William Castle (April 24, 1914 – May 31, 1977) was an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and actor. Castle was known for directing films with many gimmicks which were ambitiously promoted, despite being reasonably low budget B-movies. Castle began directing films in the early 1940s, and later television, before moving on to the "gimmick films". Description above from the Wikipedia article William Castle, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia
It’s always tough turning 40, but what better way to mark the occasion than a one-night stand with Shudder, the spookiest of streamers? It’s going to be the ultimate Hallow-anniversa-ween bash, and you don’t want to miss it! Hosted by the Mistress of the Dark herself and features a four-film marathon. Elvira, Mistress of the Dark (1988) House on Haunted Hill (1959) The City of the Dead (1960) Messiah of Evil (1973)
Release Date:2021-09-25
Department:Directing
Job:Director
Episode Count:1
Vote Count:3
Chronicles the last great American showman, filmmaker William Castle, a master of ballyhoo who became a brand name in movie horror with his outrageous audience participation gimmicks.
Release Date:2007-11-08
Character:Self
Vote Count:13
A look back at the classic 1964 film of horror and suspense starring Joan Crawford as an axe-murderer just released from the mental hospital. Includes footage of the filming and interviews with several of those involved, as well as a look at the movies it was influenced by and those that were in turn influenced by it.
Release Date:2002-04-02
Character:Self (archive footage)
A roller-coaster ride through the history of American exploitation films, ranging from Roger Corman's sci-fi and horror monster movies, 1960s beach movies, H.G. Lewis' gore-fests, William Castle's schlocky theatrical gimmicks, to 1970s blaxploitation, pre-"Deep Throat" sex tease films, Russ Meyer's bosom-heavy masterpieces, etc, etc. Over 25 interviews of the greatest purveyors of weird films of all kind from 1940 to 1975. Illustrated with dozens of films clips, trailers, extra footage, etc. This documentary as a shorter companion piece focusing on exploitation king David F. Friedman.
Release Date:1997-06-19
Character:Self (archive footage)
Vote Count:8
An earthquake releases a strain of mutant cockroaches with the ability to start fires, which proceed to cause destructive chaos in a small town. The studies carried out by scientist James Parmiter, however, reveal an intent with much more far-reaching consequences.
Release Date:1975-06-06
Department:Writing
Job:Screenplay
Vote Count:92
Hollywood, 1930s. Tod Hackett, a young painter who tries to make his way as an art director in the lurid world of film industry, gets infatuated with his neighbor Faye Greener, an aspiring actress who prefers the life that Homer Simpson, a lone accountant, can offer her.
Release Date:1975-05-07
Character:Director
Vote Count:95
A Beverly Hills hairdresser runs around town on the eve of the 1968 presidential election trying to make heads or tails of his financial and romantic entanglements. His attempts to gather the money to open his own salon are continually side-tracked by the distractions presented by his many lovers.
Release Date:1975-02-11
Character:Sid Roth
Vote Count:217
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 inserting 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.
Release Date:1974-10-09
Department:Directing
Job:Director
Character:Grocer
Vote Count:19
A thinly-disguised version of the life of Marilyn Monroe, detailing her ups and downs in life and how her erratic behavior contributed to her deteriorating career.
Release Date:1974-09-17
Character:Jack P. Harper
Vote Count:2
Ghost Story is an American television anthology series that aired for one season on NBC from 1972 to 1973. Executive-produced by William Castle, it initially featured supernatural entities such as ghosts, vampires, and witches. By mid-season, low ratings led to a shift -- for the most part -- away from paranormal themes and a title change to Circle of Fear.
Release Date:1972-09-15
Department:Production
Job:Producer
Character:J.B. Filmore
Episode Count:22
Vote Count:9
A riot in a state prison is staged to cover up an escape attempt, during which many inmates and guards are killed. Shot on location at Arizona State Prison.
Release Date:1969-01-15
Department:Production
Job:Producer
Vote Count:18
A young couple, Rosemary and Guy, moves into an infamous New York apartment building, known by frightening legends and mysterious events, with the purpose of starting a family.
Release Date:1968-06-12
Department:Production
Job:Producer
Character:Phone Booth Man (uncredited)
Vote Count:4000
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.
