William Castle

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William Castle
William Castle.jpg
Born William Schloss, Jr.
(1914-04-24)April 24, 1914
New York City, New York, U.S.
Died May 31, 1977(1977-05-31) (aged 63)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Occupation Director, producer, screenwriter, actor
Spouse(s) Ellen Falck (1948-1977; his death; 2 children)

William Castle (April 24, 1914 – May 31, 1977) was an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and actor. Castle was known for directing thriller B-movies which, despite having low budgets, he effectively promoted with many original gimmicks. He also produced Rosemary's Baby.

Contents

Personal life [edit]

Castle was born William Schloss, Jr. in New York City, the son of Saidie (Snellenberg) and William Schloss.[1] His family was Jewish. ("Schloss" is German for "castle", and Castle later translated his surname into English as his pseudonym.) His mother died when he was nine. When his father followed suit a year later, he was left an orphan at the age of 11. He then lived with his older sister.

Castle was married to Ellen Falck, with whom he had two children.[2]

Career [edit]

Getting started [edit]

At 13, he went to see the play Dracula, starring Bela Lugosi, and was entranced.[3] He went back to watch performance after performance, eventually managing to meet Lugosi himself. He later wrote in his autobiography Step Right Up! I'm Gonna Scare the Pants off America, "I knew then what I wanted to do with my life - I wanted to scare the pants off audiences."[4][p. 14] Lugosi recommended him for the position of assistant stage manager for the road company tour of the play.[4][p. 14] The 15-year-old dropped out of high school to take the job. He spent most of his teenage years working on Broadway in a number of jobs ranging from set building to acting. This proved good training for the future filmmaker.

He obtained Orson Welles' telephone number and persuaded Welles to lease him the Stony Creek Theatre in Connecticut (Welles was leaving to begin filming Citizen Kane). He then hired German actress Ellen Schwanneke for the non-existent play Das ist nicht für Kinder (Not for Children). When Nazi Germany sent Schwanneke an invitation to a Munich performance, Castle seized the opportunity for his first outrageous publicity stunt.[3] He released to the newspapers what he claimed was a telegram he had sent turning down the request, portraying his star as "the girl who said no to Hitler". To add to the sensationalism, he secretly vandalized the theatre and painted swastikas on the exterior.[5] It worked. The resulting publicity ensured the success of the play (which he wrote in 48 hours[5]).

Columbia Pictures and other studios [edit]

He left for Hollywood at the age of 23, going to work for Harry Cohn at Columbia Pictures. In the 2007 documentary Spine Tingler! The William Castle Story, his daughter states he had a dynamic, outgoing personality that attracted others. He was one of the few people Cohn liked. He learned the film business, and eventually graduated to directing inexpensive B-movies, the first being the appropriately named The Chance of a Lifetime, released in 1943. He also directed four movies in The Whistler series. Castle gained a reputation for being able to make films under budget and quickly. In addition, he worked as an associate producer on Orson Welles' film noir The Lady from Shanghai (1947), doing much of the second unit location work.

On his own: the gimmicks [edit]

Ambitions unsatisfied, Castle struck out on his own to make films. The inspiration of the 1955 French psychological thriller Les Diaboliques set the genre he would choose. He financed his first movie, Macabre (1958), by mortgaging his house. He came up with the idea to give each customer a certificate for a $1,000 life insurance policy from Lloyd's of London in case they should die of fright during the film. He also had nurses stationed in the lobbies and hearses parked outside the theatres.[6][pp. 15–16] Macabre was a hit.

Other films (and gimmicks) followed:

  • House on Haunted Hill (1959). Filmed in "Emergo". An inflatable glow-in-the-dark skeleton attached to a wire floated over the audience during the final moments of some showings of the film to parallel the action on the screen when a skeleton rises from a vat of acid and pursues the villainous wife of Vincent Price's character.[6][p. 16] Once word spread about the skeleton, kids enjoyed trying to knock it down with candy boxes, soda cups or any other objects at hand.
  • The Tingler (1959): Filmed in "Percepto". The title character is a docile creature that attaches itself to the human spinal cord. It is activated by fright, and can only be destroyed by screaming. Castle purchased military surplus air-plane wing de-icers (consisting of vibrating motors) and had a crew travel from theatre to theatre attaching them to the underside of some of the seats (in that era, a movie did not necessarily open on the same night nationwide). In the finale, one of the creatures supposedly gets loose in the movie theatre itself. The buzzers were activated as the film's star, Vincent Price, encourages the audience to "scream - scream for your lives."[6][p. 17] Some sources incorrectly state the seats were wired to give electrical jolts. Filmmaker and Castle fan John Waters recounted in Spine Tingler! how, as a youngster, he would search for a seat that had been wired in order to enjoy the full effect.
  • 13 Ghosts (1960): Filmed in "Illusion-O". Each patron received a handheld ghost viewer/remover. During certain segments of the film, a person could see the ghosts by looking through the red cellophane, or remove the ghosts if they were too frightening by looking through the blue.[6][p. 18] Without the viewer, however, the ghosts were still somewhat visible.
  • Homicidal (1961). There was a "fright break" with a timer overlaid over the film's climax, as the heroine approaches a house harboring a sadistic killer. The audience had 45 seconds to leave and receive a full refund if they were too frightened to see the remainder of the film. In one early showing, the more wily patrons simply sat through the movie a second time and left during the break to get their money back; to prevent this in future, Castle had different color tickets printed for each showing.[6][pp. 18–19] About 1% of patrons still demanded refunds.

