Prince Prospero sees that local villagers are suffering from the Red Death, but rather than help them, he demands that the village is burnt down, but not before he has taken a local young woman as his own. Her father and her husband seek revenge and want to save her from Prospero’s clutches.

The Masque of The Red Death is my favourite of the Corman Poe adaptations. Everything just seemed to fall into place with this film. There is amazing direction by Corman, a colour palate that is akin to a 1960s acid trip and a supporting cast that is top-notch, including Patrick Magee (the author in A Clockwork Orange, another film with a colour palate that makes your eyes water) and Jane Asher (before her cake-baking overtook her film career).

But, there is but one star of this film and that is, of course, Vincent Price. This is one of his career-defining performances and is full of knowing looks, the raising of eyebrows and the delivery of lines that are sardonic, bleakly funny and utterly brilliant. Anyone else in this role would have seemed wrong. He was born to play Prospero.

It would seem that Masque has famous fans as well. It was Martin Scorsese who was behind the restoration of the film for a recent Blu Ray release. This is a fitting tribute to Corman as Scorsese made Boxcar Bertha for his studio.

I’d give my right arm to see this opus on the big screen. One day it might happen.

4.5 out of 5 stars