Post by naterdawg on Feb 20, 2017 23:39:40 GMT
Just last night, I watched William Castle's Mr. Sardonicus and The Tingler on DVD and was struck by something I've always secretly known but never wanted to admit.
Almost without exception, Bill Castle's horror films--especially the black and whites--have an overall look of shabbiness that seems all encompassing. Even his mansion sets have an air of a TV production of the era. The Tingler's a good example, from its winding foyer staircase (in Price's home) to the shadowy, and oh-so-dismal apartment above the silent movie theater. Everything just seems to ooze cheese, when it should be oozing fright.
I dare say, this is also evident in House on Haunted Hill, Strait-Jacket, The Night Walker, 13 Ghosts, Homicidal, I Saw What you Did, etc. I think the film scores have a lot to do with my overall impression. They oftentimes seem an odd choice, what with their overuse of horns, and when something allegedly horrifying or violent happens, the music is so blaring, it's ridiculous. And is it only me, but didn't I Saw What you Did look exactly like a Leave it to Beaver episode, starring two of Wally's ditzy girlfriends? Wasn't one of them Mary Ellen Rogers?
And the actors! Oh, my. Bargain basement. The floozy wife in The Tingler, with the faux Grace Kelly accent (playing the same bitchy unfaithful wife part as Carol Omhart in HOHH), the just awful "deaf mute" that is supposedly "only 46" but looks 66 and doesn't know zip about sign language, the killer husband of said deaf mute, who ends the film with the worst dumb looking grimace I've seen on any film actor, and poor Joan Crawford--Hollywood Royalty and an Oscar winner--stuck playing a "29 year old hotsie-totsie" who conveniently stumbles across an axe and chops off her philandering husband's head in one clean "pop," Barbara Stanwyck, proving that she should NEVER scream in a movie EVER, and Joanie again, telling Mary Ellen Rogers to "gedouddaheah!" over and over again in ISWYD! I could go on and on.
Even Castle's color productions had an air of the cheap. To me, such economics draw away from the film, and I watch them today as curios rather than legit horror films. Yet, I can see Hammer's The Gorgon, another low budget production, and marvel at the wonderful use of mood, music and superb acting.
I used to read that William Castle wanted to capitalize on Hitchcock's Psycho, a truly laughable concept. But I think he misunderstood that low budget doesn't necessarily mean low quality.
Almost without exception, Bill Castle's horror films--especially the black and whites--have an overall look of shabbiness that seems all encompassing. Even his mansion sets have an air of a TV production of the era. The Tingler's a good example, from its winding foyer staircase (in Price's home) to the shadowy, and oh-so-dismal apartment above the silent movie theater. Everything just seems to ooze cheese, when it should be oozing fright.
I dare say, this is also evident in House on Haunted Hill, Strait-Jacket, The Night Walker, 13 Ghosts, Homicidal, I Saw What you Did, etc. I think the film scores have a lot to do with my overall impression. They oftentimes seem an odd choice, what with their overuse of horns, and when something allegedly horrifying or violent happens, the music is so blaring, it's ridiculous. And is it only me, but didn't I Saw What you Did look exactly like a Leave it to Beaver episode, starring two of Wally's ditzy girlfriends? Wasn't one of them Mary Ellen Rogers?
And the actors! Oh, my. Bargain basement. The floozy wife in The Tingler, with the faux Grace Kelly accent (playing the same bitchy unfaithful wife part as Carol Omhart in HOHH), the just awful "deaf mute" that is supposedly "only 46" but looks 66 and doesn't know zip about sign language, the killer husband of said deaf mute, who ends the film with the worst dumb looking grimace I've seen on any film actor, and poor Joan Crawford--Hollywood Royalty and an Oscar winner--stuck playing a "29 year old hotsie-totsie" who conveniently stumbles across an axe and chops off her philandering husband's head in one clean "pop," Barbara Stanwyck, proving that she should NEVER scream in a movie EVER, and Joanie again, telling Mary Ellen Rogers to "gedouddaheah!" over and over again in ISWYD! I could go on and on.
Even Castle's color productions had an air of the cheap. To me, such economics draw away from the film, and I watch them today as curios rather than legit horror films. Yet, I can see Hammer's The Gorgon, another low budget production, and marvel at the wonderful use of mood, music and superb acting.
I used to read that William Castle wanted to capitalize on Hitchcock's Psycho, a truly laughable concept. But I think he misunderstood that low budget doesn't necessarily mean low quality.