Reading up a list by a fellow IMDb poster about movies which they are keen on seeing from 1961/1,I noticed a film right at the top called The Mask.Searching round for any info about the title,I was eventually able to discover that along with being Canada's first ever 3D movie,the film was also the first ever Horror movie to come from Canada.Finding the really good Cheezy Flicks DVD of the movie (which includes one set of red and blue 3D glasses) going at a good price on Ebay,I decided that it was time to put the mask on.
The plot:
Falling to get any helpful advice from Dr Alan Barnes over the recurring nightmarish vision which he keeps having when ever he wears an old mask,a patient of Barnes decides that he has only one option left to rid himself of his addiction to the mask:shoot himself.
Being interrupted during his daily routine by two police officers,Barnes is shocked to learn that one of his oldest patents has committed suicide.
Offering to help the cops out in anyway he can,Alan gets set to finish his day so that he can spend plenty of time in comfort with girlfriend Pam Ablight.Just as Barnes is gathering his last things,he suddenly notices a box put at the end of the desk,which contains a strange looking mask,that he gets a mysterious urge from to pick up and wear it.
View on the film:
Although the screenplay by Frank Tabues,Sandy Haver and Franklin Delessert does contain some "chewy" exposition dialogue about the troubles with the mask,the writers make the film's brisk 73 minute running time fly by,thanks to having Barnes obsession with the mask get deeper and more insane as the film nears it conclusion,and also due to never making the film's use of 3D feel tacked on,but instead feel like something which is blended into the rest of the movie.
Cleverly separating the 3D set pieces into 4 4 bite size chunks,director Julian Roffman covers the films TV Movie of The Week style sets by shooting in a Noir low-lit fashion,which allows for the stunning Claudette Nevins to look truly ravishing as Pam,and also for the obsessed Paul Stevens to make Barnes look like he is about to go off the wall.
Seeing that the films 3D effects became 50 years old last year,I have to say that I found each of the 4 segments to hold up extremely well and also be extraordinarily captivating.
Despite being uncredited due to Slavko Vorkapich's (who left the movie before it had started filming) "pay or play" contract,director Roffman and his a head of their time team of FX wizards, (Herb Alpert, James Gordon,Herman Townsley, "Skin" Schwartz, Dick Williams,and storyboard artist Hugo Wuetrich) make the world shown when the mask is worn into a brilliantly wild,experimental Horror,as Louis Applebaum's unsettling score stays screeching in the background,whilst Hoofman and co's wonderfully weird,near wordless, segments go from a woman's mask face being pulled off on top of a coffin,to the mask itself turning into a flame-throwing monster.
The plot:
Falling to get any helpful advice from Dr Alan Barnes over the recurring nightmarish vision which he keeps having when ever he wears an old mask,a patient of Barnes decides that he has only one option left to rid himself of his addiction to the mask:shoot himself.
Being interrupted during his daily routine by two police officers,Barnes is shocked to learn that one of his oldest patents has committed suicide.
Offering to help the cops out in anyway he can,Alan gets set to finish his day so that he can spend plenty of time in comfort with girlfriend Pam Ablight.Just as Barnes is gathering his last things,he suddenly notices a box put at the end of the desk,which contains a strange looking mask,that he gets a mysterious urge from to pick up and wear it.
View on the film:
Although the screenplay by Frank Tabues,Sandy Haver and Franklin Delessert does contain some "chewy" exposition dialogue about the troubles with the mask,the writers make the film's brisk 73 minute running time fly by,thanks to having Barnes obsession with the mask get deeper and more insane as the film nears it conclusion,and also due to never making the film's use of 3D feel tacked on,but instead feel like something which is blended into the rest of the movie.
Cleverly separating the 3D set pieces into 4 4 bite size chunks,director Julian Roffman covers the films TV Movie of The Week style sets by shooting in a Noir low-lit fashion,which allows for the stunning Claudette Nevins to look truly ravishing as Pam,and also for the obsessed Paul Stevens to make Barnes look like he is about to go off the wall.
Seeing that the films 3D effects became 50 years old last year,I have to say that I found each of the 4 segments to hold up extremely well and also be extraordinarily captivating.
Despite being uncredited due to Slavko Vorkapich's (who left the movie before it had started filming) "pay or play" contract,director Roffman and his a head of their time team of FX wizards, (Herb Alpert, James Gordon,Herman Townsley, "Skin" Schwartz, Dick Williams,and storyboard artist Hugo Wuetrich) make the world shown when the mask is worn into a brilliantly wild,experimental Horror,as Louis Applebaum's unsettling score stays screeching in the background,whilst Hoofman and co's wonderfully weird,near wordless, segments go from a woman's mask face being pulled off on top of a coffin,to the mask itself turning into a flame-throwing monster.