Delving further into the Blu-Ray boxset of Vincent Price movies I received last Christmas, I watched another Roger Corman directed Edgar Allan Poe adaption, The Masque Of The Red Death (1964), which I believe is one of the best of them. Set in Medieval Italy (though no Italian accents, mainly British aside from our main character), Price plays the delightfully wicked Prince Prospero who worships Satan, kidnaps a young Christian villager Francesca (Jane Asher) for his own designs, and holds an ongoing party for his wealthy friends within the walls of his castle as the red plague sweeps the land, spreading and killing all of the poor villagers. Meanwhile the Red Death itself (John Westbook) waits outside like a Roger Corman version of Ingmar Bergman’s The Seventh Seal. Alongside Price’s devilish performance, Patrick Magee from A Clockwork Orange plays a sinister lord and Hazel Court is Prospero’s wife who plans to give herself to Satan. This movie has a great visual style thanks to cinematography from a young Nicolas Roeg. The presence of the Red Death (clad in red robes with red skin) is striking as are the coloured rooms of the castle. The film apparently used sets left over from the film Beckett, and there’s enough overall intrigue (and subplots) to keep it all cooking right up to the satisfying comeuppance for Prospero and his wealthy guests. Watching it now, the story’s symbolism made me think of the 1% and climate change as the oncoming spectre of death avoided by a closed wall community (there could be a new version with that theme in mind). Recommended.
VHS Tracking 