Vincent Price | Monster Zone

Look into this face... — Look into this face…

Starring Vincent Price, Hazel Court, Jane Asher, David Weston, Nigel Green, Patrick Magee and Skip Martin. Written by Charles Beaumont and R. Wright Campbell. Directed by Roger Corman, produced by Roger Corman and George Willoughby.

Some of the cloaked representations of the killer plagues... — Some of the cloaked representations of the killer plagues…

Prince Prospero (Price) invites a select group of rich, decadent nobles to take refuge in his castle as the Red Death plague ravages the surrounding countryside. Prospero abducts three local villagers, Gino (Weston), Ludovico (Green) and Francesca (Asher), takes them to his castle and plans to corrupt the innocent Francesca with the help of his consort, Juliana (Hazel Court on top form), who wishes to marry Satan. Prospero intends to force Gino and Ludovico to fight to the death as sadistic entertainment for the nobles, and a lavish masked ball is also planned… but a red-cloaked figure crashes this party and brings an end to the jaded revelry…

Skip Martin, as Hop Toad, will get his revenge... — Skip Martin, as Hop Toad, will get his revenge…

Vincent Price, as the satanist Prince Prospero, is excellent here, managing to be equal parts sadistic, theatrical and thoughtful. His character even manages to find a shred of goodness within himself at the end, when he asks for Francesca to be spared.

Price, as Prospero, intends to lead Francesca (Asher) astray

Nicholas Roeg provides the lush technicolor photography for this Roger Corman production, which has an eloquent screenplay, focusing on Prospero’s philosophical musings regarding the nature of evil and innocence, written by Charles Beaumont & R. Wright Campbell, based on Edgar Allan Poe’s short stories ‘The Masque of the Red Death’ (1842) and ‘Hop-Frog’ (1849) .

A dream sequence (during Juliana’s fatal betrothal to the devil) utilising expressive dance styles and the climactic masked ball are dealt with in an arty manner (too arty for some viewers, perhaps) that, I think, helps the film become simultaneously lurid & sophisticated.

The revellers, even after they succumb to the Red Death, continue to dance... — The revellers, even after they succumb to the Red Death, continue to dance…

The Red Death reveals his face... and it is the face of Vincent Price! — The Red Death reveals his face… and it is the face of Vincent Price!

Juliana brands herself with an inverted cross

Juliana's dabbling with the occult ends bloodily... — Juliana’s dabbling with the occult ends bloodily…

The title sequences, at the start and at the end, are vividly-coloured and well-planned. They’re just some of the components that make this such a great-looking film. The series of different-coloured rooms in Prospero’s castle are visually striking, as are the hooded figures that personify the various plagues. These cloaked, humanoid representations of plagues are the closest the film comes to having monsters (and my excuse for reviewing THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH on the Monster Zone blog), though the film also treats us to a character dressed in an ape costume, who meets a fiery end.

The hooded plagues discuss how many victims they have claimed

The plagues, all dressed in different coloured robes, prepare to slowly march on towards new lands and new victims

This is my favourite Corman movie. Corman rated this movie as one of his favourites too, though he did complain at the time that the British crew was slow compared to US crews. He did, however, get to use impressive sets from Hal Wallis’ BECKET production and had sumptuous cinematography courtesy of Nicholas Roeg thanks to the fact he made the film in the UK.

THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH is imaginative, colourful and exceedingly re-watchable!

'We defy you to stare into this face' — ‘We defy you to stare into this face’

Lancer Books did a novelisation of the movie…

This is the comic book adaptation…

Finally, here’s an awesome Italian poster for the film…

Doctor Warren Chapin (Vincent Price) discovers that there is a parasite in human beings, called a tingler, which feeds on fear and the only way that the creature can be prevented from crushing your spine and killing you… is to scream!
Movie theatre owner Oliver Higgins (Philip Coolidge) uses creepy tricks to scare his deaf and mute wife Martha (Judith Evelyn), she is unable to scream, dies, and the tingler remains intact in her corpse. Doctor Chapin removes the tingler from Martha’s spine, but the critter eventually escapes and it crawls into a cinema!

Martha is secretly menaced by her husband

Produced and directed by William Castle, the film used a gimmick called “Percepto!”, which was a vibrating device in some cinema chairs that activated with the onscreen action.

Do you have the guts to sit in this chair?

THE TINGLER is an enjoyable William Castle production featuring Vincent Price in fine form and boasts a fun, absurd central idea: fear causes a microscopic creature that exists in every human to grow in size to become a spine-crushing centipede-thing! Say again?!

Price’s character also has to deal with an unfaithful wife and he experiments with LSD too (as part of his research into fear), which causes him to suffer an acid freakout!

An interesting read... — An interesting read…

The movie includes some effective moments, such as the bright red blood sequence (in this otherwise B&W movie) and the finale with the tingler crawling around a movie theatre, menacing patrons.

The tingler is rubbery, repulsive and sometimes somewhat phallic

I saw THE TINGLER at a screening in London’s Scala cinema, where the “Percepto!” gimmick was recreated for the show. Unfortunately I wasn’t sitting in one of the seats rigged with an buzzer, so I didn’t feel the tingle!

Wake up, Vincent, it's going for your neck! — Wake up, Vincent, it’s going for your neck!

About the red blood sequence…

A bloody hand rises from the bathtub... — A bloody hand rises from the bathtub…

THE TINGLER was filmed in black and white, but a short colour sequence was spliced into the film, showing a sink with vivid, red blood flowing from the taps and a black and white Martha watching a bloody red hand rising from a bath, also filled with bright red blood. The scene was accomplished by painting the set black, white and grey and applying grey makeup to the actress to simulate monochrome.