The Maze (1953)

Fantastic!

Absolutely brilliant

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

With only two weeks to go before her wedding, a young woman finds herself in distress after her fiancé, a jovial Scotsman, travels to his ancestral estate in the Highlands after the death of a relative...and does not return. The woman's aunt receives a cryptic note weeks later saying the man is canceling the wedding plans, so the girl and her aunt take it upon themselves to travel to the spooky spread and confront him. Perplexing, methodically-paced and oddly entertaining yarn originally presented in 3-D, which explains the acrobatic act near the opening. It doesn't cover all its tracks by the final reel (such as why the Scotsman has supposedly aged 20 years in two months), but the production and set-designs are quite nifty for a B-movie. The cast is solid as well, though the picture could do with a little levity or personality. ** from ****

****SPOILERS**** This made in 3D effects movie staring the then 3D king Richard Carlson who was in as many as 4 of them-3D movies-as Gerald MacTeam who teams up with his faithful butler William, Peter Pate, to prevent his fiancées Kitty Murray, Veronica Hurst, from finding out what's going on in his family estate in Scotland. Gerald friendly- as the Man who sells Good Humor- and affable at first turned into a mental case after visiting his family estate and locking himself in it he aged at least 10 years in the one month that he lived there!With Kitty and Aunt Edith,Katherine Emery, showing up both unexpected and uninvited at the MacTeam Estate and seeing poor Gerald in the sorry state that he's in he and his butler William do everything to get them to leave and keep them from finding out what's been really going on there for the last two hundred years! Something so strange and shocking it would have all of Darwin's theories of evolution thrown out the window and used for camp and marshmallow fires!****SPOILERS*** The situation at the castle got out of hand when the secret that Gerald was hiding came out into the open to take a dip in the pool at the nearby maze and then all hell broke loose. The frog-like creature who was really-are you ready for this-the half man half toad Sir Roger Phillip MacTeam who came or hopped out into the open to take a dip in the pool and scared the living hell out of both Killt & Aunt Katherine! Trying to get away and back into the shadows Sir Roger ended up falling down from the roof of that castle that he hopped on to and to his death before anyone could save him. With now the cat or better yet frog out of the bag the mystery of the MacTeam Castle was over. And a back to normal Gerald not having to run interference for his late 203 year old descendant Sir Roger and can finally marry Kitty and forget this whole crazy episode in his life!

When the film begins, Sir Gerald is engaged to a lovely woman, Kitty. However, when Gerald receives work that his uncle is dying, he immediately leaves to see the man. Within a short time, the uncle has died and Gerald has inherited the family estate. Here's where it starts to get odd. Instead of returning to Kitty or inviting her to his new home, she heard NOTHING from Gerald. Naturally she's concerned and goes to his new home in Scotland. Surprisingly, he' not happy to see her and tells her the engagement is off and she should go!! But it's late at night and she cannot...so he reluctantly allows her and his aunt to stay one night only...and on the condition they stay locked in their rooms at night! Well, with no further explanation, Kitty absolutely refuses and comes up with excuses not to leave and soon invites Gerald's friends to come and see for themselves what's happened to Gerald. The once nice guy now looks old and haggard and isn't the least bit friendly or hospitable. What IS going on here...and what does the maze in the yard have to do with all this?This film was originally shown in 3-D but I saw it on TV without the old fashioned 3-D. Director/producer William Cameron Menzies does a really good job in keeping the film suspenseful and brooding. You don't know WHAT is going on...but you know it won't be good! The music sure helps with this as well--especially when Kitty and Aunt Edith get lost and separated in that dreaded maze! So is all this wonderful suspense worth it? Well, yes and no. Yes because you'll never guess the awful secret. No, because the secret is incredibly stupid!! But despite all this, the film is so well made up until the REALLY dumb ending that it's worth seeing. And, oddly, the film does feature a happy ending after all! Weird beyond belief at the end...really!

You know, this is not a terrible movie. It's atmospheric and mysterious and the female lead plays her part well...she reminds me of Grace Kelly. Richard Carlson is always good. The conclusion is creative and imaginative, and unlike some viewers who reported on this movie, I actually liked the ending. Interesting notion. They could only do so much with the special effects back then, but I can look past that. One thing this movie has going for it that too few movies do these days is good-heartedness. There aren't any truly "bad guys." Everybody is acting primarily out of a desire to do good and to look out for the interests of others rather than themselves, and I was left with a feeling of goodwill rather than the typical sense of foreboding and doom that so often is the central theme of movies like this one right to the end. A waste of time? No, I wouldn't say so. I'd say it's worth a watch.