The Maze is directed by William Cameron Menzies and adapted to screenplay by Daniel Ullman from a story by Maurice Sandoz. It stars Richard Carlson, Veronica Hurst, Katherine Emery, Michael Pate, John Dodsworth and Hillary Brooke. Music is by Marlin Skiles and cinematography by Harry Neumann.

Scotsman Gerald MacTeam (Carlson) suddenly breaks off his engagement to Kitty Murray (Hurst) and moves to his recently deceased uncle's castle in the Scottish highlands. Kitty wonders why and decides to travel to Craven Castle with her auntie Edith (Emery). Upon arriving they find Gerald a changed man, prematurely aged and acting in a most peculiar way. Just what is going on at this mysterious castle? What is the secret of the big maze out in the grounds?

One of the early ventures into stereoscopic filming, The Maze is a delightfully off-kilter movie. As pretty much anyone who has seen it can attest, the ending, the culmination of great building by Menzies, is so far off the scale it borders on the preposterous, and for many it ruins the picture. Certainly myself had to rewind to check what I had just seen, for I felt like I must have nodded off and slipped into some sort of bad liquor induced dream!

That said, for an hour this is a triumph of atmospherics and set design. Menzies and Neumann cover the story with foggy exteriors and murky shadows, while the interior of the castle is a classic case of Gothic horror textures, with Skiles' musical accompaniments are perfectly evocative. The narrative smoothly moves along with the air of mystery hanging heavy, where the visitors to Craven are locked in their rooms at night, thus at night from the gap under the doors of the bedrooms a slow moving shadow is glimpsed roaming the corridors. What is it? What is it in the distant maze that is shuffling around? Leaving weird footprints around the grounds?

The characters are a stock group for the story, with intrepid girls investigating, shifty servants (naturally),well intentioned friends and lord of the manor harbouring a secret. Menzies fluidly uses the castle and grounds for atmospheric effects, neatly placing the characters within the palpable sense of dread and tragedy, and there truly are some striking scenes, especially the build up sequence to the revelation at film's climax. Then it's that ending...

On reflection the makers missed a trick, the chance to really create a terrifying shock, but you have to say it's also a product of its time and budget. And whilst I understand fully the groans and laughs that derail what has gone before, there is a sadness right there in the reveal, a touching tragedy that bears thought even if the ludicrousness of it all is practically impossible to forgive. 7/10

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!

The idiotic conclusion to this film ruins all the work that went into a pretty well paced and presented horror film. I mean, even the dumb amphibian thing could have been done in a better way. I mean, did he have to be a big bullfrog? There are other issues at work here. First of all, the spoiled tiresome people who are at the center of this thing are insufferable. They are non-productive stuffed shirts, full of themselves and do nothing. One of them is a doctor, I guess. They make cutesy remarks and tell tired jokes. Then there's the young woman who can't take no for an answer. She has not an ounce of respect for the guy she feels she is saving. Then there is the big secret. Why did this guy feel he needed to stay there and throw his life away, lurking in the hallways with those servants. And tell me if I missed something. Why did he age? If the maze was the cause, what exactly is in the maze. Everyone else runs around in it. I have limited writing ability, but I would bet you that I could rewrite three or four scenes, change the creature, and make this a nice horror/mystery movie. Did anyone say when it was over that it was just plain ridiculous. One last thing. The Aunt that narrates this insults our intelligence by explaining everything to us. Maybe the screenwriter could have done that.