In Medieval Italy, an old woman shuffling tarot cards meets a red-cloaked figure (John Westbrook). He gives her a white rose which turns red with blood. Prince Prospero (Vincent Price) visits a village and is met by two starving peasants—Gino (David Weston) and Ludovico (Nigel Green). When the old woman dies, infected by the Red Death plague, Prospero orders the village burned to the ground. He abducts Gino and Ludovico and Francesca (Jane Asher), Lucovico’s daughter and Gino’s lover. He invites all the local nobility to gather at his castle and leaves the villagers to die.
Francesca is bathed and finely dressed by Prospero’s mistress Juliana (Hazel Court), and the nobility are entertained by two dwarf dancers—Esmeralda (Verina Greenlaw) and Hop Toad (Skip Martin). Esmeralda knocks over a goblet of wine and is struck by Alfredo (Patrick Magee), one of the guests. Juliana tells Prospero she wants to be initiated into his Satanic cult. Gino and Ludovico are imprisoned and taught how to fight each other for the nobility’s entertainment, but they refuse. Juliana performs a ritual in the black room and pledges her soul to Satan, then gives Francesca the key to Ludovico’s and Gino’s cell. But during the escape attempt, Ludovico, Gino, and Francesca are all recaptured.
At the feast, Prospero summons Gino and Ludovico to be killed. Ludovico attempts to kill Prospero and Prospero kills him, and then Gino is tossed out of the castle to die of the plague. In the black room, Juliana takes drugs that cause hallucinations and is attacked by an imaginary falcon. Prospero says that she is now married to Satan. He has villagers begging for entrance killed by crossbow bolts, except for one small girl. Hop Toad, angered by the striking of Esmeralda, persuades Afredo to wear an ape costume to the masked ball, while he plays the ape’s trainer. He ties Alfredo to a chandelier and raises him above the guests, soaks him with brandy and sets him alight. Prospero notices a mysterious, red-cloaked figure at the ball, and he and Francesca follow him to the black room, believing him to be an emissary from Satan. He will not show his face.
One by one, the nobles begin to die of the Red Death but their corpses continue to dance. Prospero asks for Francesca to be spared and given the same high status in Hell that Prospero expects. The figure agrees and Francesca kisses Prospero before leaving. The figure, of course, is the Red Death itself. Prospero rips off its mask and finds his own face beneath. He flees to the black room and the figure follows, noting that Prospero’s soul has been dead for a long time, and kills him. In the final scene the Red Death plays tarot cards with the surviving young girl. Others gather round, wearing white, yellow, orange, blue, violet, and black cloaks. They discuss how many lives each has claimed. The Red Death says that only Francesca, Gino, Hop Toad, Esmeralda, the little girl, and an old man from another village have survived. The cloaked figures walk into the night.
The film was directed by Roger Corman and written by R. Wright Campbell and Charles Beaumont (who wrote The Seven Faces of Doctor Lao for George Pal as well as episodes for Twilight Zone), based on Edgar Allan Poe’s short story, with subplots from Poe’s story Hop Frog and from The Torture of Hope by Auguste Villiers de l’Isle-Adam. Corman hoped that people would not accuse him of stealing from Ingmar Bergman’s The Seventh Seal. It was made in England, using leftover castle sets from Nicholas Roeg’s film Becket. Roeg was the brilliant cinematographer on this film. It took five weeks instead of three to film, basically because British crews get tea-breaks, but Corman did get a British government subsidy.
A scene in which Hazel Court has sex with a demon was cut in the U.K. but restored in 2018 by Martin Scorsese. It was not as successful as some other Corman films because it was a bit too intellectual for his audience. But many critics said it was Roger Corman’s best film, for what that’s worth. Lines from the film were quoted in songs by Theatre of Tragedy, Electric Wizard, Bell Witch, and Dopethrone. A 1989 re-make by Roger Corman himself was not as well received. It was more like a slasher film with literary pretensions. Jane Asher, who was 17 at the time, asked if a musician friend could visit the set. He was playing his first gig that night in London. It was Paul McCartney.
The colors of the supernatural plague-figures have meaning. Black is for the Black Death, gold for leprosy, violet for porphyria, blue for cholera, yellow for yellow fever, white for tuberculosis, and red for rabies. My favorite image is that of the camera passing through a series of rooms, all in different colors, leading finally to the black room of Satan. The film is gloriously atmospheric, and Vincent Price is wonderful as Prospero, cheerfully sacrificing all his guests to gain status in Hell from Satan. The Catholic Church was less than thrilled by the entire movie, but Corman did manage to dump Jane Asher naked in the bath without revealing her nipples. Death was in fact the ultimate hero of the movie. It’s still my favorite Vincent Price film.