Truly Dreadful Film

It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Guy Rolfe in the title role and Oscar Homolka as his Igor like assistant highlight the film Mr. Sardonicus. A search for a lottery ticket in the grave of his father turned out to be a frightening experience causing Rolfe's face to freeze in a smiling grimace. As he was already one nasty dude as the local nobility this causes the people of his fiefdom to have as little to do with the castle as possible.Ronald Lewis is a visiting British physician conducting experiments with various exotic plants that are poisonous. Some of them might have healing properties. Will they work for the man now known as Mr. Sardonicus. Even Rolfe's wife Audrey Dalton won't kanoodle with him as he's that repulsive.Guy Rolfe played many a cruel villain, some well known examples are in Ivanhoe as Prince John and King Of The Khyber Rifles. In this one however the man truly has had nature affix his loathsomeness on his face. As for Oscar Homolka that deep voice and the bushiest eyebrows on cinema with the possible rival of Donald Wolfit for that title gave him a lock on all kinds of ethnic European types. Good thing Mr. Sardonicus came late in his career or he might have been typecast in horror films and not as good as Mr. Sardonicus.William Castle who always liked gimmicks in his film, the better for people tear themselves away from the little screen in their homes had the audience allegedly 'vote' for Rolfe's fate. I like it fine the way it was, we're not sure just how much good doctor Lewis played in him winding up the way he was and that's as it should be.

An English surgeon is summoned to a European village by a former love, who is now married to a mask-wearing baron. Turns out the baron's face is horribly disfigured and he wishes the surgeon to try and fix it. If he refuses...well, he doesn't want to tick off Baron Sardonicus! A fun Gothic horror film from William Castle. The last of his gimmick films. The gimmick here is that the audience was given cards with a thumbs up or down. When prompted, they would hold them up to decide the fate of the title character. In truth, there was only one ending but Castle knew his audience -- they would only have wanted this to end one way. This is not one of Castle's best movies, though it is enjoyable. The cast is good but the movie lacks a standout presence. I can't help but wonder if Vincent Price in the title role, with his distinct voice and manner, might have helped some. Still, it's a good watch that fans of Castle or classic horror films in general should enjoy.

The premise is tight - a man struggling to keep love from flying out the window happens upon some luck when his dead father is buried with what turns out to be a winning lottery ticket. When the man digs up the body and retrieves the ticket, he is cursed and deformed so that his countenance matches that of the corpse. The man becomes a rich baron with his lottery winnings but can find no happiness given his deformity. A doctor is beckoned to the Baron's castle and that is where things get interesting as the doctor eventually is commissioned under duress to find a cure for the baron's condition. This film opens with a prologue (like many of the Castle horror films) and I would say that this prologue is the best because Castle positions himself into the milieu of the diegetic. That being said, he doesn't mention the gimmick employed for the film (maybe for the best). The direction of Castle is very good with lots of mobile framing, good staging/blocking and adept lighting setups for creating the right mood. My favorite part of this film is the dialogue, especially the witty banter of Baron Sardonicus. The narrative is compelling and much of the direction aids in building a psychological identification for the spectator (echoes while dreaming and daydreaming, pov shots, and some cleverly distorted floating heads!). There is also a creative and dramatic use of depth of field. As engaging as it is, there are still some elements to the directing and script that I found wanting. Things start to get a little too talky and I couldn't help but feel Castle was compelled to make a few poor choices due to his long career in directing terrible historical melodramas with Sam Katzman. However, this doesn't excuse the weakness of the gimmick (the Punishment Poll). Ironically, for all the plot contrivances in Castle films this time it is his gimmick that is most contrived... and totally unnecessary. In a Stuart Gordon interview it would become apparent that there were not two endings, but John Waters seems to believe that there would have been (the jury is out I guess). Despite the gimmick for Sardonicus being a failure, the spooks in the film are genuinely creepy and the film is a complex addition to Castle's horror for its self-reflexive themes (or intentionally lack thereof - think about the use of mirrors). Two other strengths of this film (and I am guilty of not often highlighting such elements in my reviews) are the adept use of sound which heightens the creepy mood and also the casting of Ronald Lewis as Sir Robert. If you watch Keanu Reeves in Dracula and then Lewis in this film, you will quickly question what was wrong with the British film industry in the 50s and 60s that an actor like Lewis with his Hasselhof/Reeves looks and straight-man demeanor would end up falling so hard, so fast (he eventually committed suicide in 1982). Sardonicus is one of the better Castle films with one of the worst gimmicks.

