WILLIAM CASTLE

Tricks and treats…

CHEERS BELA

Born in 1914 and orphaned by 1925, the young William Schloss got his first taste of showbiz when he met actor Bela Lugosi, who invited the teen to join a touring stage production of Dracula. Changing his Germanic surname to Castle when war broke out, he subsequently met director George Stevens, who hired the charismatic young man as dialogue director on his 1941 Cary Grant picture Penny Serenade.

HIRE AND LOWER

Castle spent the 1940s and 50s as a director-for-hire at Columbia Pictures, shooting cheapies like The Whistler (1944) and 3D western Fort Ti (1953). Any unhappiness with his career progression was further cemented after he acquired the rights to Sherwood King’s novel If I Die Before I Wake. Castle was passed over for the director’s chair, which went to Orson Welles; the film was rechristened The Lady from Shanghai (1947).

HEARSE SENSE

Leaving Columbia to produce his own films, Castle realised people love to be scared after seeing the queues outside a cinema showing Clouzot’s Les Diaboliques (1955). He remortgaged his home to fund Macabre (1958), which quickly made its money back and then some. Success was largely thanks to Castle’s nifty ideas: having hearses on standby outside cinemas and giving audience members $1,000 life-insurance certificates in case they died of fright.

GRAND ILLUSIONS

‘Castle was in the tradition of [the] circus; he was open in his admiration of P.T. Barnum,’ says John Landis of the filmmaker and the publicity-generating gimmicks he dreamt up. Highlights include ‘Emergo’ (a skeleton on wires flying above audiences’ heads during 1959’s House on Haunted Hill) and the ‘Illusion-O’ viewer (allowing you to see the spooks, or banish them, in 1960’s 13 Ghosts).

STRIKE UP THE BRAND

Seeking to turn himself into a brand name like Hitchcock, Castle not only appeared on-screen hosting his trailers, but also promoted the films in person as they rolled out across the US, city by city. ‘My father’s personal touch was a huge part of what made it fun for an audience,’ remembers his daughter Terry Castle. ‘He enjoyed promoting them as much as he enjoyed making them.’