June 24, 1964 - Opening today is “The Masque of the Red Death,” a horror film directed by Roger Corman and starring Vincent Price (left), Hazel Court, and Jane Asher (right). The story follows a prince who terrorizes a plague-ridden peasantry while merrymaking in a lonely castle with his jaded courtiers.
The screenplay, written by Charles Beaumont and R. Wright Campbell, was based upon the 1842 short story of the same name by Edgar Allan Poe and incorporates a subplot based on another Poe tale, “Hop-Frog.” Another subplot is drawn from the book “Torture of Hope” by Auguste Villiers de l’Isle-Adam.
Many of the extensive castle sets for the film were left over from “Becket,” which had been shot earlier in 1963.
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