Mr. Sardonicus is set during 1880 & starts in London where Sir Robert Cargrave (Ronald Lewis) is a successful surgeon specialising in the field of paralysis, one morning Cargrave receives a letter written by his former lover Maude Randall (Audrey Dalton) who urges him to come to the European town of Gorslava in a matter of utmost importance. Cragrave leaves for Gorslava almost immediately & travels to the Castle of Maude's husband, the Baron Sardonicus (Guy Rolfe) who wears a mask that covers his entire face. Eventually Baron Sardonicus reveals his face to Cargrave who is shocked to see that he has a permanent horrifying grin because of paralysed facial muscles, Baron Sardonicus begs Cargrave to help cure him but when conventional massaging techniques fail to work Baron Sardonicus threatens the life of Maude if Cargrave does not use new experimental drugs on him & cure his horrible disfigurement...Also known simply as Sardonicus this atmospheric black and white Gothic horror film was produced & directed by William Castle & was based on the short story 'Sardonicus' by Ray Russell that originally appeared in a 1961 edition of Playboy who also wrote the screenplay here & despite the IMDb describing it as a novel Russell's original story was a mere thirty odd pages long, I know because I only read it last week (those in the UK it's one of the stories in the Pan Book of Horror Stories Volume 4) & it was that reading which made me want to find & watch this film & I am glad I did because Mr. Sardonicus is a fine film in it's own right & better than I expected. There are obvious differences like the addition of the maid & her torture, Sardonicus keeping a corpse in a locked room, the nature of Maude's punishment is different as in the film Sardonicus threatens to cut her face muscles leaving her with a horrible disfigurement while in the original written story he threatens to have forcible sex with her every night despite his hideous appearance, the lack of any mirrors is new to the film, the back-story about the lottery ticket is slightly different as Sardonicus was never previously married & he does not wear a mask at any point in the story but I suppose that works quite well in the film as his unmasking & the revealing of his true appearance is nicely built-up & pretty effective. The changes, however, are not massive & the main bulk of the story remains intact. Mr. Sardonicus is am atmospheric horror thriller that has a certain amount of originality about it, I can't remember seeing a film with a similar story that balances Gothic & psychological horror like it, at 90 minutes long Mr. Sardonicus feels shorter & the time I spent watching it flew by. The character's are good & well rounded, everything makes sense to a degree & the script just about manages to make it's audience both sympathise & despise Sardonicus.Filmed in black and white this works for Mr. Sardonicus really well with the dark dungeons, the isolated forest & it manages to hide some of the production's shortcomings. When revealed Sardonicus has a huge unnatural grin that isn't exactly scary but I don't think anyone would like to walk around permanently with it on their face so it has a certain effectiveness. The one aspect that Mr. Sardonicus could have done without is the William Castle introduction (he quotes some of the book, especially while trying to find Ghoul in the dictionary) & the silly Punishment Poll which was never a poll anyway as only one ending was ever filmed. The film would have worked fine without these unnecessary interruptions.The production values are good & Mr. Sardonicus is well made for the period, the acting is good & Guy Rolfe does a decent job considering he is stuck behind a mask for most of the film & I am sure he was cast because of his distinctive voice which sells the part.Mr. Sardonicus is a good film that was better than I was expecting, the short story is also pretty good & can recommend that. The William Castle bits are unnecessary but otherwise I was impressed.