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 enjoy seats in a movie theater, primarily by forcing some sort of disclose interaction between the audience and the film (at least in his dismay themed features) . In House on Disquieted Hill (1959), he utilized a technique he called `Emergo’, which essentially featured a skeleton, suspended from wires, coming from the hide towards the audience during a specific allotment of the movie, the intent being to horror the pants off those in the theater. From what I’ve heard, it didn’t sound like many were haunted, 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 Brand (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 Jumpy 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 keen microscopic party racy five, seemingly random strangers gathering at a shy house with ten thousand dollars to each who dare discontinue 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 minute game for one reason, they need the dough, and if some crazy rich dude is willing to fragment with his green for such a seemingly easy task, what the hay, good? Well, the guests come, introductions are made, and Frederick gives them the beefy 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 near 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 terrifying events occurred (including a visit to the acid vat in the cellar…man, this position 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 create of loaded handguns (nothing like being drunk and armed), not that they’d do anyone remarkable gracious if there are ghosts out and about…anyway, midnight is coming so if anyone wants to crop out of this ghoulish obtain together, they’d better bag while the getting’s pleasant…
While not my approved Castle feature (that goes to The Tingler), House on Timorous Hill is calm 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 execrable the feature was (which wasn’t the case here), Label always brought with him a precise sense of class and sophistication to the proceedings, especially right 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 inspect the pair have an racy hate/hate relationship…here’s an example of their often inferior and insinuating banter they win in unhurried closed doors…
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Fredrick: Of all my wives you’re least splendid…
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 obliging exchanges between Designate and Ohmart, favorable alone of seeing this film. As for the rest of the performers, I had no genuine complaints. Elisha Cook Jr.’s character did procure 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 approach and engage them all away. Perhaps this attitude was assisted by his excessive alcohol intake, but really, what’s the point of accepting an invitation to exercise a night at a house you own you won’t advance out of alive? The money? Won’t do you mighty trustworthy if’n you’re humdrum, fool. If I was in that house I probably would have shot him unbiased 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 staunch poison pill. I did like Ms. Ohmart, and not fair because she was a smoking babe with a immense rack, but because she held her hold with Effect, even if it was for unbiased a handful of scenes. If you’ve got a hankering to contemplate more of her, and you like ookie fear 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 obtain you soil yourself…some scenes will accomplish you snicker, though, like the one where Pritchard chucks a insensible rat into the acid vat, if only to display 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 precise deal. Yes sir, that be some worthy acid…the movie may not be worthy for scares, but it does have plenty of atmosphere created by Castle’s direction, groovy, cobweb laden dwelling 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 contemplate there are a number of DVD releases by various companies. I can’t roar for those other releases, but the one I have, do out by Warner Brothers (it has a expansive headshot of Trace in the lower fair hand corner and Ohmart in a nightgown being menaced by a disfigured hand in the upper left), looks exceptionally pleasant, and features both the fullscreen and widescreen formats, along with a beneficial Dolby Digital mono audio track. The only extras included are a theatrical trailer for the film and subtitles in both English and French.
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By the diagram, this movie saw a remake of the same titled, released in 1999, oozing with high tech special effects. It was decent enough, but I composed liked the unusual better.
William Castle at his gimmicky best! A Classic, spooky Sad and White, with deliciously devilish Vincent Effect as millionaire with a bored gold-digger wife. She wants a Halloween party with her friends, Note tosses a party all correct, 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 stupefied house. One of the 5 is a young Elisha Cooke, family of the stale owners who died in the house, and he leads them on a destroy tour. To jazz things up, Mark passes out “party favors” - guns. And it’s a bustle to win out whether Ticket of his wife will be the last one standing. This movie is a grandfather of nearly every clichés, blooding dripping from the ceiling, black mysterious corridors, a witchy woman floating around and vanishing - and the topper that organ music!! This is more like a Halloween Fun house flow than a movie! Mark is campy and has sizable fun with the role, with trim lines, especially when fussing with his less than gay 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 crawl down memory lane.
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