Rating: 
Summary: LESSER CASTLE CURIO....
Review: This is an odd movie about a man who's face is frozen into a hideous grin after witnessing a traumatic shock. He sends for a famous plastic surgeon to cure him then blackmails the doctor into treating him by holding the surgeon's fiancee prisoner. Oscar Homolka is memorable as the man's servant but the movie is talky and rather dreary. Not much really happens. It's really more of a drama than a horror movie. The gimmick at the end is a "thumbs up or thumbs down" to vote on the man's fate at the hands of his servant when it is revealed the man has been a cruel master and may or may not deserve to be cured. I didn't like it. I found it disappointing and dull. Judge for yourself---thumbs up or thumbs down? Thumbs down from me.
Rating: 
Summary: MR. SARDONICUS HAS MAKE-UP THAT STILL IS UNSURPASSED!!!
Review: WHEN I FIRST SAY MR. SARDONICUS WHEN IT WAS RELEASED IN THEATERS, I WAS AMAZED AT THE MAKE-UP EFFECTS USED TO CREATE MR. SARDONICUS. AFTER MANY YEARS OF WATCHING HORROR AND SCI-FI, I STILL FEEL THAT MR. SARDONICUS RATES AS ONE OF THE BEST OF ALL TIMES. FOR A MOVIE MADE AT THAT TIME, THE ACTING AND STORY LINE WAS UNIQUE AND AS ALWAYS A WILLIAM CASTLE PRODUCTION OF QUALITY. AS ONE WHO HAS BOUGHT OVER 200 DVD's FROM AMAZON.COM, I AM ALLOWED TO RELIVE THE 50's, 60'S, AND 70'S OF HORROR THAT WOULD NOT OTHERWISE BE SO AVAILABLE. THANKS!!!
Rating:
Summary: Hitchcock made films; Castle made movies...
Review: William Castle never fails to amuse and entertain. Wherever he falls short in production values or his choices of acting talent, he comes up with the most unique ideas. MR. SARDONICUS is certainly one of his more contrived plots, and his characters are all stock characters...good guy, gal in distress, bad guy, bad guy's evil side-kick...it's all there. The plot is as thin as dental floss, and the film, for all it's narrative, could've been shortened by a half-hour. Enter Mr. Castle with a groovy idea to put all these silly characters and plot ideas into an entertaining flow of events, culminating with his traditional "gimmick". As silly as it is, I love this movie. Castle used minimal sets; black & white photography is crisp and clear (especially on this DVD release) and Castle's regular Von Dexter composed yet another eerie and superbly appropriate musical score. Castle is the perfect example of making the most with the least. Audrey Dalton was approaching "over-the-hill" when she made this, and she's absolutely gorgeous; her face has a certain characteristic so that lack of expression is actually an asset. Ronald Lewis, used regularly during the early 60's in exactly this type of role, does what he needs to do (whatever happened to him?). Guy Rolfe chews the scenery as the rich, poor-put-upon title character with vigor beyond the requirements. It's Oscar Homolka, the fine old character actor from the 40's ("I Remember Mama") who actually transcends his role and commands attention. The film belongs to him. Then, again, there are the Castle touches, very much influenced by Hitchcock, in a bargain-basement kind of way. He leads the audience down every possible path, creates an eerie and somewhat suspenseful mood...then throws out his goofy and fun gimmick. I saw this in theatres when it first came out. As a kid, I was intrigued. As an adult, I'm amused and entertained, knowing now that I was totally taken in by Castle's style. The first time you see the ugly face, it can seriously disturb you. (As a kid, I had nightmares about that face.) The bottom line is that this is a fun film, not to be taken seriously, and rife with Castle charm. Grin and bear it! See this film.
Rating: 
Summary: Lots of Good Gothic Fun!
Review: William Castle usually marketed his movies with gimmicks, and for MR. SARDONICUS the gimmick was "the punishment poll." When the film played in theatrical release, audience members were issued a voting card, and near the movie's conclusion Castle himself appeared on the screen and asked the audience to vote: show the card thumbs up to show mercy, thumbs down for none. Now, in theory, there were two different endings, and the ending shown depended on the audience vote--but no one ever saw the "show mercy" ending and it seems unlikely that it ever existed at all. And you certainly won't find it here: Sardonicus is punished every time.For once Castle should have left well enough alone. The Punishment Poll is the only seriously weak thing in the entire film, which has a considerably better script and over-all better cast than most Castle outings. The story, which shows influences from everything from PHANTOM OF THE OPERA to DRACULA to THE MAN THAT LAUGHED, concerns a grotesquely disfigured man who uses his wife to lure a noted specialist to his castle in the wilds of "Gorslavia"--and who then proceeds to make every one's life as miserable as possible, and that's throwing roses at it. Young women are molested, hung from the ceiling, nibbled on by leeches, and threatened with surgery designed to make them look as hideous as Sardonicus himself. The cast is quite good, with Oskar Homolka a standout as Krull, Sardonicus' equally depraved servant. The lovely Audrey Dalton is also memorable as Sardonicus' unwilling wife. But the real star of the film is the make-up, which was quite famous in its day and is still capable of giving you a jolt. And along the way we're treated to a number of campy Castle florishes that add to the fun. But MR. SARDONICUS is surprisingly cohesive for a Castle movie, and it moves along at a smart pace and has an interestingly atmospheric look. Most Castle films appeal almost exclusively to fans of cult and B-movies, but just about every one will find this one entertaining. Lots of good Gothic fun!
