The Tingler is campy, creepy and scary in spots

Review by Doug Gibson

I love "The Tingler," and it's a staple of mine, and family, to watch every Halloween season. It's campy to the max. Vincent Price has that tongue firmly in his cheek but nevertheless it has a couple of genuinely scary moments. That's not easy to accomplish in deliberately campy films, and director William Castle deserves kudos.

The plot involves Price as a doctor who also serves as a coroner. He's researching how fear can causes changes in the body, particularly a severe arching in the spine. His research leads to the discovery of an organism created by fear, which is dubbed The Tingler. It sort of resembles a very large earwig. It's a credit to Castle's film that the Tingler is both campy and creepy. The Tingler can cause a lot of mayhem to a frightened person, but it can also be neutralized by screaming.

It's designed to stay in the body. When Price's doctor takes it out of a dead woman, a new form of mayhem and thrills develop.

Although there is an entertaining scene where The Tingler gets loose in a movie theater, the film revolves around six characters, two of which are superfluous; with another character less significant than three core characters: Price the doctor, and an unhappily married couple, a kept man (Philip Coolidge) and his deaf and mute wife, very creepily performed by Judith Evelyn. Price's character is married to an adulterous woman scheming to kill him. Other cast members include Price's assistant doctor and Price's sister in law. Those two are dating and in love.

I don't want to give much of the plot so viewers can enjoy the film. However, there are two very scary scenes. The first is one where Evelyn's deaf and mute wife is scared and is overwhelmed by the Tingler because she cannot scream. In this scene Castle adds color to the black and white film by making the blood very red. Later in the film there is another very scary scene involving the corpse of Evelyn's deaf and mute woman ... or is she dead?

As mentioned, the film is very campy. Price, trying to better understand fear, takes LSD and analyzes his reaction to it. (I wonder if this is the first mainstream release film with an LSD scene)? Price deliberately underplays his role; he almost seems bored at times and too conversational for all the bizarre-ness. That provides an over the top change with his LSD journey. Another early scene with Price and Coolidge casually, calmly conversing when Price is doing an autopsy on a recently executed man (in the prison, moments after the execution!) is delicious low-key camp. 

When the Tingler escapes and invades a theater, it allows director Castle to make the audience a part of the film. The screen goes dark and Price solemnly warns the audience that the Tingler is loose in their theater. He urges people to scream. Sixty years ago, Castle had some theater seats wired to provide a small shock or "tingling" to audience members. Others, perhaps theater staff, were asked to scream. It must have been a wild show for many. 

You can watch The Tingler at Amazon Prime or YouTube (for a fee). It's a really fun film to watch, perfect for a good-natured thrill and scare during Halloween season. It's just a great, witty, chilling little tale; the kind that made William Castle famous and the type of film that Vincent Price excelled in.

13 Ghosts – Ghost Gimmicks Galore!!!

Review by Steve D. Stones

Director William Castle is known for his clever gimmicks used to promote and sell his fright films. In 13 Ghosts (1960), he uses a process known as “Illusion – O,” which is a viewer used by not only the actors in the film, but also audience members, to see appearances of ghosts in the film.

Cyrus Zorba (Donald Woods) works at a Paleontology Museum as a curator. His wife Hilda (Rosemary DeCamp) calls him at work to tell him that all their furniture in their house is being repossessed for nonpayments. Cyrus returns home that evening to a nearly empty house.

That evening, the Zorba family has a birthday party on the dining room floor for their 10 year old son Buck (Charles Herbert). Buck blows out the birthday candles on the cake and wishes for a house and furniture that cannot be taken away from his family. A telegram soon arrives at the Zorba house from an attorney named Benjamin Rush. The family is to meet with the attorney the next morning.

While meeting with attorney Rush, Cyrus and Hilda Zorba discover that they have inherited the mansion of their recently deceased uncle – Dr. Plato Zorba. Rush also gives Cyrus a strange package. Inside the package is a set of large glasses. The glasses are used to see ghosts. Rush warns the Zorba couple that the mansion is haunted with ghosts that their uncle had collected over the years. This does not discourage the family from moving into the mansion.

While moving into the mansion, the Zorba family also discover that the house comes with an old, grouchy, recluse house keeper named Elaine (Margaret Hamilton). Buck often refers to her as “the witch.” This seems appropriate, since actress Margaret Hamilton is most famously known for her role as the Wicked Witch of The West in -The Wizard of Oz (1939).

One evening, Buck finds a Ouija board in the house. The family gathers around the Ouija board as Buck asks the board how many ghosts are in the house. The number thirteen is revealed on the board. Buck also asks the board if the ghosts will harm anyone in the family. The board responds Yes and a framed painting in glass falls off the wall above the fireplace, spreading broken glass everywhere.

What follows for the rest of the film is a series of ghost encounters in the mansion by members of the Zorba family. Cyrus encounters floating heads, skeletons and a burning witch in the cellar of the house when he puts on the strange glasses. Hilda encounters the ghost of Emilio the Italian chef in the kitchen who killed his wife and her lover with a meat cleaver. Buck encounters the ghost of a lion and his keeper – Sham Rack the headless lion tamer. Daughter Medea (Jo Morrow) encounters a corpse figure covered in spider webs in her bedroom while sleeping.

