ThiefHott Too much of everything

ChanBot i must have seen a different film!!

Bereamic Awesome Movie

Rosie Searle It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Claudio Carvalho In the Nineteenth Century, in London, the prominent medical doctor Sir Robert Cargrave (Ronald Lewis) receives a letter from his former sweetheart Baroness Maude Sardonicus (Audrey Dalton) with the invitation to visit her husband Baron Sardonicus (Guy Rolfe) and her at his castle in Gorslava. Soon Sir Robert learns that the notorious Baron is an appalling man that frightens the local population. On the arrival in the castle Sir Roberts sees Sardonicus's servant Krull (Oscar Homolka) torturing a maid with leeches in a weird experiment. He meets Maude and her husband that wears a mask covering his face. Sir Robert has a private conversation with Sardonicus and he learns that the Baron was the peasant Marek Toleslawski that lived in a poor house with his wife Elenka Toleslawski (Erika Peters) and his father Henryk Toleslawski (Vladimir Sokoloff), who gives a lottery ticket as a gift to Elenka and dies. Months later, Marek and Elenka learn that they have won the lottery; however the ticket was buried with Henryk. Marek decides to retrieve the ticket in his father's grave and when he sees the face of Henryk, he freezes his face with a horrible grimace. Sardonicus wants Robert to recover his face; otherwise he will destroy Maude's face. Will Sir Robert succeed?"Mr. Sardonicus" is a creepy horror film directed by William Castle. The story is a sort of combination of the story lines of "Nosferatu" (or "Dracula"), "The Man Who Laughs" and "Les Yeux Sans Visage" among others. William Castle plays with the audiences asking for the fate of Sardonicus. The make-up of Sardonicus is impressive. My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): "A Máscara do Horror" ("The Mask of the Horror")

bkoganbing 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.

Dalbert Pringle Favorite Movie-Quote - "No! Not the leeches again!" In this sweet'n'sour (and very sinister) little horror movie about leech-facials, guilt-ridden ghouls, and leering-lockjaw to the extreme, I'd say that it was actor Oscar Homolka, as Krull, the baron's viciously cruel servant (with the cob-webbed eye), who put in the most complex and memorable performance of all.Set in the year 1880, almost all of this horror film's evil action takes place at Baron Sardonicus' dark & gloomy (and mirror-less) castle that was located just outside the town of Gorslava (which, by the looks of it, was probably situated in, or around, the region of good, old Transylvania).And, you can be sure that what regularly went on behind closed and locked doors in this creepy, fog-enshrouded environment of the baron's made just having a mere skeleton in one's closet seem quite tame by comparison.For the most part (as far as B-Horror movies go) Mr. Sardonicus (shouldn't this film have been titled "Baron" not "Mr." Sardonicus?) actually held up quite well and turned out to be a fairly effective little tale of woe, rotten corpses and severe facial afflictions.But, unfortunately, at the last 5 minutes of the story writer/director William Castle made an unexpected (and very unwelcome) appearance on screen in order to gleefully promote his worthless "Punishment Poll".Castle's interruption to deliver his "audience participation" nonsense nearly sabotaged the entire picture. It came pretty close to successfully ruining the whole period atmosphere of the story.To me, Castle may have been something of a notable B-Movie director, but, when it came to his "gimmicks" and being a comedian wannabe, he was Z-Grade, all the way.

AaronCapenBanner William Castle directed this gimmick thriller that stars Guy Rolfe as Baron Sardonicus, a wealthy but disfigured man who enlists the help of a surgeon(played by Ronald Lewis) to repair his damaged face. Audrey Dalton plays his beautiful wife, who hates and fears him, and falls for the doctor, and he for her. Oscar Homolka plays a loyal and hulking servant. It turns out that Sardonicus became disfigured after rifling the grave of his father, who was mistakenly buried with a winning lottery ticket, the one that made him rich. Will Sardonicus be punished by the audience vote, as instructed by director Castle? Good cast can't save misfired film that never amounts to much, though does have an effective ending, if you can make it that far!