"William Castle simply went nuts. He came up with 'Coward's Corner,' a yellow cardboard booth, manned by a bewildered theater employee in the lobby. When the Fright Break was announced, and you found that you couldn't take it anymore, you had to leave your seat and, in front of the entire audience, follow yellow footsteps up the aisle, bathed in a yellow light. Before you reached Coward's Corner, you crossed yellow lines with the stenciled message: 'Cowards Keep Walking.' You passed a nurse (in a yellow uniform?...I wonder), who would offer a blood-pressure test. All the while a recording was blaring, "'Watch the chicken! Watch him shiver in Coward's Corner'!" As the audience howled, you had to go through one final indignity -- at Coward's Corner you were forced to sign a yellow card stating, 'I am a bona fide coward.'"[6][p. 19]

In a trailer for the film, Castle explained the use of the Coward's Certificate and admonished the viewer to not reveal the ending to friends "or they will kill you. If they don't, I will."[7]
  • Mr. Sardonicus (1961). The audience got to vote on the villain's fate in a "punishment poll" during the climax - Castle appeared on screen to explain the two options. Each member of the audience was given a card with a glow-in-the-dark thumb they could hold either up or down to decide if Mr. Sardonicus would be cured or died. Supposedly no audience ever chose mercy, so the alternate ending was never screened.[6][p. 20] Though Castle claimed in his autobiography that the merciful version was shot and shown occasionally, many suspect otherwise. In the drive-in version, drivers were asked to flash their car headlights to choose.
  • Zotz! (1962). Each patron was given a "Magic" (gold colored, plastic, glow-in-the-dark) coin.[4][p. 178]
  • 13 Frightened Girls (1963). Castle launched a worldwide hunt for the prettiest girls from 13 different countries to appear in the film.[6][p. 20]
  • Strait-Jacket (1964). Advised by his financial backers to eliminate gimmicks, Castle hired Joan Crawford to star and sent her on a promotional tour to theatres. At the last minute, Castle had cardboard axes made and handed out to patrons.[6][p. 20]
  • I Saw What You Did (1965). The film was initially promoted using giant plastic telephones, but after a rash of prank phone calls and complaints, the telephone company refused Castle permission to use them or mention telephones. So he turned the back rows of theatres into "Shock Sections". Seat belts were installed to keep patrons from being jolted from their chairs in fright.[6][p. 21]
  • Bug (1975). Castle advertised a million-dollar life insurance policy taken out on the film's star, "Hercules" the cockroach.[4][p. 255]

At the height of his popularity, he had a fan club with 250,000 members.[8][9]

Rosemary's Baby [edit]

According to Spine Tingler! The William Castle Story, he mortgaged his house (again) and obtained the movie rights to the Ira Levin novel before it was even published, hoping to finally direct a prestigious A movie himself. He made a deal with Paramount Pictures, which however insisted on hiring director Roman Polanski instead.[10] Castle had to settle for producing the film. He also had a cameo, playing the grey-haired man standing outside the phone booth where Rosemary, played by Mia Farrow, is attempting to get in touch with the obstetrician.

Castle was unable to really cash in on the film's success. He suffered kidney failure soon after its release.[10] By the time he had recovered, all momentum was lost, and he had to go back to making B movies.

Death [edit]

After a long career, Castle died on 31 May 1977 in Los Angeles, California, of a heart attack.[11] He is interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.

Legacy [edit]

Among his admirers is filmmaker John Waters, who wrote, "William Castle was my idol. His films made me want to make films. ... William Castle was God."[12] He is Robert Zemeckis' "favorite filmmaker".[13] Zemeckis co-founded Dark Castle Entertainment, which was originally intended to remake Castle's films.

Two of his films have been remade by his daughter Terry Ann Castle, who co-produced House on Haunted Hill in 1999, and Thirteen Ghosts in 2001 (the latter retitled Thir13en Ghosts).

