William Castle

William Castle (born April 24, 1914, New York City, New York, U.S.—died May 31, 1977, Los Angeles, California) was an American director known for the innovative marketing techniques he used to promote his B-horror movies.

Early work

He began his entertainment career as an actor in Off-Broadway productions, and he later directed a well-received stage version of Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula. During this time he translated his family’s German surname, Schloss, into its English equivalent, Castle, which he took as his professional name. In 1937 he appeared in the first of several films, though he was often uncredited. Three years later he became a dialogue coach at Columbia Pictures. In 1943 Castle directed his first feature films, and the following year he made several movies, including three notable low-budget film noirs: The Whistler and The Mark of the Whistler, which were adapted from a radio program and featured Richard Dix as the suicidal protagonist, and When Strangers Marry, a taut thriller that cast Robert Mitchum as the murderous spouse of Kim Hunter. In 1945 Castle made his last Whistler film, Voice of the Whistler, and that year he took over the Crime Doctor series, which was also based on a popular radio show. Castle directed several installments, including The Crime Doctor’s Warning (1945) and Crime Doctor’s Gamble (1947).

In 1949 Castle moved to Universal, and his first films for the studio were the solid crime dramas Johnny Stool Pigeon, with Shelley Winters and Dan Duryea, and Undertow (both 1949), with Scott Brady. After directing It’s a Small World (1950)—a melodrama centring on a dwarf who undertakes a life of crime—Castle demonstrated his versatility by working in a number of genres. In 1953 he helmed the westerns Fort Ti and Conquest of Cochise; the spectacle Serpent of the Nile, featuring Rhonda Fleming as Cleopatra; and the biblical tale Slaves of Babylon. The following year he released the period-adventure movies Charge of the Lancers and The Iron Glove.

“King of the Gimmick”

Castle might have continued grinding out such piecework, but in 1958 he decided to produce and direct a series of horror films, overcoming the limitations of casts and budgets by creating a gimmick with which each one could be exploited. The first film to employ this marketing strategy was the intense shocker Macabre (1958), which was advertised with the prominent guarantee “So terrifying we insure you for $1,000 against death by fright!” House on Haunted Hill (1959), which starred Vincent Price at his most malevolent and was probably the best of Castle’s tongue-in-cheek shockers, featured “Emergo,” a luminescent skeleton that floated over the heads of moviegoers (assuming the exhibitor was cooperating, which rarely happened).

The Tingler (1959), a clever tale about the nature of fear, had “Percepto,” in which electric buzzers were wired under selected patrons’ seats; star Price instructed the audience from the screen that they had to scream if the parasitic Tingler was to be destroyed. For 13 Ghosts (1960), Castle offered “Illusion-O,” a pair of glasses with tinted plastic lenses that made the ghosts visible on-screen when worn. Homicidal (1961) was a knockoff of Psycho (1960), with the added fillip of a “Fright Break,” which offered audiences a refund if they left during the film’s final minutes. In 1961 Castle returned to period movies with Mr. Sardonicus (1961), in which a disfigured, evil count (played by Guy Rolfe) has his fate decided at film’s end by the audience’s vote during a “Punishment Poll.” Such innovative promotional campaigns gave Castle the nickname “King of the Gimmick.”

Zotz! (1962) was one of Castle’s few disappointments during this creative burst. A middling Cold War comedy starring Tom Poston, it offered only a plastic coin to patrons as its promotional tie-in. Castle returned to the Cold War with 13 Frightened Girls!, whereas The Old Dark House (both 1963) was a tongue-in-cheek remake of the 1932 chiller. Noting that his box-office grosses had dipped while he fiddled with macabre comedy, Castle returned to shocking audiences with Strait-Jacket (1964), which starred Joan Crawford as an erstwhile ax murderer who fears that she is reverting to her old ways. The film, which was written by Robert Bloch, featured the tagline “Just keep saying to yourself: It’s only a movie…it’s only a movie…” Bloch also wrote Castle’s The Night Walker (1964), a middling suspense film that was perhaps most notable for its use of veterans Barbara Stanwyck, Robert Taylor, and Rochelle Hudson as headliners. Crawford was back in I Saw What You Did (1965), which featured John Ireland as a murderous psychopath on the hunt for two teenage girls.

Castle’s subsequent films began to wane in popularity. Let’s Kill Uncle (1966) set a couple of kids against a homicidal British soldier, and Project X (1968) was a dubious science-fiction adventure starring Christopher George. During this time, Castle was denied perhaps his biggest chance at mainstream success. He had acquired the film rights to the novel Rosemary’s Baby (1967) by Ira Levin, but Paramount studio head Robert Evans refused to allow Castle to direct. Instead, Roman Polanski was handed the reins, and Castle served only as a producer. The horror film (1968) was a box-office smash and became a classic in the genre. In 1974 Castle returned to directing for his final film, Shanks. The gruesome production featured Marcel Marceau as a puppeteer who uses dead bodies instead of marionettes.

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Legacy

Although Castle directed more than 50 feature films, only a few were more memorable than the genius with which they were exploited. As Castle admitted in the autobiography Step Right Up! I’m Gonna Scare the Pants Off America (1976), he considered himself the P.T. Barnum of cinema. A master showman, he made a unique, if minor, contribution to American motion pictures. The comedy Matinee (1993) paid tribute to the director, with John Goodman capturing Castle’s larger-than-life persona as a cigar-chomping film promoter who was half huckster, half savant. The movie was set in Florida during the Cuban missile crisis—Castle’s heyday and a fittingly scary time.