Spine Tingler! The William Castle Story (2007)

Director:

Jeffrey Schwarz

Release Date:

20 October 2009 (USA)

Genre:

Documentary

Tagline:

He was just another movie director...until he found himself a gimmick.

Plot:

Chronicles the last great American showman, filmmaker William Castle, a master of ballyhoo who became a brand name in movie horror with his outrageous audience participation gimmicks. |

Plot Keywords:

Character Name In Title

Awards:

2 wins

Cast

Forrest J Ackerman	...	Himself
John Badham	...	Himself
Diane Baker	...	Herself
Sidney D. Balkin	...	Himself
Steve Bickel	...	Himself
Robert Bloch	...	Himself (archive footage)
Budd Boetticher	...	Himself
Bob Burns	...	Himself
Kathy Burns	...	Herself (archive footage)
Terry Castle	...	Herself
William Castle	...	Himself (archive footage)
Harry Cohn	...	Himself (archive footage)
Roger Corman	...	Himself
Joan Crawford	...	Herself (archive footage)
Joe Dante	...	Himself
David Del Valle	...	Himself
Ralph Edwards	...	Himself (archive footage)
Mia Farrow	...	Herself (archive footage)
Donald F. Glut	...	Himself
Stuart Gordon	...	Himself
Cary Grant	...	Himself (archive footage)
Anne Helm	...	Herself
Darryl Hickman	...	Himself
Alfred Hitchcock	...	Himself (archive footage)
Adolf Hitler	...	Himself (archive footage)
Norman Horowitz	...	Himself
William J. Immerman	...	Himself
Richard Kahn	...	Himself
Jacqueline Kennedy	...	Herself (archive footage)
John F. Kennedy	...	Himself (archive footage)
Hawk Koch	...	Himself
John Landis	...	Himself
Gene Lesser	...	Himself
Pamela Lincoln	...	Herself
Marcia Scully Little	...	Herself
Barry Lorie	...	Himself
Bela Lugosi	...	Himself (archive footage)
Leonard Maltin	...	Himself
Marcel Marceau	...	Himself
Marilyn Nash	...	Herself
Kyle Newell	...	Himself
Will Newell	...	Himself
Steven North	...	Himself
Thomas Page	...	Himself
Roman Polanski	...	Himself (archive footage)
Vincent Price	...	Himself (archive footage)
Fred Olen Ray	...	Himself
Paul Sammon	...	Himself
Michael Schlesinger	...	Himself
Jacqueline Scott	...	Herself
Ruth Scully	...	Herself
Jeannot Szwarc	...	Himself
Bob Thomas	...	Himself
John Waters	...	Himself
Orson Welles	...	Himself (archive footage)
Robb White	...	Himself (archive footage)

Runtime:

82 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Company:

Automat Pictures

Movie Connections:

References The Birds (1963)

Great documentary

This movies chronicles the life and times of William Castle. He made a series of low budget horror films in the 1950s-1960s that he sold with gimmicks. In "13 Ghosts" you need viewers to see the ghosts (they were in color, the film was in b&w). "The Tingler" had theatre seats equipped with a buzzer that jolted the audience when a monster escapes into a movie theatre. "Marabre" issued a life insurance policy to all members in case they were frightened to death! The movies themselves were pretty bad but the gimmicks had people rushing to see them. In this doc there are interviews with directors inspired by Castle, actors in his movies and his daughter. It also gets into his home life and the kind of man he was (by all accounts he was a great guy). The documentary is affectionate, very funny and absolutely riveting. It's very short (under 90 minutes) and there's never a dull moment. A must see for Castle fans and horror movie fans. My one complaint--there were very few sequences shown from his pictures. That aside this is just great.