Release Date:1968-05-01
Department:Directing
Job:Director
Vote Count:16
When Ben and Kate Powell rent a haunted New England house by the sea, their son Steve gets blamed for the destruction caused by three unruly ghosts.
Release Date:1967-07-07
Department:Directing
Job:Director
Character:Mr. Hymer (uncredited)
Vote Count:20
Sid Caesar is a bumbling gopher to a mob boss who must recover a fortune in cash stowed in the suit of a corpse.
Release Date:1967-03-12
Department:Directing
Job:Director
Vote Count:7
A 12-year-old orphan who has just inherited a fortune is trapped on an island with his uncle, a former British intelligence commander who intends to kill him. A young girl is the boy's only ally against the sarcastic uncle, who uses hypnotism, a pool of sharks, fire, and poisonous mushrooms as weapons.
Release Date:1966-11-18
Department:Production
Job:Producer
Character:Russell Harrison (in car wreck) (uncredited)
Vote Count:14
Teenage friends Kit and Libby make prank phone calls for fun but then find themselves involved in a brutal double murder committed by one of their targets.
Release Date:1965-07-21
Department:Directing
Job:Director
Vote Count:66
A woman is haunted by recurring nightmares, which seem to be instigated by her late husband who supposedly was killed in a fire.
Release Date:1964-12-30
Department:Production
Job:Producer
Vote Count:45
After a twenty-year stay at an asylum for a double murder, a mother returns to her estranged daughter where suspicions arise about her behavior.
Release Date:1964-01-19
Department:Directing
Job:Director
Vote Count:120
The writer, director and star of the 1964 horror film Strait-Jacket in a humorous featurette in which they plan "the perfect murder."
Release Date:1964-01-01
Character:Self
Vote Count:1
An American car salesman in London becomes mixed up in a series of fatal occurrences at a secluded mansion.
Release Date:1963-10-30
Department:Directing
Job:Director
Vote Count:57
While attending a Swiss school for diplomats' daughters, the teenage daughter of the American ambassador uses her access to various embassies to engage in espionage.
Release Date:1963-04-18
Department:Directing
Job:Director
Vote Count:21
Jonathan Jones, a professor of ancient languages, comes into possession of an ancient coin. He translates its inscription, which gives him three powers: to inflict pain, slow down time or kill. Soon, he's pursued by enemy spies who have learned about the magic coin.
Release Date:1962-10-03
Department:Directing
Job:Director
Character:Himself (prologue)
Vote Count:15
In 1880, Sir Robert Cargrave, a London physician known for his experimental work in paralysis treatment, is summoned to Gorslava by the mysterious Baron Sardonicus—who is now married to Cargrave's former wife, Maude—to treat his disfigurement. When Cargrave arrives, he finds the masked baron is a cruel sadist who has threatened to harm Maude if he is not successfully cured.
Release Date:1961-10-08
Department:Directing
Job:Director
Character:Self (uncredited)
Vote Count:71
A woman named Emily checks into a hotel and offers the bellboy $2000 to temporarily marry her. We soon find out Emily is the caretaker of a wheelchair-bound mute named Helga, who was the childhood guardian of a pair of siblings: Miriam Webster and her half-brother, Warren, who is about to inherit the estate of their late father. Who is the mysterious Emily and what are her intentions?
Release Date:1961-07-26
Department:Directing
Job:Director
Character:Self, Prologue Host (Uncredited)
Vote Count:78
Reclusive Dr. Zorba has died and left his mansion to his nephew Cyrus and his family. They will need to search the house to find the doctor's fortune, but along with the property they have also inherited the occultist's collection of 13 ghosts.
Release Date:1960-07-18
Department:Directing
Job:Director
Character:Himself (uncredited)
Vote Count:145
A pathologist experiments with a deaf-mute woman who is unable to scream to prove that humans die of fright due to an organism he names The Tingler that lives within each person on the spinal cord and is suppressed only when people scream when scared.
Release Date:1959-07-29
Department:Production
Job:Producer
Character:Prologue Host (uncredited)
Vote Count:167
Frederick Loren has invited five strangers to a party of a lifetime. He is offering each of them $10,000 if they can stay the night in a house. But the house is no ordinary house. This house has a reputation for murder. Frederick offers them each a gun for protection. They all arrived in a hearse and will either leave in it $10,000 richer or leave in it dead!
