The Mask (1961 film)

The story concerns a psychiatrist, Dr. Allen Barnes (Stevens), who obtains a mysterious ancient tribal mask after one of his patients (Radin) committed suicide. Whenever he puts on the mask, Barnes experiences dream-like visions which become increasingly disturbing and violent and even physically harming his girlfriend Pam (Nevins). The visions begin to alter Barnes' personality, and eventually drive him insane while Lt. Martin (Walker) questions those who knew him and the whereabouts of said mask.

• Paul Stevens as Doctor Allan Barnes
• Claudette Nevins as Pam Albright
• Bill Walker as Lieutenant Martin
• Anne Collings as Miss Goodrich
• Martin Lavut as Michael Radin
• Leo Leyden as Doctor Soames

Julian Roffman and Nat Taylor had previously worked together on The Bloody Brood. Frank Taubes and Sandy Haber, two New York advertisers, proposed to Roffman and Taylor, without a script, a 2D film with 3D sequences. Taubes and Haber produced test footage for the film, but Roffman was unimpressed and stated that their 3D effects were "crap".[1]

Raymond Spottiswoode, a friend of Roffman, developed a 3D system called Depth Dimension while working for the United Kingdom National Research Council and The Mask was the first film to use it. The NRC rented the 3D cameras to Roffman and Taylor for £4,000 pounds a week.[2][3]

Roffman stated that the idea for the film's plot came after he saw a museum exhibit on the Aztecs and modeled the mask in the film based on an Aztec mask.[4] Joe and Vicky Morhain were hired to write a script, but had difficulty writing the dream sequences. Slavko Vorkapich, who had developed montage sequences for Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, wrote the dream sequences. However, Vorkapich's ideas were too expensive and he rarely worked although The Mask became his last screenwriting credit before his death.[5]

The dream sequences were written by a collection of people including Herb Alpert, the film's cinematogrpaher and brother of Harry Alpert, James Gordon, an optical effects worker for 20th Century Fox, Herman Townsley, Skin Schwartz, Dick Williams, and Hugo Wuetrich. Wuetrich was a storyboard artist and drew many of the ideas, including ones that were not filmed such as a scene of giant spiders attacked the protagonist.[5] The nightmare sequences in the film were inspired by Andreas Vesalius paintings that Roffman had seen.[6]

The film was shot over the course of ten weeks from 22 March to May 1961, with six weeks being dedicated to the 3D portions of the film. The 3D scenes were shot in black and white, but were printed using colour film stock.[7] The optical effects were completed by 20th Century Fox by August 1961. The 2D scenes were filmed at the Kleinburg studio over sixteen days. Louis Applebaum wrote the film's score.[8] The budget was between $287,000 (equivalent to $2,588,484 in 2021) and $300,000 (equivalent to $2,705,732 in 2021).[7][3]

The film's distribution rights were offered to Warner Bros. and Paramount Pictures. Paramount offered $350,000 for the film, but Taylor chose Warner Bros., despite their lower offered, as he believed that they "were nicer guys".[9] The film was initially 95 minutes long, but was reduced to 83 minutes for its theatrical release.[3][10]

The Mask was the first time that a film entirely produced by Canadians received wide international distribution.[11] The film was distributed by International Film Distributions in Canada and by Warner Bros. internationally.[3] The film was released in New York on 27 October 1961. The Mask was later changed to Eyes of Hell after the distribution contract with Warner Bros. ended.[7] New Line Cinema later distributed the film across college campuses in the 1970s. Roffman's son Peter stated that Warner Bros.' accounting prevented them from receiving profits from the film's American release.[12] The film was later retitled to The Spooky Movie Show.[13]

A "Magic Mystic Mask", showing both front and back, which was handed out to theatergoers to view the movie The Mask (1961).

Jim Moran, a mask collector, was used for the trailers and was stopped at the Canadian border and ordered to pay a fine of $175 before telling officials that his masks were for film promotion.[14][15] Specially made 3D glasses were given to audience members and prompts were shown on screen for the start of each sequence that utilized 3D.[16]

In a contemporary review, Howard Thompson of The New York Times commended the film's acting and cinematography but criticized the film's nightmare sequences, soundtrack and melodramatic plot.[17]

In retrospective reviews, Time Out panned the film, deeming it "a bland and hackneyed murder mystery that was spiced up by surreal nightmare sequences" and "tacky" use of 3D.[18] Brad Wheeler of The Globe and Mail gave the film one out of four stars, similarly criticizing its 3D and plot and stating that its appeal was "limited to genre fetishists and popcorn-chomping ironists".[19] Conversely, Chris Coffel of Bloody Disgusting felt that, despite a thin story, the film's psychedelic visuals, makeup effects and set pieces made it an enjoyable B-movie in the vein of William Castle.[20]

The film has since gained a cult following over the years and is now considered a cult classic.[19][21] The film was also featured in a season 13 episode of the cult science fiction series Mystery Science Theater 3000.[22][23]

• The Mask at AllMovie
• The Mask at IMDb
• The Mask at Rotten Tomatoes
• The Mask at the TCM Movie Database