The Maze (1953)

Most everyone here hit the nail on the head. This is an old movie, and old horror film with all its rudimentary effects and style. This includes good acting and other good things too!Personally, I am not fond of horror movies anymore, and really not fond of old horror movies anymore! I used to like them to some degree, but lost my taste for horror movies some years back, even new ones. That said, I do enjoy 3D films, especially ones that are done well. And this is one of the finest 3D films I have seen! I don't know how it was shot so well, but I would love to know, as this was done even better than most of the newer 3D movies I have seen. I would have liked more well done pop-out (not eye-crossing, blurry, cheesy effects), but in spite of the lack of this, the scenes have really good 3D effects as others have mentioned. The movie had very few "flat" shots, and most scenes had really nice 3D to them. So much so that this movie deserves to be in every 3D collection. If more modern 3D movies were shot more like this one is, 3D wouldn't be in the jeopardy it is. Having shot some amateur 3D video myself, I find the technical side of 3D to be very interesting, an art in itself. It is really too bad it is lacking in many of today's 3D movies. My rating is 4 for the story, a 3 for the "costume/effects", 6 for the acting and 7 for set design (which I believe affected the 3D in a positive way), and a 9 for the 3D. (It would have had a 10 from me, if good "in the living-room"/in front of the screen 3D effects had been shot.) I highly recommend it to those who appreciate good 3D. Just keep in mind, it IS an old horror type movie!

Everything starts off fine in this intriguing, but slow moving moody thriller where a Scottish nobleman (Richard Carlson) abandons fiancee (Veronica Hurst) to take care of business at his ancestor's family home. Out of concern when she doesn't hear from him, Hurst and aunt Katherine Emery head there, are given an unwarm welcome, but stay on anyway where a horrific sight has Emery in shock. Being locked in at night and warned to stay away from the castle's humongous maze, Hurst gets a letter to friends of hers and Carlson's who show up to help her discover what the secret of the castle is, leading to an absurd revelation that had me in stitches and grateful that I wasn't drinking anything at the time.Made at the height of the 3-D phase, this seemed to have everything going for it, featuring a moody atmosphere, a brooding Heathcliff like hero and a heroine at risk for the old agenda of curiosity killing the cat. It combines elements of pretty much every gothic melodrama ever written or filmed, with the entrance to a second wing adding moody mystery a la "Jane Eyre" and "Rebecca", yet never landing at any suspense when Hurst makes her way there. A scene in a hidden passage behind the curtain in Hurst's room made me roll my eyes when she walked in and didn't immediately run when seeing a giant bat heading towards her. In the last reveal when the secret of the castle is revealed, I began to feel like I was watching a live "Scooby Doo" episode with how absurd the plot took place. To make matters worse, Emery's elegant aunt provides an epilogue that will have you shaking your head in disbelief. Perhaps it had audiences enthralled in 3-D, but overall, it's basically flat and lifeless.

The next-in-line to a Scottish heirloom, which is shrouded in mystery, suddenly breaks off his engagement to an American girl; inevitably, but against the baronet's better judgment, she turns up at the forbidding estate to investigate. Distinguished production designer-turned-director William Cameron Menzies (much like his later British counterpart Robert Fuest)'s most notable efforts in the latter capacity were in the Fantasy genre: this is the fourth and least of them and would also prove to be the last theatrical feature he ever helmed. Actually, it is not that hard to see why, since what we have here is more folly than fable – even if the film's overpowering atmosphere (filmed in 3-D) somehow renders the undeniably ludicrous plot compulsive. The cast (including Richard Carlson, Michael Pate and an unrecognizable Lillian Bond – from 1932's THE OLD DARK HOUSE) is not insignificant, but they have fairly little of interest to do or say: the intruding castle visitors do nothing except prowl its sinister corridors aimlessly at night and feign illness the morning after to extend their stay there! There are a couple of intriguing incidents to be sure: the women finding troubled Carlson has gone grey-haired in a matter of months since they had last seen him and once chancing upon a mysterious nightly procession…but, clearly, the film-makers believe that the unique revelation at the end is enough of an ace up their sleeve to bother making anything of them when these occur!

I've docked two stars from this film for what must surely be one of the silliest endings in horror movies - and that's saying something! This is up there with the climax of Night Monster for sheer cheek, but for around an hour this is an absorbing and atmospheric Gothic drama.Richard Carlson, always a welcome presence, plays the heir to a Scottish laird called away from his pre-nuptial holidays in the South of France by some strange emergency at his ancestral home - a rambling castle he hasn't visited in years. Promising to return to his fiancé as soon as he can, he then does a disappearing act, before writing a mysterious note telling his beau she's the next Jennifer Anniston! Naturally she doesn't take kindly to this, and with Aunt in tow (you can tell this was made in the pre-rock and roll era - the leads would be groovy teenagers if this had been made in 1958) she undertakes the trip to the castle, where the sinister servants and her one-time love are acting all mysterious....The Maze of the title is a part of the castle grounds, and seems to hold the key to the mystery. What are those strange slopping sounds heard in the night? Why must everyone be locked up in their rooms at a certain time each evening? The answer, when it comes, proves to be hilarious. MAJOR SPOILER HERE. Er, it turns out to be a 200 year-old frog, who happens to be one Sir Roger! A deformed ancestor who has an extended life, is very shy and retiring and yet cultured. (come off it, guys he's a frog!) The minute he's discovered Sir Rodg takes a great froggy leap through a window to his doom. You might say he croaked! Cue Carlson's laugh-out loud explanation for the mysterious events...All I can say is they must have some sizable insect life in the Scottish Highlands to keep Kermit, er, Sir Roger, well-fed. Okay, I fess up. It's a bloke in a frog suit....There's one great Lovecraftian shot of the frog fumbling about in the darkness which is genuinely creepy, though. And if you can get past The Muppet Show explanation you might like it.