The Masque of the Red Death (1964)
Vincent Price: Prince Prospero
Photos
Quotes
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Prospero : Somewhere in the human mind, my dear Francesca, lies the key to our existance. My ancestors tried to find it. And to open the door that separates us from our Creator.
Francesca : But you need no doors to find God. If you believe...
Prospero : Believe? If you believe, my dear Francesca, you are... gullible. Can you look around this world and believe in the goodness of a god who rules it? Famine, Pestilence, War, Disease and Death! They rule this world.
Francesca : There is also love and life and hope.
Prospero : Very little hope I assure you. No. If a god of love and life ever did exist... he is long since dead. Someone... something, rules in his place.
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Prospero : But Satan rules the universe! I made a pact with him!
Man in red : He does not rule alone... and your pact with him will not save you.
Prospero : There is no other God! Satan killed him!
Man in red : Each man creates his own God for himself, his own Heaven, his own Hell.
Prospero : Let me see your face!
[He unmasks the Man in Red to reveal his own bloodstained face]
Man in red : Your Hell, Prince Prospero... and the moment of your death.
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Man in red : I have no title. Why do you call me "Excellency"?
Prospero : Well, I thought that as the ambassador of Satan...
Man in red : He is not my master. Death has no master.
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Prospero : Do you know how a falcon is trained, my dear? Her eyes are sewn shut. Blinded temporarily, she suffers the whims of her God patiently, until her will is submerged and she learns to serve - as your God taught and blinded you with crosses.
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Prospero : Our master will be pleased. I brought all of these souls to him; I corrupted them for him. I believed in Satan when no one else would. I built a chapel to him and I prayed to him. And all of these, my friends, I brought them here promising them safety.
Man in red : You presumed too much.
Prospero : I know, I know. But it does make a fine jest, the kind of jest that would amuse Satan.
Man in red : [coldly] Would it?
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[Juliana has been killed]
Prospero : I beg you do not mourn for Juliana. We should celebrate. She's just married a friend of mine.
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Prospero : How like a worm you are. Be one.
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Juliana : Prince Prospero? Why do you roam the late night corridors?
Prospero : Sleep eludes me.
Juliana : You have disturbing thoughts?
Prospero : And you, Juliana? What keeps you awake?
Juliana : I think my thoughts dwell on the same subject as yours. The peasant girl.
Prospero : She has a perfect faith.
Juliana : So do I. In you and in what you believe. I've been an eager student but I've held back from the final ceremonies. And now I'm ready to join you at the invocation.
Prospero : How truly realistic women are. Finally, you are ready to dare the most terrible rites and incantations to secure your position here. I wonder. I wonder if she is ready to dare as much if anything for the sake of love.
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Juliana : Gino , my father where are they?
Prospero : [laughing as Francesca hides herself] Modesty but no humility, why do you hide yourself?
Francesca : It's not right that you should look at me.
Prospero : That cross you wear around your neck is it only a decoration or are you a true christian believer?
Francesca : Yes I believe truly.
Prospero : Then I want you to remove it at once and never to wear it within this castle again.
[holds out his hand while Francesca takes off her necklace]
Prospero : .
Juliana : This peasant girl is she always to be bathed in my bedroom?
Prospero : We'll find you another room Juliana, meanwhile you will dress the Lady Francesca in one of your finest gowns.
Juliana : I don't...
Prospero : Later you can instruct her in the ways of the court.
Francesca : Please my father.
Prospero : Your father... oh yes your father and your lover are being quartered in a warm and safe place, now I must go and join my guests.
Juliana : [turning to Francesca] You may think that you have impressed the Prince Prospero, but you can count on little help from me.
Francesca : You will do as he told you.
Juliana : Yes as we all must do.
Francesca : I will do what I must to save my men, but if they are killed I will die and so will Prince Prospero.
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Prospero : Your Excellency... this girl
[he indicates Francesca]
Prospero : ... in all my life, I've never met one who's faith rivalled mine. Spare her to me.
Man in red : A charitible request... a rare thing with you, Prospero.
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Prospero : I should like to see your face.
Man in red : There is no face of death... until the moment of your own death.
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Man in red : Is my costume such a disguise that you don't recogbnize me?
Prospero : Your voice, it's familiar. Dottore Bernelli, that's who you are! Bernelli, you dog, thinking...
[pause, then realizing]
Prospero : You're not Bernelli.
Man in red : No. The doctor dances in the White Room... but I passesd close by him.
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Prospero : The greatest swordsman in Italy does not fear the second-greatest. He fears the worst, because that one is unpredictable.
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Prospero : The village is full of the Red Death.
Scarlatti : The Red Death? Prince Prospero, I beg you, allow us haven. I beg, sanctuary!
Prospero : This is no church!