Rating:
Summary: Lots of Good Gothic Fun!
Review: William Castle usually marketed his movies with gimmicks, and for MR. SARDONICUS the gimmick was "the punishment poll." When the film played in theatrical release, audience members were issued a voting card, and near the movie's conclusion Castle himself appeared on the screen and asked the audience to vote: show the card thumbs up to show mercy, thumbs down for none. Now, in theory, there were two different endings, and the ending shown depended on the audience vote--but no one ever saw the "show mercy" ending and it seems unlikely that it ever existed at all. And you certainly won't find it here: Sardonicus is punished every time. For once Castle should have left well enough alone. The Punishment Poll is the only seriously weak thing in the entire film, which has a considerably better script and over-all better cast than most Castle outings. The story, which shows influences from everything from PHANTOM OF THE OPERA to DRACULA to THE MAN THAT LAUGHED, concerns a grotesquely disfigured man who uses his wife to lure a noted specialist to his castle in the wilds of "Gorslavia"--and who then proceeds to make every one's life as miserable as possible, and that's throwing roses at it. Young women are molested, hung from the ceiling, nibbled on by leeches, and threatened with surgery designed to make them look as hideous as Sardonicus himself. The cast is quite good, with Oskar Homolka a standout as Krull, Sardonicus' equally depraved servant. The lovely Audrey Dalton is also memorable as Sardonicus' unwilling wife. But the real star of the film is the make-up, which was quite famous in its day and is still capable of giving you a jolt. And along the way we're treated to a number of campy Castle florishes that add to the fun. But MR. SARDONICUS is surprisingly cohesive for a Castle movie, and it moves along at a smart pace and has an interestingly atmospheric look. Most Castle films appeal almost exclusively to fans of cult and B-movies, but just about every one will find this one entertaining. Lots of good Gothic fun!
Rating:
Summary: The infamous William Castle "Punishment Poll" horror flick
Review: With a film from producer-director William Castle the question is never what is the plot of the film but rather what gimmick has the master of horror schlock come up with this time around. For his 1961 release "Mr. Sardonicus" the gimmick was the "Punishment Poll," which supposedly gave the audience the choice of how the film should end. Of course this is not going to be as much fun as the tingling seat, special viewing glasses for ghost-vision, or even the insurance policy to cover you in the event the film scared you to death, but you have to admit that even with DVDs there are limits to what can be done. The irony is that with the DVD format you really could choose between alternative endings-if only Castle had filmed one in the first place. Sir Robert Cargrave (Ronald Lewis) is a noted neurosurgeon who is summoned from England by her former lover Maude (Audrey Dalton) to a castle in Gorslava where she lives with her husband Baron Sardonicus (Guy Rolfe). The baron always wears a mask when he comes out of his room and eventually he tells Sir Robert the story of a lottery ticket and a ghoulish visit to a graveyard at midnight. Sardonicus wants Sir Robert to use his skills to cure his affliction, even if it means using new and untested methods to gain success, so that Maude, who was married off by her father to the baron, might finally love her husband. When Sir Robert balks at the idea, Sardonicus reveals an alternative plan for making the baroness more sympathetic to his condition. "Mr. Sardonicus" has every single one of the traditional elements of a gothic horror story. Our hero, a man of science, travels to a remote location in eastern Europe, where he meets the terrified local townsfolk, before heading on to an ancient castle on a hill surrounded by mist, where he is met by the deformed assistant to the mysterious baron, whose beautiful wife is held hostage to her husband's dangerous whims. But the film creates a nice gothic atmosphere (until the end) and the production values do not cheapen the experience but compare quite favorably to the Universal monster movies of the 40s and 50s. Cargrave is a bland hero and the effectiveness of the film rests on the character of the baron, who cuts a compelling figure as he speaks from behind his mask. More than anyone else, it is Rolfe who prevents the films from descending to the level of camp, although Oscar Homolka as the baron's disfigured but loyal servant Krull, turns in a solid performance along those same lines as well. Rather surprisingly, not only the story of how Sardonicus came to be this way but our look at the man behind the mask comes rather early in the film, at which point this horror film starts to turn into a medical problem-solving effort. Then we get to Castle's gimmick and the whole thing collapses. The "Punishment Poll" consisted of getting a rather large card when you entered the theater that could be raised to signify "thumbs up" or "thumbs down" when Castle appeared on the screen to conduct the poll. Supposedly the majority vote would apply, but Castle knew full well what his blood thirsty audience would want to see at the end of the film, so an alternative ending was never even filmed. Besides, Castle made it clear what sort of person would wimp out and give mercy to the title character. The only problem is that the little boy in the back row could have come up with a more painful punishment for Sardonicus than this rather low-keyed ending. Equally important, Castle's jovial appearance completely derails the film's momentum and dispels the gothic atmosphere. "Mr. Sardonicus" is an interesting little footnote to the history of horror films and if you have never seen a William Castle film then sooner or later you should check one of them out. There is a short documentary on this DVD about "Taking the Punishment Poll" that provides some insights into the film and the cast from film historians (the key one being that Castle's films are more about fun than fright). "Mr. Sardonicus" is one of several William Castle productions that Columbia is putting out on DVD, including "Homicidal," "13 Ghosts," and "Strait-Jacket," a couple of which have trailers on this DVD.