Alfred Hitchcock decided to make Psycho after noting the financial success of 1950s B movies by Castle and Roger Corman.[14]

A documentary focusing on Castle's life, Spine Tingler! The William Castle Story, directed by Jeffrey Schwarz, had its premiere at AFI FEST 2007 in Los Angeles on November 8, 2007.[15] It won the Audience Award for Best Documentary.

The protagonist in the 1993 film Matinee, played by John Goodman, is based on him.[16][17]

Filmography [edit]

See also [edit]

Portal icon Biography portal

Notes [edit]

  1. ^ https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/K8KG-4RB
  2. ^ http://www.kcet.org/socal/departures/landofsunshine/arrival-stories/arrival-story-terry-castle.html
  3. ^ a b Skal, David J. (2001). The Monster Show: A Cultural History of Horror. Macmillan. p. 256. ISBN 0571199968. Retrieved April 7, 2013. 
  4. ^ a b c d Castle, William (1976). Step Right Up! I'm Gonna Scare the Pants Off America: Memoirs of a B-Movie Mogul. New York: Putnam. ISBN 0-88687-657-5. 
  5. ^ a b Richard Harland Smith. "William Castle Profile". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved April 8, 2013. 
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Waters, John (1983). "Whatever Happened to Showmanship?". Crackpot: The Obsessions of John Waters. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company. 
  7. ^ Castle, William (1999). House on Haunted Hill special features - theatrical trailer (DVD). 
  8. ^ Nick Pinkerton (August 25, 2010). "Emergo! Percepto! Illusion-o! The William Castle Circus Comes to Town". The Village Voice. 
  9. ^ Simon Crook (May 1, 2009). "The Mutant Showman". Empire magazine. Retrieved April 26, 2013. 
  10. ^ a b Crook, Simon (February 1, 2013). "Rosemary's Baby". Empire. "Soon after the release, William Castle was struck down by kidney failure. ... It was Castle who brought Ira Levin's unpublished novel to Paramount - on condition he went nowhere near the director's chair. That was already being warmed up for Hollywood debutant, Roman Polanski."  (HighBeam subscription required)
  11. ^ "William Castle, 63, Movie Producer. Career Modeled on P.T. Barnum, Made Millions on Shockers Like 'Rosemary's Baby'.". New York Times. June 2, 1977. Retrieved 2007-09-25. "William Castle, who made millions producing and directing films that horrified audiences and often left critics muttering about poor taste, suffered a heart attack at his home in Beverly Hills, Calif., Tuesday night and died at the University of California at Los Angeles Medical Center. He was 63 years old." 
  12. ^ Waters, John (2003). Crackpot: The Obsessions of John Waters. Simon and Schuster. p. 14. ISBN 1416591249. Retrieved April 9, 2013. 
  13. ^ Henry Sheehan. "Gimme that old-fashioned horror, says 'Crypt' producer Bob Zemeckis.". The Orange County Register.  (HighBeam subscription required)
  14. ^ Jones, Malcolm (January 18, 2010). "The Mother of All Horror Films". Newsweek. "Hitchcock said he made Psycho after noting the healthy box office for a string of violent B movies made in the '50s by William Castle (House on Haunted Hill) and Roger Corman (A Bucket of Blood), and wondering what could be done if a more adept director made such a film."  (HighBeam subscription required)
  15. ^ Spine Tingler! The William Castle Story at the Internet Movie Database
  16. ^ Rita Kempley (January 29, 1993). "Movies; `Matinee': In the Glow of the Atomic Age". The Washington Post.  (HighBeam subscription required)
  17. ^ "Matinee Introduced by Joe Dante". Wexner Center for the Arts. Retrieved April 27, 2013. 

References [edit]

  • Castle, William, with introduction by John Waters (1976, republished 1992, republished 2010). Step Right Up! I'm Gonna Scare the Pants Off America: Memoirs of a B-Movie Mogul. New York, Putnam. ISBN 0-88687-657-5 (Pharos edition 1992). ISBN 978-0-578-06682-0 (William Castle Productions 2010).
  • Castle, William and Joseph, Robert, with introduction by Orson Welles (1945). "Hero's Oak". New York, The Reader's Press.
  • Waters, John (1983). Crackpot: The Obsessions of John Waters. New York, Macmillan Publishing Company. Chapter 2, "Whatever Happened to Showmanship?", was originally published in American Film December 1983 in a slightly different form.
  • Castle, William (2011). "FROM THE GRAVE: The Prayer". William Castle Productions. ISBN 0-615-50757-3.
  • Documentary. Spine Tingler! The William Castle Story (2007) Director: Jeffrey Schwarz

External links [edit]
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