(1959)
Directed by William Castle
Starring Vincent Price, Carol Ohmart, Richard Long, Alan Marshal,
Carolyn Craig, Elisha Cook Jr., Julie Mitchum, Leona Anderson

I can vividly remember renting this film for the first time on VHS. I’m not sure if I had seen it on TV at some point before in my life, but I knew of it. But once I became a dedicated fan, starting down that road to see every horror film that I could, this was one of those rentals. This was even before I had my own VCR but would rent a few films and take them over to my future in-laws during a Saturday afternoon and sit and watch 3 films back-to-back.

This film is pure William Castle. While this was only his second “horror” film, after 1958’s Macabre, it didn’t take Castle long for him and screenwriter Robb White to figure out what makes a fun little scary movie. Sure, this does have the “gimmick” of Emergo, where the skeleton comes out of the screen into the audience, which we’ll discuss a bit later, but aside from that, the film itself is really well done. There are some genuinely scary moments, a decent plot that really has nothing to do with the actual story we think we’re going to see, which is about a haunted house. It just happens to take place in one.

Vincent Price stars as Frederick Loren, a very rich man, going on his 4^th wife, Annabelle, played by Carol Ohmart, is hosting a party, “a haunted house party”, for his lovely wife. Except she wants nothing to do with it (or him, for that matter) because he’s taken over the party and invited 5 people who seem to be complete strangers, offering them each $10,000 if they can stay the night. We learn right in the beginning just how much Frederick and Annabelle love each other, as they pretty much snarl at each other, joking about how they’d love the other one to die, and so forth. But it’s done with such dry wit, especially from Price, that makes the film even more entertaining. The beautiful Ohmart does a decent job keeping up with Price’s attitude and performance but still having that cross between fear and anger against him.

Elisha Cook Jr. plays Watson Pritchard, but current owner of the haunted estate and looks terrified every second he’s in there, unless he’s describing the horrible things that had happened in the past in the house. The rest of the guests consist of a newspaper columnist, a test jet pilot, a psychiatrist, and a secretary that works for one of Loren’s companies. All of them state right away that they’ve never met Loren and are not sure why they were invited. As they investigate the house, learning of its history, it’s not long before we get our first murder.

It really is because of Price’s role, and the way Castle set up the picture, that makes this so entertaining. There are some cheap gimmicks, like blood dripping from the stain on the ceiling, to the sudden appearance of an old woman (probably one the best scares in the movie that still works today), to the discovering of a severed head. Price is one of those actors who can smile at you while sending chills up your back. It’s because of his calm, and nonchalant demeanor with his little snippy one liners, make him, and the film, so charming to watch.

Richard Long plays the test pilot, Lance, who really only made one other entry in the horror genre, the 1955 film Cult of the Cobra. In fact, besides Cook and Price, the rest of the cast didn’t work too much in the genre.

The Emergo gimmick comes at the end of the film, when a skeleton comes alive onscreen and Castle had a plastic skeleton on a wire coming down over the audience during that moment of the film. Again, sheer brilliance. It didn’t matter if the skeleton looked hokey, or that it was rumored that little kids were trying to grab it as it came down the theater, it was memorable. And that’s what you want from your audience, to walk out of the theater and telling people about it.

Back in June of 2023, Chicago’s Music Box Theatre hosted a 2-night screening of this film, complete with the skeleton, and all sorts of cheesy gimmicks that would have made William Castle proud. And to see it in a sold-out audience, most of which had never seen the film before, and for them to laugh and scream, and just have a great time, shows once again, just how well made the film is, and still works.

I will say I was a little disappointed in the print of the film, especially since Film Masters always do an incredible job with their prints. There are some shots that look great, then cut to a scene that looks a little grainy. There is a commentary track from Heath Holland, which is very informative. But in previous releases, Film Masters always had a good selection of extras (where is C. Courtney Joyner???), especially being about William Castle and/or Vincent Price. You’d think they have a ton of fun stuff, but this just has the commentary and liner notes by Jason A. Ney.

Overall, it is a good release of the film, and if you don’t have it in your collection, it needs to be. One of the best of Castle’s work that remains to be just as entertaining now as it was then. Thanks out to AV Entertainment! You can buy your copy by clicking HERE.