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Friday, November 27th, 2009 |
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Say what you want about producer/director William Castle (The Tingler, 13 Ghosts, Mr. Sardonicus) but one thing was for obvious…he knew how to occupy seats in a movie theater, primarily by forcing some sort of bellow interaction between the audience and the film (at least in his fear themed features) . In House on Alarmed Hill (1959), he utilized a technique he called `Emergo’, which essentially featured a skeleton, suspended from wires, coming from the cloak towards the audience during a specific section of the movie, the intent being to fear the pants off those in the theater. From what I’ve heard, it didn’t sound like many were worried, but it didn’t really matter as Castle was a master at selling the sizzle, rather than the steak, as they say, and audiences flocked to his films…produced and directed by William Castle, the film features the merchant of menace himself Vincent Mark (The Flee, The Tingler, House of Usher) in the first of two films he made with Castle. Also appearing is Elisha Cook Jr. (Shane, The Stupefied Palace), Carolyn Craig (Giant), Richard Long (Ma and Pa Kettle), Carol `homina homina’ Ohmart (Spider Baby), Alan Marshal (The Hunchback of Notre Dame), and Julie Mitchum (Edge of Hell), sister of actor Robert Mitchum.
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Price plays Frederick Loren, an eccentric millionaire who, along with his wife Annabelle (Ohmart), has thrown together an entertaining slight party appealing five, seemingly random strangers gathering at a disquieted house with ten thousand dollars to each who dare end through the night. In attendance, along with Frederick and his wife, is Watson Pritchard (Cook), whose brother, one of the previous owners, was murdered within the house, Lance Schroeder (Long), a test pilot, Dr. David Trent (Marshal), a psychiatrist, Nora Manning (Craig), a typist, and Ruth Bridgers (Mitchum), a newspaper columnist. Seems all have agreed to play Frederick’s microscopic game for one reason, they need the dough, and if some crazy rich dude is willing to portion with his green for such a seemingly easy task, what the hay, moral? Well, the guests near, introductions are made, and Frederick gives them the plump lowdown. The secluded house is like a fortress (steel doors and bars on the windows) in that once they’re locked in (at midnight, to be actual), there’s no getting out until the caretakers reach the next morning. Also, there’s no electricity or telephones, and the nearest neighbors are well beyond yelling distance. After a tour of the house, highlighting where various monstrous events occurred (including a visit to the acid vat in the cellar…man, this status has everything), a few drinks, and some scares (the ghosts seem to have a thing for Nora), Fredrick passes out some party favors in the execute of loaded handguns (nothing like being drunk and armed), not that they’d do anyone great well-behaved if there are ghosts out and about…anyway, midnight is coming so if anyone wants to sever out of this ghoulish salvage together, they’d better obtain while the getting’s worthy…
While not my approved Castle feature (that goes to The Tingler), House on Terrified Hill is detached a hoot and a half for all of its campy, good-natured fun. The one thing this film has going for it, above and beyond everything else, is Vincent Notice. No matter how unpleasant the feature was (which wasn’t the case here), Heed always brought with him a true sense of class and sophistication to the proceedings, especially accurate of the number of Poe based films he and Roger Corman made throughout the 1960s for American International Pictures. The absolute best parts of this movie for me occur early on as Price’s character is interacting with his wife, and we contemplate the pair have an intelligent hate/hate relationship…here’s an example of their often contaminated and insinuating banter they take in unhurried closed doors…
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Fredrick: Of all my wives you’re least advantageous…
Annabelle: But quiet alive.
Here’s another bit…
Frederick: Do you remember the fun we had when you poisoned me?
Annabelle: Something you ate, the doctor said.
Frederick: Yes, arsenic on the rocks…
There are a few more righteous exchanges between Label and Ohmart, superior alone of seeing this film. As for the rest of the performers, I had no exact complaints. Elisha Cook Jr.’s character did acquire on my nerves after awhile, with his constant dour outlook punctuated by his persistent `doom and gloom’ predictions. Drink some more booze, you rummy…seriously, all this guy did was talk about how the ghosts were going to arrive and buy them all away. Perhaps this attitude was assisted by his excessive alcohol intake, but really, what’s the point of accepting an invitation to consume a night at a house you absorb you won’t advance out of alive? The money? Won’t do you grand sterling if’n you’re dreary, fool. If I was in that house I probably would have shot him fair to be rid of him. At least I learned one thing…never invite Elisha Cook Jr. to your party and ply him with lots of booze as he’ll turn into a accurate poison pill. I did like Ms. Ohmart, and not unprejudiced because she was a smoking babe with a gargantuan rack, but because she held her beget with Impress, even if it was for fair a handful of scenes. If you’ve got a hankering to behold more of her, and you like ookie dread features, you should really check out another film she appeared in called Spider Baby (1968), featuring Lon Chaney Jr. There are a few, minor scares scattered throughout the film (a crusty crone, a disembodied head or two), but nothing that will accomplish you soil yourself…some scenes will accomplish you snicker, though, like the one where Pritchard chucks a slow rat into the acid vat, if only to prove the acid is really acid. After some bubbling effects, a fully articulated rat skeleton bobs to the surface, indicating to those watching it truly is the steady deal. Yes sir, that be some grand acid…the movie may not be considerable for scares, but it does have plenty of atmosphere created by Castle’s direction, groovy, cobweb laden state pieces, spooky music, and usage of the Ennis Brown House in Los Angeles, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, for the exterior shots.
It seems this film has fallen into the public domain (i.e. the copyright expired), as I gawk there are a number of DVD releases by various companies. I can’t sigh for those other releases, but the one I absorb, assign out by Warner Brothers (it has a colossal headshot of Notice in the lower upright hand corner and Ohmart in a nightgown being menaced by a disfigured hand in the upper left), looks exceptionally advantageous, and features both the fullscreen and widescreen formats, along with a obedient Dolby Digital mono audio track. The only extras included are a theatrical trailer for the film and subtitles in both English and French.
Cookieman108
By the intention, this movie saw a remake of the same titled, released in 1999, oozing with high tech special effects. It was decent enough, but I aloof liked the recent better.
William Castle at his gimmicky best! A Classic, spooky Sunless and White, with deliciously devilish Vincent Sign as millionaire with a bored gold-digger wife. She wants a Halloween party with her friends, Notice tosses a party all apt, but not with the people of her choosing. He offers $10,000 dollars to five stranger if they will join him and his wife in spending Halloween night in a truly scared house. One of the 5 is a young Elisha Cooke, family of the obsolete owners who died in the house, and he leads them on a cancel tour. To jazz things up, Label passes out “party favors” - guns. And it’s a hurry to secure out whether Trace of his wife will be the last one standing. This movie is a grandfather of nearly every clichés, blooding dripping from the ceiling, dim mysterious corridors, a witchy woman floating around and vanishing - and the topper that organ music!! This is more like a Halloween Fun house dawdle than a movie! Impress is campy and has tall fun with the role, with elegant lines, especially when fussing with his less than ecstatic wife.
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Castle originally devised this movie with “special touches” for the audiences, like ghost on wires gloating through the audience of people in costume sitting down beside you to enhance the fun house feel.
Just insensible fun and a wee slump down memory lane.
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