William Castle

Documentary about legendary Paramount producer Robert Evans (the film shares the same name as Evans's famous 1994 autobiography). This documentary captures the life story of legendary Hollywood producer and studio chief Robert Evans. The first actor to ever to run a film studio, Robert Evans' film career started in 1956, poolside at the Beverly Hills Hotel. His good looks, charm and overwhelming confidence captured the eye of screen legend Norma Shearer, who offered him a film role. After a glamorous--but short-lived--career as a movie star, Evans tried out producing. At the age of 34, with no producing credits to his name, he landed a job as chief of production at Paramount Pictures. Evans ran the studio from 1966-1974. During his tenure, he was responsible for such revolutionary films as The Godfather, Rosemary's Baby, Love Story, The Odd Couple, Harold and Maude and Chinatown. By the early '80s, the Golden Boy of Hollywood was losing his luster. After a failed marriage to Ali MacGraw, a cocaine bust and rumored involvement with the Cotton Club murder, he disappeared into near-obscurity. Only through tremendous will and uncanny luck did he once again rise as the kid who stays in the picture. —Sujit R. Varma Movie mogul Robert Evans self narrates the story of his movie life. Once an aspiring actor, he was a successful business owner of a woman's wear company when, independently, Hollywood royals actress Norma Shearer and producer Darryl F. Zanuck plucked him out of nowhere to be featured in major supporting roles in two separate movies. His acting career was short as he realized that he was not very good at it, and that his passion lied elsewhere in the movie business. He wanted to be the next Darryl F. Zanuck. In large part due to an article written by entertainment columnist Peter Bart, Evans did become a producer and then ultimately head of Paramount Pictures, one of the then lower tier of the premier movie studios. Evans' place at the studio hinged on the success of a few key movies including Rosemary's Baby (1968), Love Story (1970) (working on which sparked the short but passionate personal relationship with future wife, actress Ali MacGraw), and The Godfather (1972). Under his tenure, Paramount became the number 1 studio in Hollywood. Those successes led to an unusual contract with Paramount, which in turn led to his return to producing such acclaimed movies as Chinatown (1974), and ultimately quitting his job at the studio. But Evans' life had some major falls, especially in the 1980's, with the start of his cocaine use, the failure of some highly touted and big budget films such as The Cotton Club (1984), and implication in the murder of aspiring producer Roy Radin, which in combination led to major bout of depression. He would need the assistance of his true friends to help him regain his life. —Huggo

Scientist James Parmiter (Bradford Dillman) delivers his wife, Carrie (Joanna Miles), to a church sermon at a country parish, then drives to work at a local university. During a sermon about God's "gentle caress," a major earthquake strikes and nearly demolishes the chapel, but no one is killed. While the parishioners evacuate, Carrie grabs her Bible and calls James from a payphone, thereby missing her ride home with Henry Tacker and his son, Kenny. As the two men approach the Tacker farm, their pickup truck explodes in flames. Young Norma Tacker (Jamie Smith Jackson) watches in horror as her father and brother burn. That night, Norma is retrieved from her vigil inside the burned truck by her boyfriend, Gerald Metbaum (Richard Gilliland). Both are unaware that the vehicle is hosting killer cockroaches. Returning home, Norma retires while Gerald hears strange noises and surveys the property to discover large, incendiary cockroaches near a fault line created during the earthquake. A cat is killed when a cockroach com-busts on its head. Sometime later, Gerald visits the biology class of his former professor, James Parmiter, who lectures that modern man has lost his innate ability to communicate with other living creatures. When the students leave, the two men eat lunch at the cafeteria and Gerald reports his entomological discovery at the Tacker farm, the earthquake's epicenter. When James argues that fire-producing insects do not exist, Gerald shows him the dead cat. James goes to the farm with Gerald and is astonished that the cockroaches are able to make fire by rubbing their legs together. He also observes one cockroach feeding on ashes. Soon, the town is besieged by fires in most of its buildings and James calls the mayor to warn him about the bugs, but the mayor is unavailable. Back at the university laboratory, James's colleague, Mark Ross (Alan Fudge), examines a cockroach specimen and reports that the insects eat carbon and are indestructible to any blunt force. James wonders how the cockroaches travel from place to place, since they cannot fly. At the Parmiter home, Carrie prepares to leave for the Tacker funeral with Mark's wife, Sylvia, and James returns in time to say goodbye. Alone in the house, James is visited by a handyman named Charlie, who reports strange noises coming from James's car. James discovers cockroaches feasting on his engine and orders Charlie to leave. He then lures the insects into a trap with a freshly burned newspaper. Meanwhile at the Tacker funeral, Carrie gives Norma and her surviving brother, Tom, a handkerchief that Henry gave her at the church just before the earthquake struck. When Norma, Tom, and Gerald return home to pack up the house, Norma answers the telephone and a cockroach, nesting in the receiver, attacks her ear. Gerald extracts the bug with a burned newspaper and Norma is sent to the hospital. Meanwhile, James drives to the farm, which is now smoking from the fires triggered by the cockroaches. He impales one of the insects, causing it to explode. Excited by his discovery, James phones Mark and they meet at the laboratory. James explains that the bugs are slow-moving because of atmospheric pressure, and they are suffering from decompression sickness. Before the earthquake, the cockroaches lived entirely underground in a dense atmosphere, but now they are struggling to stay alive. James suspects the insects are ancient creatures trapped underneath the Earth's surface during a prehistoric volcanic eruption. When Mark adds that the cockroaches cannot reproduce and that they will soon self-destruct in the Earth's atmosphere, James is despondent. Sometime later, James asks Gerald to