William Castle

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For other persons named William Castle, see William Castle (disambiguation).
William Castle
Born William Schloss
April 24, 1914(1914-04-24)
New York City
Died May 31, 1977 (aged 63)
Los Angeles, California
Occupation Film director
Film producer

William Castle (April 24, 1914 – May 31, 1977) was an American film director, producer, and actor.

Contents

[edit] Biography

William Schloss was born in New York City to a Jewish family. Schloss means "castle" in German, and Castle probably chose to translate his surname into English to avoid the discrimination often encountered by Jewish entertainers of his time. He spent most of his teenage years working on Broadway in a number of jobs ranging from set building to acting. This put him in a good stead to become a director, and he left for Hollywood at the age of 23, going on to direct his first film 6 years later. He also worked an as assistant to director Orson Welles, doing much of the second unit location work for Welles' noir classic, The Lady from Shanghai.

Castle was famous for directing films with many gimmicks (as described by John Waters in his one-man-show, This Filthy World, available on DVD [2006]), which were ambitiously promoted, despite being reasonably low budget B-movies. Five of these were scripted by adventure novelist Robb White. Recently, two of his films have been remade, House on Haunted Hill in 1999, and Thirteen Ghosts in 2001 (the latter retitled Thir13en Ghosts, apparently in imitation of the suspense film Se7en).

He also produced, and had a brief non-speaking role in, Roman Polanski's film Rosemary's Baby (1968). (Castle is the grey-haired man lurking outside the phone booth while Mia Farrow is attempting to get in touch with the obstetrician.) According to the documentary featured on the film's DVD release, Castle had wanted to direct the film as well, but the studio insisted on hiring another director due to the reputation Castle had gained through his previous work. They felt that the novel deserved a better treatment than Castle was able to give it.

After a long career, William Castle died in Los Angeles, California, of a heart attack.[1] He is interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.

A documentary focusing on Castle's life, Spine Tingler! The William Castle Story, directed by Jeffrey Schwarz, had its premiere at AFI FEST 2007 in Los Angeles on November 8, 2007.[2] It won the Audience Award for Best Documentary.

[edit] Gimmicks used by Castle

Macabre - 1958
Macabre - 1958
  • Macabre - 1958. A certificate for a $1,000 life insurance policy from Lloyd's of London was given to each customer in case he/she should die of fright during the film. Showings also had ushers dressed in surgical garb with ambulances outside theater.
  • House on Haunted Hill - 1959. Filmed in "Emergo". An inflatable skeleton attached to a wire floated over the audience during the final moments of some showings of the film to parallel the action on the screen when a skeleton arose from a vat of acid and pursued the villainous wife of Vincent Price. The gimmick did not always instill fright; sometimes the skeleton became a target for some audience members who hurled candy boxes, soda cups or any other objects at hand at the laughable fake skeleton.[3]
  • The Tingler - 1959. Filmed in "Percepto". In the film a docile creature that lives in the spinal cord is activated by fright, and can only be destroyed by screaming. In the film's finale one of the creatures removed from the spine of a mute woman killed by it when she was unable to scream is let loose in a movie theatre. Some seats in theatres showing the Tingler were equipped with larger versions of the hand held "joy buzzers" attached to the underside of the seats. When the Tingler in the film attacked the audience the "joy buzzers" were activated as Vincent Price's voice encouraged the real audience to "Scream - scream for your lives". The effect caused more giggles than shock.[citation needed] Articles regarding this often incorrectly state the seats in the theatre were wired to give electrical jolts. Much more effective was a scene in the black and white film of a hand rising from a bathtub filled with bright red blood. This color section was spliced into each print and remains impressive even today.
  • 13 Ghosts - 1960. Filmed in "Illusion-O". A hand held ghost viewer/remover with strips of red and blue cellophane was given out to use during certain segments of the film. By looking through either the red or blue cellophane the audience was able to either see or remove the ghosts if they were "too frightening". The similarity to anaglyph 3-D glasses often causes this film to be listed as 3-D when in fact there are no 3-D segments in the film.
  • Homicidal - 1961. This film contained a "Fright break" with a 45 second timer overlaid over the film's climax as the heroine approached a house harboring a sadistic killer. A voiceover advised the audience of the time remaining in which they could leave the theatre and receive a full refund if they were too frightened to see the remainder of the film. To receive the refund the patron had to stand in the "Coward's Corner" until the film was over and the exiting audience filed by. To ensure the more wily patrons did not simply stay for a second showing and leave during the finale a different color "Coward's Certificate" was given each patron who had to present it in order to receive the refund for that showing. In a trailer for the film, Castle explained the use of the Coward's Certificate, and admonished the viewer to not reveal the ending of the film to friends, "or they will kill you. If they don't, I will."[4]

