Robert J. Maxwell You have to admire Richard Carlson. He was reliable, almost handsome, had an MA from the University of Minnesota, wrote novels and plays, and projected intelligence, boldness, tension, and earnestness that were perfectly suited to the unusual subject matter of hi later career. He was an exceptionally unexceptional actor but he was THERE for you.The opening is a brief flashback to a mysterious event in a 17th-century Scottish castle. Then a shot of a pleasant lady speaking directly to the audience (originally in 3D) and introducing us to the story we're about to follow. I like the lady too. Katherine Emery is Aunt Edith, and she had a pleasant, relaxing smile and I believed every word when she explained, "I guess it all started with an engagement party at Cannes, on the Rivera." She continues to do the voice over for the rest of the film. Dissolve to Carlson and a few others at a gay nightclub in which an attractive young girl is flung around with abandon by a couple of men in tuxedos. One of the guests, uncredited, is the immortal Bess Flowers, whose entire career consisted of playing uncredited guests. Carlson seems to be enjoying himself immensely. He's engaged to Emery's niece, Veronica Hurst.His holiday is interrupted by a message from that Scottish castle, called Craven. Carlson must fly to Scotland immediately. He's next in line to inherit the castle and the title of Baronet that goes with it. The castle has no modern conveniences -- no telephone, no electricity -- and stands just as it did hundreds of years ago. Still, his fiancée doesn't object, although she muses that "I suppose I'll get used to being addressed as Baroness." (You bet you will.) He does not return. Instead he sends a message to the aunt and his fiancée dissolving their arrangement. Hurst is distraught, as who wouldn't be in such a circumstance? Hurst and Emery travel to Craven Castle to find Carlson put out by their visit. What's worse, he's turned twenty years older in the past few weeks. He reluctantly puts them up for the night, cautioning his sinister butler to lock all the doors. Strange slithering sounds are heard in the hallway. Hurst is resolved to find out what the hell has been going on, and she sneaks out that night and begins exploring the cobwebbed ruins. A bat flies at her, or rather into the 3D camera lenses.It's impossible to know why bats have such a bad reputation. They mean no harm. One night, standing on the lip of the Grand Canyon, I tore a piece of scrap paper into bits and flung them into a floodlight, only to be surrounded by thousands of bats with a dawning sense of disbelief. Two or three of the more adventurous entangled themselves in my hair and I toppled helplessly into the canyon. But two days later they brought me up by mule, bloody but unbowed, still at peace with bats. Anyway, Hurst makes it to a grimy window that overlooks the back yard. There she sees a gigantic maze with dim figures moving through it.The next morning she finds a webbed footprint on the staircase and another in the gravel before the maze. At this point it's beginning to look less like a horror movie or science fiction than one of Edgar Allan Poe's fantasies. Nothing that happens from that point on changes anything.

MartinHafer 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!

redwriteandblue 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.

mpescajeda A TV viewing of The Maze was only available to me once, and unfortunately, I was only a pre-kinder kid at the time. This was the early '60s before Kennedy took that fateful motorcade, so my memories of the thing are, of course, sketchy. What readily comes to mind though is the dark, dark Scottish mansion where most of the story took place. Immediately eerie it was, and when several of the house staff lead something concealed by sheets on a stairwell making a "thump, thump" sound, it was plain weird, even to the small boy that I was. The ending of the film has been much maligned by other reviewers here, but it was a real shocker then. I pray for the day when I can see this little film again, although I'm sure it won't have the same impact for me in the present. By the way, outside of women, I'm still a little boy at heart and wish The Maze could be remade. Would any director and devotee of William Cameron Menzies be up for the challenge?