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Guy Rolfe, Audrey Dalton, Oscar Homolka, Ronald Lewis, Vladimir Sokoloff ... see more see more... , Erika Peters , Constance Cavendish , Annalena Lund , Franz Roehn , William Castle , James Forrest , Lorna Hansen , Albert D'Arno , Mavis Neal , Charles H. Radilac

In this 1961 William Castle film based on Ray Russell's novel Sardonicus, Guy Rolfe stars as the wicked Sardonicus, a wealthy count who wears a mask because his face is frozen in a horrifying death gr... read more read more...imace. Ronald Lewis stars as Sir Robert Cargrave, a brilliant doctor who is at the top of his field in the early 20th century. A curious letter from his former love, Maude (Audrey Dalton), draws him to Europe where she lives in a remote castle with her brooding husband, his badly scarred, but dedicated man-servant, Krull (Oscar Homolka), and a frightened housekeeper whom Sir Robert finds tied up and covered with leeches. The good doctor soon discovers the truth behind the leeches...and the true nature of his visit when Sardonicus reveals his terrible story: He dug up his father's grave in search of a winning lottery ticket, and upon seeing the corpse, his face muscles froze leaving him looking like a living skull. Dangling Maude as his ransom, Sardonicus forces Sir Robert into attempting a radical treatment to make his face normal again, but even when it is a success, the evil Sardonicus can find no cure from the curse of his father's desecrated corpse. Castle appears in the climax to offer viewers an opportunity to afford additional punishment on Sardonicus which leads to a satisfying conclusion. ~ Patrick Legare, Rovi

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25% want to see it

972 ratings

Critics

38% liked it

8 critics

Unrated, 1 hr. 29 min.

Directed by: William Castle

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DVD Release Date: March 12, 2002

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Flixster Reviews (72)

  • bbcfloridabound
    August 12, 2011
    bbcfloridabound
    Another Film from the William Castle Movie collection. Once ago not a scary movie by today's standards, but might have been when made. Story about a doctor who is called to remove the smile that is stuck on Mr. Sardonicus face that appeared when he dug up the coffin of his late f... read moreather to recover a winning lottery ticket. Just a good old drive in second feature film. 3 Stars
  • ajv2688
    February 23, 2011
    ajv2688
    Again Castle brings us a gimmicky little horror movie, in this one the audience "votes" for the bad guy's fate in the end, which was pretty funny. The story itself, though is more ridiculous than the Tingler, and entirely predictable. This isn't his best work, but it's okay.
  • FilmFanatik
    December 10, 2010
    FilmFanatik
    Another clever gimmick film from William Castle, Mr. Sardonicus is very much an audience film. It's not about scaring the audiences with electric shocks or skeletons flying over their heads, but more about their participation. Of course, seeing the film today, the participation... read more factor doesn't really exist. As for the movie itself, I wouldn't call it one of Castle's best, but it's certainly interesting and bizarre.
  • webalina
    March 14, 2010
    webalina
    William Castle strikes again with this tale of a Baron whose face is frozen into a monstrous toothy smile out of a fear response to seeing the decaying corpse of his dead father (while robbing his grave of a winning lottery ticket). He hires a doctor to cure him of his affliction... read more. The Baron has of course turned into a psychopath because of his condition. It doesn't help matters that the Baron's wife was previously involved with the doctor, Sir Robert. All kinds of nasty things could have happened. After all, the doctor had a torture chamber in his house. But DID it happen? NOPE.

    Any potential this film could have had to be spooky or creepy ala Eyes Without a Face is totally wasted here. There's a bit of build-up to the big reveal that makes you think "hmmm...I wonder how creepy he's going to look?" Don't wonder. The reveal is a complete letdown. The climax is anti-climactic, and the twist ending comes across as a bad episode of Twilight Zone. The main thing this film accomplished was to make me want to see Conrad Veidt in the original film of this story -- "The Man Who Laughed". I normally don't expect a lot out of Castle's films except to be entertained in a cheezy silly kind of way. This wasn't even that good.....zzzzzzz
  • rubystevens
    October 26, 2009
    rubystevens
    good campy fun
  • Hellshocked
    March 17, 2009
    Hellshocked
    A decidedly less comical film, but boasting an introduction by the director himself (to get us in the mood) and a typically great performance by Vincent Price, "Mr. Sardonicus" is vintage William Castle, down to the gimmicky "vote" ending.

    Despite being unevenly paced, the fact... read more it is more of a fable than a carnival show evidences that beyond the gimmickry Castle was a rather strong director who excelled at creating atmosphere in what essentially ammounted to studio cheapies. His films may not have aspired to be "high art", but they truly excelled at what they did aspire to: being fun.

