William Castle Filmography

The Day of the Locust

Actors: Donald Sutherland, Karen Black, Burgess Meredith, William Atherton, Geraldine Page

Synopsis: The Day of the Locust is anything but a cheerful, light look at Hollywood in the '30s. It recreates both the town as well as the filmmaking world around which much of the town revolved with devastating accuracy. The movie tells the twin tales of talentless wannabe actress Faye Greener (Karen Read More

Shampoo

Actors: Howard Hesseman, Warren Beatty, Julie Christie, Goldie Hawn, Lee Grant, Jack Warden, Carrie Fisher

Synopsis: A frankly adult comedy about the sex lives of the aimless and the rich, Shampoo is also a pointed commentary on the demise of 1960s idealism at the dawn of the Nixon era. It is Election Day, 1968, and randy Beverly Hills hairdresser George Roundy (Warren Beatty) is too worried about attending to Read More

Bug

Crew: Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Bradford Dillman, Joanna Miles, Richard Gilliland, Jamie Smith Jackson, Alan Fudge

Synopsis: The last gasp of gimmick-horror auteur William Castle (who produced and co-wrote), Bug is an entertaining throwback to the mutant-monsters-amok theme of the 1950s (themselves throwbacks of another kind) that he found so profitable. The film stars Bradford Dillman as a kinder, gentler mad scientist Read More

Shanks

Crew: Director, Executive Producer

Actors: Mondo, Lara Wing

Synopsis: Shanks is not so much a movie as an hallucinatory experience. World-renowned mime Marcel Marceau plays a dual role as a mute puppeteer and an eccentric inventor. The inventor dies, passing along his secrets for reviving corpses to the puppeteer. With the help of an enigmatic little girl, Marceau Read More

The Sex Symbol

Actors: Connie Stevens, Shelley Winters, Don Murray

Synopsis: Connie Stevens appears both with and without clothing in this made-for-TV a clef version of the Marilyn Monroe saga. The script, based on Alvah Bessie's novel The Symbol, contrives to have Stevens portray La Monroe in everything but name, right down to entering into a marriage with a famous Read More

Riot

Crew: Producer

Actors: Jim Brown, Gene Hackman, Mike Kellin, Gerald O'Loughlin, Ben Carruthers

Synopsis: A desperate group of convicts stage a minor riot to divert attention in an escape attempt. Red (Gene Hackman) and two others perpetrate the uprising, but word has leaked out and the riot is quickly changed into a symbolic protest against prison conditions and alleged cruelty by sadistic guards. Read More

Rosemary's Baby

Crew: Producer

Actors: Mia Farrow, John Cassavetes, Ruth Gordon, Sidney Blackmer, Maurice Evans

Synopsis: In Roman Polanski's first American film, adapted from Ira Levin's horror bestseller, a young wife comes to believe that her offspring is not of this world. Waifish Rosemary Woodhouse (Mia Farrow) and her struggling actor husband, Guy (John Cassavetes), move into the Bramford, an old New York City Read More

Project X

Crew: Director, Producer

Actors: Christopher George, Greta Baldwin, Henry Jones, Monte Markham, Harold Gould

Synopsis: Project X boasts better special effects than usual for tight-fisted producer/director William Castle, but it crumbles in the story department. Christopher George is a secret agent living in the year 2118, who through a complex scientific charade is convinced that he's living in 1968. The plan is Read More

The Busybody

Crew: Director, Producer

Actors: Sid Caesar, Robert Ryan, Anne Baxter, Kay Medford, Jan Murray

Synopsis: A nosey housewife (Marguerite Viby) takes on extra responsibilities when her husband (Buster Larsen) hurts his back while reading the Sunday paper. When she finds a dead body in the upstairs office, she calls the police. The detective (Ole Monty) is summoned, and he discovers the woman is his old Read More

The Spirit Is Willing

Crew: Director, Producer

Actors: Sid Caesar, Vera Miles, Barry J. Gordon, John McGiver, Cass Daley

Synopsis: In this spooky comedy, a couple and their adolescent son move into a quiet New England summer cottage. Soon their arrival, a series of strange and increasingly destructive occurrences begin to happen. Not believing in poltergeists, the puzzled parents immediately suspect their son. The real Read More