build a large pressure tank. Gerald hopes that James' experiments will help Norma recover from the cockroach attack and agrees. Back at the Parmiter home, Carrie discovers a surprise birthday cake that Sylvia hid in the garage. She brings it inside, unaware that a cockroach is clinging to the box. The insect attaches itself to Carrie's shirt, then sets her hair on fire, causing the woman to ignite. Later, Mark arrives at the laboratory to find James paralyzed with grief. Seeking to make sense of the tragedy, James returns to the Tacker farm and sees the burned shells of deceased cockroaches. He captures a sole surviving insect and places it in Gerald's newly crafted pressure tank, muttering, "I will make you live." He then introduces an average household cockroach into the tank and the two bugs copulate. Sometime later, Gerald and Norma return to the Tacker home, but he refuses them entry. James is angered to learn that the location of his hideout has been leaked to Mark. The couple leave food for James, then drive away. Days pass and the cockroach mating is successful. However, the female "fire bug" guards her egg case and James is unable to perform experiments. Several more days later, the egg case increases in size and James transfers it out of the pressure tank and into a box. There, the egg hatches numerous infants that grow to adult cockroaches within five hours. When James reintroduces the mother cockroach to her offspring, they kill her and James sobs. Soon, cockroaches escape from their box and feast on James's uncooked steak; he discovers that they only consume raw meat and eat collaboratively, as a "single unit." That night, James awakens to find cockroaches sucking blood from his chest and secures them in the pressure tank. Over the next several days, James suspects that the cockroaches listen to his voice and watch him, as well as form symbolic patterns with their bodies to communicate messages. Late one night, he discovers that the insects have escaped the tank to form the letters of his last name on the wall, along with the message: "We live." Terrified, James realizes the bugs have great powers and runs from the house to get them more food. Meanwhile, Sylvia takes a taxi to the Tacker home, intending to give James the Bible that Carrie held so dear. She screams upon finding the house infested with cockroaches and a cassette tape of James' voice, repeating: "I've gone too far." As the insects burn her face, Sylvia runs outside and dies in the barn. Feasting on their kill, the bugs procreate and climb into the fault line. When James returns, he discovers the insects missing. That evening, Mark arrives, looking for Sylvia, and notices that James has become mentally unhinged; unshaven and disheveled. Although James orders his colleague to leave, he promises to return to the university in a few days. With Mark gone, James is horrified when he discovers Sylvia's body. He grabs the Bible and tries to phone the authorities, but the line has been severed by the mutant cockroaches. Hearing the insects, James wanders outside to see a bright red light emanating from the fault as giant cockroaches, now equipped with wings, fly away. Although James tries to escape into the house, the creatures smash through the window in pursuit and set him and the whole house on fire. As James tumbles out of the front door in flames, he falls into the fault and the cockroaches follow. The fissure closes, trapping the cockroaches underneath the Earth's surface yet again.

A mute puppeteer uses a deceased scientist's invention to control dead bodies like puppets. Malcolm Shanks is a sad and lonely man, deaf, mute and living with his cruel sister and her husband, who delight in making him miserable. His only pleasure, it seems, is in making and controlling puppets. Thanks to his skill, he is offered a job as a lab assistant to Dr. Walker, who is working on ways to re-animate dead bodies by instering electrodes at key nerve points and manipulating the bodies as if they were on strings. When the professor suddenly dies one night, Shanks gets the idea to apply their experimental results to a human body, and then to start exacting some revenge. —Jean-Marc Rocher <rocher@fiberbit.net>

This is supernatural tale of the unborn. After moving into a creepy old apartment in Manhattan with her husband Guy, Rosemary Woodhouse begins to experience odd, unpleasant things happening to her. Guy becomes enchanted with their nosy neighbors, Minnie and Roman Castevet, after the older couple`s ward commits suicide. Then Rosemary gets pregnant after a bad dream in which a horrible creature makes love to her. A caring Minnie keeps giving her some weird concoction for the pregnancy and Rosemary doesn`t feel at all well. The only solution is, as the tag-line says, to "pray for Rosemary`s baby

A spy is brought back from cryogenic suspension after being almost killed in a plane crash returning from a mission to learn about a deadly new weapon being developed in the East. But the vital memories are being suppressed, so the authorities use ultra-advanced technologies to try to uncover the secret. —Letter B.

Hapless Benjamin Powell, his loving wife Kate, and their teenage son Steven rent a haunted seaside house in New England for their summer vacation, which quickly turns into a ghost-hunt. When Ben and Kate Powell (Sid Caesar and Vera Miles) rent a haunted New England house by the sea, their son Steve (Barry Gordon) gets blamed for the destruction caused by three unruly ghosts. Another of 'exploitation king' William Castle's supernatural films, this one is studded with familiar character actors including Harvey Lembeck, Mary Wickes, John McGiver, Doodles Weaver, Jesse White and John ("Gomez Addams") Astin. —alfiehitchie

Sid Caesar stars as the bumbling right-hand man of mob boss Robert Ryan, who is sent to find a corpse buried in a suit lined with stolen mob money. Sid Caesar plays a bumbling gopher to mob boss Robert Ryan, who discovers a large theft of mob money. His bookkeeper is killed shortly before he can reveal the thief. When the discovery is made, Ryan suspects Caesar as the culprit and probable murderer of the bookkeeper. Caesar spends the rest of the movie trying to find the real killer and a corpse buried in a suit lined with the stolen money. —alfiehitchie