    "Mr. Sardonicus" is not a career highlight for Castle or Price, but its an interesting turn by the former that is carried by the latter and is worth watching for fans of either.
  • ileo
    July 25, 2008
    ileo
    A favorite!!
  • MaskedRider291
    December 25, 2011
    MaskedRider291
    Most people rave about this movie, meaning most William Castle fans. I didn't really like it. It was an okay movie, but I think the ending was kind of stupid, regardless of the explanation or not. I think the entire movie was just kind of dumb and boring. Not up to par with Castl... read moree's other films.
  • MaskedRider
    February 2, 2010
    MaskedRider
    Most people rave about this movie, meaning most William Castle fans. I didn't really like it. It was an okay movie, but I think the ending was kind of stupid, regardless of the explanation or not. I think the entire movie was just kind of dumb and boring. Not up to par with Castl... read moree's other films.
  • FangsFirst
    March 8, 2008
    FangsFirst
    Apparently unintentionally giving myself some kind of theme of renowned classic horror producers (well, well-known ones at least...) I've now dabbled in the work of William Castle, a man known less for making quality films out of low budgets than for using an endless string of st... read morerange gimmicks and threats to the audience about the film's unbelieveable levels of horror and fright. Mr. Sardonicus is actually one not originally intended to suffer this gimmickry, but ended up doing so anyway thanks to studio interference.

    The film opens with Castle himself introducing the audience to the film and its concept. He tells us the dictionary definition of a ghoul, smoking a cigar and trying to "prepare" us for the fright we are about to see. "Mr." Sardonicus, really Baron Sardonicus (Guy Rolfe), is a wealthy recluse in eastern Europe who has married the childhood sweetheart--Maude (Audrey Dalton)--of Sir Robert Cargrave (Ronald Lewis), a knighted British doctor of medicine. Sir Robert receives a letter from Maude begging him for help that may save her life. Sir Robert interrupts his experiments with techniques to revive the muscles of the paralyzed to go to her and the Baron, and there he meets Krull* (Oskar Homolka, credited as Oscar), servant of Baron Sardonicus, a one-eyed man with a strong accent who, when asked to "do a thing, [he does] the thing." Soon we meet Sardonicus himself, in great part at least, for he is masked constantly, until we learn the story of his mask, and see for the first time what lies underneath it. Obviously strongly inspired (or perhaps just a massive coincidence, but really now...) by the makeup worn by Conrad Veidt in The Man Who Laughs (though with a far less sympathetic disfigured titular character), the face Sardonicus bears is actually pretty disturbing. I think Castle would have been better served by keeping it back under wraps after the first revelation, or at least showing a little less, but it was by no means something where seams showed the more we saw of it. Some have (ignorantly) criticized the work because it's so "obviously" a mask when Sardonicus speaks and his mouth doesn't move. Unfortunately for those people (perhaps they're deaf, or don't speak English, or just weren't paying attention...) the movie actually DOES explain this, and says that Sardonicus uses "latent muscles" to speak, which do not involve the use of the mouth (which he freely admits he cannot move).

    Regardless, this is actually a lot better as a film than I expected from Castle. It has been my experience that his films were known purely for the gimmicks and never for anything beyond that, and usually HAD nothing beyond that. Of course two were later remade (The House on Haunted Hill and Thirteen Ghosts) and were thus not gimmick-driven, and in my relative naïveté at the time, I thought this was further proof of that (i.e., "Let's make them into movies that DON'T rely on gimmicks!"). Of course, in retrospect, it was simply more easy cash-ins on existing scripts and concepts that made cranking out horror easier than they usually try to make it on a studio level (which is already sickeningly disrespectful and half-hearted most, if not all, of the time) and a foreshadowing of the glut of effects-driven, usually awful remakes that followed--and continue to the day I'm writing this.

    However, Rolfe and Lewis are actually quite good in their roles, and the strange, leering, unquestioning servitude of Homolka is quite effective. The supporting cast is not a pile of logs, either, though there's a little twitchiness on the "reading from a cue card" meter, but overall very little, and certainly less than I expected. Overall, a pleasing viewing, I must say, and one I can't say I particularly regret. I'm not sure if it will lead me to more of Castle's films (hmmm...) but I have no real bad news about this one, and that was a happy surprise.

    *No relation to the strange, cheesy 80s fantasy movie. I think, at least.

View All Mr. Sardonicus Reviews

Critic Reviews

Sean Axmaker
October 19, 2009
Sean Axmaker, Seanax.com

... the make-up is inspired and Oskar Homolka steals the show as the long suffering, whipped-into-submission servant Krull. Full Review

Steve Crum
January 10, 2008
Steve Crum, Video-Reviewmaster.com

Gimmicky, but so typical William Castle with schlocky scares.

Dennis Schwartz
February 10, 2004
Dennis Schwartz, Ozus' World Movie Reviews

A cheesy gothic horror tale. Full Review

Howard Thompson
May 9, 2005
Howard Thompson, New York Times

Click to read the article Full Review

Neil Cohen
July 29, 2007
Neil Cohen, Echo Magazine

No review available.

Emanuel Levy
June 13, 2005
Emanuel Levy, EmanuelLevy.Com

No review available.

Mark R. Leeper
September 30, 2004
Mark R. Leeper, rec.arts.movies.reviews

No review available.

Philip Martin
July 30, 2002
Philip Martin, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

No review available.

Jeffrey Westhoff
July 26, 2002
Jeffrey Westhoff, Northwest Herald (Crystal Lake, IL)

No review available.

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