Rating:
Summary: The Gimmick Master Strikes Again
Review: You can say what you want about horror film producer William Castle. Go ahead, call him a hack, call him a B-movie mogul, call him a gimmick-grabber. But I'll bet he had a lot of fun making movies like 'Mr. Sardonicus.' I know I had a lot of fun watching it. In 1880, a famous London doctor is called to a creepy castle on an urgent mission. Sir Robert the doctor receives a letter from his former lover, now married to Count Sardonicus. She instructs the doctor to hurry; something terrible is about to happen. Sir Robert arrives to find a strange castle occupied by a one-eyed servant named Krull, Sir Robert's beautiful former lover, and of course Count Sardonicus, whom we see introduced wearing a mask. Hmmmmmm. A creepy castle, a locked door, screams from remote parts of the castle, an eccentric Count in a mask...What OTHER cliches do we need? Sure, the cliches are abundant and the sets are nothing to impress your friends with, but the acting is generally good. The story is not believable, but we pretty much know that going in. We don't expect much, but when we get to one of the film's several creepy moments, we feel as if we've gotten our money's worth. Plus the patented William Castle Gimmick is firmly in place: The Punishment Poll, in which audience members decide whether the villain receives mercy or more punishment. (Of course Castle only shot ONE ending. In the DVD extras we learn how ridiculous it would have been to shoot two endings, poll the audience, then send a message up to the projectionist's booth to tell him which reel to show for the ending. But it's still fun!) 'Mr. Sardonicus' is not a great horror film, but it doesn't really set out to be one. But it is a fun, campy, competent entry in the early 60's horror genre. I'll take it any day over 'Scream 5' or 'I Could Care Less What You Did Last Summer.' 89 minutes in glorious black and white
Rating:
Summary: The Gimmick Master Strikes Again
Review: You can say what you want about horror film producer William Castle. Go ahead, call him a hack, call him a B-movie mogul, call him a gimmick-grabber. But I'll bet he had a lot of fun making movies like 'Mr. Sardonicus.' I know I had a lot of fun watching it. In 1880, a famous London doctor is called to a creepy castle on an urgent mission. Sir Robert the doctor receives a letter from his former lover, now married to Count Sardonicus. She instructs the doctor to hurry; something terrible is about to happen. Sir Robert arrives to find a strange castle occupied by a one-eyed servant named Krull, Sir Robert's beautiful former lover, and of course Count Sardonicus, whom we see introduced wearing a mask. Hmmmmmm. A creepy castle, a locked door, screams from remote parts of the castle, an eccentric Count in a mask...What OTHER cliches do we need? Sure, the cliches are abundant and the sets are nothing to impress your friends with, but the acting is generally good. The story is not believable, but we pretty much know that going in. We don't expect much, but when we get to one of the film's several creepy moments, we feel as if we've gotten our money's worth. Plus the patented William Castle Gimmick is firmly in place: The Punishment Poll, in which audience members decide whether the villain receives mercy or more punishment. (Of course Castle only shot ONE ending. In the DVD extras we learn how ridiculous it would have been to shoot two endings, poll the audience, then send a message up to the projectionist's booth to tell him which reel to show for the ending. But it's still fun!) 'Mr. Sardonicus' is not a great horror film, but it doesn't really set out to be one. But it is a fun, campy, competent entry in the early 60's horror genre. I'll take it any day over 'Scream 5' or 'I Could Care Less What You Did Last Summer.' 89 minutes in glorious black and white
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