Audiences who attended 13 Ghosts in theaters were given glasses with red and blue cellophane filters. 3-D glasses typically used the process of one eye seeing a red filter and the other eye seeing a blue filter. With the “Illusion-O” process used for 13 Ghosts, viewers would look through a single color with both eyes. Choosing to look through the red filter intensified the ghost images on the screen, while the blue filter “diluted” or removed the ghost appearances on screen. This was another clever tactic used by William Castle to get movie patrons into the theater.

Child actor Charles Herbert who played Buck also went on to star in a number of other great cult classics of this era, such as The Fly (1958) with Vincent Price and The Colossus of New York (1958). Buck ends 13 Ghosts perfectly by asking the housekeeper Elaine: “You really are a witch, aren't you?” Elaine replies: “Ask me no questions and I'll tell you no lies.” The Wicked Witch of The West is indeed alive and well! Happy viewing and Happy Halloween!

Homicidal is William Castle at his best

The late-great William Castle was a master showman, and he made some great thrillers. In homage to his showmanship, I offer this trailer that starred Castle more than the film. I personally tag "Homicidal," 1961, as his second-scariest offering, second only to "The Tingler."

As most readers of this blog already know, "Homicidal" was Castle's version of Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho." "Homicidal" as a lot of scary scenes, similar in content to the movies such as "Drag Me to Hell" or the "Insidious" series. However, one of Castle's trademarks was to keep his tongue firmly entrenched in his cheek during his movies. As a result, "Homicidal" never approaches the intensity and suspense of "Psycho." How could it with gimmicks such as a clock materializing on the screen and giving "faint-hearted" patrons 45 seconds to leave the theater before the terrifying conclusion!

The plot is standard Castle -- a dysfunctional family gathered together (the setting is Solvang, Calif.) prior to a settlement in which a young man, the mildly repulsive, clean shaven, prissy-voiced Warren, is set to inherit a fortune. He has a disturbed, beautiful friend, Emily, who culminates a long prologue by murdering a justice of the peace (James Westerfield) in front of his traumatized wife (Hope Summers) and Emily's surprised  faux husband to be (Snub Pollard) whom she hired for the murderous ruse.

Emily's deadly deeds are unknown -- at least for a while -- to Warren's generally happy sister, Miriam (Patricia Breslin). In fact, family and townspersons seem to generally like Warren despite his vague creepiness, which includes baring his closed teeth while he talks. Back to Emily: She's taking care of a crippled, mute, Helga, (Eugenie Leontovich) whom Emily treats rather cruelly. There is the boyfriend (to Miriam), a detective, and the country doctor, all stock characters.

There's lots of intrigue, spooky moments, thrills and giggles, and a particularly chilling scene in which Emily sadistically draws out a terrified Helga's final moments. I won't give away the surprise ending, although -- unlike "Psycho" -- sharp viewers can more easily guess what's going to occur. By the way, the actress who plays Emily does an excellent job. She's really the best actor in the film.

- Doug Gibson

Homicidal is William Castle's version of Psycho

By Doug Gibson

The late-great William Castle was a master showman, and he made some great thrillers. In homage to his showmanship, I offer this trailer that starred Castle more than the film. I personally tag "Homicidal," 1961, as his second-scariest offering, second only to "The Tingler."

As most readers of this blog already know, "Homicidal" was Castle's version of Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho." "Homicidal" as a lot of scary scenes, similar in content to the movies such as "Drag Me to Hell" or the "Insidious" series. However, one of Castle's trademarks was to keep his tongue firmly entrenched in his cheek during his movies. As a result, "Homicidal" never approaches the intensity and suspense of "Psycho." How could it with gimmicks such as a clock materializing on the screen and giving "faint-hearted" patrons 45 seconds to leave the theater before the terrifying conclusion!

The plot is standard Castle -- a dysfunctional family gathered together (the setting is Solvang, Calif.) prior to a settlement in which a young man, the mildly repulsive, clean shaven, prissy-voiced Warren, is set to inherit a fortune. He has a disturbed, beautiful friend, Emily, who culminates a long prologue by murdering a justice of the peace (James Westerfield) in front of his traumatized wife (Hope Summers) and Emily's surprised  faux husband to be (Snub Pollard) whom she hired for the murderous ruse.

Emily's deadly deeds are unknown -- at least for a while -- to Warren's generally happy sister, Miriam (Patricia Breslin). In fact, family and townspersons seem to generally like Warren despite his vague creepiness, which includes baring his closed teeth while he talks. Back to Emily: She's taking care of a crippled, mute, Helga, (Eugenie Leontovich) whom Emily treats rather cruelly. There is the boyfriend (to Miriam), a detective, and the country doctor, all stock characters.

There's lots of intrigue, spooky moments, thrills and giggles, and a particularly chilling scene in which Emily sadistically draws out a terrified Helga's final moments. I won't give away the surprise ending, although -- unlike "Psycho" -- sharp viewers can more easily guess what's going to occur. By the way, the actress who plays Emily does an excellent job. She's really the best actor in the film.