Various flashbacks and images introduce Lucy Harbin [Joan Crawford], a young woman who comes home unexpectedly to find her husband in bed with another woman. Carol, their very young daughter, is in bed right in the next room, but she is awake. Heartbroken, Lucy suffers a moment of fury and confusion that leads her to spontaneously pick up a nearby axe and decapitate her husband and his lover while they sleep. Carol watches in terror and shock as Lucy hacks the two bodies to pieces. Lucy is declared insane and sent to an asylum, where she endures traumatic shock treatments for her mental breakdown. The narrator of the flashback is revealed to be Carol, now a young woman. It is twenty years later, and Carol is opening up about her past to her boyfriend, Michael Fields. After Lucy's incarceration, Carol was taken in by her aunt and uncle, Bill and Emily, and the family lives on a farm in a rural location. Carol is revealing the family history to Michael because Lucy is being released from the asylum, and is coming to live with the family. When Lucy arrives, she is skittish. She cautiously acclimates to the farm, exploring the area with Carol and meeting the gritty-looking farm hand, Krause. But she is clearly thrilled to see Carol again, and is touched by the lovely young woman Carol has become. Carol is a sculptress and has a spacious studio filled with her work, and she thrills Lucy by giving her a bust of herself just as she was in her youth. Things quickly start to get strange. Carol shocks Lucy by presenting her with two bracelets she used to wear when she was a young woman, large dangling charm bracelets that jangle when she walks. Carol seems intent on recreating Lucy as a young woman, taking her clothes shopping and buying her a wig that mimics the hairstyle she wore the last time Carol saw her. Lucy is uncomfortable with this, but agrees to dress this way to please her daughter, whom she desperately wants to make amends with. While they are in the wig shop, Lucy hears strange voices, as if children are singing a morbid nursery rhyme about her crimes. She dismisses it as nerves. Later, she suffers a terrible nightmare and wakes up to discover two bloody heads in bed with her, with a bloody axe lying nearby. When she wakes the others, the items are gone from her room. Lucy starts to think she is relapsing. Things get worse when Carol attempts to introduce Michael to her mother. When Michael stops by for drinks, Lucy seems to try and seduce him, all with Carol right there in the room. The embarassing scene is interrupted by Lucy's former psychiatrist, Dr. Anderson, who makes an unexpected visit. When he sees how unstable Lucy seems, Dr. Anderson makes comments to the family that suggest he would like to take Lucy back to the hospital. When the doctor gets Lucy alone, his comments upset her and she runs off. As Dr. Anderson searches for her around the farm, he enters the darkened barn and a shadowy figure corners him--it appears to be Lucy, the silhouette revealing her hairstyle and figure, right down to the jangling bracelets she wears. The figure is holding an axe, and quickly decapitates Dr. Anderson. Carol returns to the farmhouse to find her mother alone in the darkened living room. The doctor's car is still outside, and Carol quickly comes to the conclusion that her mother has killed him. In a panic, Carol drives the doctor's car into a barn and locks it in, but she is spotted by Krause, who is lurking the shadows. The next day, Carol sees Krause painting the car a different color and angrily confronts him, but he smugly suggests that he knows what happened to the doctor, and that he'll turn Lucy in to the authorities if Carol fires him. Lucy overhears the conversation from the window. Later that evening, Krause is stalked and murdered with the axe. Lucy prepares for an evening that she dreads, a dinner party intended to introduce her to Michael's parents. If Michael and Carol are to be married, these will be their in-laws, and Michael's family is very wealthy, his father being the proprietor of a very successful dairy farm. Lucy has a panic attack in the powder room while at the Fields'--after spilling coffee on her dress, she retreats to the washroom and suffers a flashback because of the wallpaper, which resembles the bars of a prison cell. Carol calms her down and takes her back to the party. Mr. & Mrs. Fields are cordial until they plot to get Lucy alone so they can have a private conversation with her: Mrs. Fields is suspicious of Lucy, and poor Lucy makes a terrible misstep by revealing to Mr. & Mrs. Fields that her daughter and Michael are planning to be married. The Fields had not been informed of this yet, and they react disapprovingly. Mrs. Fields in particular gets very haughty with Lucy, making suggestions about her past, and Lucy suddenly snaps at her, revealing that she was in an asylum for twenty years. She says that under no circumstances will she allow the Fields' to interfere with her daughter's happiness, and she storms out of the house. Michael drives Emily and Carol back to their house while he and Bill go out looking for Lucy, who has disappeared. Emily sends Carol to bed, but Carol is restless and cannot sleep. With Michael gone from the Fields' house, Mr. and Mrs. Fields are alone in their house and they hear sounds to suggest someone is prowling around. Mr. Fields is oblivious, but when he goes into his closet to get undressed for the evening, he is attacked by the figure of Lucy, brandishing an axe. Mrs. Fields becomes suspicious and goes looking for her husband, eventually finding his body in the dressing room. Horrified, she retreats, only to be confronted by the figure of Lucy in the bedroom. Before the axe can fall, the bedroom door opens and the real Lucy comes in; after scuffling with the other figure, Lucy tears off a mask to reveal her daughter's face underneath. Carol has been committing the murders while dressing as her mother; scarred by witnessing the double homicide committed by her mother, Carol's mind was unstable ever since. Certain that Mr. and Mrs. Fields would never allow Michael to marry her without a great deal of trouble, she plotted to make it appear as if Lucy murdered them in a rage, which would send Lucy back to the asylum and allow her to marry Michael. Her mind shattered, Carol clutches the mask of her mother and screams at it "I hate you! I hate you! Oh I'm sorry, I love you! I hate you! I love you!" Outside on the porch, Lucy hears her daughter's insane ravings and weeps, perhaps remembering her own moment of insanity. An epilogue reveals Lucy discussing her plans with Bill. With Carol now committed to an asylum just as she once was, Lucy intends to stand by her daughter and be whatever kind of support that she needs.