Let's Kill Uncle

Crew: Director, Producer

Actors: Nigel Green, Mary Badham, Pat Cardi, Robert Pickering, Linda Lawson

Synopsis: The twelve-year old heir to a fortune decides to fight back after he learns that his avaricious uncle is out to kill him in this thriller. He learns of the plot after his uncle, who is next in line for the fortune, generously invites him to visit him on a remote tropical island. To help foil the Read More

I Saw What You Did

Crew: Director, Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Joan Crawford, John Ireland, Leif Erickson, Sarah Lane, Andi Garrett

Synopsis: With true William Castle-style flamboyance the advertisements for I Saw What You Did intrigued non-etymologically inclined audiences by warning them that this suspenseful thriller was about uxoricide. He then had some of the theaters where the film was shown equipped with seat belts so frightened Read More

William Castle's The Night Walker

Crew: Director, Producer

Actors: Robert Taylor, Barbara Stanwyck, Judi Meredith, Hayden Rorke, Rochelle Hudson

Synopsis: Irene Trent (Barbara Stanwyck) was married to the inventor Howard (Hayden Roarke) before the blind electronics genius blows himself up following an argument between the couple. Irene leaves after the arguments only to learn of her husband's demise later. When Irene has reoccurring dreams of a Read More

Ride the Wild Surf

Crew: Director

Actors: Fabian, Shelley Fabares, Tab Hunter, Barbara Eden, Peter Brown

Synopsis: Fabian, Tab Hunter, and Peter Brown star as three surfers--Jody, Steamer and Chase--who make a pilgrimage from California to the north shore of Oahu for a vacation. Surfers from all over gather here every winter to compete with each other for the title of "the last ride" champion. While surfing Read More

Strait-Jacket

Crew: Director, Producer

Actors: Joan Crawford, Diane Baker, Leif Erickson, Howard St. John, John Anthony Hayes, Rochelle Hudson

Synopsis: In this chilling blood-tale in "Psycho" style, Robert Bloch modernizes the Lizzy Borden story. A wife (Joan Crawford) literally axes her cheating husband and his lover, witnessed by her three-year-old daughter. Mom is packed off to the insane asylum for 20 years before reuniting with the daughter (Diane Baker Read More

The Old Dark House

Crew: Director, Producer

Actors: Tom Poston, Robert Morley, Janette Scott, Joyce Grenfell, Peter Bull

Synopsis: Set in the title manse, this chilling comedy chronicles the spooky exploits of a Yankee car salesman working in London who sets out to deliver a car to a remote and very creepy Welsh estate. Unfortunately he discovers the owner dead. While attempting to leave a fierce storm erupts and he has a Read More

13 Frightened Girls

Crew: Director, Producer

Actors: Murray Hamilton, Joyce Taylor, Hugh Marlowe, Khigh Dhiegh

Synopsis: An international bevy of beautiful teenage girls represent their countries as the daughters of diplomats. The teenage temptresses use their feminine wiles to steal some top-secret files vital to the survival of freedom-loving nations everywhere. Produced and directed by William Castle, the Read More

Zotz!

Crew: Director, Producer

Actors: Tom Poston, Julia Meade, Jim Backus, Fred Clark, Cecil Kellaway

Synopsis: TV actor Tom Poston stars as Prof. Jonathan Jones in this early feature-film appearance, a standard comedy-fantasy oriented to the youngsters. The good professor has come into possession of "zotz," a coin that has three magical properties. It can either cause intense pain if its bearer points an Read More

Mr. Sardonicus

Crew: Director, Producer

Actors: Guy Rolfe, Audrey Dalton, Oscar Homolka, Ronald Lewis, Vladimir Sokoloff

Synopsis: In this 1961 William Castle film based on Ray Russell's novel Sardonicus, Guy Rolfe stars as the wicked Sardonicus, a wealthy count who wears a mask because his face is frozen in a horrifying death grimace. Ronald Lewis stars as Sir Richard, a brilliant doctor who is at the top of his field in the Read More

