MovieChat Forums > Mr. Sardonicus (1961) Discussion > Reveal of face too early in pic

Reveal of face too early in pic

posted 12 years ago by IFeedPigeons
2 replies | jump to latest

Did anyone else think that Mr. Sardonicus' grimaced face was seen too early in the movie? You had the dad's face, which was fine when IT was revealed, but I think they should have waited for the son's new look (rock that runway, Mr. S.!) A bit later on. When he first goes into the house, before seeing his wife, there's a dark shadow covering his face. Then 15 seconds later, TA-DAAAH!

IMHO, the scares that the dad's face reveals is enough for most people to sustain the horror element for a while, so they don't need Sardonicus's ugly mug so shortly after. 15 minutes more would have been better. Castle could have worked around it for that length of time.

ALSO, since the viewer doesn't know in what way his face was messed up makes it all the more suspensful.

(Despite this one thing, the movie is terrific, and Castle was a genius. It is my favorite of his films.)

Thoughts?

[–] MooseNugget 8 years ago

I thought the same thing but it was probably too long for any kid going to the theater for some spooks. It didn't really take away too much from the film for me.

[–] IFeedPigeons 8 years ago

That may well be true, but if I saw this movie as a child, I wouldn't want to see either face at all - the stuff of nightmares!

I saw this one at The Film Forum in NYC. That is such a fun theater to go to. They pulled out all the stops during their two week Castle marathon. All the gimmicks were played out by staff members (except for, sadly, The Tingler - no wired seats). For Mr. S, we all received glow-in-the-dark thumbs up/down cards so you could vote at the end. I voted for leniency, but unfortunately the count came up as death. Oh well, I tried!

I still have the card somewhere in my apartment!