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 flourishes 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 silly Gothic fun! Gary F. Taylor, aka GFT, Amazon Reviewer

In the Nineteenth Century, in London, the prominent medical doctor Sir Robert Cargrave (Ronald Lewis) receives a letter from his former sweetheart Baroness Maude Sardonicus (Audrey Dalton) with the invitation to visit her husband Baron Sardonicus (Guy Rolfe) and her at his castle in Gorslava. Soon Sir Robert learns that the notorious Baron is an appalling man that frightens the local population. On the arrival in the castle Sir Roberts sees Sardonicus's servant Krull (Oscar Homolka) torturing a maid with leeches in a weird experiment. He meets Maude and her husband that wears a mask covering his face. Sir Robert has a private conversation with Sardonicus and he learns that the Baron was the peasant Marek Toleslawski that lived in a poor house with his wife Elenka Toleslawski (Erika Peters) and his father Henryk Toleslawski (Vladimir Sokoloff), who gives a lottery ticket as a gift to Elenka and dies. Months later, Marek and Elenka learn that they have won the lottery; however the ticket was buried with Henryk. Marek decides to retrieve the ticket in his father's grave and when he sees the face of Henryk, he freezes his face with a horrible grimace. Sardonicus wants Robert to recover his face; otherwise he will destroy Maude's face. Will Sir Robert succeed?

"Mr. Sardonicus" is a creepy horror film directed by William Castle. The story is a sort of combination of the story lines of "Nosferatu" (or "Dracula"), "The Man Who Laughs" and "Les Yeux Sans Visage" among others. William Castle plays with the audiences asking for the fate of Sardonicus. The make-up of Sardonicus is impressive. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "A Máscara do Horror" ("The Mask of the Horror")

This film never had a chance of winning any awards or high praise from the critics and this is no surprise. Like many of William Castle's films, this isn't high art and it was meant to be very broad horror that would appeal to the common man and woman in the audience. In many places the plot seemed silly and tough to believe but because of Castle's style, it was still a lot of fun to watch--particularly the silly voting segment and subsequent evil ending of the film.

As for the unbelievable plot, a famous doctor is called by an old sweetheart to travel across Europe to help her. However, when he arrives, she behaves like there is nothing the matter! However, it soon becomes obvious that her husband is having major issues, as he walks everywhere with a mask over his face. It turns out that a great scare years earlier permanently contorted his face into a silly and unrealistic looking grimace and the doctor is threatened into treating the crazy afflicted man.

Throughout all this, there are tons of unnecessary but cool torture and mayhem--such as seeing the maid hung by her thumbs and having leeches pasted all over her face. Sardonicus is a jerk in this film and it's really hard to care about his facial anomaly.

By the way, IMDb doesn't mention this, but the mask that Sardonicus wears looks an awful lot like William Castle's face and I am sure that with the director's quirky sense of humor that this was intentional.