravages the countryside the wicked prince Prospero promises the nobles they will be safe inside his castle.

This film is based on Edgar Allan Poe's short stories "The Masque of Red Death" and "Hop Toad". Of course there is a lot of extra stuff added, such as Prospero being a Satanist who tries to corrupt the innocent Christian peasant Francesca. Probably closer to Poe's original story than any of the other films.

[Xenorama ™]

i've only seen a few of these, notably THE RAVEN, which i love. i like the more comedic ones better, more than the straight horror.

[stareater]

Masque is my favorite Vincent Price film. I love his wickedly evil turn as Prince Propsero. I enjoyed the expanded storyline as well. I thought Roger Corman did some of his best work on this one (Pit and the Pedulum was great as well). The whole freakiness of the story came off great. Good performances all around from the cast.

[Zone Fighter]

I forgot to mention that this was filmed in England, to take advantage of British tax laws which gave some money back to films produced in England with English casts.

Took 5 weeks, 2 more than was usual for these films.

These Edgar Allan Poe films were made for $200,000 a piece.

[Xenorama ™]

it's true, but Corman was able to save money on several of the later ones by re-using the destruction sequences of the castles, not knowing that home video would allow fans to know exactly which movies the scenes were originally taken from.