The Masque of the Red Death / The Premature Burial
by Roger Corman
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: David Weston, Hazel Court, Jane Asher, Ray Milland, Vincent PriceDirector: Roger Corman
Brand: PRICE,VINCENT
Producer: Roger Corman
Producer: Gene Corman
Producer: George Willoughby
Writer: Charles Beaumont
Writer: Edgar Allan Poe
Writer: R. Wright Campbell
Writer: Ray Russell
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; French (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 2.35:1
Running Time: 169 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2002-08-27
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
Movie Reviews of The Masque of the Red Death / The Premature Burial
Movie Review: Roger Corman's Dynamic Duo!
Summary: 5 Stars
MGM Midnite Movies!
The Devil, you say? The Masque of the Red Death is the first feature of this flip-around DVD. Roger Corman directs and produces another Poe-related story, this time telling the story of the tyrant Prospero, played to its evil height by Vincent Price. He arrives at a village, ostensibly thanking them for harvest. In response they grumble and one guy tells him where he can take his thanks. Oops. Mayhem ensues.
Corman weaves quite the tapestry of eerie imagery, only touched on with "The Pit and The Pendulum." The dream sequence with Juliana becoming betrothed to Satan is horrific and somehow sexually interesting, in a perverse sort of way.
Who is the Red Death was a shocker, had no clue. If you ever saw the ending to The Prisoner The Prisoner: The Complete Series [Blu-ray] with Patrick Magoohan, it's like that -- complete shock! The evil Juliana is played in a subdued manner by the actress Hazel Court Dr. Blood's Coffin, and the hot peasant girl Francesca (yeah, yeah) was played in a realistic but timid manner by Joan Asher
The macabre scenes (burning man) and the colored rooms and colored disguises were masterfully done. The red and green candles, and so on, paint an imagery within an imagery. Nicely done.
Features on this side of DVD Hell: Roger Corman Behind the Masque == interesting thought processes, making of feature; he goes over ALL his Poe films, discusses the studio problems, production situations and that "Masque" is his best one. Amazing use of colored lighting, scenery, distorted lens and intense music by David Lee.
Interestingly, he states he studied the German Expressionist films of the 1920s, as well as Hitchcock and Bergman, when making the Poe films. Didn't know that!
And of course the inevitable trailer which gives the whole shock ending away! Thanks a lot!!
***
Lay me down! Roger Corman could not get Vincent for The Premature Burial, so picked up actor Ray Milland, who has done a few scifi films (X - The Man with the X-Ray Eyes, etc.), does not do a bad job as Guy, a medical student who is scared to death (pun) of being buried alive!
Ray plays a man who is on the edge, who paints weird paintings and drinks to death. He even builds a crypt that is escape-proof. His wife, played by the same actress as in Masque, Hazel Court, plays a role in this film with the theme I've seen before -- pretty much guessed early on what was happening, but the ending left me a bit flat.
Milland is a very proper mad Britain in this film. He walks through his part in some odd inconsistent way that does not play right the way Vincent Price would have played it. Decent Corman film, not as good as Masque, not only because of the miscast Ray Milland but also the effects though interesting did not create that atmosphere of the macabre that I've come to love about Price films.
Its saving grace was in the use of music -- the wide mouth followed by the horn in the background was quite chilling in the (inevitable) dream sequence.
Roger Corman interview gets into the mind of the man who made both films, I found very interesting and may attract the amateur movie-maker.
Overall, the MGM Midnite series is awesome and should be purchased in all its incarnations.
Other Corman tidbits:
Roger Corman Collection (Bloody Mama / A Bucket of Blood / The Trip / Premature Burial / The Young Racers / The Wild Angels / Gas-s-s / X)
The Roger Corman Puerto Rico Trilogy
Advantage: The Cult Films of Roger Corman
Summary of The Masque of the Red Death / The Premature Burial
Classic horror tales of the devil-worshipping prince and his undoing at the very party he plans for torture of his victims, and a doctor with an unnatural fear of being buried prematurely.Genre: Horror
Rating: NR
Release Date: 27-AUG-2002
Media Type: DVD
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