Read more
'It's often forgotten that before redefining himself as the King of the Gimmicks, William Castle directed over forty motion pictures in virtually every genre. Accounts of his career are traditionally lightweight and bemused, but Murray Leeder has produced what must be the definitive analysis of the colourful showman's diverse oeuvre in the form of collected essays. I never thought I'd ever see words like diegetic and epistemic applied to Castle's work, but hey, why not? Really, it's about time.' Joe Dante, director of Gremlins and The Howling 'Fans of William Castle will delight in this celebration of one of the twentieth century's great showmen. There's more to Castle's films than meets the eye, and this collection makes a compelling case for the schlockmeister as auteur.' Jeffrey Schwarz, director of Spine Tingler! The William Castle Story Often described as 'the King of Gimmicks', William Castle is best known for the outrageous publicity stunts that characterised his genre films in the 1950s and 60s, including offers for an insurance policy against death by fright, vibrating seats, a skeleton that flew over the audience, and a 'punishment poll' to determine a film's conclusion. But far from being 'the world's craziest filmmaker', Castle was also a dependable studio director who made more than fifty films between 1944 and 1974, and who produced films for Orson Welles and Roman Polanski. ReFocus: The Films of William Castle assembles fourteen essays on the full sweep of Castle's career, including his horror films, westerns, films noir and more. With an influence felt on directors like Joe Dante, Robert Zemeckis and John Waters, this volume reappraises Castle's legacy as an innovator as much as a showman. Murray Leeder is an Instructor in Film Studies at the University of Calgary. Cover image: William Castle on the set of The Day of the Locust (1975) directed by John Schlesinger (c) Paramount Pictures Cover design: [EUP logo] edinburghuniversitypress.com ISBN 978-1-4744-2426-4 Barcode
List of contents
Introduction: The Many Castles; Section 1: The Early Castle; When Strangers Marry: Film Noir as Mediated Gothic, Hugh S. Manon; Gender in William Castle's Westerns, Zachary Rearick; Section 2: The Gimmick Cycle; He Earned Our Forgiveness: William Castle and American Movie Showmanship, Anthony Thomas McKenna; Collective Screams: William Castle and the Gimmick Film, Murray Leeder; Dying to See It: Death by Fright and William Castle's Macabre, Beth Kattelman; How to View 13 Ghosts, Eliot Bessette; The Face of Horror: Mr. Sardonicus and the Mask as Technological Interface, Alexandra Heller-Nicholas; Section 3: Castle, Authorship and Genre; A Sick Mind in Search of a Monstrous Body: William Castle and the Emergence of Psychological Horror in the 1960s, Steffen Hantke; 'What a Wicked Game to Play?': Playfulness, Generic Hybridity, and Cult Appeal in Castle's 1960s Films, Michael Brodski and Caroline Langhorst; 'Where Did Our Love Go?': The Case of William Castle's The Night Walker, Michael Petitti; Section 4: Castle's Legacy; Homo/cidal: William Castle's 1960s Killer Queers, Peter Marra; The Cinematic Pandemonium of William Castle and John Waters, Kate J. Russell
About the author
Murray Leeder is Instructor in Film Studies at the University of Calgary.
Summary
With an influence felt on directors like Joe Dante, Robert Zemeckis and John Waters, this volume reappraises Castle's legacy as an innovator as much as a showman.
