Mr. Sardonicus (1961)

Director:

William Castle

Writers:

Ray Russell (screenplay)
Ray Russell (novel)

Release Date:

1962 (Austria)

Genre:

Drama | Horror | Mystery

Tagline:

A man of evil... with a face that could stop a heart!

Plot:

A search for a winning lottery ticket in his dead father's grave causes Sardonicus' face to freeze in a horrible grimace...

Plot Keywords:

Face | Baron | Lottery Ticket | Mask | Doctor

Cast

Oskar Homolka	...	Krull (as Oscar Homolka)
Ronald Lewis	...	Sir Robert Cargrave
Audrey Dalton	...	Maude Sardonicus
Guy Rolfe	...	Baron Sardonicus
Vladimir Sokoloff	...	Henryk Toleslawski
Erika Peters	...	Elenka
Lorna Hanson	...	Anna
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Edith Atwater	...	Nurse (uncredited)
Ilse Burkert	...	Second Girl (uncredited)
William Castle	...	Himself (uncredited)
Constance Cavendish	...	Mrs. Higgins (uncredited)
Albert D'Arno	...	Gatekeeper (uncredited)
James Forrest	...	Wainwright (uncredited)
David Janti	...	Janku (uncredited)
Annalena Lund	...	First Girl (uncredited)
Mavis Neal Palmer	...	Head Nurse (uncredited)
Charles H. Radilak	...	Stationmaster (uncredited)
Franz Roehn	...	Gravedigger (uncredited)
Tina Woodward	...	The Girl (uncredited)

Directed by
William Castle

Writing credits
Ray Russell		(screenplay)
Ray Russell		(novella "Sardonicus")

Produced by
William Castle	....	producer
Dona Holloway	....	associate producer

Original Music by
Von Dexter

Cinematography by
Burnett Guffey		(director of photography)

Film Editing by
Edwin H. Bryant		(as Edwin Bryant)

Art Direction by
Cary Odell

Set Decoration by
James Crowe		(as James M. Crowe)

Makeup Department
Ben Lane	....	makeup supervisor

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
R. Robert Rosenbaum	....	assistant director
Leslie Gorall	....	assistant director (uncredited)

Sound Department
James Z. Flaster	....	sound
Charles J. Rice	....	sound supervisor

Camera and Electrical Department
Homer Van Pelt	....	still photographer (uncredited)

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Jack Angel	....	wardrobe
Pat Barto	....	wardrobe

Other crew
Eylla Jacobs	....	script supervisor (as Eylla Jacobus)

Production Companies

• William Castle Productions

Distributors

• Columbia Pictures (1961) (USA) (theatrical)
• Columbia Pictures Corporation (1961) (UK) (theatrical)
• Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment (2002) (USA) (DVD)
• Network Enterprises (19??) (USA) (VHS)
• Sony Pictures Home Entertainment (2009) (USA) (DVD) (William Castle Collection)
• Turner Classic Movies (TCM) (2009) (USA) (TV)

Other Companies

• International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE)  this picture made under the jurisdiction of (as I.A.T.S.E.)

Also Known As:

Sardonicus (UK)

Runtime:

89 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound Recording)

Certification:

USA:TV-PG | Finland:(Banned) (1961) | UK:12 | USA:Approved (Certificate No. 19991) | West Germany:16

Company:

William Castle Productions

Trivia:

The correct term for Baron Sardonicus' condition is hysterical rictus.

Goofs:

Crew or equipment visible: As the Doctor arrives in the train depot in Gorslava, the door opens and the camera pulling away is reflected in the door's glass.

Quotes:

[last lines]
Krull: Master, I'm very sorry, but I missed him. The train had already left.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Clive Barker: Raising Hell (2004) (V)

Soundtrack:

Foggy, Foggy Dew

Best ever of the genre; an absolute delight.

No less a writer than Stephen King has called the novella "Sardonicus" perhaps "finest example of modern gothic horror ever written." I have delighted and relished the novella and the movie all my life, and I saw and read these when they first came out (1961). YES, the movie is "hokie". Yes, the movie is directed at the juvenile set, as all of William Castle's pictures were. But for those of us who were around in the William Castle era, the entertainment provided by his movies was supreme (consider the homage, "Matinee"), Everything anyone could want in a 19th century gothic horror appears in Sardonicus--including villains, heroes, beautiful virtuous maidens, Transylvania, leeches, hypo-dermic needles (my hyphen), and even a deformed Igor-type (herein called Krull), played to PERFECTION, PERFECTION, PERFECTION by the late great Oscar Homolka. This movie was thought of so highly by the writers of "Wiseguy" the TV series, that they used it as a sub-plot for a multi-episode "mini-series" within the series.