SPOILERS HEREIN!!! Calling herself Miriam Webster, a lovely blonde checks in at a seedy Ventura hotel. Asking the younger BELLBOY to see her to her room, Miriam acts flirtatiously, then asks the young Bellboy if he will marry her for a thousand dollars. She further tells the astonished Bellboy that the marriage will be annulled immediately after the ceremony. The Bellboy agrees and Miriam asks him to drive them to a specific Justice of the Peace, ALFRED ADRIMS, who agrees to marry them so late at night, against the protests of his annoyed wife, MRS. ADRIMS. He performs the ceremony but as he's about to kiss the bride, Miriam pulls a surgical knife from her purse and stabs him repeatedly, fleeing as the Bellboy and the hysterical wife call the police. Miriam changes cars and makes her way back to a secluded home in Solvang. She goes inside and deals with a wheelchair-bound elderly woman, HELGA, who's also been rendered mute by a stroke. The clearly disturbed Miriam takes delight in telling Helga that Adrims died screaming. The next morning, the real MIRIAM WEBSTER arrives, an attractive young woman who runs a nearby flower shop. Miriam checks in on Helga frequently, as Miriam is the sister of WARREN, who is close to Helga and who lives in San Diego. Miriam doesn't care much for the blonde, whose name it turns out is EMILY and who is apparently a friend of Warren and is acting as caretaker for Helga. Miriam's flower shop is next door to the pharmacy operated by handsome KARL, who is dating Miriam. Emily is obviously jealous, as she trashes Miriam's flower shop after Karl turns down her offer of a date. At the same time, she smashes the photograph of Miriam's brother, Warren. When Karl checks in on the plundered flower shop, Emily knocks him out. Warren wakes up Karl, concerned about what has happened. Warren is in town to check on Helga. It's also close to Warren's twenty-first birthday, at which point he will inherit a fortune from his late parents, both of whom were killed in a car accident. At the house, Miriam and Warren recall their wealthy father's cruelty. He often beat Warren, determined to make a "man" out of him. Emily continues acting oddly, is openly hostile to Miriam. When Miriam threatens to talk with Warren about her, Emily tells Miriam that she, Emily, and Warren are married. Emily even threatens Miriam's life. Miriam leaves the house, rattled by Emily's behavior. Emily has her knife sharpened, and it's clear that she intends murdering Helga. Just as she's about to do so, the local DOCTOR JONAS drops by, but before the mute Helga can convince him she's in danger, he leaves. Emily cuts off Helga's head as the old lady comes down the stairs on her wheelchair lift. A POLICEMAN drops by Miriam's shop with the Bellboy who witnessed the murder. They are checking with Miriam since the killer used her name. The Bellboy obviously doesn't recognize the real Miriam. By now, both Miriam and Karl are suspicious of the peculiar, hostile Emily. Karl goes to Ventura to see if the Bellboy recognizes a photo of Emily as the killer. Miriam stays behind. Warren drops by, now concerned about Emily himself. When Karl confirms that the Bellboy has identified Emily as the killer, Warren is shocked and saddened. He also worries about Helga. Warren and Miriam drive out to the house. Warren asks Miriam to stay in the car while he goes into the house to check. Miriam grows restless and frightened as she waits. After Warren has seemingly been in the house too long, Miriam goes into the house to see if he's all right. Miriam is horrified to find Helga's headless corpse on the lift, her head rolling down the steps as Miriam backs up in horror. Emily suddenly leaps from the shadows with a knife poised to kill Miriam. The horrified Miriam screams for Warren, and it's then that Emily reveals that she is Warren, pulling off the blonde wig and removing a dental retainer. Warren/Emily raises the knife to kill Miriam but the Doctor, who remained concerned about Helga, enters the house, struggling with the knife-wielding Warren/Emily. Miriam shoots Warren. Later, in a wrap-up at the police department, the Policeman reveals what happened. It seems that Warren's mother actually delivered a girl, but the mother, knowing that her cruel husband was insisting upon a son, paid Helga and Alfred Adrims to convince the father that a boy - his preference - was born. Warren was actually a girl but was raised as a boy. Helga later took "him" to Denmark, where, perhaps, there might have been a sex change operation. With Warren's birthday approaching and the estate about to become his, it was imperative that he continue hiding his secret as the estate was left to a boy only. He had to kill Sam Adrims and Helga, who knew the secret and he had to kill Miriam, the real heiress to the estate. Now a wealthy woman, Miriam is ready to start a new life with Karl.

The movie opens with eerie music and a darkened screen followed by screams and moans and splotches of paint thrown at the screen. Each ghost and its number appears with the number thirteen as a "?". Titles and credits follow. The opening shot is the front (south entrance) of the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History. Cyrus Zorba (Donald Woods) is a paleontologist and is lecturing to a group of college students. He encourages them to visit the La Brea Tar Pits. He is interrupted by his boss, Mr. Van Allen (John Van Dreelen), who tells him his wife needs to speak to him on the telephone. Hilda Zorba (Rosemary DeCamp) tells her husband their furniture is being repossessed, again! Payments are three months overdue. Cy is a poor money manager and very forgetful. She reminds him that it is Buck's birthday, so don't forget his gift. Buck Zorba (Charles Herbert) arrives home to an empty house. "Why do they always take our furniture?" he asks his mother knowing the answer. The cake says, "Happy Birthday, Buck" and contains eleven candles. His sister, Medea (Jo Morrow) gave her brother a tome of "Ghost Stories." They eat on the floor, as all the furniture is gone. Buck makes a wish and prepares to blow out the candles. His wish is for, "A house with furniture that no one could take away from us." At that a gust of wind blows out the candles. Simultaneously the doorbell rings. Cy answers it. He sees no one at the door. He ventures out into the darkness a few steps and a short, cadaverous man (David Hoffman) asks, "Mr. Cyrus Zorba?" He hands him a telegram then disappears into the darkness. Cy opens and reads the telegram out loud. He is to report at 10:00 a.m. to an attorney's office. Medea looks up his name in the phone book and tells her father he's in the Petrol Building. The next morning Cy and Hilda Zorba appear at the law office of Benjamin Rush (Martin Milner). Ben Rush tells the pair that Cy has inherited a house from his uncle, Dr. Plato Zorba. It includes furniture, but Ben tells them they will be disappointed. It is a fifty year old house in need of work. A wrapped package sealed with wax was also included in the inheritance. According to Ben Rush, Dr. Zorba was his client for a year and he had collected ghosts from all over the world. "You inherit them too," he warns. Cy and Hilda chuckle in amusement, but Ben is dead serious, reiterating, "They go with the house." Ben leaves to get a notary. They open the package and find a wooden box. When they open it a gust of wind blows the papers around the lawyer's desk. Inside is a pair of peculiar looking glasses. A fly buzzing around the room annoys Hilda, who keeps brushing it away. It lands on the glasses and explodes like it was a bug zapper. Ben drives up to the house to see Cy about more paperwork. The family has moved into the house. It is a large Victorian place, very overgrown and obviously untended for years. Ben encounters Buck skating on the porch. Buck is excited about the house and claims they have a "live" witch living there. When Ben rings, Medea answers, much to Buck's annoyance. He wanted the housekeeper, Elaine Zacharides (Margaret Hamilton) to answer as she usually does. Medea introduces herself to the lawyer and is instantly attracted to him. She invites him in. Elaine is on the stairs and holding a broom. She glowers at Ben and the