The Masque of the Red Death (1964 film) said he always felt "The Masque of the Red Death" and "The Fall of the House of Usher" were the two best Poe stories. After the success of "House of Usher" (1960), he strongly considered making "Masque" as the follow-up. In 1961, Corman announced he would make "Masque" from a script by Charles Beaumont to be produced for his Filmgroup Company. However, he later said was reluctant to move forward because it had several elements similar to "The Seventh Seal" (1957), and Corman was worried people would say he was stealing from Bergman. "I kept moving "The Masque of the
The Masque of the Red Death (1964 film) Red Death" back, because of the similarities, but it was really an artificial reason in my mind," he later said. Eventually he decided to go ahead and do it anyway. Another fact in the delay was that Corman had a great deal of trouble coming up with a screenplay he was happy with. Drafts were written by John Carter, Robert Towne and Barboura Morris, but Corman was not happy with any of them. There were also a number of rival adaptations of "Masque" being mooted around this time. The Woolner Brothers announced a film based on the story as did