Release Date:1959-01-01
Department:Directing
Job:Director
Vote Count:534
Man with a Camera is an American 1950s television crime drama starring Charles Bronson. Former combat cameraman Mike Kovac (Bronson) is now a freelance photographer in New York City, specializing in difficult and dangerous assignments where he can get the kinds of pictures that other photographers can't, or won't take. He sometimes gets help, often reluctantly, from his contact in the police department, Lt. Donovan, and advice from his immigrant father Anton. Throughout the 1950s, Bronson spent most of his early acting career performing in TV shows as well as small parts in films, until he landed the lead in this ABC series. This is the only series in which he played the lead role. He would go on to have supporting roles either as a guest star or a recurring character in dozens of TV shows after this series was cancelled.
Release Date:1958-10-10
Department:Directing
Job:Director
Episode Count:1
Vote Count:5
After his wife and her blind sister have died under his care, a doctor's small daughter is kidnapped and reported as buried alive, and he is given just five hours to find and rescue her.
Release Date:1958-10-01
Department:Production
Job:Producer
Vote Count:43
Meet McGraw is an American dramatic television series starring Frank Lovejoy in the role of the hard-hitting detective McGraw, a man specifically given no first name in the program. Forty-one half-hour episodes aired on NBC during the 1957-1958 season, sponsored by Procter & Gamble. The series was produced by the Desilu Studios, most of whose productions were broadcast by CBS. The theme song for the series is "One For My Baby" by Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer. Meet McGraw preceded The Bob Cummings Show on Tuesday evenings on NBC. It aired at 9:00pm ET/PT opposite John Lupton’s Western series, Broken Arrow on ABC and Bud Collyer's To Tell the Truth quiz show on CBS. After its cancellation, Meet McGraw was repeated as The Adventures of McGraw on ABC in 1958-1959, but not in prime time. A number of episodes of the series, including "Mohave" and "Lady in Limbo," are available on DVD.
Release Date:1957-06-17
Department:Production
Job:Producer
Episode Count:42
Vote Count:1
Ex-lumberjack Brad Collins (Dennis Morgan) and mining engineer Grady Mathews (William Talman) find uranium in the Colorado badlands. While Grady guards the claim, Brad goes to register it in town, where he meets and marries Jean Williams (Patricia Medina.) Returning to the claim, Brad learns that Jean was once Grady's fiancee. Grady, as one would expect, is somewhat put out and leaves the mine in Brad's hands, while he hooks up with a confidence man and engineers a scheme to break the back of Brad's somewhat rapidly-created mining empire.
Release Date:1956-03-02
Department:Directing
Job:Director
Vote Count:2
A Texas oil driller schemes to steal millions of dollars in oil.
Release Date:1956-02-01
Department:Directing
Job:Director
Vote Count:6
Release Date:1956-01-27
Department:Directing
Job:Director
Episode Count:1
In bustling era of 19th-century Louisiana, sugar is as valuable as gold, and pirates like Lili Scarlet will do anything to get it. After robbing Jules Tulane’s estate of his crop, Scarlet takes over Tulane’s land debt and forces him to pay or go to prison. In exchange for postponing his debt, Scarlet allows Tulane’s son, André, to work as her servant. When André and Scarlet fall in love, it leads to jealous rage from Scarlet’s former paramour, expert swordsman Hugo — and when Hugo looks to raid the Tulane estate again, it is up to André and Scarlet to take him down and save the estate.
Release Date:1955-09-16
Department:Directing
Job:Director
Vote Count:8
In the late 1880s, Colonel Carrington and his command are assigned the job of constructing a chain of forts in the Sious Indian territory of Wyoming. Carrington recruits former cavalry scouts Jim Bridger and "Dakota Jack" Gaines to lead the project. Bridger and Gaines are friendly with Sioux chief Red Cloud, and they feel a peace treaty with the Indians can be made. If an Indian-war breaks out, the cavalry is depending on getting a new type of Springfield rifle. Bridger, Gaines and Gaines wife, Maxine, arrive at the fort for the conference. Gaines, in a drunken fit, tries to intimidate the Indians unto signing a treaty. Chied Red Fox threatens war if his territory is invaded by any troops building forts.
