Mr. Sardonicus

Mr. Sardonicus is a William Castle picture in which Mr. Castle himself prominently appears, holding forth as the emcee in a hat and cravat, standing on a London bridge, offering insight into the nature of ghouls, who dig up the dead so they can EAT them. That, sadly, does not happen in the film, but a body is dug up, and with astounding results.

The following film is rather good. Baron Sardonicus (Guy Rolfe) calls forth the specialist doctor on paralysis, Sir Robert Cargrave (Ronald Lewis), to come and visit him and the Baroness, who is one of Cargrave's old flames. Upon arrival, the villagers (such as in Dracula) wear their terror and superstition of the Baron on their sleeves, and Cargrave, upon arrival (being led by the sinister, one-eyed Krull, played by Oskar Homolka), finds that the Baron has strange little peccadilloes--like torturing his maids with leeches on the face. A rather grotesque scene it is with the requisite bloody aftereffect, and it gets this particular gothic horror flick started off right.

Sardonicus is a lean, strange character who wears a mask continually and cannot eat in public (he is seen with his back to the audience, sucking down a plate of gruel; the film has a penchant for the grotesque, unsurprisingly). The mask will put the viewer in mind of Dr. Phibes, no doubt, a character that came along several years later, but it hearkens back to Erik in Phantom of the Opera, a film that, as well as the original The Man Who Laughs, Mr. Sardonicus will very well remind the viewer of.

Maude (Audrey Dalton), the Baroness Sardonicus (nice ring to it?) has written in her letter that Cargrave must come at once, as a matter of urgency. It is shortly revealed why: Baron Sardonicus, you see, wears a mask because he is quite literally deformed: his face is frozen in a Cheshire Cat grin that makes him look as if he could scarf an entire apple pie in one bite. Or, as if he were the lineal descendent of Gwynplaine. Take your pick.

Sardonicus reveals a tale of tragic and befuddling woe, as he tells the story of how his poor, unfortunate visage came to be so distorted and shocking. It involves, no surprise, the rifling of a grave, his own father's, and I suppose, if one wanted to analyze it, the transference of his father, the corpse, as the object of disgust, to the son, who, because of sheer shock at what he had done, or guilt, soon had his smile "frozen" into place --not to mention the total absence of the mother (she is replaced by Elenka, the Baronesses' late wife, played by Erika Peters). Sardonicus began life as a peasant, his father's sin of poverty being transferred to the sun, who was condemned to wear the hideous, secret smile of the ghoul, someone whose idiot visage covered up foul wells of sin. Even the lottery ticket that allowed him to "buy" a title did not save him from the fate of walking "masked," wearing a bourgeois visage while carrying within his breast and beneath the guise, his shocking secrets, his affinity for pain and death.

So much for analysis.

After a rather good if gruesome build-up, the film ends on a rather disappointing note. Castle, still sporting dapper clothing and hat, reads off the "gimmick": the audience can "decide" the fate of the malevolent if pathetic Sardonicus, and whether or not the vote he needs "additional punishment" or not, they can see one of two endings.

Most agree that the alternate ending was never actually filmed and that Castle, knowing his audience well, knew they would never vote for mercy for Mr. Sardonicus. So much for human compassion.

The very notion is as frozen as a madman's smile.