Mr. Sardonicus
(1961) 89 Min.
Rated: NR
Country: USA
Director: William Castle
Starring: Ronald Lewis, Audrey Dalton, Guy Rolfe
Links: IMDB | Wikipedia
Rating: ★★★☆☆
A Baron in a small European country urgently and mysteriously requests the help of a top English doctor.
Synopsis:
Sir Robert Cargrave (Lewis) is a very talented physician in 1880 London. He receives a letter from his former love Maude (Dalton) in the country of Gorslava in “Central Europe”. Robert leaves at once.
The letter explains that Maude urgently needs him in Gorslava. It is also explained that Maude and Robert were in love once, but Maude was married off to a widower baron, that is Baron Sardonicus (Rolfe).
When Robert arrives at the castle of the baron he finds a woman with leeches on her face tied to a chair. He removes the leeches from her face and gets angry at the servant, Krull, who explains that it’s an experiment.
Robert meets with the Baroness Maude and they exchange pleasantries. It’s revealed that Robert never had another lover after Maude. Krull appears and then shows Robert to his room.
As Robert bathes he hears a knock at his door. The woman from earlier appears. She’s a maid and thanks him for helping her and asks that the experimentation be stopped. She grows frightened and runs off.
Later at dinner Robert meets Baron Sardonicus. He wears a mask on his face and does not dine with them. He does, however, sit and have conversations with them as they eat.
Krull gathers some village girls and Sardonicus picks one of them. She asks for him to remove his mask and he obliges much to her horror.
Later Sardonicus tells Robert his story. He was once a peasant by the name of Marek Toleslawski. He lived with his wife and father. One day his father died after purchasing a lottery ticket. It turns out that the ticket was a winner, but was buried with Marek’s father. Marek’s pushy wife forced him to dig up his father’s grave. Once he opened the coffin he saw the face of his dead father. The muscles had rotted and shrunk forcing his mouth into a teeth baring grin. Marek screamed and ran away at first.
Marek then returned and took the ticket. When he returned home he was speechless. His wife turned on the light to reveal that his face had the same creepy grin as his father. His wife committed suicide and Marek took the name Sardonicus from the sardonic smile of lock-jaw victims.
Robert tries to treat Sardonicus as he had with other patients. Using hot towels and massages to the muscles, he tries to release Sardonicus from his grin. Unfortunately it doesn’t work and Sardonicus grows desperate. When Robert says he’s done all he can, Sardonicus ties up his wife in a dungeon and threatens to make her smile like he does. He feels like she has never loved him because of his looks. Robert pleads with him and promises to try another untested method.
Robert tests his new method on dogs. He explains to Sardonicus that he will use a plant which can kill by relaxing muscles and so he wishes to dilute the chemical of this plant so that he can fix Sardonicus’ grin.
Sardonicus sees Robert and Maude grow close. Maude has, by this time, explained that she went willingly to be Sardonicus’ wife because her father had large debts and was an embezzler. Sardonicus also threatened to reveal these things.
Sardonicus punishes Maude for growing closer to Robert by taking her to the uppermost room. She sees the face Sardonicus father’s corpse and faints. Robert agrees to go on and treat Sardonicus.
Robert takes Sardonicus up to the room with the corpse and has him tied to a chair. He injects Sardonicus in the face and closes the door as the lights go out. Sardonicus panics as he imagines his father’s corpse growing skin. When Robert, Krull and Maude check in on Sardonicus his face is healed. He is told not to talk for a while.
Sardonicus then goes to his room and writes a marriage annulment letter for his wife and tells Robert he will pay whatever price. Robert and Maude simply leave and are waiting at a train station when Krull arrives.
Krull informs Robert that Sardonicus cannot eat or open his mouth now. Robert says it is impossible since Sardonicus was only injected with distilled water and that all the tests that were done were a show to convince Sardonicus of a poisonous plant method.
Krull returns to the Baron’s estate but, remembering how Sardonicus damaged his eye, decides to tell Sardonicus that he missed Robert and Maude. Krull then eats heartily in front of Sardonicus. Sardonicus in a fit tries to eat and drink but only makes a mess as his mouth won’t open. He angrily clings to a stairwell as he realizes his fate of starvation.
Review:
Mr. Sardonicus is a slow b-movie horror from the 60’s. It’s a William Castle film and is a bit on the corny humor and dramatics side of horror. William Castle himself introduces the film at the start and tells the audience that they will get to vote on the outcome of the film. (Voting on whether or not Sardonicus deserves to be punished.) After Sardomicus is healed, Castle again appears and asks for a vote which he tallies and decides that the audience voted for more punishment. This entire segment is probably the most distracting thing about the film, but if you know horror of the time, some of it was kitschy so you’ll have to accept it for what it was.
The overall story was pretty engaging. Sardonicus’ mask reminded me very much of Eyes Without A Face (Les yeux sans visage) which came out just a year before in 1960. Though I will say that was quite a different movie and more horrific in its own way. Castle’s movie, on the other hand, was more reliant on backstory and a little bit of suspension of disbelief.
This film is a bit charming in it’s own ways, but it’s also quite flawed. Ronald Lewis seemed to play his role very woodenly as Robert, but Guy Rolfe was pretty dynamic as Sardonic, despite having to wear a mask for a lot of his scenes. There was also a bit of filler scenes with the Leech Maid torture scene and the “beauty contest”.
I would recommend this film to any fan of older horror and can stand a bit of camp. It’s not very scary, but it does have it’s own surprises. If you have a craving for a relaxed little horror picture this would certainly fit the bill.