children, and turns and walks upstairs. They discuss Plato Zorba and his picture over the fireplace. Ben explains the ghosts had nearly killed him and altered his appearance, "back broken, face torn to shreds, lips ripped away." He tells Medea he wishes they had not moved into the house. Medea invites Ben to stay for dinner. Cy finishes signing all the paperwork for the house and they discuss "the witch." Cy explains they can't pay her, but she begged to stay on until she found something else. Ben explains she must have money, as Zorba paid her well. Buck finds a OUIJA board and brings it to the table. Buck explains he pushed something on the fireplace and a door opened. Buck walks over to the fireplace, pushes a button and the door opens revealing a deck of cards, the book and the planchette. Cy retrieves the planchette and hands it to Buck. He removes the white bound book. It is written in Latin. Medea suggests they play with the OUIJA board. Cy explains how the board works. All five put a finger on the planchette. Ben asks, "Is Medea in Love?" Buck asks a question, "Are there any ghosts in this house?" The pointer goes to Yes, despite Hilda and Ben saying they pushed towards No. After that, just Medea and Buck play with the board. He asks, "How many?" It answers 13. Medea asks, "Are they going to hurt us?" It points to Yes. Ben warns Medea, "Don't fool around with that thing anymore." Buck finally asks, "Are they going to kill any of us?" The glass framed portrait of Dr. Zorba falls off the wall and nearly kills both Buck and Medea. The planchette starts moving on its own, levitating above the couch and landing in Medea's lap. Cy and Hilda prepare for bed. Hilda is scared. Cy explains to his wife if they don't live in the house it goes to the state. Cy opens the box and pulls out the glasses. Hilda complains of a freezing draft. The flowers on a table wilt. Cy checks on the children and then goes downstairs for a book. Down in the living room we see some of the ghosts re-enacting their crimes, perpetrators and victims. Cy hears moaning and is drawn to the source. He walks down a hallway and opens a door that leads to a walled up room. He presses on it and it slides open. The moans are louder. He turns on a light. This must have been Zorba's laboratory. Someone whispers "13" over and over. He puts on the glasses and sees the book burning. He looks up to see four apparitions floating in midair. The four burst into flames and scream. He is attacked by a pinwheel of fire. He takes the glasses off. The door open and he retrieves his Uncle's book. The number "13" is seared into his flesh on the back of his right hand. The next morning at work he asks Mr. Van Allen how the translation is going on the book. Van Allen has a hard time putting it into words. He refers to a University Publication from ten years prior. It is about Plato Zorba and his solicitation of haunted houses so he can photograph ghosts. The book is a record of his work. There is a chapter for each ghost. One is from Ireland, a couple from Italy and one from Tibet is mentioned. "I, Plato Zorba, am the twelfth." The phone rings and Van Allen answers it. It is Hilda again, and she demands Cy return home immediately. The ghost of a chef kills his wife with a cleaver. When Cy gets home there is commotion in the kitchen. The floor is a mess of broken plates. Hilda tells her husband they just flew off the shelves. They watch as a can of flour pours itself on the floor. Hilda says, "I have had enough, Cy." A bottle of milk floats over the mess and falls. Buck walks into the kitchen and explains, "That was Emilio." He was an Italian chef who killed his wife and two other in-laws. The final act is a cleaver that flies across the room and imbeds itself in the wall, nearly hitting Cy. Hilda pleads with Cy to move out now. Elaine appears and answers some of Cy's questions. She tells him she helped Dr. Zorba with his work. She adds that Zorba turned against her. Zorba converted all his wealth into cash. She and Ben searched the house after his death but found nothing. Cy asks about Zorba's death. Elaine shows him Zorba's bedroom. She lights a few candles and tells Cy he died in bed, the official cause of death was suffocation. Elaine pleads with Cy that he and his family should leave tonight. A gust of wind blows out the candles, and then they relight themselves. One candle levitates over to the bed, directing attention to a switch that raises and lowers the canopy. Cy operates the switch. Ben and Medea return home from a date. Everyone in the house is asleep. In Zorba's bedroom a man with cobweb covered pants and dirty shoes walks towards the door. Medea turns out her light and goes to bed. The figure walks the house. It opens Medea's bedroom door. She is awakened to a window banging. She gets up to latch it. The visage of Dr. Zorba approaches her. She screams and walks backwards. Elaine goes into her room and reopens the window. The next morning Buck makes his bed and then slides down the bannister. Two one-hundred dollar bills appear and float to the floor, unnoticed. He takes the glasses and walks down into the basement. He finds an old trunk and opens it. He finds a lion tamer's hat and whip used by Shadrack the Great. He opens an empty cage and is floored by a lion's roar. He puts the glasses on and sees both the ghost of the lion and the headless Shadrack. He is both frightened and fascinated. Buck takes Medea her breakfast. He sees the $200 and picks it up. The doorbell rings--it is Ben. Ben notices and asks about the money. Buck brings his sister her tray. Ben tells Buck that, "there's a treasure hidden in this house." Ben wants Buck's help finding it. Ben stops at the Museum to see Cy. Ben tells Cy that he thinks he can arrange for the state to pay for the house and grounds. Ben is a little too anxious to get the Zorba family out of the house. Van Allen comes in an reads a passage from the book, "Today, I finished converting my assets into cash and put it where unscrupulous men can no longer steal it from me." Van Allen suggests he find Elaine to get some answers. Cy explains Elaine is the housekeeper. Van Allen suggests a séance to converse with Dr. Zorba. That evening Elaine holds a séance with Medea, Hilda and Cy. She will act as medium. Cy retrieves his glasses as Buck slides down the bannister again. He finds more money, wiggles the balustrade posts and it opens a hidden door. Behind the door is a stack of money. Dr. Zorba speaks through Cy. He puts the glasses on and sees Zorba materialize from his portrait, but not the distinguished man in the picture, but a disfigured visage. Ben shows up at the house and Buck shows him the money. Ben tells him to go to bed, and then follows him upstairs. Dr. Zorba's ghost inhabits Cy. He says, "Death tonight, one of you." Zorba returns to his portrait. Cy wants to know more, but Elaine deflects the questions and predicts, "Tonight death walks again in this evil house." Ben is in Dr. Zorba's bedroom dressed up as the visage of Dr. Zorba. He is wearing the cobweb pants and dirty shoes, but not the mask. He checks the switch on the bed's canopy mechanism. Ben steals into Buck's bedroom and lifts the sleeping child. He takes him to Dr. Zorba's bedroom and places him on the bed. Ben activates the canopy switch and watches it slowly descend. The ghosts react to the impending murder of a child. Through a ventilation duct, a mist appears. Ben sees Dr. Zorba's ghost. It approaches as Ben retreats. It directs Ben to the bed and forces him under the lowering canopy. Buck wakes, runs out of the way and screams. He sees Zorba's ghost hold Ben under the canopy. The family rushes into Zorba's bedroom. The next morning they are counting cash. Cy explains to his daughter that Ben murdered Dr. Zorba and tried to find the hidden money. Elaine calls the family to breakfast. Buck asks Elaine, "You really are a witch aren't you?" Elaine replies, "Ask me no questions and I'll tell you no lies." She tells Buck the ghosts will be back. The glasses levitate above a table and explode. Elaine takes a broom, smirks, and exits the room. We close with a panning shot around the inside of the house, and see the ghosts again. The front door closes and "House for Sale" appears.