Homicidal

Crew: Director, Producer

Actors: Glenn Corbett, Patricia Breslin, Jean Arless, Eugenie Leontovich, Alan Bunce, Ralph Moody

Synopsis: Homicidal represents producer/director William Castle's slant on Hitchcock's Psycho. The film concerns a young woman named Miriam Webster (Patricia Breslin) who seemingly has everything a girl could want - including a successful flower shop business, and a handsome beau, Karl (Glenn Corbett), who Read More

13 Ghosts

Crew: Director, Producer

Actors: Charles Herbert, Jo Morrow, Martin Milner, Rosemary de Camp, Donald Woods

Synopsis: Gimmick-loving producer William Castle strikes again with this fun haunted-house thriller which invited audiences to find the hidden ghosts roaming about a haunted house through a special process called "Illusion-O" by which patrons could employ a special pair of red-and-blue-colored glasses to Read More

The Tingler

Crew: Director, Producer

Actors: Vincent Price, Judith Evelyn, Darryl Hickman, Philip Coolidge, Patricia Cutts, Pamela Lincoln

Synopsis: As famous for the gimmick with which the film was shown as for its genuinely spine-tingling story, The Tingler follows a pathologist (Vincent Price) as he searches for the cause of a series of deaths and discovers that the victims have a large insect-like creature growing on their spinal chords. Read More

Macabre

Crew: Director, Producer

Actors: William Prince, Jim Backus, Christine White, Jacqueline Scott, Susan Morrow

Synopsis: This first "gimmick" outing from horror producer William Castle is mainly distinguished by the clever ad campaign promising $1000 insurance for each patron (from Lloyds of London, no less!) against the possibility that they may die of fright during a screening of the film. (A similar gimmick would Read More

House on Haunted Hill

Crew: Director, Producer

Actors: Vincent Price, Carol Ohmart, Richard Long, Alan Marshal, Carolyn Craig

Synopsis: A perennial favorite of the "Shock Theatre" TV circuit, House on Haunted Hill stars Vincent Price as sinister gent (you're surprised?) Frederick Loren, who resides in a sinister mansion on a sinister hill, where seven murders have occurred. He makes a proposal to several strangers, offtering Read More

Uranium Boom

Crew: Director

Actors: Dennis Morgan, Patricia Medina, William Talman, Tina Carver, Philip Van Zandt

Synopsis: In this drama, two prospectors search the Colorado Territory for precious radioactive metal. They find large deposits and become rich men. Unfortunately, their friendship almost disintegrates after they fall in love with the same sexy woman. She pits them against each other. Fortunately, their Read More

The Houston Story

Crew: Director

Actors: Gene Barry, Barbara Hale, Edward Arnold, Paul Richards, Jeanne Cooper

Synopsis: One of the many "exposes" of corporate corruption filmed in the 1950s, Houston Story was ground out with stingy efficiency by Columbia Pictures. Gene Barry plays a crafty oilman who with the aid of several hand-picked henchmen steals gasoline from his rivals. Edward Arnold, he of the wicked laugh Read More

Duel on the Mississippi

Crew: Director

Actors: Lex Barker, Patricia Medina, Warren Stevens, Craig Stevens, John Dehner

Synopsis: 19th century Louisiana is the setting for Duel on the Mississippi. Patricia Medina stars as Lili Scarlet, a vengeful Creole girl who masterminds a series of pirate raids on the local plantations. To cover up her perfidy, Lili operates a lavish gambling ship, and it is here that aristocratic Jules Read More

New Orleans Uncensored

Crew: Director

Actors: Arthur Franz, Beverly Garland, Helene Stanton, Michael Ansara, Stacy Harris

Synopsis: Hot on the heels of Warner Bros.' New York Confidential came Columbia's New Orleans Uncensored. Lensed in semi-documentary fashion by future horror maven William Castle, the film stars Arthur Franz as New Orleans dockworker Dan Corbett. Attempting to remain honest, Corbett runs afoul of crime Read More

