Spine Tingler! The William Castle Story (2007)

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.

Director:

Jeffrey Schwarz

Stars:

Forrest J Ackerman, John Badham, Diane Baker

3 wins.

Cast

Credited 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

Storyline

Documentary on famed Hollywood director and producer - and supreme showman - William Castle. Castle made his mark in the decade from the mid-1950s to the mid 1960s with a series of low-budget but highly popular and profitable horror films. The list includes Macabre, House on Haunted Hill, Homicidal and many others. Castle always had to have a gimmick to go with his movies. These included having nurses on duty in the lobby should anyone need medical assistance or giving everyone a $1000 insurance policy should anyone die of fright. Castle's greatest success came as he producer of Rosemary's Baby. All in all he is fondly remembered by those who knew and worked with him.

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Plot Keywords:

gimmicks | b movie | movie director | movie producer | schlock | 

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Taglines:

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

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Genres:

Documentary | Biography

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Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook Official site

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

20 October 2009 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Automat Pictures, Spine Tingler

Technical Specs

Runtime:

82 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Did You Know?

Connections

References The Gun That Won the West (1955)

User Reviews

Way back when

This documentary on schlockmeister William Castle takes a few cheap shots at the naive '50s-'60s environment in which he did his most characteristic work--look at the funny, silly people with the ghost-glasses--but it's also affectionate and lively, with particularly bright commentary from John Waters, who was absolutely the target audience for such things at the time, and from Castle's daughter, who adored her dad and also is pretty perceptive about how he plied his craft. (We never find out what became of the other Castle offspring.) The movies were not very good, it makes clear, but his marketing of them was brilliant, and he appears to have been a sweet, hardworking family man. Fun people keep popping up, like "Straight Jacket"'s Diane Baker, who looks great, and Anne Helm, whom she replaced at the instigation of star Joan Crawford. Darryl Hickman all but explodes into giggles at the happy memory of working with Castle on "The Tingler," and there's enough footage to give us an idea of the level of Castle's talent--not very high, but very energetic. A pleasant look at a time when audiences were more easily pleased, and it does make you nostalgic for simpler movie-going days.