The movie opens on a white screen. Then William Castle enters and informs us, "I am William Castle, the director of the motion picture you're about to see. I feel obligated to warn you that some of the sensations, some of the physical reactions which the actors on the screen will feel will also be experienced for the first time in motion picture history by certain members of this audience...And remember this: A scream at the right time may save your life." The screen goes dark and a man's screams are heard. His head (an uncredited Pat Colby) floats towards the audience. Two women's heads (left is an uncredited Gail Bonney, right is an uncredited Amy Fields), screaming, join the man. We fade in on a convict being led to the execution chamber. He is Ryerson (an uncredited Bob Gunderson) and two guards drag him to his fate--the electric chair. Standing in the hall is his brother-in-law, Ollie Higgins (Phillip Coolidge). Title and credits are shown over the march to the chamber. In a nearby lab, Dr. Warren Chapin (Vincent Price) prepares for the state required autopsy of the convicted and executed man. The body is wheeled from the execution chamber to the lab on a gurney. Chapin does his work and Ollie comes in to watch. They chat about the electrocution and Chapin notes, "This man's vertebrae are cracked. They're nearly splintered in two." He explains he's seen this before, always related to fear and this is the focus of his research. Ollie postulates it might be what causes your spine to tingle. Chapin is amused and dubs the force, "The Tingler," something he has been researching for years with no name. Chapin asks rhetorically, "Fear causes tremendous tensions in the body. If you can't relieve them, why can't they become strong enough to kill you?" Chapin completes the death certificate and prepares to leave. Ollie asks for a ride back into town and the doctor agrees. Chapin stops his car in front of a walk-in theater. It specializes in old, silent movies. Ollie offers the doctor a cup of coffee. He first checks in with his wife, Martha (Judith Evelyn) who is working in the box office. She is a deaf-mute and reminds her husband about working the opening of the theater. Ollie and Chapin enter the rooms above the theater. Martha enters the apartment and places cash in a large safe by the front door. She enters the kitchen and washes her hands. She stares at Chapin and refuses to shake his hand, miming that they are loaded with germs. Besides being deaf-mute, Martha has a serious OCD condition and a serious phobia about something else Chapin discovers after he accidently breaks a saucer. He reaches into the sink to retrieve the broken pieces of a saucer and cuts his hand. The sight of the blood sends Martha into a rigid, dead faint. Chapin treats her and explains to Ollie that her inability to scream allows the tension to build. She does not actually faint, but experiences something he calls a psychosomatic escape. Chapin brings the woman around with smelling salts. Martha immediately checks the safe to verify the money is still there. Satisfied her money is safe, she refuses to go downstairs to open the box office until Ollie and the doctor have left. Doctor Chapin leaves and drives home. Chapin arrives home, a large expensive house in an upscale neighborhood. His wife has money and an independent nature. Feeling neglected at home she indulges her desire for male company openly. Lucy Stevens (Pamela Lincoln) walks down the stairs. She is dressed for her date. She is Chapin's sister-in-law. Her boyfriend, David, works for Dr. Chapin. They are both pathologists. She tells Chapin her sister is out on a date. Chapin takes a certain amount of responsibility for the situation. They discuss Lucy's financial situation, her sister controls the inheritance and refuses to share it with her little sister. The doorbell rings and Lucy answers it. It is David Morris (Darryl Hickman) and he apologizes for being late. David was late because he was out trying to catch a stray cat for their experiment. David also gives Chapin the drug he requested. [Note: LSD was still legal back in the 1950s and was being used by Psychiatrists for research.] David warns Dr. Chapin that, "It can produce pretty weird effects." Chapin relays the story about Martha and her blood phobia and her fear reaction. Chapin tells David he is now convinced what he is looking for is tangible and solid. He now calls it, The Tingler. David and Lucy go out on their date. Dr. Chapin sits and reads a preliminary report titled, "Fright Effects Induced by Injection of Lysergic Acid LSD25." It is late, 1:00 a.m., and Chapin sees his wife out the window. She is kissing her date good night. Chapin decides to kill two birds with one stone. He retrieves a gun from the hutch drawer, it is loaded with blanks but she doesn't know that. He confronts Isabel (Patricia Cutts) in the entry way. They exchange catty dialog and decide to have a drink. Chapin mentions Lucy and David and threatens that unless she gives Lucy her inheritance, she will be dead. He pulls a gun and escorts her into the lab. He tells her that her "suicide" can be better arranged there. Isabel refuses to give Lucy her money, so Chapin "shoots" her. She collapses in fear. He places her body on the X-Ray table and takes three pictures of her spine in rapid succession. He wakes his wife and tells her, "You're not hurt, dear. It was just a blank cartridge. Thanks for helping with the experiment. You played your part excellently." She is furious. A cat in the cage calls out. He gleefully tells Isabel, "I was going to use this cat. But you made a much better subject. Have you two met? In the same alley, perhaps?" Isabel threatens, "When my turn comes, and it will come, it won't be an experiment." The next day, David pulls up in his old car. He brought the dog Chapin requested. Chapin is excited to show Dave the X-Rays he took of Isabel. It shows The Tingler in stages of growth and deployment along the spine. Chapin and Dave discuss what they know and what they need to find out. They speculate that The Tingler may be a solid mass, and a living organism. That evening, Lucy, Dave, and Dr. Chapin have coffee in the living room. Chapin wants to scare himself to do more research, "to personally sense the power of The Tingler, in a genuine fear situation. In a controlled experiment, with my own fear perhaps I can find out all the things we have to know. Only nothing scares me." Chapin suggests, then demands that Dave take the night off. Dave suspects Chapin may try something stupid and dangerous. His fears are realized. Dave and Lucy observe, from outside the lab, Chapin take the LSD and have a bad trip. Chapin carefully tape records all his observations and symptoms. He is able to experience fear, but