Season 3: Episode 74 - EDGAR ALLEN POE: The Masque of the Red Death (1842); Hop Frog (1849) / Masque of the Red Death (1964)

Short Story

Masque of the Red Death  (1842)

Hop Frog (1849)

Film:

Masque of the Red Death (1964)

 

The 1842 short story is an allegory about the inevitability of death.  The Gothic short story is has risen to controversy with what is the titular disease which scholars continue to debate today.  The original earned Poe $12.00 and would be published in Graham’s Lady’s and Gentleman’s Monthly.

 

In 1964, Roger Corman would bring the tale to the screen in all of its widescreen Technicolor splendor which would be part of the Corman Poe films starring Vincent Price in the lead role. Two sub plots are used in the classic screenplay written by Charles Beaumont and R Wright Campbell which incorporated Leap Frog, short by Poe himself and Torture of Hope by Augste Villiers de l’isle-Adam. 

 

Interesting fact is award winning director Nicholas Roeg (Don’t Look Now, The Man Who Fell to Earth).

 

We are joined by Rod Labbe, esteemed film historian and journalist of classic films and one of our favourite guest co-host. 

 

Opening Credits (.25); Introduction (3.22); Forming the Plot (12.39); Film Trailer (1:05.53);  Lights, Camera, Action (1:10.26); Epilogue (2:21.33); End Credits (2:24.10); Closing Credits (2:26.19)

 

Opening Credits – Prelude/The Old Woman and the Red Death by David Lee from the soundtrack album The Masque of the Red Death

 

Closing Credits – Our Perfect Disease by The Wombats from the album The Wombats Proudly Present…The Modern Glitch

 

All songs available from Amazon.

 

All rights reserved.