The Gun That Won the West

Crew: Director

Actors: Dennis Morgan, Paula Raymond, Richard Denning, Chris O'Brien, Robert Bice

Synopsis: The Gun That Won the West was, of course, the Springfield Rifle, the "central character" in this inexpensive Columbia western. The plot concerns the efforts of the War Department to build up a chain of defense posts to protect railroad workers from Indian attacks. Dennis Morgan stars as real-life Read More

The Saracen Blade

Crew: Director

Actors: Ricardo Montalban, Rick Jason, Carolyn Jones, Whitfield Connor

Synopsis: Ricardo Montalban takes time out from mighty Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to star in the Sam Katzman quickie Saracen Blade. Montalban plays Pietro, a 13th-century intellectual who spends his evenings as a masked avenger. Pietro hopes to avenge the death of his father, and to this end will not rest until he Read More

Jesse James vs. the Daltons

Crew: Director

Actors: Brett King, Barbara Lawrence, James Griffith, William Phipps, John Cliff

Synopsis: The title doesn't tell all in Jesse James vs. the Daltons. For one thing, hero Joe Branch (Brett King), is suspected of being Jesse James' son. Not knowing the truth of the situation, Joe joins the Daltons, hoping they'll lead him to Jesse -- but only if rumors are true that the Read More

Masterson of Kansas

Crew: Director

Actors: George Montgomery, Nancy Gates, James Griffith, Jean Willes, Benny Rubin

Synopsis: Long before he devoted his life to gimmicky horror epics, director William Castle turned out a series of compact westerns for Columbia. One of the best of the batch was Masterson of Kansas, starring George Montgomery as dandified gunslinger Bat Masterson. The screenplay, by future Maverick Read More

The Law vs. Billy the Kid

Crew: Director

Actors: Scott Brady, James Griffith, Alan Hale, Jr., Paul Cavanagh

Synopsis: Scott Brady plays a decidedly mature Billy the Kid in this Columbia western programmer. According to this acount, Billy was just a mixed-up kid who was forced against his will to become a gunslinger. Billy's friendship with sheriff Pat Garrett (James Griffith), which has always been a matter of Read More

The Iron Glove

Crew: Director

Actors: Robert Stack, Ursula Thiess, Richard Stapley, Charles Irwin, Alan Hale, Jr.

Synopsis: Robert Stack stars with Ursula Theiss (the wife of Robert Taylor) in the Columbia costumer The Iron Glove. Stack, an 18th century Scots adventurer, swashes and buckles on behalf of self-styled Prince James (Richard Stapley). Our hero insinuates himself into the court of King George I, the Read More

Battle of Rogue River

Crew: Director

Actors: George Montgomery, Richard Denning, Martha Hyer, John Crawford, Emory Parnell, Charles Evans

Synopsis: George Montgomery heads the virile cast of the B-plus western Battle of Rogue River. Montgomery plays Cavalry major Frank Archer, assigned to protect the settlers in Oregon territory. Archer tries to find out why the previously peaceful Indians have suddenly become warlike. What he doesn't know is Read More

The Americano

Crew: Director

Actors: Glenn Ford, Frank Lovejoy, Cesar Romero, Ursula Thiess, Abbe Lane

Synopsis: The Americano is Glenn Ford, a north-of-the-border cowboy working in Brazil. Ford has been assigned to deliver a cargo of Brahma bulls to a South American ranch. His progress is impeded by homicidal land-grabber Frank Lovejoy and jovial bandido Cesar Romero. Those are merely the human obstacles; Read More

Drums of Tahiti

Crew: Director

Actors: Dennis O'Keefe, Patricia Medina, Francis L. Sullivan, George Keymas, Sylvia Lewis

Synopsis: During a 1980 interview, writer-director Douglas Heyes mentioned that he preferred to forget his first big-screen writing assignment, Drums of Tahiti. Though lensed in 3D, the film's action content is minimal: the character spend most of their time talking over their various problems. Set in the Read More

