Mr. Sardonicus (1961)

Director:

William Castle

Writers:

Ray Russell (screenplay)
Ray Russell (novel)

Release Date:

1962 (Austria)

Genre:

Drama | Horror | Mystery

Tagline:

A man of evil... with a face that could stop a heart!

Plot:

A search for a winning lottery ticket in his dead father's grave causes Sardonicus' face to freeze in a horrible grimace...

Plot Keywords:

Face | Baron | Lottery Ticket | Mask | Doctor

Cast

Oskar Homolka	...	Krull (as Oscar Homolka)
Ronald Lewis	...	Sir Robert Cargrave
Audrey Dalton	...	Maude Sardonicus
Guy Rolfe	...	Baron Sardonicus
Vladimir Sokoloff	...	Henryk Toleslawski
Erika Peters	...	Elenka
Lorna Hanson	...	Anna

Also Known As:

Sardonicus (UK)

Runtime:

89 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound Recording)

Certification:

USA:TV-PG | Finland:(Banned) (1961) | UK:12 | USA:Approved (Certificate No. 19991) | West Germany:16

Company:

William Castle Productions

Trivia:

Unlike Castle's other films, the punishment poll gimmick came as an afterthought. When the film was first shown to the execs at Columbia Pictures, they demanded that Castle shot an alternate happy ending to the film. Castle agreed, and soon decided to use this situation as a springboard for a gimmick. After shooting the happy ending, he shot a brief segment to be inserted before the ending. The audience would be given cards with a thumbs up and thumbs down. Before the ending, Castle appeared on the screen and explained the poll. He then "counted" the votes. If mercy won, then the happy ending would be shown. If no mercy won, the original ending would be shown. It is doubtful, though, that any audience voted mercy.

Goofs:

Crew or equipment visible: As the Doctor arrives in the train depot in Gorslava, the door opens and the camera pulling away is reflected in the door's glass.

Quotes:

[repeated line]
Krull: When my master says, "Krull, do this thing," I do the thing, whatever it may be.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Sweets to the Sweet: The Candyman Mythos (2004) (V)

Soundtrack:

Foggy, Foggy Dew

Best ever of the genre; an absolute delight.

No less a writer than Stephen King has called the novella "Sardonicus" perhaps "finest example of modern gothic horror ever written." I have delighted and relished the novella and the movie all my life, and I saw and read these when they first came out (1961). YES, the movie is "hokie". Yes, the movie is directed at the juvenile set, as all of William Castle's pictures were. But for those of us who were around in the William Castle era, the entertainment provided by his movies was supreme (consider the homage, "Matinee"), Everything anyone could want in a 19th century gothic horror appears in Sardonicus--including villains, heroes, beautiful virtuous maidens, Transylvania, leeches, hypo-dermic needles (my hyphen), and even a deformed Igor-type (herein called Krull), played to PERFECTION, PERFECTION, PERFECTION by the late great Oscar Homolka. This movie was thought of so highly by the writers of "Wiseguy" the TV series, that they used it as a sub-plot for a multi-episode "mini-series" within the series.