The Masque of the Red Death (1964 film)

"Hear me! [all fall silent] Soon you will be costuming yourselves for the masque. A celebration, my friends. A celebration of victory over death, of evil over good. Monsignor Scarlatti will not be joining us...he failed to obey my orders. But because of me, through my mediation with my master, the Lord of Flies, you, all of you, unworthy though you may be, will be safe from the Red Death. We promise you...unless of course you incur our displeasure. For some of you are guilty of acts against us. Acts of faith perhaps. And all of you I suspect still harbor some sacred thoughts. But no more. A fallen angel will protect you."

"Do you know how a falcon is trained, my dear? Her eyes are sewn shut. Blinded temporarily, she suffers the whims of her God patiently, until her will is submerged and she learns to serve - as your God taught and blinded you with crosses."

"Do you command me to wait? Very well, I wait."

"There is no face of death, until the moment of your own death."

"It's time for a new dance to begin... the Dance of Death!"

"[to Prospero] Why should you be afraid to die? Your soul has been dead for a long long time."

"I called many. Peasant and prince... the worthy and the dishonored. Six only are left... a young man and woman... a dwarf and a tiny dancer... this child [he rests his hand on the little girl's head] and an old man still in the village. Sic transit gloria mundi (Latin for "Thus passes the glory of the world")."

"The hostility the film received from the US Catholic Legion of Decency came as a total surprise. I'm a lapsed Catholic myself. We had to make cuts for blasphemy and nudity, and the film was censored even more heavily in the UK. But I'm being asked to talk about it a great deal at the moment, with the pandemic. ... The Red Death plays almost as if it were about the coronavirus. And Prospero's behaviour – shutting himself away in the castle – is not dissimilar to our former president's."

"Horror has a face."

"Stare into this face and count if you can the orgies of evil...."

"We defy you to stare into this face."

"SHUDDER... at the blood-stained dance of the Red Death! TREMBLE... to the hideous tortures of the catacombs of Kali! GASP... at the sacrifice of the innocent virgin to the vengeance of Baal!"

"Vincent Price - Prince Prospero"

"Hazel Court - Juliana"

"Jane Asher - Francesca"

"David Weston - Gino"

"Nigel Green - Ludovico"

"John Westbrook - The Red Death"

"Patrick Magee - Alfredo"

"Paul Whitsun-Jones - Scarlatti"

"Robert Brown - Guard"

"David Davies - Lead villager"

"Sarah Brackett - Grandmother"

"Skip Martin - Hop-Toad"

"Verina Greenlaw - Esmeralda"