The Masque of the Red Death (1964 film)
| The Masque of the Red Death | |
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| Directed by | Roger Corman |
| Produced by | Roger Corman George Willoughby |
| Screenplay by |
Charles Beaumont R. Wright Campbell |
| Based on |
The Masque of the Red Death and "Hop-Frog" by Edgar Allan Poe |
| Starring |
Vincent Price Hazel Court Jane Asher |
| Music by | David Lee |
| Cinematography | Nicolas Roeg |
| Edited by | Ann Chegwidden |
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Production
company |
Alta Vista Productions
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| Distributed by |
AIP Anglo-Amalgamated |
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Release date
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Running time
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90 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom United States |
| Language | English |
| Box office | 121,794 admissions (France) |
The Masque of the Red Death is a 1964 British-American horror film directed by Roger Corman and starring Vincent Price. The story follows a prince who terrorizes a plague-ridden peasantry while merrymaking in a lonely castle with his jaded courtiers. The screenplay, written by Charles Beaumont and R. Wright Campbell, was based upon the 1842 short story of the same name by American author Edgar Allan Poe, and incorporates a sub-plot based on another Poe tale, "Hop-Frog'". Another sub-plot is drawn from Torture by Hope by Auguste Villiers de l'Isle-Adam.
It is the seventh of a series of eight Corman film adaptations largely based on Poe's works made by American International Pictures.
On a mountain in medieval Italy, an old woman meets a mysterious, red-cloaked figure, shuffling Tarot cards. The figure gives the woman a white rose, which then turns red and dappled with blood.
Prince Prospero, a Satanist, visits the village over which he holds dominion, and is angrily confronted by two poor and starving villagers, Gino and Lodovico. Prospero sentences the pair to death, but Lodovico's daughter Francesca begs for their lives. Prospero discovers that the old woman who encountered the red figure is infected with a deadly plague, the Red Death. He orders the village burned down to prevent the spread of the disease, abducts Francesca and then sends out invitations to his castle to several dozen of the local nobility.
At the castle, Francesca is finely dressed and tutored in etiquette by Prospero's jealous consort, Juliana, and the gathered nobility are entertained by a pair of dwarf dancers, Esmeralda and Hop-Toad. When Esmeralda accidentally knocks over a goblet of wine, one of Prospero's guests, Alfredo, strikes her. Juliana expresses her wish to Prospero to be initiated into his Satanic cult, and that night Francesca is terrified to discover Juliana and Prospero lying in a strange, hypnotic state in Prospero's Black Room.
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