text: Is this a good movie? It's hard to say -- but in 1953, for many people, it was a remarkably effective movie, suspenseful, scary and then, amazingly, actually touching when "the old gentleman" meets his unhappy death at the end of the movie.<br /><br />Yes, what lurks in the Maze turns out to be something of a surprise and, for a lot of people, a hilarious one. But the basic idea (ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny) was a very real one at the time the book was written, and does have some basis in fact. Not that it would ever result in what we see in the movie, of course.<br /><br />But working on what must have been a very low budget, one of the greatest production designers -- and the person for whom the term "production designer" was invented -- creates a very eerie mood that was strangely compelling. At times, of course, the movie is very silly, but it has its moments.