Sven- Mr. Sardonicus

 

In 1880, Baron Sardonicus is a crazy sadist.  His face is frozen in a rictus grin, even worse than the Joker's.  He experiments on many people, terrorizing the village with his sadism.  His newest wife tells him about her former paramour and his success with paralysis.  The Baron sends for him, and then forces him to do more experiments.  Finally, one of them works, and the Baron is cured.  Or is he?  Turns out his issue is psychosomatic, but since the Baron has tortured everyone, no one tells him.  Maude and Sir Robert leave, Krull neglects to tell his master about the other news, and presumably, Sardonicus dies.

This is another William Castle movie, so of course it has a gimmick.  This was the punishment poll, where people in the audience would hold up a thumbs up or thumbs down to "vote" for Sardonicus getting punished or not.  Allegedly there were two endings shot, so the projector would run whichever one the audience chose.  Naturally, everyone wanted the bad Baron punished.  No reprieve ending has ever been found, so the chances are great it was never shot.

It is a decent movie, but I am not a big fan of these types of films. I first heard about it in Famous Monsters, hence the picture.  Next- Return of the Vampire!