[1] It tells the story of Sardonicus, a man whose face becomes frozen in a horrifying grin while robbing his father's grave to obtain a winning lottery ticket.

Convinced that Maude despises him, Sardonicus bribes women to his chambers and terrifies the locals with his sadism.

Upon opening the grave, Marek was traumatized by the sight of Henryk's partially rotted, "grinning" face.

Marek's face was frozen in a similar horrifying grin, leaving him unable to speak intelligibly or chew food.

When Sir Robert balks at using the first variant to have a surviving test subject, Sardonicus coerces him by locking Maude in a room with Henryk's open coffin.

The baron writes a note annulling his marriage to Maude, and another to Sir Robert asking his fee.

Krull sits down to eat his lavish dinner in front of Baron Sardonicus, who continues to suffer, and is doomed to starve.

Castle purchased the rights to the short story and hired its author, Ray Russell, to write the screenplay.

[1] To achieve Sardonicus's terrible grin, Rolfe was subjected to five separate facial appliance fittings.

[1] As a result, the full makeup is only shown in a few scenes, with Rolfe instead wearing a mask over his face for most of the running time.

There are reports that a separate version of the "poll" was produced for drive-ins, in which patrons were asked to flash their cars' headlights to vote.

The PTA Magazine described Mr. Sardonicus as an "elaborately produced [film]... that evokes disgust as well as macabre thrills".

[7] The New York Times, while praising Lewis's performance, stated that Castle "is not Edgar Allan Poe.

[9] The U.S. television series Wiseguy has a story arc about a rich mining and logging magnate in Washington state who is fixated on Mr. Sardonicus and has comparable emotional issues.