Fort Ti

Crew: Director

Actors: George Montgomery, Joan Vohs, James Seay, Irving Bacon, Ben A. Astar

Synopsis: Future horror-film entrepreneur William Castle warmed the director's chair for Fort Ti. Set in the 18th century, the film recounts the exploits of Rogers' Rangers, a band of adventurers devoted to seeking out a "northwest passage" through Canada. At this juncture, however, Major Rogers (Howard Petrie Read More

Charge of the Lancers

Crew: Director

Actors: Paulette Goddard, Jean-Pierre Aumont, Richard Stapley, Karin [Katharine] Booth, Charles Irwin

Synopsis: Charge of the Lancers is an all too typical Columbia "B" adventure film of the 1950s, with inexpensive sets, fading stars, and miles of stock footage. Paulette Goddard, pushing 50, plays a lively gypsy girl who romance an British military officer (the robustly non-British Jean-Pierre Aumont) Read More

Serpent of the Nile

Crew: Director

Actors: Rhonda Fleming, William Lundigan, Raymond Burr, Jean Byron, Michael Ansara

Synopsis: Filmed on sets left over from the Columbia superfeature Salome (and also using generous chunks of stock footage from that film), Serpent of the Nile is a quickie retelling of the Cleopatra-Mark Antony story. The Queen of Egypt is played by Rhonda Fleming, while Antony is essayed by Raymond Burr. Read More

Slaves of Babylon

Crew: Director

Actors: Richard Conte, Linda Christian, Maurice Schwartz, Terry Kilburn, Michael Ansara

Synopsis: Producer Sam Katzman once more rummages through stock footage from the 1953 Columbia costumer Salome and comes up with another "instant epic." Slaves of Babylon stars Richard Conte as Nahum, the muscular young representative of Hebrew leader Daniel (Maurice Schwartz). On behalf of his master Read More

Conquest of Cochise

Crew: Director

Actors: John Hodiak, Joy Page, Robert Stack, Rico Alaniz

Synopsis: Cashing in on the popularity of such pro-Native American films as Broken Arrow, Columbia's resident quickiemeister Sam Katzman came up with Conquest of Cochise. John Hodiak plays the eponymous Apache leader, who at the beginning of the film is seen conducting raids on the U.S.-Mexican border in Read More

Hollywood Story

Crew: Director

Actors: Richard Conte, Julie Adams, Richard Egan, Henry Hull, Fred Clark

Synopsis: Economically utilizing the Universal Studio itself as a "set," Hollywood Story is a murder mystery centered in the film capital. The story concerns a long-unsolved homicide case involving several silent-film stars (an echo of the William Desmond Taylor scandal of 1922). Producer Richard Conte Read More

Cave of Outlaws

Crew: Director

Actors: MacDonald Carey, Alexis Smith, Edgar Buchanan, Victor Jory, Hugh O'Brian

Synopsis: MacDonald Carey and Alexis Smith star in the heavily plotted western Cave of Outlaws. Carey plays Pete Carver, who has spent 10 years in jail for participating in a train holdup. Upon his release, Pete heads to the huge cave where his cohorts had hidden their loot. Not surprisingly, he is trailed Read More

The Fat Man

Crew: Director

Actors: Jack Smart, Julie London, Rock Hudson, Clinton Sundberg, Jayne Meadows

Synopsis: The popular radio detective series The Fat Man was brought to the screen in 1951, with the series' original star J. Scott Smart retained in the title role. Smart plays porcine sleuth Brad Runyon, who tackles the mystery surrounding the murder of a Los Angeles dentist. With the assistance of Read More

It's a Small World

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Paul Dale, Lorraine Miller, Nina Koshetz, Steve Brodie

Synopsis: Obviously designed as an exploitationer, It's a Small World isn't bad within its own limits. Paul Dale, a real-life radio disc jockey, stars as midget Harry Musk, who is met with cruelty and insensitivity wherever he goes because of his small stature. Unable to adjust to the "big" world, Harry Read More

