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)

Extremely Entertaining Documentary

Spine Tingler! The William Castle Story (2007)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

Extremely well made documentary takes a look at producer/director William Castle and features interviews with not only his daughter but also the likes of John Landis, Joe Dante, Roger Corman, Leonard Maltin, Budd Boetticher, Bob Burns, David Del Valle, John Waters and Fred Olen Ray. The documentary covers Castle's early life growing up, meeting Bela Lugosi and eventually being invited to Hollywood where he'd soon start directing countless "B" movies for Columbia. The film then follows his gimmick movies like HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL and THE TINGLER as well as his dream project, ROSEMARY'S BABY, which would eventually be given to another filmmaker. Fans of Castle are really going to eat this thing up because there's so many great interviews and comments that one can't help but get the feeling of what it must have been like watching some of these movies in the theater when they were first released. Hearing about all the gimmicks from people who were actually there was a lot of fun and you can just tell that these people still love and have fond memories of these few moments in the theater. The documentary is pretty much fun throughout and never tries to be overly serious but instead just deals with the type of fun person Castle was. We do get to hear about his two dream projects, which ended up getting stolen by Orson Welles and given away to Polanski. It was also fun hearing how Castle pretty much gave full control to Joan Crawford who certainly used it to her advantage. The later years of Castle's life are talked about as well as the one last film he wanted to make but never got the chance. The film runs a short 82-minutes and overlooks countless films but that shouldn't keep anyone away as in the end it's just as much fun as watching one of Castle's own productions.