The William Castle Blogathon :: The Dead Girl … The Neighbors … The Nightmare … The Doctor … The Truth … The Baby … Whose Baby? (July, 1968)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
I believe I was born with a defective gene that explains away my preference for the Tottenham stomp  of the Dave Clark Five over the Mersey beat of the Beatles. Perhaps this same mental defect explains my complete and total indifference to Rosemary’s Baby. Now, now. I don’t hate the movie. It has merit. It just, I don’t know, never really clicked for me. (My lifelong aversion to Mia Farrow probably isn’t helping matters, here, either. The old Beelzefudds were a hoot, though.) That’s me shrugging right now.
 

 
This post is part of Goregirl’s Dungeon and The Last Drive-In’s The William Castle Blogathan, a week long tribute to the King of Schlock. Follow the linkage, Boils & Ghouls. It’s gonna be a great week. And stick around, as we’ll be showcasing Castle’s film career from its fairly normal beginnings through it psychotronic glory days. Stay tuned!

Rosemary’s Baby (1968) William Castle Productions :: Paramount Pictures / P: William Castle / AP: Dona Holloway / D: Roman Polanski / W: Roman Polanski, Ira Levin (novel) / C: William A. Fraker / E: Sam O’Steen, Bob Wyman / M: Krzysztof Komeda / S: Mia Farrow, John Cassavetes, Ruth Gordon, Maurice Evans, Ralph Bellamy, Patsy Kelly, Elisha Cook Jr.

The William Castle Blogathon :: Kiss-Hungry Girl Ghosts Looking for Live Lover in a Haunted House of Mayhem — At No Extra Cost! (June, 1968)

 

 

 

Other Points of Interest:

Full film review of The Spirit is Willing at the Brewery.

Poster campaign for The Spirit is Willing at the Archive.

 
The Spirit is Willing was my personal introduction to the kookie and ghoulish world of William Castle, seen many, many moons ago at the old Rivoli theater during some weekend matinee re-release in the early 1970’s. Before finally seeing it again, all I really remembered about it was a family moving into a haunted house, where a love-triangle-entangled trio of ghosts still lurk and cause all kinds of mischief; but the strongest and most impressionable image to four or five year old me was a slow-motion meat-cleaver massacre that explains the reason for the ghosts — and probably goes a long, long way in explaining my slightly bent taste in film. And for that, Mr. Castle, I am eternally grateful to you for properly corrupting my childhood.
 

 
This post is part of Goregirl’s Dungeon and The Last Drive-In’s The William Castle Blogathan, a week long tribute to the King of Schlock. Follow the linkage, Boils & Ghouls. It’s gonna be a great week. And stick around, as we’ll be showcasing Castle’s film career from its fairly normal beginnings through it psychotronic glory days. Stay tuned!

The Spirit is Willing (1967) William Castle Productions :: Paramount Pictures / P: William Castle / AP: Dona Holloway / D: William Castle / W: Ben Starr, Nathaniel Benchley (Novel) / C: Harold E. Stine / E: Edwin H. Bryant / M: Vic Mizzy / S: Sid Caesar, Vera Miles, Barry Gordon, Jill Townsend, John McGiver, John Astin, Robert Donner, Cass Daley