Received decent reviews. Castle was not a "bad" director
Wanted to say that due to the posts I'm reading.
shareSTRAIT-JACKET and other pictures reveals Castle was, quite often, indeed a bad director.
Comparatively, I SAW WHAT YOU DID is one of his more polished films, however. And Joseph Biroc's B&W cinematography helps immeasurably.
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LBJ's mistress tells all:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcXeutDmuRA
His films usually received somewhere in the 2* range. Mediocre may be a good label.
shareI don't know about "good" or "bad", but William Castle is about the most FUN director I know. I love the feel/mood of his cozy little thrillers.
shareI don't know about "good" or "bad", but William Castle is about the most FUN director I know. I love the feel/mood of his cozy little thrillers.
I'd attribute that to a combination of the era in which Castle was at his peak (the cozy, PSYCHO/TwlightZone/ColdWar end-of-the-world vibe of the very-late-'50s and early-'60s, circa 1958 to 1965, when all you had to do was turn a camera on to achieve an innocent and undiluted creepiness) and Castle's skill as a producer at putting unpretentious projects together where outrageousness was more important than 'art'.
That's his appeal: the kid-friendly Halloween party tone.
But his lack of skill as a director really cause some of his projects to be a big letdown. If he has an excellent B&W cinematographer, as he did in I SAW WHAT YOU DID and 13 GHOSTS (Joseph Biroc) that could grant Castle's movies an additional dignity and style and atmosphere that they didn't necessarily earn.
And that's the problem with one of his most infamous films: STRAIT-JACKET. Despite the star (Crawford), the subject matter (she's a fabulous axe-murderess) and the period (1963), the movie is not as much fun as it ought to be. It's soooo sloppy (to say nothing of the flat-lighting and music score befitting an episode of PETTICOAT JUNCTION) that it disappoints badly -- although I love the silly, deadly party at the end of the movie.
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LBJ's mistress on JFK:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcXeutDmuRA
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I'd attribute that to a combination of the era in which Castle was at his peak (the cozy, PSYCHO/TwlightZone/ColdWar end-of-the-world vibe of the very-late-'50s and early-'60s, circa 1958 to 1965, when all you had to do was turn a camera on to achieve an innocent and undiluted creepiness)
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That's a very interesting take on the subject, which I hadn't considered before. But, yes, movies are almost always a reflection of what is going on in the social climate of the day.
But I just can't imagine "Strait Jacket" being any more charming than it already is. And I love the musical score in SJ!
Same goes for "Night Walker", "I Saw What You Did!" and "Homicidal". Also, "13 Frightened Girls" and "Let's Kill Uncle", both of which had this kind of over-saturated color going on, which I actually loved.
Do you know of any other directors who achieved this kind of delightful, cozy thriller that Castle seemed to have a knack for? Or any other creepy-cool films from the last 50s/early 60s? Because I'd love more of the same. I do love the original "Twilight Zone" as well as "Psycho".
I just can't imagine "Strait Jacket" being any more charming than it already is. And I love the musical score in SJ!
Oh, I could. I own a copy, but it's so tackily produced and thrown together that it frustrates me -- not that I have any artistic aspirations for it. But there's too much that is messed up. (No subjective camera during the prologue murders??) It's too choppy (pardon the pun) and amateurish, even for Castle!
Oddly, HOMICIDAL (which he based on PSYCHO which was, conversely, based on Castle's work) may be the most polished film he directed. Not that it's a favorite necessarily.
Do you know of any other directors who achieved this kind of delightful, cozy thriller that Castle seemed to have a knack for? Or any other creepy-cool films from the last 50s/early 60s? Because I'd love more of the same. I do love the original "Twilight Zone" as well as "Psycho".
Virtually any thriller from the period, whether A-level like Hitchcock (PSYCHO or THE BIRDS) or Robert Aldrich (BABY JANE, etc...) or B-level (like Castle) has this flavor. It was simply in the water at the time. (I sometimes refer to Opie losing his baseball in that haunted murder mansion on the edge of Mayberry, and how utterly spooky it is while being absurdly comedic).
But not many of the era's films quite offer Castle's campy concepts, which are part of the charm of his work.
I still wish several of them were slightly better. Some of them are a wee bit too "C-level" to really work all that well, even on an unambitious basis .
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LBJ's mistress on JFK:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcXeutDmuRA
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