William Castle
4 credits on HibingeTV
American film director and producer known for his horror films and his theatrical gimmicks. For House on Haunted Hill (1959), he flew a plastic skeleton over the audience at a key moment. For The Tingler (1959), he wired theater seats with buzzers. He was a showman who understood that horror was as much about the experience as the film. He also produced Rosemary's Baby (1968). He died in 1977.
Directed
Horror, Thriller
Vincent Price plays an eccentric millionaire who offers five people ten thousand dollars each to spend the night in a haunted house. He locks them in and the scares begin. William Castle was famous for his gimmicks; for this film he arranged for a plastic skeleton to fly over the audience at a key moment. The film is a tight, atmospheric haunted house picture that works on its own without the gimmick. Price is in top form, clearly enjoying himself. The film has a twist ending that holds up. It was remade in 1999, but the original is better.
Horror · Thriller
House on Haunted Hill
1959 - Horror
Mystery, Noir
The fifth of Columbia's Whistler films. A shady private detective named Don Gale is hired by an old shopkeeper to find a young woman from his past so he can leave her a fortune, but the case is a setup, and Gale is soon framed for murder. As the Whistler's narration reminds us, the detective's own greed set the trap, and the film watches him scramble to stay ahead of the police and the real killer. Richard Dix plays his seventh Whistler lead, with Barton MacLane as the cop on his trail and Mike Mazurki as a menacing thug. William Castle directed. Released in 1946, the film is in the public domain in the United States.
Mystery · Noir · Crime
Mysterious Intruder
1946 - Mystery
Mystery, Noir
The second of Columbia's eight Whistler films, drawn from the popular radio mystery series in which an unseen narrator who "knows many things" walks the listener through a story of fate and guilt. Richard Dix plays a drifter who stumbles into a dormant bank account left in his name by a dead man, and tries to pass himself off as the depositor's long-lost son to collect the money. The scheme draws in a woman who may know more than she lets on and a killer waiting in the background. William Castle directed, working from a Cornell Woolrich story, and the film carries Woolrich's signature dread of ordinary people trapped by coincidence. Released in 1944, the film is in the public domain in the United States.
Mystery · Noir · Crime
The Mark of the Whistler
1944 - Mystery