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The William Castle Film Collection (13 Frightened Girls / 13 Ghosts / Homicidal / Strait-Jacket / The Old Dark House / Mr. Sardonicus / The Tingler / Zotz!) Overviews
Iconic horror director William Castle created a simple, but winning formula for his films: a little comedy, a lot of scares, a preposterous gimmick, and a clear sense that fright films should be fun. This even meant Castle would, like Hitchcock, appear in his trailers and even the movies themselves. Though his career spanned 35 years and included everything from westerns to crime thrillers, he’ll always be remembered for his horror films from the late 50s to the mid-60s. And now Sony presents all eight of his Columbia features – three making their DVD debut, the rest newly-remastered – in one “spook-tac-ular” collection. And as a bonus, it includes the award-winning feature-length documentary, iSpine Tingler! The William Castle Story/i.
The William Castle Film Collection (13 Frightened Girls / 13 Ghosts / Homicidal / Strait-Jacket / The Old Dark House / Mr. Sardonicus / The Tingler / Zotz!) RelateItems
The William Castle Film Collection (13 Frightened Girls / 13 Ghosts / Homicidal / Strait-Jacket / The Old Dark House / Mr. Sardonicus / The Tingler / Zotz!) Specifications
“Eight tales of tongue-in-cheek terror from one of the movies’ masters of ballyhoo await classic horror fans in the lavish iWilliam Castle Film Collection/i. The five-disc set represents some of the high points of the producer-director’s career at Columbia Pictures, after he’d established himself as a maverick with a taste for eye-popping promotional gimmicks with the Allied Artists hits iMacabre/i (1958) and iHouse on Haunted Hill/i (1959), neither of which is included here. The set kicks off with the obscure i13 Frightened Girls/i (1963), a lightweight thriller about espionage at a girls’ school, but soon launches into high gear with i13 Ghosts/i (1960), a terrifically fun chillfest about a family that inherits a haunted mansion and the title gaggle of spooks, which can only be seen (by characters and audience alike) via a special “”Ghost Viewer.”" Castle’s homages to iPsycho/i–the grisly iHomicidal/i and iStrait-Jacket/i, which stars an unrestrained Joan Crawford in a tale of ax murders penned by iPsycho/i scribe Robert Bloch–are partnered on a second disc, while a third features Castle’s team-up with England’s Hammer Films for a darkly comic remake of the Boris Karloff classic iThe Old Dark House/i (1963) and an adaptation of Ray Russell’s grisly Gothic chiller, iMr. Sardonicus/i (1961). The final double feature pairs one of Castle’s most offbeat titles–the fantasy-comedy iZotz!/i (1962), which, like iOld Dark House/i, stars Tom Poston as a nebbish who discovers a magical coin–with one of his best loved and most outrageous efforts, iThe Tingler/i (1959), with Vincent Price as a scientist who discovers a creature that feeds on human fear. While by no means a complete collection of Castle’s film output–he continued to direct and produce well into the late ’60s and ’70s, most notably iRosemary’s Baby/i (1968)–the iFilm Collection/i is a fine presentation of some of his most memorable projects, with a few enjoyable oddities thrown in for good measure.p Were the iFilm Collection/i simply the movies themselves, it would be a solid addition to any cult collector’s treasure vault, but what makes the set truly special is the wealth of extras that accompany the features. Brand-new making-of documentaries are offered for each of the films save iZotz/i, i13 Frightened Girls/i, and iThe Old Dark House/i; each discusses Castle’s elaborate promotional gimmicks in detail, from iThe Tingler/i’s “”Percepto”" (electrically wired seats) to iSardonicus/i’s “”Punishment Poll”" (cards given to audience members to decide the fate of the title villain). Extensive news clips, photographs, and comments from a host of fans and critics, including David Del Valle, David Skal, Bob Burns, Castle’s daughter Terry, iStrait-Jacket/i star Diane Baker, and iThe Tingler/i’s Darryl Hickman (who seems bemused by the film’s favored status), make these featurettes invaluable to Castle completists. The gimmick in i13 Frightened Girls/i is given plenty of coverage in its extras–its cast of schoolgirls was culled from an international contest, and each was featured in a special intro shot for their respective country–while iStrait-Jacket/i offers Crawford’s costume screen test as well as a trial run at lopping off costar George Kennedy’s head (!), plus an amusing promo clip in which Castle, Bloch, and their star plot out the perfect murder. There are also two episodes from the Castle-produced supernatural TV anthology iGhost Story/i (one under its retitle, iCircle of Fear/i), both of which feature the man himself in typically grandiose cameos, as well as original U.S. and some international trailers for each title. And if that’s not enough, there’s also a fifth disc devoted entirely to the 2007 documentary iSpine Tingler! The William Castle Story/i, which details his life and career of making people scream, via archival footage and a who’s who of horror and science fiction, including Joe Dante, John Landis, Roger Corman, Fred Olen Ray, the late Forrest J. Ackerman, and countless others, each weighing in on the joys and thrills of William Castle’s feature films. i–Paul Gaita/i”
The William Castle Film Collection (13 Frightened Girls / 13 Ghosts / Homicidal / Strait-Jacket / The Old Dark House / Mr. Sardonicus / The Tingler / Zotz!) CustomerReview
There are many good things about this boxed set; we get “The Old Dark House” for the first time on dvd (or video) and “ZOTZ!” and “13 Frightened Girls” – previously not so easily available, on dvd at least. But some of the other titles have been around a bit. I’m disappointed that they didn’t give “13 Ghosts” its Illusion O gimmick with a viewer (as they did in the separate release of this film). I liked very much the extras for “13 Frightened Girls” where we see some of the alternate beginning sequences featuring girls from different countries, and there is a “Danger Game” gimmick explained by Castle that I didn’t know existed – was this used in cinemas? Another thing that makes it not so good for me is that the films have been put into widescreen format when I would have preferred them to be in 4:3 ratio as originally shown at the cinema. There are plenty of genuine widescreen films about, so why do we get these ‘incorrect’ releases of earlier films? Having said all this I am pleased to see William Castle being honoured in this way and look forward (along with other Castle fans) to one day seeing a dvd release of “Macabre” – seems ludicrous it’s not around considering some of the dross that is released. So, overall verdict – a good boxed set but could have been better.
*** Product Information and Prices Stored:May 15, 2010 11:00:29
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