Happy Birthday, William Castle

by Chuck Duncan

It's William Castle's 97th birthday and we raise a toast to his very active spirit.

William Castle would have been 97-years-old today, April 24, had he lived … and if you’re a fan of his on Facebook you may be convinced the director is still with us. Or at least his spirit is still filling up his Wall with messages on a regular basis. He even has a very active website and Twitter account!

There probably aren’t a lot of movie-goers today, at least not many under 50, who even know who William Castle is. Castle was a director who had his heyday in the 1950s when the movie industry was struggling to stay afloat after the advent of television. Castle had made scores of low-budget, Grade-B movies in the ’40s but he had his first big success in 1953 with Fort Ti, a telling of the siege at Fort Ticonderoga as the British tried to route the French army from the fort during the French and Indian War. Castle shot Fort Ti in 3D, and he hit upon the idea of gimmicks to draw audience back to theaters for an experience they could not have at home.

Castle toiled away on more low-budget films mostly forgotten today but five years after Fort Ti, Castle finally had the opportunity to deliver another film with another attention grabbing gimmick — Macabre. The gimmick was a $1000 insurance policy to cover the risk of a heart attack suffered during the film due to sheer fright. Castle really played this up by having ambulances situated outside of the theaters and nurses in the lobby. Regardless of the film’s merits, the gimmick worked and Castle had finally become a hit in Hollywood.

The following year, 1959, Castle was lucky enough to join forces with Vincent Price for two of his most famous horror films, House on Haunted Hill, featuring “Emergo” in which a plastic skeleton would fly over the heads of the audience at the appropriate moment, and The Tingler which featured “Percepto,” a device that would buzz or vibrate selected seats in the audience during a scene in the movie in which the Tingler got loose in a movie theater. The black and white film also included a shocking moment of color when a hand emerged from a blood-filled bathtub.

More movies and gimmick followed, including 13 Ghosts, Homicidal and Mr. Sardonicus (in which the audience voted on the lead character’s fate, live or die, but there was only ever one ending filmed!) as well as Strait-Jacket in which the gimmick was the star, Joan Crawford. Castle’s dream project came along in 1968 when he had optioned the rights to the book Rosemary’s Baby. Paramount signed on to finance the film on the condition that Castle did not direct it. The studio had high hopes for a prestige picture and they felt Castle’s name would cheapen the production, so he was relegated to producer only. The decision broke his heart, but he was ultimately pleased with the finished product.

Castle died in 1977 and he was almost forgotten for his films and his showmanship (Castle usually introduced his films and took a note from Hitchcock by making cameo appearances). In 1993, John Goodman starred in Matinee, directed by Joe Dante, which was more of a loving tribute to Castle and his films rather than a true biopic. The film was delightful and caused a renewed interest in Castle’s film. Many of his classic titles have been released on DVD, but only 13 Ghosts came with the original gimmick — a viewer with a red or blue lens to look through depending on if the viewer wanted to see the ghosts or not. Theaters across the country have had revivals of his films with the gimmicks — I had the opportunity to see The Tingler with “Percepto” (people actually went through the auditorium trying to find the right seat) and Fort Ti in 3D a few years back — and there is an excellent documentary about Castle’s life and career, Spine Tingler! The William Castle Story, available on DVD as part of the William Castle Collection.

Castle’s films will never be regarded as classics alongside the works of Alfred Hitchcock, to whom he was unfavorably compared, but they have their own cheesy charm and most of them are more campy today than frightening. I wasn’t fortunate enough to be around during Castle’s heyday but I have relished the opportunity to see these films that I always heard about as a kid. So on Mr. Castle’s birthday, I toast the master of the macabre and thank him for making movies fun.