Release Date:1955-09-01
Department:Directing
Job:Director
Vote Count:5
Science Fiction Theatre is an American science fiction anthology series that aired in syndication from April 1955 to April 1957. It was produced by Ivan Tors and Maurice Ziv.
Release Date:1955-04-09
Department:Directing
Job:Director
Episode Count:1
Vote Count:8
William Castle directed this Sam Katzman production, a gritty crime thriller about a newly-discharged sailor who gets a job as a longshoreman in The Big Easy. He swiftly discovers mob corruption throughout the docks, and when a friend is killed by the gangsters, he convinces the police to let him go undercover and take matters into his own hands. Filmed on location on the docks and in the French Quarter.
Release Date:1955-03-01
Department:Directing
Job:Director
Vote Count:4
An American Rancher takes a small herd of Brahma bulls to Brazil where he has sold them for a small fortune. There, he finds himself in the middle of a range war......and in love. His concern, who are really his friends and who are his enemies
Release Date:1955-01-19
Department:Directing
Job:Director
Vote Count:11
Western lawman Bat Masterson sets out to prove a man standing trial for murder is innocent.
Release Date:1954-12-01
Department:Directing
Job:Director
Vote Count:11
Billy the Kid is forced to kill for the woman he loves, and is ultimately brought to justice by his old friend Pat Garrett.
Release Date:1954-08-01
Department:Directing
Job:Director
Vote Count:3
In 1850 Oregon is trying to gain statehood, but a truce is needed with the Indians before it can be accomplished. A new Army commander, Major Archer, is dispatched to bring order and peace to the territory.
Release Date:1954-06-15
Department:Directing
Job:Director
Vote Count:6
Based on the book of the same name by Frank Yerby. Pietro is an orphan who is raised by a family friend in 15th century Italy. When the friend is killed by the same nasty baron who murdered Pietro's father as he led the peasants in revolt against the baron's tyranny, Pietro vows vengeance against the entire family. This will prove difficult, since he's been in love with the daughter of the nasty baron since he was a child and wants to marry her.
Release Date:1954-06-06
Department:Directing
Job:Director
Vote Count:4
A smuggler (Dennis O'Keefe) buys a bride (Patricia Medina) in San Francisco to help him run guns in 1877 Tahiti.
Release Date:1954-04-23
Department:Directing
Job:Director
Joe Branch, reputed to be the son of Jesse James, comes riding into Coffeyville Kansas, looking for proof one way or the other regarding the question of who his father was.
Release Date:1954-04-02
Department:Directing
Job:Director
Vote Count:5
Irishman Charles Wogan wields his sword in the cause of James Stuart who seeks to replace George I on the throne of England.
Release Date:1954-04-01
Department:Directing
Job:Director
Vote Count:2
The downward spiral of the quality of films Paulette Goddard appeared in in the 1950's would cause a gravitational blackout to anyone viewing them in a single day, but with some of the all-time great schlock names serving as the producers---Sam Katzman, the Danziger brothers, Albert Zugsmith and---gasp---Sigmund Neufeld--- the results easily met the low expectations.
Release Date:1954-02-01
Department:Directing
Job:Director
Vote Count:1
The Jews are taken from Jerusalem and made slaves by King Nebuchadnezzar. In the meantime Cyrus, king of the Persians, who has been living as a shepherd, is proclaimed king and defeats Nebuchadnezzar.
Release Date:1953-10-21
Department:Directing
Job:Director
Vote Count:3
A cavalry officer tries to keep a lid on a volatile situation when Indian leader Cochise is being prodded into starting a war.
Release Date:1953-09-01
Department:Directing
Job:Director
Vote Count:8
Cleopatra toys with Mark Antony who wants to merge his Rome with her Egypt.