despite his desire to stifle a scream, he does scream and the thing that makes his spine rigid disappears. Lucy, David, and Chapin discuss the experiment, and Dave notes that a deaf-mute is unable to scream. At the movie theater, Dr. Chapin stops to see Ollie. He came to see how Martha was doing. Ollie says it must have been very traumatic because she is off her routine. Chapin walks up to see Martha. He gives her a sedative and puts her to bed. He sends Ollie to the drug store to fill a prescription for Martha. Sometime later, Martha wakes. Strange things happen: lights go off on their own, windows close, a rocking chair moves with no one sitting in it, and doors open and close on their own. A creature with a scarred face and oversized teeth menace her with a knife. She eventually is locked in the bathroom and sees blood flowing from the hot and cold water faucets in the sink. [Note: The movie is black and white, but the sink and tub sequences are in color, to emphasize the blood.] The tub is full of blood and an arm rises out of the thick liquid towards the frightened woman. She goes rigid and clutches her spine with one hand. The bathroom medicine cabinet opens and there she sees her own death certificate. She collapses to the floor, dead. Dr. Chapin arrives home to the phone ringing. There is no one on the line by the time he answers it. He finds two drinking glasses on the coffee table and concludes his wife has been entertaining. A gold tie clip confirms his suspicions. The doorbell rings, and Dr. Chapin answers it. It is Ollie and he has brought his wife's body over to the Chapin home. They carry Martha in and place her on the exam table in the lab. Chapin confirms she is dead, and has been for at least an hour. Chapin records the time and circumstances to complete the death certificate. Martha's body rises up on the table, still covered in the sheet. She settles back down, and Ollie is convinced she is still alive. Chapin assures him she is quite dead, but wants to find out why she moved. He removes a Tingler from around her spinal bones. It is about 16 inches long and resembles a black lobster or huge earwig with pincers on the front and back. Chapin calls for a glass tank, but before he can secure the creature it pinches his arm. His screams causes the creature to release the grip on his arm and fall limp on the table. Isabel enters the lab. She is repulsed by the creature. Ollie asks how strong it is, and Chapin replies, "Strong enough to kill a man, easily and quickly." Chapin puts The Tingler in a wire mesh carrying case. Isabel grabs a small vial from the lab and before leaving looks at The Tingler with a certain fascination. She pours the contents of the vial into a glass on the bar. Ollie agrees to take Martha home and notify both a funeral parlor and the police. Isabel suggests a celebration for the discovery, something her husband has been seeking for years. She pours two drinks and offers Chapin one, but he demands the other instead. She agrees, knowing her husband does not trust her, but he gets the spiked one anyway. She asks about The Tingler. He explains that it is very powerful. Ollie calls and tells Chapin that Martha is now at a funeral parlor and he has called the police. Chapin passes out from the drink before Ollie can complete his conversation. Ollie gathers up the paraphernalia he used to scare his wife to death: the mask, knife, and other items. As Chapin sleeps it off, Isabel brings in The Tingler in its carrying case. She lets it loose to do its murderous thing. It crawls over to Chapin and proceeds to strangle him with its fore-pincers. Fortunately, Lucy arrives home, hears his struggles, and screams disabling The Tingler's grip on the doctor's throat. It falls to the rug in front of the couch. The next day in the lab, Chapin tries to destroy The Tingler. He holds a blow torch and tells David, "Nothing affects it. You can't destroy the thing." Dave is excited at the medical discovery, but Chapin explains that he is not going to share the discovery with anyone, not at a convention or with a journal article. Chapin explains his reasons, "The Tingler exists in every human being we now know. Look at that. It's an ugly and dangerous thing. Ugly because it's the creation of man's fear. Dangerous because a frightened man is dangerous. We can't destroy it, because we've removed it from its natural place." Chapin decides it has to be put back inside Martha's body and hopes it will be re-absorbed. Lucy comes into the lab and reports that Isabel has left, taken her clothes and moved out. Dave reports that the police got no report of her death. Chapin grabs his bag and the Tingler in its cage and departs for Ollie's place. Ollie is home packing. He empties the safe of cash. Chapin arrives and confronts the man. He finds the objects Ollie used to frighten his wife to death. While preparing Martha's body, The Tingler escapes from its cage and gains entry to the theater below via a loose floor board. Chapin and Ollie start their search for it. As the audience watches an old movie, The Tingler searches out prey. One woman (an uncredited Amy Fields) screams when it latches on to her leg. Chapin douses the lights and tells the audience there is no cause for alarm. The projectionist (an uncredited Dal McKennon) prepares for a reel change. The Tingler crawls through the opening in the wall. The Tingler causes the film to flutter and break. Its' crawling silhouette shows on the theater screen and Chapin and Ollie see it. The audience in the theater murmurs. Chapin again tells the audience not to panic, and implores them, "Scream! Scream for your lives! The Tingler is loose in this theater! And if you don't scream, it may kill you! Scream! Scream! Keep screaming! Scream for your life!" Chapin and Ollie run to the projection booth. The projectionist is being choked by The Tingler. His scream causes the thing to release its grip on his throat. Chapin loads it into a film canister and carries it back upstairs to where Martha's body is located. Ollie admits that Chapin gave him the idea to kill his wife. Chapin places it back into Martha. Chapin informs Ollie, "This time you're going to the police with me." Ollie pulls a gun and corrects the good doctor, "You're wrong. You're going by yourself." Chapin calls the man's bluff, and walks out. Ollie walks towards the door, but it slams shut on its own. The window shuts and Martha's sheet covered body rises up. She stands and stares at her husband. He silently screams in fear. The screen goes black. We close with final words of wisdom from Dr. Warren Chapin, "Ladies and gentlemen, just a word of warning. If any of you are not convinced that you have a Tingler of your own, the next time you're frightened in the dark, don't scream."

