VINCENT PRICE & JANE ASHER IN 'THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH'

Jane Asher guides through THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH Year: 1964 Rating: ****1/2

In the Edgar Allen Poe adaptation of THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH, low-budget director Roger Corman goes all-out in a gorgeously-shot hybrid of Ingmar Bergman's philosophically death-obsessed SEVENTH SEAL, and especially a Victorian-era Hammer horror film...

Particularly the striking bright colors of the central castle, run by Vincent Price as menacing sadist Prince Prospero, the luckiest man in 1600's Europe not only for owning a castle in the first place, but remaining safe and healthy while everyone outside's dying from a plague called THE RED DEATH...

Jane Asher in THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH

As THE MASQUE refers to an anticipated masquerade party that includes two beautiful women: one around thirty but acting older, hardened and experienced, the other sweet and young in adorable and dreamy teen-starlet Jane Asher...

Who's actually the true leading character since the audience sees and experiences the plush, seemingly innocuous manor through the Christian farm-girl innocence and virginal naivety (peripherally fretting over her captured/dungeon-dwelling boyfriend and father)...

Jane Asher in THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH

Meanwhile Hazel Court, who played Jane's breezy-chaste type in Hammer's CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN, yearns to permanently connect to the suave yet distracted, Asher-smitten Prospero when she partakes in a literal pact The Devil himself, with whom the party-guest-sadistic Vincent Price seems to soullessly and energetically compete with...

Brilliantly blending his signature overboard menace within a subtle, playfully glib, bemused scoundrel element, elevating MASQUE beyond inevitably expected Corman-produced-camp into a genuine horror-mystery classic — as both the legendary actor and an otherwise maligned director do equal justice for their shared literary-Gothic muse.

Jane Asher and Vincent Price in THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH

Jane Asher in THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH with Vincent Price

Jane Asher in THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH with Vincent Price

A devilish Hazel Court in THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH

Jane Asher in THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH with Vincent Price

Jane Asher in THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH

Jane Asher in THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH

Jane Asher in THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH

Jane Asher in THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH

Jane Asher in THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH

Jane Asher in THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH

VINCENT PRINCE in THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH

Jane Asher in THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH with Vincent Price

Vincent Price in THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH with Vincent Price

Jane Asher in THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH

Jane Asher in THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH

Jane Asher in THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH with Hazel Court

Jane Asher in THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH

Vincent Price in THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH

 Gaye Brown and Vincent Prince in THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH

Jane Asher in THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH

Jane Asher in THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH

Jane Asher in THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH

Jane Asher in THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH

Vincent Price and Hazel Court in THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH

Vincent Price and Jane Asher in THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH

Verina Greenlaw in THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH

Vincent Price and Jane Asher in THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH

Jane Asher in THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH