The Mask (1961)

Director:

Julian Roffman

Writers:

Frank Taubes (script by) &
Sandy Haver (script by) ...
(more)

Release Date:

1 November 1961 (USA)

Genre:

Horror | Thriller

Tagline:

The management is not responsible for nervous breakdowns!

Plot:

A young archaeologist believes he is cursed by a mask that causes him to have weird nightmares and possibly to murder...

Plot Keywords:

Mask | Nightmare | Suicide | Dream Sequence | Supernatural

Cast

Paul Stevens	...	Doctor Allan Barnes
Claudette Nevins	...	Pam Albright
Bill Walker	...	Lieutenant Martin
Anne Collings	...	Miss Goodrich
Martin Lavut	...	Michael Radin
Leo Leyden	...	Doctor Soames
Norman Ettlinger	...	Professor Quincey
Bill Brydon	...	Anderson (as Bill Bryden)
Jim Moran	...	Jim Moran
Eleanor Beecroft	...	Mrs. Kelly
Ray Lawlor	...	Lab technician
Rudi Linschoten	...	Mime in nightmare
Steven Appleby	...	Museum guide
Alfie Scopp
Paul Elsom
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Harry Blackstone	...	Himself (in introduction added to video version) (uncredited)
Nancy Island	...	Girl Who Is Killed (uncredited)
Paul Nevens	...	Demon of the Mask (uncredited)

Directed by
Julian Roffman

Writing credits
Frank Taubes		(script by) &
Sandy Haver		(script by) &
Franklin Delessert		(script by)
Slavko Vorkapich		(dream sequences)

Produced by
Sandy Haver	....	associate producer
Julian Roffman	....	producer
Frank Taubes	....	associate producer
Nat Taylor	....	producer
Yvonne Taylor	....	associate producer

Original Music by
Louis Applebaum

Cinematography by
Herbert S. Alpert

Film Editing by
Stephen Timar

Art Direction by
David R. Ballou

Production Management
William S. Owens	....	production manager

Art Department
Hugo Wuethrich	....	associate art director

Sound Department
Willard W. Goodman	....	sound
Dick Vorisek	....	sound re-recordist

Visual Effects by
James B. Gordon	....	special photographic effects

Music Department
Myron Schaeffer	....	composer: electronic music
Louis Applebaum	....	conductor (uncredited)

Other crew
Don Gillies	....	choreographer
Jan Henry	....	dialogue director
Jean S. Lenauer	....	production consultant
Charles W. Smith	....	stereoscopic control

Production Companies

• Beaver-Champion Attractions
• Taylor Roffman Productions

Distributors

• Warner Bros (1961) (USA) (theatrical)
• Image Entertainment (laserdisc)
• Rhino Home Video (199?) (USA) (VHS)

Other Companies

• Film Design  titles

Also Known As:

"Face of Fire" - USA (reissue title)

Runtime:

83 min

Country:

Canada

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White | Color (3-D sequences)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:(Banned) (1962) | Sweden:15 | USA:Approved (PCA #20034) | USA:Unrated (video release)

Filming Locations:

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Company:

Beaver-Champion Attractions

Trivia:

Leo Leyden's first movie performance.

Quotes:

Doctor Allan Barnes:I must. I must experience the greatest act of a human mind: to take another life.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Nightmare in Canada: Canadian Horror on Film (2004) (TV)

3-D Schlock

In the normal scheme of things I would have given this bit of schlock-horror one star--and that would have been on a good day. But THE MASK has two things going it for it: it is 3D available to the homemarket and it generally has a cheap purchase price. What more can you ask? A psychiatrist (Allan Barnes) has a homicidal archaeologist patient who swears up and down that he was just fine until he put on an ancient Indian mask the local museum dug up--and now, under the mask's influence, he has fearful fantasies, nasty nightmares, and (dare I say it?) the urge to kill. Our intrepid analyst doesn't believe a word of it, so the archaeologist goes home and kills himself... but not before mailing the mask off to the doctor who failed him. Does the doctor put on the mask? Since we've only gotten about fifteen minutes into the movie he darn well better.

Each time the doctor puts on the mask he has the same fearsome fantasies and nasty nightmares as his deceased patient--only now we see them, and THEY ARE IN 3D! Now, in its homemarket edition, THE MASK comes with all sorts of warnings that everything from visual impairments to bad color settings on your screen will affect the effect, so you're pretty much on your own here. For myself, I found it worked pretty well as long as you were watching the movie in a pitch black room. But the fact that the movie is sometimes in 2D and sometimes in 3D has a peculiar result: its fun to put the glasses on and off, but it takes a few minutes for you to begin to read the film as 3D, and then when you taken the glasses off to see the 2D part you feel slightly askew because you're still sorta seeing red out of one eye and blue out of the other.

Several people have commented that they found parts of the film pretty creepy and the 3D sequences really imaginative. I myself thought the whole thing was about as frightening as a box of dry cereal and the 3D bits--they were fun enough, but let's face it, this ain't no CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON. Still, the ten-to-fourteen year old crowd will get a kick out of it, and it's all just silly enough for grown ups to find mildly amusing too. So PUT THE MASK ON NOW and have some foolish fun!

Gary F. Taylor, aka GFT, Amazon Reviewer