The film takes place in the small town of Thornton, c. 1958. The film opens to funeral parlor owner Ed Quigley (Jonathan Kidd) reporting to the police that someone had broken into his parlor and stolen a child's coffin. Police chief Jim Tyloe (Jim Backus) is not particularly concerned, and refuses to search for fingerprints. Tyloe knows that Quigley is a gambling addict, and accuses the man of trying to pull off an insurance scam to pay off his gambling debts. Tyloe steps away, and starts threatening local physician Dr. Rodney Barrett (William Prince). The two men have been enemies since Tyloe dated Alice Weatherby, and Barrett seduced her and convinced her to marry him. Since then, there have several strange deaths in town, and the locals blame Barrett about them. Back in 1955, Alice died in childbirth, while Barrett was out drinking. Barrett's sister-in-law Nancy Wetherby (Christine White) died a few days before, and Barrett again failed to help her. The two women were the wealthiest heiresses in town, and the town has not forgiven Barrett about their deaths. Barrett heads to his office, where he learns that only a single patient still trusts him enough to visit. Dialogue reveals that Barrett's loyal nurse Polly Baron (Jacqueline Scott) has been trying to convince him that they should move out of town. She has an obvious crush on her boss, and is looking out for his best interests. But Barrett is making preparations to marry young widow Sylvia Stevenson (Susan Morrow), and has no intention to leave town. The doctor heads home with Polly, where he lives with his three-year-old daughter Marge Barrett, and loyal nanny Miss Kushins (Ellen Corby). He learns that Sylvia took care of Marge earlier in the day, and dropped her off. Kushins remembers seeing Marge playing with her teddy bear earlier, but the girl has since disappeared. Nobody can find Marge. Then Polly receives a mysterious phone call. The caller informs her that he has kidnapped Marge, and has buried her alive. Polly faints. Barrett decides not to report the kidnapping to the police, as he figures Tyloe would refuse to help him. He also asks Kushins to not report the kidnapping to his wealthy father-in-law Jode Wetherby (Philip Tonge), who is suffering from a heart condition. Barrett and Polly search for clues in the local graveyard, since the caller implied that Marge is in the company of the dead. The two are discovered by the graveyard's caretaker (Howard Hoffman) who threatens them with a firearm. Mr. Wetherby arrives and disarms the caretaker, but accidentally kills the man in the process. As the search for Marge's whereabouts continues, an extended flashback explains what happened to Nancy Wetherby. Nancy was born blind, and wanted to live a fast and exciting life. She loved fast cars, casual sexual encounters with men, and traveling abroad. She spend years in Europe. Following her return, she had affairs with both Jim Tyloe and her chauffeur Nick (Robert Colbert). She turned down a marriage proposal from Tyloe, and shortly later found out that she was pregnant. She did not want to become a mother or wife, and Barrett refused to help her with an abortion. She died suddenly days later, possibly due to a suicide. She did not receive the needed medical attention. Back to the present, Barrett, Wetherby, and Polly break into the funeral parlor and desperately search the coffins for clues. Barrett uses physical threats to interrogate Ed Quigley, who claims that he knows nothing about the kidnapping. The group is discovered by Tyloe, who forces them to help out with preparations for Nancy's funeral. She is to be buried at midnight. Barrett and Polly go for another search in the graveyard. They visit Alice Weatherby's grave, and have an argument about Barrett's responsibility in her death. A flashback to 1955 explains what happened to Alice (Dorothy Morris). Barrett kept his pregnant wife isolated at home, while he was drinking with his girlfriend Sylvia Stevenson in her residence. As Alice prepared to give birth, she needed her husband and personal physician to help her out. Polly desperately tried to locate him, but Sylvia denied her phone calls for help. Alice died in childbirth, giving birth to Marge. The next day, Tyloe informed Barrett about the birth and the death. Then he beat up the drunken doctor in revenge. The flashback ends. The funeral of Nancy takes place at midnight, with only close family and friends in attendance. While Barrett digs in the ground, he discoverers a child's coffin. He opens it and seemingly finds Marge's decayed corpse. Weatherby stares at the apparent corpse of his granddaughter, and dies of shock. Barrett loudly mourns, but then Barrett is shot by Quigley. Quigley explains that the "corpse" is a mannequin, and that he was pressured by Barrett to help him in his plot. The child's coffin was not stolen but used in a fake kidnapping plot. Tyloe then allows the seriously wounded Barrett to return to his office, where the doctor explains to Polly the details of his scheme. Barrett was after the Weatherby inheritance for years, and had a hand in the deaths of both Alice and Nancy in order to eliminate the heiresses. He set up the entire kidnapping plot to scare Jode Wetherby to death, and to receive the inheritance. The mysterious phone call was a prerecorded message, and came from within his office. Barrett succumbs to his wounds before explaining where his daughter Marge is. Polly has the idea to search within the doctor's office. She discovers Marge (Linda Guderman) sleeping safely in a secret room. Polly rescues the little girl, and the film ends.

The son of Jesse James joins up with the notorious Dalton gang. Joe Branch (Brett King), reputed to be the son of Jesse James, comes riding into Coffeyville Kansas in 3-D, looking for proof one way or the other regarding the question of who is father was. He rescues Kate Manning (Barbara Lawrence) from being lynched by a mob because she had killed the son of the towns's leading citizen while defending her honor, or what was left of it. Rescuing Kate is an important plot hinge, in a movie that makes little or no sense historically or plot-wise, as her father had ridden with Jesse James. Joe also has an idea that he can learn something by making contact with the Daltons, and his method of doing that is by holding up the train to steal an Army payroll, as he knows the Daltons had intended to steal it themselves and knows they will come looking for him. Being smart enough to beat them to the payroll evidently doesn't equate to being smart enough to know the Daltons are going to be more than a little miffed when they find him. The title is a misnomer since the long-dead Jesse James does not appear, and Joe also turns out to not be his son. —Les Adams <longhorn1939@suddenlink.net>