El Barón Sardónico (1961)

Curiosidades

• Basada en: Sardonicus

Mr. Sardonicus is a 1961 horror film produced and directed by William Castle, based on the short story "Sardonicus" by Ray Russell, who also wrote the screenplay. It stars Oscar Homolka, Vladimir Sokoloff, Guy Rolfe and Audrey Dalton.

Production

William Castle purchased the rights to the short story "Sardonicus" and hired its author, Ray Russell, to write the screenplay. Ronald Lewis was imported from England, where he had made The Full Treatment and Taste of Fear for Hammer, to play a lead role.

To achieve Baron Sardonicus's terrible grin, Guy Rolfe was subjected to five separate facial appliance fittings. He could not physically stand to wear the piece for more than an hour at a time. As a result, the full makeup is only shown in a few scenes, with Rolfe instead wearing a mask over his face for most of the running time.

Castle, with his reputation as the "king of gimmicks" to market his films, built the marketing for the film around the idea of the two possible endings. Near the end of the film, audiences were given the opportunity to participate in the "Punishment Poll". Each movie patron was given a glow-in-the-dark card featuring a hand with the thumb out.

The "poll" scene, as presented in the film, is hosted by Castle himself. He is shown pretending to address the audience, jovially egging them on to choose punishment, and "tallying" the poll results with no break in continuity as the "punishment" ending is pronounced the winner.

The "punishment" ending occupies only three minutes of film after the "poll", and was the ending of the original Russell short story.

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