Undertow

Crew: Director

Actors: Scott Brady, John Russell, Dorothy Hart, Peggy Dow, Bruce Bennett

Synopsis: Undertow stars Scott Brady as a gambler just out of wartime military service. No longer interested in wagers and speculations, Brady wants only to open up a mountain vacation lodge. Before this can take place, Brady is framed for murder, and forced to hide out in the home of Peggy Dow. With the Read More

Johnny Stool Pigeon

Crew: Director

Actors: Howard Duff, Shelley Winters, Dan Duryea, John McIntire

Synopsis: In Johnny Stool Pigeon, the title character's name is really Johnny Evans (Dan Duryea). Evans is an imprisoned crook whose wife died as a result of a vicious narcotics ring. Federal agent Howard Duff works out a deal with Evans, who agrees to help the agent infiltrate the gang. After making Read More

The Gentleman from Nowhere

Crew: Director

Actors: Warner Baxter, Fay Baker, Luis Van Rooten, Charles Lane, Wilton Graff

Synopsis: The sure-handed starring performance of Warner Baxter and the inventive direction of William Castle help lift The Gentleman From Nowhere out of the ordinary. When Earl Donovan (Baxter) is picked up on a robbery charge, insurance investigator Barton (Luis Van Rooten) can't help but notice that Read More

The Lady from Shanghai

Crew: Associate Producer

Actors: Rita Hayworth, Orson Welles, Everett Sloane, Ted de Corsia, Glenn Anders, Gus Schilling

Synopsis: The Lady From Shanghai, a complex, involving puzzle-within-a-puzzle mystery story, is a showcase for Orson Welles, showing his singular talents and sensibilities as few other films have. The story is superficially simple: a seaman Michael O'Hara (Welles) is hired as a crew member on the yacht of Read More

Texas, Brooklyn and Heaven

Crew: Director

Actors: Guy Madison, Diana Lynn, James Dunn, Lionel Stander, Florence Bates

Synopsis: Texas, Brooklyn and Heaven deserves a historical footnote as director William Castle's only comedy western. Future Wild Bill Hickok star Guy Madison plays Eddie Taylor, a lonesome cowboy who falls in love with city-gal Perry Dunkin (Diana Lynn). The couple "meets cute" in Brooklyn, where the two Read More

The Crime Doctor's Gamble

Crew: Director

Actors: Warner Baxter, Micheline Cheirel, Roger Dann, Steven Geray, Marcel Journet

Synopsis: For the ninth time, Warner Baxter plays Dr. Robert Ordway, better known to movie (and radio) fans as "The Crime Doctor". Ordway is in Paris, mingling with the upper crust of the art world. A murder is committed and a valuable painting is stolen; the principal suspects are the victim's son (Roger Dann Read More

Mysterious Intruder

Crew: Director

Actors: Richard Dix, Barton MacLane, Nina Vale, Regis Toomey, Helen Mowery

Synopsis: Mysterious Intruder was the fifth entry in Columbia's B-picture series based on the radio anthology "The Whistler". Richard Dix, the leading man in all but one of the "Whistler" films, stars as duplicitous private eye Don Gale. Motivating the storyline are a pair of priceless Jenny Lind wax Read More

Just Before Dawn

Crew: Director

Synopsis: In this entry in the Crime Doctor series, amateur sleuth Dr. Ordway is duped into giving one of his patients a fatal shot. Now he must find the real killers before he is arrested and put away for life. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

The Crime Doctor's Man Hunt

Crew: Director

Actors: Warner Baxter, Paul E. Burns, Claire Carleton, Ellen Drew, William Frawley

Synopsis: Scripted by Leigh Brackett of The Big Sleep fame and directed by future horrormeister William Castle, Crime Doctor's Manhunt has been singled out by many film buffs as the best of Columbia's "Crime Doctor" series. This time, criminal-turned-sleuth Dr. Robert Ordway (Warner Baxter) befriends Read More

The Return of Rusty

Crew: Director

Voice of the Whistler

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