Mr. Sardonicus

Mr. Sardonicus
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	William Castle
Produced by	William Castle
Written by	Ray Russell
Starring	Oskar Homolka Ronald Lewis Audrey Dalton Guy Rolfe Vladimir Sokoloff Erika Peters Lorna Hanson
Music by	Von Dexter
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures
Release date	October 18, 1961
Running time	89 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

Mr. Sardonicus is a 1961 horror film produced and directed by William Castle. It tells the story of Sardonicus, a man whose face becomes frozen in a horrifying grin while robbing his father's grave to obtain a winning lottery ticket. Castle cited the film in his memoir as one of his favorites to produce.

In 1880, in the fictional central European country of Gorslava, prominent London physician Sir Robert Cargrave (Ronald Lewis) visits the mysterious Baron Sardonicus (Guy Rolfe) at the urgent request of Cargrave's former love, Maude (Audrey Dalton), now the Baron's wife. Sir Robert becomes apprehensive when his inquiries about Sardonicus are met with fear. When Sir Robert arrives at Castle Sardonicus, his fears are quickly justified: He sees Sardonicus' servant Krull (Oskar Homolka) torturing another of the Baron's servants with leeches.

Maude is afraid of what may happen if Sir Robert refuses Sardonicus' requests. Even Krull is not immune to the Baron's cruelty; he is missing an eye, lost to Sardonicus' anger.

Sardonicus tells his story to Sir Robert. He was born Marek Toleslawski, a farmer like his father Henryk (Vladimir Sokoloff). Marek and his wife Elenka (Erika Peters) lived a humble life, and Elenka and Henryk wanted more. Henryk bought a ticket for the national lottery but died before the drawing; after his burial, Marek and Elenka discovered that the ticket won but had been buried with Henryk. Elenka insisted that Marek retrieve the ticket from the grave to prove his love to her. Upon opening the grave, Marek was traumatized by the sight of Henryk's "grinning" skull. He lost the power of speech, and his face was frozen in a horrifying grin. Elenka, terrified by the transformation, committed suicide. The lottery prize allowed Marek to buy a title and a castle, but he had no one to share them with. Marek renamed himself "Sardonicus" and hired speech experts to retrain him to speak. He conducted experiments on young women to find a cure for his condition, but had no success. He learned from his new wife, Maude, that Sir Robert was a great doctor specializing in paralysis, and he had hoped Sir Robert could restore his face.