Just perfect...

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Three happy tourists are sunning themselves in France : a young man called Gerald, his fiancee Kitty and Kitty's aunt. Although Gerald is a pretty easy-going and relaxed young man, he has Great Expectations, since his baronet uncle owns a whopping big castle in Scotland, complete with gardens and maze. Unexpectedly, he receives a telegram begging him to travel to Scotland as soon as possible. Obeying the summons, he interrupts his holiday. Kitty and her aunt impatiently await his news. They wait in vain...I like mazes and I like horror movies, so how could I resist watching "The maze" ? However, the movie left me with mixed feelings. In many aspects it's a well-made movie, with a slow-burning and atmospheric build-up which would grace any decent horror or thriller movie. Sadly for all concerned the central mystery, which also constituted the big reveal, was.. how to put it politely... silly. Almost everything or anything would have been more scary or more impressive : a circus poodle walking on a ball, a little boy dressed in a Thanksgiving costume, five Protestant elders discussing Predestination, a sketch of a dinosaur egg, a package of chips, a gospel choir rehearsing "Amazing Grace".It is possible that the late and great Lovecraft might have pulled this off, but "The maze" certainly didn't... 7 stars may be overly generous but I do like a nice maze.

The next-in-line to a Scottish heirloom, which is shrouded in mystery, suddenly breaks off his engagement to an American girl; inevitably, but against the baronet's better judgment, she turns up at the forbidding estate to investigate. Distinguished production designer-turned-director William Cameron Menzies (much like his later British counterpart Robert Fuest)'s most notable efforts in the latter capacity were in the Fantasy genre: this is the fourth and least of them and would also prove to be the last theatrical feature he ever helmed. Actually, it is not that hard to see why, since what we have here is more folly than fable – even if the film's overpowering atmosphere (filmed in 3-D) somehow renders the undeniably ludicrous plot compulsive. The cast (including Richard Carlson, Michael Pate and an unrecognizable Lillian Bond – from 1932's THE OLD DARK HOUSE) is not insignificant, but they have fairly little of interest to do or say: the intruding castle visitors do nothing except prowl its sinister corridors aimlessly at night and feign illness the morning after to extend their stay there! There are a couple of intriguing incidents to be sure: the women finding troubled Carlson has gone grey-haired in a matter of months since they had last seen him and once chancing upon a mysterious nightly procession…but, clearly, the film-makers believe that the unique revelation at the end is enough of an ace up their sleeve to bother making anything of them when these occur!

A lot of "B-movie" SF/horror films of the 1950's are known for their cheesy monsters, cheap sets, and mediocre acting ... that all still works, somehow, to make up for an entertaining film that often becomes a "guilty pleasure". Such is the case for most of THE MAZE, a oddball of a film, originally shot in 3D and released in 1953, that starts off with plenty of mood and atmosphere. Kitty (Veronica Hurst) is a very attractive, upper-class blonde English gal who is engaged to the handsome, lively and upbeat Gerald (Richard Carlson) - who, just prior to their wedding, has to make an emergency trip back to Scotland when his uncle passes away. Soon after his departure, Kitty receives a note from him, breaking off the engagement and saying that Gerald is remaining in Scotland. Disturbed and worried, Kitty ventures with her Aunt Edith (Katherine Emery, who also sporadically narrates the film) to Scotland and one hell of a creepy, moody castle with even creepier, moodier servants. Worse still, Gerald is not only angry and insolent that they've come, he's also lost all his vitality and happiness ... and appears to have aged twenty years from when Kitty last saw him only weeks ago. There's something weird going on here, and it all centers around a huge hedge maze that sits just outside the castle walls. Entrance to it is forbidden, and one of the provisions of Kitty and Edith's continuing to stay (Kitty hoping for a way to help Gerald) is that they must be locked in their rooms every night - leading to more weirdness, as Kitty notices/hears something heavy being dragged past her door in the middle of the night (among other strange occurrences). Everything in the film builds up to the maze, and the secret Gerald and the castle's servants are hiding there - and the movies does its job well in building up a sense of foreboding and suspense ... only to end in one of the dippiest, most lame endings that almost spoils the entire experience of watching the film. So although I had some fun with most of it, the "WTF" of an ending in no way lived up to all that had gone before.

A TV viewing of The Maze was only available to me once, and unfortunately, I was only a pre-kinder kid at the time. This was the early '60s before Kennedy took that fateful motorcade, so my memories of the thing are, of course, sketchy. What readily comes to mind though is the dark, dark Scottish mansion where most of the story took place. Immediately eerie it was, and when several of the house staff lead something concealed by sheets on a stairwell making a "thump, thump" sound, it was plain weird, even to the small boy that I was. The ending of the film has been much maligned by other reviewers here, but it was a real shocker then. I pray for the day when I can see this little film again, although I'm sure it won't have the same impact for me in the present. By the way, outside of women, I'm still a little boy at heart and wish The Maze could be remade. Would any director and devotee of William Cameron Menzies be up for the challenge?