MR. SARDONICUS! (1961) d. William Castle
“You are young. You do not yet have daughters…"
Or leeches! (just saying…)
Made 30 years after Jekyll and Hyde you can see the influence of classic 1930s horror on Castle's decorative but economical film.
I can’t talk now I’m tied up.
MR. S was a little bit Phantom, a little bit Jekyll and Hyde and a little Bluebeard (don’t enter that room!) and again, in this film, big chompers seem to indicate E-ViLL and give a distinctly English context to the film!
Don’t look for the man in the mirror in the Baron Sardonicus house. I really liked the eerie sets and shots of empty frames and discolored walls where mirrors once hung.
Mister Sardonicus is quite a Freudian/psychoanalytic mash up and more! with dead fathers, placebos, masks, mirror phases, a big, big lock, psychosomatic conditions and slurping. And it featured a Big Syringe long before Quentin Tarantino!
Sardonicus in his mask is pretty startling and scary and weird like the ½ facemask that Richard Farrow wears in Boardwalk Empire.
The movie is basically directed to a young audience and it would be pretty freaky for little kids. It certainly remained memorable to my older brothers. In fact, I chose to watch the film because of their descriptions and impressions of the movie. I was going to text and call my middle brother the next day to say that I watched the film and it was just as he described it but, in the late morning, I got a text from his wife saying that he had had a stroke!
Well, everything is fine now—it was small episode and he didn’t end up like Mr. Sardonicus, but it certainly was friaghtening! I prefer scary movies!!
Aging actor factor: This time Oscar Homolka steals and chews thoroughly every scene with his icky, caul-y eye--a faithful, disfigured servant also straight from the 30s—and like many of the 60s and 70s horror character actors, he gets a second chance to play as a senior actor. But, too often their oldness becomes the source of their disfigurement and HORROR!!
Super horror accessory!
Horror poll (& hands)
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