William Castle (born William Schloss Jr.; April 24, 1914 – May 31, 1977) was an American filmmaker and actor. He was best known as a director of horror and thriller B-movies in the 1950s and '60s, for which he devised innovative and distinctive promotional gimmicks.
Born in New York City and orphaned at 11, Castle dropped out of high school at 15 to work in the theater. He came to the attention of Columbia Pictures for his talent for promotion and was hired. He learned the trade of filmmaking and became a director, acquiring a reputation for being able to churn out competent B-movies quickly and on budget. He eventually struck out on his own, producing and directing thrillers, which, despite their low budgets, he effectively promoted using gimmicks, a trademark for which he is best known.
The Golden Globes likened Castle to P. T. Barnum, writing that "with his flair for mad inventiveness and sheer audacity, [Castle] was definitely one of the most outlandish films promoter/producer/director of all time." His distinctive gimmicks and B-movie aesthetics influenced filmmakers like Alfred Hitchcock,
He obtained Orson Welles' telephone number and persuaded Welles to lease him the Stony Creek Theatre in Connecticut. (Welles was leaving to begin filming Citizen Kane.) He hired German actress Ellen Schwanneke; upon learning that, under then-current theater guild regulations, German-born actors could appear only in plays originally performed in Germany, Castle claimed he had hired her for the nonexistent play Das ist nicht für Kinder (Not for Children), then spent the following weekend writing the play and having it translated into German. When Nazi Germany sent Schwanneke an invitation to a Munich performance, Castle seized the opportunity for an outrageous publicity stunt.
In the 2007 documentary Spine Tingler! The William Castle Story, Castle's daughter states he had a dynamic, outgoing personality that attracted others. He was one of the few people Cohn liked. He learned the film business and graduated to directing inexpensive B-movies, the first being The Chance of a Lifetime, released in 1943. He directed four movies in The Whistler series, and gained a reputation for making films quickly and under budget. He also worked as an associate producer on Orson Welles' film noir The Lady from Shanghai (1947), doing much second unit location work.
On his own: the gimmicks
Castle began making films independently. The inspiration of the 1955 French psychological thriller Les Diaboliques set the genre he would choose. He financed his first movie, Macabre (1958), by mortgaging his house. He came up with the idea to give every customer a certificate for a $1,000 life insurance policy from Lloyd's of London in case they should die of fright during the film. He stationed nurses in the lobbies with hearses parked outside the theaters.
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|1944
|Meet a Body
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|Forrest Theatre, New York
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|1945
|Star-Spangled Family
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|Biltmore Theatre, New York
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Acting roles
{| class="wikitable"
|+
!Year
!Title
!Role
!Venue
!Notes
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| rowspan="2" |1922
| rowspan="2" |The Torch-Bearers
| rowspan="2" |Teddy Spearing
|48th Street Theatre, New York
| rowspan="9" |
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Bibliography
- Castle, William, with introduction by John Waters (1976, republished 1992, republished 2010). Step Right Up! I'm Gonna Scare the Pants Off America: Memoirs of a B-Movie Mogul. New York, Putnam. (Pharos edition 1992). (William Castle Productions 2010).
- Castle, William and Joseph, Robert, with introduction by Orson Welles (1945). Hero's Oak. New York, The Reader's Press.
- Waters, John (1983). Crackpot: The Obsessions of John Waters. New York, Macmillan Publishing Company. Chapter 2, "Whatever Happened to Showmanship?," was originally published in American Film December 1983 in a slightly different form.
- Castle, William (2011). "From the Grave: The Prayer." William Castle Productions. .
- Documentary. Spine Tingler! The William Castle Story (2007) Director: Jeffrey Schwarz.
- Robert Bloch. Once Around the Bloch: An Unauthorised Autobiography. NY: Tor Books, 1993. Chapter 35 deals with Bloch's experiences scripting Strait-Jacket for Castle.