The Masque of the Red Death

One of the first Edgar Allan Poe stories that Roger Corman wanted to adapt on film was “The Mask of the Red Death: A Fantasy,” (published originally in the May, 1842 issue of “Graham’s Magazine “). The director was concerned that the story had similarities with Ingmar Bergman’s 1957 movie “The Seventh Seal,” so he delayed the project in favor of other Poe adaptations. He commissioned several writers to attempt a script, and found Charles Beaumont’s efforts to be the best. (It was Beaumont who first incorporated Satanism into the storyline.) Corman was discussing the project with writer R. Wright Campbell when they thought of combining the tale with Poe’s story “Hop-Frog,” (which made its first appearance in the March 17, 1849 issue of the “Flag of our Union” weekly story paper). Campbell rewrote Beaumont’s script, preserving what Corman liked in the original screenplay while adding the new character renamed “Hop-Toad.” James Nicholson and Samuel Z. Arkoff proposed shooting the picture in England to take advantage of the “Eady Levy,” which gave government financial support to motion pictures filmed in that country. Corman agreed with this proposal, so the seventh and eighth films in the Poe Cycle were filmed in England.

This week’s movie was “The Masque of the Red Death” from AIP in 1964. Vincent Price plays the sadistic Italian nobleman “Prince Prospero.” After a confrontation with local villagers “Gino,” (David Weston), and “Ludovico,” (Nigel Green), Prospero takes the two back to his castle to torture and execute them. He also takes a village girl named “Francesca,” who is Gino’s lover and Ludovico’s daughter. (“Francesca” is played by seventeen-year-old actress Jane Asher, who was the real-life girlfriend of a then-unknown musician named “Paul McCartney.”) The countryside is being ravaged by a plague called the “Red Death,” so Prospero seals all the nobility inside his castle to protect them, and also to indulge their wicked lusts to serve his master Satan. Hazel Court plays “Juliana,” Prospero’s mistress and an eager disciple of the Devil. Prospero’s jester is a dwarf called “Hop-Toad,” (Skip Martin), whose lover is a lovely dancing dwarf called “Esmeralda,” (played by seven-year-old actress Verina Greenlaw). “Alfredo,” (Patrick Magee), lashes out at the tiny dancer, and Hop-Toad convinces the man to wear a hairy ape costume to the Midnight Masquerade. In an act of vengeance the dwarf sets the costume on fire! During the Masquerade a “Messenger of Death,” (John Westbrook), arrives wearing scarlet robes to spread the plague among the nobles including Prospero himself!

This is the one true masterpiece of Roger Corman’s Edgar Allan Poe movies. The script is fascinating and the performances are perfect, with Price and Court as the standouts. The colorful production design of Daniel Haller and the sparkling cinematography of Nicolas Roeg make this film a precursor of the Psychedelic Cinema. I recommend it without reservation. 

Roger Corman’s usual cinematographer was the great Floyd Crosby, but Nicolas Roeg was the right choice for this film. He would go on to be a respected director of such films as the suspenseful “Don’t Look Now,” (1973), and the wonderful science fiction epic “The Man Who Fell To Earth,” (1976).

The “Hop-Frog” story was probably based on a real-life incident that took place in the court of King Charles VI of France. On January 28, 1393 the King and several companions performed a dance dressed as “Wild Men.” The costumes caught fire, and four noblemen burned to death!