"William Castle simply went nuts. He came up with "Coward's Corner," a yellow cardboard booth, manned by a bewildered theater employee in the lobby. When the Fright Break was announced, and you found that you couldn't take it anymore, you had to leave your seat and, in front of the entire audience, follow yellow footsteps up the aisle, bathed in a yellow light. Before you reached Coward's Corner, you crossed yellow lines with the stenciled message: "Cowards Keep Walking." You passed a nurse (in a yellow uniform?...I wonder), who would offer a blood-pressure test. All the while a recording was blaring, "'Watch the chicken! Watch him shiver in Coward's Corner'!" As the audience howled, you had to go through one final indignity -- at Coward's Corner you were forced to sign a yellow card stating, "I am a bona fide coward." Very, very few were masochistic enough to endure this. The one percent refund dribbled away to a zero percent, and I'm sure that in many cities a plant had to be paid to go through this torture. No wonder theater owners balked at booking a William Castle film. It was all just too damn complicated".[5]

  • Mr. Sardonicus - 1961. In this gothic tale set in 1880 London a baron's face is frozen into a permanent grotesque hideous smile after digging up his father's grave to retrieve a lottery ticket left in the pocket of his father's jacket. The audiences were allowed to vote in a "punishment poll" during the climax of the film - Castle himself appears on screen to explain to the audience their options. Each member of the audience was given a card with a glow in the dark thumb they could hold either up or down to decide if Mr. Sardonicus would be cured or die during the end of the film. Banking that no one would want Mr. Sardonicus to survive William Castle filmed and showed only the punishment ending.
  • Zotz! - 1962. Each patron was given a "Magic" (gold colored plastic) coin which, of course, did absolutely nothing.
  • Strait-Jacket- 1964. Cardboard hatchets were handed out to each patron. The axes were more of a souvenir than an actual gimmick. The film was advertised with the tags "This film vividly depicts axe murders!" and "Just keep saying to yourself It's only a movie, it's only movie".
  • I Saw What You Did-1965. In an early trailer for the film William Castle advised the audience that a section of the theatre would be installed with seat belts for audience members "who might be scared out of their seats". The advertised gimmick was abandoned prior to the release of the film and never actually used.
  • Bug - 1975. Advertising a "Million dollar insurance policy has been taken out for the film's star Hercules the cockroach".

[edit] Films by Castle

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ "William Castle, 63, Movie Producer. Career Modeled on P.T. Barnum, Made Millions on Shockers Like 'Rosemary's Baby'.", New York Times, June 2, 1977. Retrieved on 2007-09-25. "William Castle, who made millions producing and directing films that horrified audiences and often left critics muttering about poor taste, suffered a heart attack at his home in Beverly Hills, Calif., Tuesday night and died at the University of California at Los Angeles Medical Center. He was 63 years old." 
  2. ^ Spine Tingler! The William Castle Story at the Internet Movie Database
  3. ^ allmovie ((( House on Haunted Hill > Overview )))
  4. ^ House on Haunted Hill (1999) DVD special features.
  5. ^ Waters, John. Crackpot: The Obsessions of John Waters. Scribner 2003. ISBN 0743246276. Excerpt from chapter 2.

[edit] External links