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.

William Cameron Menzies directed an odd bag of films and designed some fabulous sets in his lifetime. As usual, he was working on an uncompromising budget and that, to some reviewers, seems to mean that his talent wasn't somehow up to the task. This is a sorry reward for such an intelligent designer. The script gets in the way at times, admitted, but the sets - and the fabulous musical score by Marlin Skyles - give us so much more than a few laughs from dated dialogue. It's all far-fetched with the explanations at the very end but it builds up nicely, the actors are all on cue, and the lighting alone make it worth the visit. In general, so many of the horror films of the 50s are fascinating to watch today.

The Maze is directed by William Cameron Menzies and adapted to screenplay by Daniel Ullman from a story by Maurice Sandoz. It stars Richard Carlson, Veronica Hurst, Katherine Emery, Michael Pate, John Dodsworth and Hillary Brooke. Music is by Marlin Skiles and cinematography by Harry Neumann.Scotsman Gerald MacTeam (Carlson) suddenly breaks off his engagement to Kitty Murray (Hurst) and moves to his recently deceased uncle's castle in the Scottish highlands. Kitty wonders why and decides to travel to Craven Castle with her auntie Edith (Emery). Upon arriving they find Gerald a changed man, prematurely aged and acting in a most peculiar way. Just what is going on at this mysterious castle? What is the secret of the big maze out in the grounds?One of the early ventures into stereoscopic filming, The Maze is a delightfully off-kilter movie. As pretty much anyone who has seen it can attest, the ending, the culmination of great building by Menzies, is so far off the scale it borders on the preposterous, and for many it ruins the picture. Certainly myself had to rewind to check what I had just seen, for I felt like I must have nodded off and slipped into some sort of bad liquor induced dream!That said, for an hour this is a triumph of atmospherics and set design. Menzies and Neumann cover the story with foggy exteriors and murky shadows, while the interior of the castle is a classic case of Gothic horror textures, with Skiles' musical accompaniments are perfectly evocative. The narrative smoothly moves along with the air of mystery hanging heavy, where the visitors to Craven are locked in their rooms at night, thus at night from the gap under the doors of the bedrooms a slow moving shadow is glimpsed roaming the corridors. What is it? What is it in the distant maze that is shuffling around? Leaving weird footprints around the grounds?The characters are a stock group for the story, with intrepid girls investigating, shifty servants (naturally), well intentioned friends and lord of the manor harbouring a secret. Menzies fluidly uses the castle and grounds for atmospheric effects, neatly placing the characters within the palpable sense of dread and tragedy, and there truly are some striking scenes, especially the build up sequence to the revelation at film's climax. Then it's that ending...On reflection the makers missed a trick, the chance to really create a terrifying shock, but you have to say it's also a product of its time and budget. And whilst I understand fully the groans and laughs that derail what has gone before, there is a sadness right there in the reveal, a touching tragedy that bears thought even if the ludicrousness of it all is practically impossible to forgive. 7/10

A lot of "B-movie" SF/horror films of the 1950's are known for their cheesy monsters, cheap sets, and mediocre acting ... that all still works, somehow, to make up for an entertaining film that often becomes a "guilty pleasure". Such is the case for most of THE MAZE, a oddball of a film, originally shot in 3D and released in 1953, that starts off with plenty of mood and atmosphere. Kitty (Veronica Hurst) is a very attractive, upper-class blonde English gal who is engaged to the handsome, lively and upbeat Gerald (Richard Carlson) - who, just prior to their wedding, has to make an emergency trip back to Scotland when his uncle passes away. Soon after his departure, Kitty receives a note from him, breaking off the engagement and saying that Gerald is remaining in Scotland. Disturbed and worried, Kitty ventures with her Aunt Edith (Katherine Emery, who also sporadically narrates the film) to Scotland and one hell of a creepy, moody castle with even creepier, moodier servants. Worse still, Gerald is not only angry and insolent that they've come, he's also lost all his vitality and happiness ... and appears to have aged twenty years from when Kitty last saw him only weeks ago. There's something weird going on here, and it all centers around a huge hedge maze that sits just outside the castle walls. Entrance to it is forbidden, and one of the provisions of Kitty and Edith's continuing to stay (Kitty hoping for a way to help Gerald) is that they must be locked in their rooms every night - leading to more weirdness, as Kitty notices/hears something heavy being dragged past her door in the middle of the night (among other strange occurrences). Everything in the film builds up to the maze, and the secret Gerald and the castle's servants are hiding there - and the movies does its job well in building up a sense of foreboding and suspense ... only to end in one of the dippiest, most lame endings that almost spoils the entire experience of watching the film. So although I had some fun with most of it, the "WTF" of an ending in no way lived up to all that had gone before.