Baron Sardonicus (Guy Rolfe) was once Marek Toleslawski, a farmer like his father. He lived a quiet existence with his wife Elenka (Erika Peters), working is father’s land. Before his father died, he had purchased a ticket for a national lottery. He won, but was buried with the ticket. Elena says that if Marek loves her, he will open the grave and get the ticket. When the coffin opens, he is so upset by the rotted and grinning face of his dead dad that his face is stuck in the same manner, leaving him unable to speak or eat food for some time. His wife is so upset that she kills herself. Despite his wealth giving him a title, he is stuck with his face. After hiring experts, he is able to eat and speak, but needs Sir Robert (Ronald Lewis) to give him his face back.

Despite being married to Maude (Audrey Dalton), Sardonicus has been kidnapping and torturing young women with his wealth protecting him. He also has an assistant Krull (Oskar Homolka) who has lost an eye for making Sardonicus angry. If Sir Robert can figure out how to fix this, he will be saved — his face is now threatened — and numerous people will be protected. Can he do it?

This is a William Castle movie, so it needed a gimmick. At the conclusion, audiences took part in a “Punishment Poll” where they held up a glow-in-the-dark card with a thumbs up or down to determine if Sardonicus would die. Castle hosts the poll within the movie.

In his book Step Right Up! I’m Gonna Scare the Pants Off America, Castle said that the two different endings came from the Columbia Pictures hating the dark ending. He said,  “I would have two endings, Columbia’s and mine, and let the audience decide for themselves the fate of Mr. Sardonicus. Invariably, the audience’s verdict was thumbs down… Contrary to some opinions (just in case the audience voted for mercy) we had the other ending. But it was rarely, if ever, used.”

I’m going to disagree with Castle and say that that ending was never filmed. There was also said to be a drive-in ending with headlights flashing the votes.

Mr. Sardonicus was based on a book (it was originally published in three parts in Playboy) and stage play by Ray Russell, who also wrote The Incubus, Zotz!, The Premature Burial, Chamber of Horrors, The Horror of It All and X: The Man with the X-Ray Eyes.

You can watch this on YouTube.