Scarlatti : By any god, in all the gods of time, I beg you! My wife! You've always thought her beautiful. And you, you desired her. I've watched your eyes follow her...
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Alfredo : Wherever did you find her?
Prospero : Pretty toy isn't she?
Alfredo : Delightful. I wonder...
Prospero : Oh, I'm sure you do, Alfredo. I'm sure you wonder about every female in my household - and everyone with the appearance of innocence.
Alfredo : You seem to take great pleasure in corrupting it.
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Prospero : I'm not corrupting, Alfredo, no... instructing.
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Francesca : [after Gino has been ordered to be removed from the castle] Prince Prospero let me go with him.
Prospero : You?
Francesca : Please.
Prospero : You , oh no my dear I couldn't bear to think of... No
[to the crowd]
Prospero : you will go to your rooms now and prepare for the masque, you will not appear in your costumes until... midnight.
Prospero : [turns to see Francesca following him] Why do you follow me?
Francesca : Bring Gino back and I will do whatever you wish.
Prospero : You would destroy yourself for him?
Francesca : Yes.
Prospero : [smiling] You almost cause me to doubt.
Juliana : Prospero, my prince I'm ready
[removes the rose to reveal the mark she gave herself]
Juliana : .
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Prospero : These two men are true believers in a God who preached 'Love thy neighbor', therefore they refuse to fight each other in order to save one of their lives.
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Prospero : What do you want?
Lead Villager : Mercy, great prince. This is all that is left of us. And the winter it comes and the freezing wind, there is no shelter.
Prospero : Then dig a burrow as the fox and rabbits do.
Lead Villager : But the wells and the streams, they'll be frozen over, there's no food.
Prospero : Then store up nuts like the squirrels.
Lead Villager : Mercy, give us sanctuary of the castle walls.
Prospero : Give me an end to your pleading. Go back from whence you came.
Lead Villager : We will die!
Prospero : If you refuse to go, then die here. Archers!
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Alfredo : [to a party-goer] Let me speak to you about the, uh, "anatomy of terror."
Prospero : [Interrupting] Terror? What would you know of terror, Alfredo? Your senses are much too blunt! What is "terror?" Come.
[Leads the party into an adjoining chamber with a clock]
Prospero : Silence!
[the clock ticks]
Prospero : Listen. Is it to awaken and hear the passing of time? Or is it the failing beat of your own heart? Or the footsteps of someone who, just a moment before, was in your room? But let us not dwell on terror. The knowledge of terror is vouchsafed only to the precious few.
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Juliana : My master... Satan!
[Prospero laughs from another room]
Juliana : Prospero? Prospero?
[Gets up]
Juliana : I am betrothed... of the devil. And I have seen the terrors.
Prospero : Not all of them.
Juliana : [Enters the white room] I have survived my own sacrifice.
Prospero : There is more.
Juliana : [Enters the purple room] And I'm stronger in the devil's favor than you are!
[Enters the yellow room]
Juliana : Together on earth... we shall live as man and wife... and when he calls us, you shall be saved... and I, still, your wife!
[Enters the main ballroom and walks toward the clock]
Juliana : I have tasted the beauties of terror.
Prospero : Hush. Listen. The passing of time... the beating of a heart... the footsteps of an assassin... destiny!
[Juliana is killed by Prospero's hawk]
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Prospero : On the Sabbath, at midnight, for your amusement there will be a masquerade. The wardrobes of the castle are yours to use. But I beg of you, even for the humor of it, do not wear red.
[throws a chalice of wine on Alfredo's face]
Alfredo : You go too far. I am not without influence and power.
Prospero : Against the Red Death? Yes. Yes, it came to the village. Even now, it lays waste to the countryside. So you can count yourselves fortunate that you are here in this castle - under the protection of Prince Prospero.
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Prospero : How like a pig you are. Be one.
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Prospero : Continue with your merrymaking. Act according to your natures.
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Prospero : Señorita Escobar, do you hear how she laughs? It is like nothing so much as a braying jackass. Be one. You, Señor Rimini, ride that jackass to market. As for the rest of you, use your imaginations. Show me the lives and loves of the animals.
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Prospero : A hundred years ago, an ancestor of mine was a Christian monk. He was made examiner of an early inquisition. He tortured over 600 men, women and children - in order to save their souls for your god of love.
Francesca : I cannot answer. I have no learning. But then is Satan a god of hate?
Prospero : Oh, no. Of reality, of truth.
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Prospero : My father imprisoned a friend of his in this room for three years. When he was released he could never again bear to look at the sun - or even a daffodil.
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Prospero : Let the masque begin!
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Prospero : Tonight, after the masque, I will initiate you into understanding.
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Prospero : I knew I was right. I knew it. I've won!
Man in red : The time of unmasking. They begin to show their naked faces.
