The Masque of the Red Death (1964)

Prince Prospero (Vincent Price) is a terrible man. He visits a small village for reasons I forget and is given an earful by two residents. He sentences them to fight to the death, but two things happen: he takes a fancy to the pretty Francesca and discovers that the village is infected by The Red Death, which is apparently some kind of plague. He orders the village burned and takes the pretty lady and two men back to his castle. There he contemplates ways to kill his prisoners, tries to woo the pretty girl (because, you know, consent), and plans a masquerade ball.

This is another of Roger Corman’s eight Poe films, of which I’ve now seen three. The teenaged Jane Asher was quite charming as the prince's captive. Prospero’s lady in waiting (Hazel Court) is jealous of this new love interest and starts operating on her own agenda. After her initial ingenue period, Court appeared in a fair number of low budget horror flicks. After Masque she moved to television and had a lengthy career there. In a side story a tiny dancer catches the eye of Hop Toad the dwarf. Turns out that actress was only eight years old at the time.

The Masque of the Red Death has an air of artificiality about it. The dialog is stilted and mannered. The sets are brightly colored, brightly lit, and very set-looking. People are locked in rooms that we don’t doubt for a moment the actors couldn’t punch their way through. There is much to pick apart if one were inclined. But this is the disbelief we are supposed to suspend. So, it is what it is. It holds your interest even if the story sometimes makes no sense. I should read the Poe story. AMRU 3.