Late last night I caught the monochrome horror Sardonicus, from 1961, on the telly as part of Caroline Munro's delightful Cellar Club.
Sardonicus is the grim tale of a man with a richtus smile, a gothic affliction with a long heritage, as there is a similar but much older silent film called The Man Who Laughs starring Conrad Veidt.
Veidt's hideously wide smile went on to inspire the Joker's evil grin in Batman, but having seen Sardonicus I wanted to know its own particular source.
It was inspired by a novella by American writer Ray Russell, creative in residence at Hugh Hefner's Playboy magazine. Having read up on Russell he appears to have been quite a thing back in the Sixties horror and sci Fi writing world, although it was all new to me this morning, something which is always a thrill.
Russell wrote many stories including his Unholy Trinity of Sardonicus, Sagittarius and Sanguineous, Sardonicus being the most well known.
Keen on collecting horror paperbacks I had a look at the availability of these three Playboy novellas. Individually they are very dear and largely in America.
They do appear in two other anthologies. The Unholy Trinity and Haunted Castles. Neither of these is a Yorkshire bargain and originals are expensive. Modern reprints are around fifteen quid.
Whilst I wait for Santa to take me off the Naughty list I'll have a scout round for Ray Russell's later terror take, Incubus, which I know is lurking in the loft.
Have you seen Sardonicus or read Ray Russell readers?
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Yerps, I too watched Sardonicus on TP last night. Found it rather underwhelming and overly long for the story. Felt it would be better as an episode of Twilight Zone or Outer Limits instead.
ReplyDeleteI have to admit I fell asleep about three quarters way through!
DeleteI watched Sardonicus years ago, probably during the ITV 'Appointment with Fear' season. Playboy did quite a series of fiction titles, including 'From the S file' with a selection of stories from Sheckley, Sturgeon et al. I gound a copy a t York car boot a few years ago and the cover is excellent, featuring a tentacular alien being
ReplyDeleteThat is a good car boot sale in York!
DeleteI had no idea it was in print
ReplyDeleteYes, there seem to be many old and modern issues of this and his other stories.
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