The Maze

Gerald MacTeam (Richard Carlson) is vacationing in France with his fiancee Kitty and her aunt. Upon receiving word that his uncle has died, Gerald quickly returns to his ancestral castle in Scotland.

Weeks pass, and Kitty receives a cryptic letter from Gerald. Intrigued and distressed, Kitty and her aunt go to the castle in search of answers. Once there, they discover that Gerald isn't himself, and the nightmare begins.

THE MAZE is a wonderfully mysterious old spooker / monster movie. Though the finale is somewhat weak, the buildup to it is superb. If you enjoy stories by H. P. Lovecraft or other macabre fiction, then this movie belongs on your watchlist...

The story is somewhat ordinary: "haunted" Scottish Castle, mysterious comings and goings, morose servants. Two women saying "I wonder where that door leads to." It turns in a bit of an unexpected direction, but all in all, the story and acting by themselves are worthless.

What makes this a recommended film is the way it is layered, its careful architecture. The reason is because the director was in fact a celebrated set designer/production manager. He thought in terms of spaces.

More: the thing was filmed in 3D. I did not see it that way, but the layering, the sense of containment was rare, and thrilling.

Readers often ask me about my notion of "architectural" films and I reluctantly send them to Welles' "Othello." But that film has other mysteries woven into it. Here, I have an example that is essentially pure.

One narrative device should be mentioned. We have a narrator that frames the thing, the way Ronald Reagan used to frame that TeeVee show presented by General Electric, and Hictcock did his show. She has the same manner, but herself is located spatially.

Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.

Moody, atmospheric and beautifully lensed Gothic thriller about an ancestral castle and its dark secret. A man about to be married (Richard Carlson) is abruptly called away to his ancestral estate. He breaks off his engagement to the delectable Veronica Hurst and she and her aunt (Katherine Emery) then travel to the castle to find out what's going on. There is a maze out back and someone or something prowls its corridors late at night. Excellent storyline and quite suspenseful, at least until the shadowy creature is finally revealed. Then it's off to MST3K territory, unfortunately. Up to that point, a very good ride that may remind some of 1960's "The Haunting." The focus is often on Hurst, and justifiably so. She looks terrific, even with her 1950s perm and makeup. Definitely not one of Carlson's best, and the film is largely forgotten today.

A woman and her aunt go to Scotland to locate her evasive fiancé. This is a much-maligned film because of its denouement, but up to that point, it's interesting, well-acted, eerie, and with fine set design (by William Cameron Menzies, developed for 3-D projection). Veronica Hurst is captivating and genteel, sort of a chic British Marilyn Monroe, still in love with Richard Carlson, who is hiding a family secret in his forbidding castle; there are even bats in the belfry! It moves leisurely until the final extraordinary set-piece, when Hurst and her aunt (Katherine Emery, also the narrator), sneak out of the castle in the night to venture into the maze (pre - "The Shining" - 1980) and find what they're looking for in its center. As a kid, I always remembered this sequence - there's nothing scarier (or claustrophobic) than not finding your way out of a 10-foot high maze of hedges. Naturally, the two women get separated, setting the stage for engrossing suspense with horrific music. The final result is mildly disappointing really, since Carlson's epilogue {a "Psycho" (1960) style postscript} makes some sense to all the goings-on, even provoking sympathy. Worth seeing.

I remember this film of old. It's a great, chilling, atmospheric horror picture about a man who moves into a Scottish castle, only to discover that there are strange goings-on in the corridors at night. And there are even stranger events taking place out back, in Hollywood's most familiar hedge maze. Yes, this is the maze you've seen in every feature-length film that ever involved a topiary puzzle, up to and including "The Shining." But the punchline to this story is about the last thing you would guess. I certainly didn't see it coming. This is a fine example of how good and convincing a movie can be even when the premise is utterly loopy, bordering on laughable. I'd recommend it to anyone.