Random Drive-In Mash-Up :: An Evening With the Duke (October, 1960)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stalk ‘n’ SlashCinema :: 22 Years Later, Norman Bates is Coming Home. (May, 1983)

 

 

 

 
If you believe the rumors, Robert Bloch, unhappy with the state of formulaic horror films, penned a novel, Psycho II (1982), which showed Norman Bates escaping from an asylum so he can head to Hollywood and knock off those filming a bio-pic based on his homicidal exploits because it wasn’t hewing close enough to what really happened (– but not before he makes a pitstop to take out Lila and Sam Loomis, who married after the grisly events of Psycho, which, you may recall, Bloch wrote the screenplay for.) This, in turn, in a true testament to the box-office results of the Stalk ‘n’ Slash boom that Bloch was aping, found Universal resurrecting the Psycho franchise to cash in on both. And to their credit, not only did they get the rights from Paramount, they also managed to talk Tony Perkins into reprising the role of Norman Bates, and the movie turned out much better than Bloch’s novel, which I found to be pretty freakin’ terrible.
 

 
Psycho II (1983) Oak :: Universal Pictures / EP: Bernard Schwartz / P: Hilton A. Green / D: Richard Franklin / W: Tom Holland / C: Dean Cundey / E: Andrew London / M: Jerry Goldsmith / S: Anthony Perkins, Vera Miles, Meg Tilly, Robert Loggia, Dennis Franz

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

The William Castle Blogathon :: Treachery Sends Apache Hordes on Vengeance Warpath! (February, 1954)

 

 

 

 
Back out west we go for some more over-saturated Technicolor misadventures in Castle’s The Conquest of Cochise. 3D was already out and Cinemascope was in. (See it in all its Vast Vision Glory!) However, from the reviews I’ve read about this tale of land swindles and broken treaties the only thing that stuck was the torture scenes in the last reel, meaning Castle was already well on his way toward the next phase of his cinematic career.
 

 
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 Conquest of Cochise (1953) Columbia Pictures / P: Sam Katzman / AP: Herbert B. Leonard / D: William Castle / W: Arthur Lewis, DeVallon Scott / C: Henry Freulich / E: Al Clark / M: Mischa Bakaleinikoff / S: John Hodiak, Robert Stack, Joy Page, Rico Alaniz, Edward Colmans

The Tall Lie a/k/a For Men Only (1953) H-N Productions :: Lippert Pictures / P: Paul Henreid, Edward Nassour / D: Paul Henreid / W: Herbert H. Margolis, Lou Morheim / C: Paul Ivano / E: Sherman A. Rose / M: Hoyt Curtin / S: Paul Henreid, Kathleen Hughes, Vera Miles, Margaret Field, Robert Sherman, Russell Johnson

Now Showing :: August, 1965

 

 

Entering the 3rd Dimension :: An Adventure so Tumultuous only 3-D Could Unleash All its Fabulous Force! (September, 1953)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Though The Charge at Feather River isn’t the precise origin of The Wilhelm Scream, it does have the honor of coining the phrase itself. Sort of. What the hell am I talking about? And what’s a Whilhelm Scream, you ask? Well, I’m sure you’ve heard it, we all have, and to find out more you can click on over to the Brewery where I get to the bottom of the most heard unheard of Hollywood cliche. And on top of that, The Charge at Feather River also contains one of my favorite applications of 3-D, when an unarmed Frank Lovejoy’s Sgt. Baker spits several volleys of tobacco juice right into a camera to fend of a deadly rattlesnake. *ptui* Wow.

The Charge at Feather River (1953) Warner Bros. Pictures / P: David Weisbart / D: Gordon Douglas / W: James R. Webb / C: J. Peverell Marley / E: Folmar Blangsted / M: Max Steiner / S: Guy Madison, Vera Miles, Frank Lovejoy, Helen Westcott, Neville Brand

For the Love of Hitchcock :: A New and Altogether Different Screen Excitement! (July, 1960)

 

“It’s not like my mother is a maniac or a raving thing.”

“She just goes a little mad sometimes.”

“We all go a little mad sometimes.”

“Haven’t you?”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Other Points of Interest:

Full film review of Psycho at the Brewery.

 
This post is part of the For the Love of Film Blogathon, a new age telethon to raise funds for The National Film Preservation Foundation to help bring The White Shadow (a/k/a White Shadows), an early silent film that a certain master of suspense did just about everything for except direct — assistant director, screenwriter, film editor, production designer, art director, and set decorator, to the streaming masses and help defray the costs of adding a new musical soundtrack.
 

 
There’s no donation too small, folks. So please, click on the link above, wherever you see it this week and give what you can. Thanks. For more information, check out the group’s Facebook page. Big thanks, as always, to Ferdy on Film, The Self-Styled Siren and This Island Rod for throwing such a wide net for contributors. Until tomorrow, then, I bid you all a good ev-ah-ning.
 

I’m participating. Are you?

 
Psycho (1960) Shamley Productions :: Paramount Pictures / P: Alfred Hitchcock / D: Alfred Hitchcock / W: Joseph Stefano, Robert Bloch (novel) / C: John L. Russell / E: George Tomasini / M: Bernard Hermann / S: Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh, Vera Miles, John Gavin, Martin Balsam

For the Love of Hitchcock :: All the More Exciting Because All its Shadowed Twists and Turns are True! (February, 1957)

 

“An innocent man has nothing to fear — remember that.”

 

 

 

 

 
This post is part of the For the Love of Film Blogathon, a new age telethon to raise funds for The National Film Preservation Foundation to help bring The White Shadow (a/k/a White Shadows), an early silent film that a certain master of suspense did just about everything for except direct — assistant director, screenwriter, film editor, production designer, art director, and set decorator, to the streaming masses and help defray the costs of adding a new musical soundtrack.
 

 
There’s no donation too small, folks. So please, click on the link above, wherever you see it this week and give what you can. Thanks. For more information, check out the group’s Facebook page. Big thanks, as always, to Ferdy on Film, The Self-Styled Siren and This Island Rod for throwing such a wide net for contributors. Until tomorrow, then, I bid you all a good ev-ah-ning.
 

I’m participating. Are you?

 
The Wrong Man (1956) Warner Bros. / P: Alfred Hitchcock / AP: Herbert Coleman / D: Alfred Hitchcock / W: Maxwell Anderson, Angus MacPhail / C: Robert Burks / E: George Tomasini / M: Bernard Herrmann / S: Henry Fonda, Vera Miles, Anthony Quayle, Harold J. Stone, Charles Cooper