Release Date:1953-05-08
Department:Directing
Job:Director
Vote Count:5
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) is more concerned with helping the British forces at Fort Ticonderoga during a series of French and Indian raids. Top billing is bestowed upon George Montgomery as Captain Pedediah Horn, Rogers' right-hand man. The film boasts two leading ladies: Joan Vohs, as a suspected French spy, and Phyllis Fowler as a married Indian woman who falls in love with Captain Horn. Fort Ti was filmed in 3D, and in typical William Castle fashion the stereoscopic gimmick is exploited to the hilt.
Release Date:1953-04-30
Department:Directing
Job:Director
Vote Count:4
Having served a prison sentence for robbery, Pete Carver decides to go back for the hidden loot. But someone is on his trail.
Release Date:1951-11-01
Department:Directing
Job:Director
Vote Count:14
A producer takes over a small film studio and - sensing that it'll be a good movie- begins investigating an old murder of a silent film director shot in his office years ago. He finds that his life is threatened as he digs deeper into the mystery.
Release Date:1951-06-01
Department:Directing
Job:Director
Character:Himself (uncredited)
Vote Count:23
A innocent dentist is murdered and the only apparent motive seems to be to steal a set of dental x-rays. To the police it looks like an accident, but private eye Brad Runyan thinks there's more to it.
Release Date:1951-05-19
Department:Directing
Job:Director
Vote Count:15
Harry Musk is one in a million. That means that he's the one out of a million children who is perfectly proportioned but will never grow larger than a typical six-year-old. Adult, pint-sized Harry longs to be part of the big world.
Release Date:1950-06-24
Department:Directing
Job:Director
Character:Cop (uncredited)
Vote Count:6
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 help of Dow and a policeman friend, Brady searches for the real murderer. Watch carefully in Undertow and you'll spot new Universal contractee "Roc" Hudson as a plainclothes detective.
Release Date:1949-12-03
Department:Directing
Job:Director
Vote Count:20
A federal agent infiltrates a crime syndicate.
Release Date:1949-04-20
Department:Directing
Job:Director
Vote Count:15
Security guard, wounded in a robbery of furs, arouses the suspicions of an insurance investigator.
Release Date:1948-09-09
Department:Directing
Job:Director
Vote Count:1
Eddie Tayloe's grandfather leaves him six thousand dollars and the money belt it came in, freeing Tayloe to leave his dull newspaper job in Texas and move to New York to become a playwright. Along the way, his car breaks down and a girl walking along the highway asks for a lift. It turns out she's a nice girl, named Perry, running away from a job at a gasoline station. Soon they're off to New York together, but part ways once they arrive. Time passes and Eddie is failing to sell his play; Perry is failing to find a job. Odd circumstances, involving an old pickpocket named Mandy, bring them together again.
Release Date:1948-07-16
Department:Directing
Job:Director
Vote Count:2
A romantic drifter gets caught between a corrupt tycoon and his voluptuous wife.
Release Date:1947-12-24
Department:Production
Job:Associate Producer
Vote Count:666
While visiting France, a criminal psychologist tries to clear a disturbed young man of his father's murder.
Release Date:1947-11-27
Department:Directing
Job:Director
Vote Count:2
A criminal psychologist investigates the murder of a veteran with amnesia.
Release Date:1946-10-24
Department:Directing
Job:Director
Vote Count:4
A young Czechoslovak orphan, Loddy Bicek, befriended by an American army sergeant, is brought into the United States as a stowaway by the soldier. He is apprehended, but escapes and makes his way to the sergeant's home town. There, he is befriended by young Danny Mitchell and his dog, Rusty, a K-9 veteran of World War II. A third boy reports Loddy to the authorities, and when Loddy tries to run away, he falls into a deep ravine.
Release Date:1946-06-27
Department:Directing
Job:Director
Vote Count:1
A private detective is hired to find a young heiress but finds himself accused of murder.
Release Date:1946-04-11
Department:Directing
Job:Director
Vote Count:16
In the 7th film of the "Crime Doctor" series based on the radio program, Dr. Robert Ordway is summoned to take attend a diabetic, and gives an injection of insulin taken from a bottle in the patient's pocket. The man dies and Ordway discovers that what he thought was insulin was really poison. Oops! Two other people are murdered before Ordway discovers who replaced the insulin with poison and what the motive was
Release Date:1946-03-07
Department:Directing
Job:Director
Vote Count:5
A dying millionaire marries his nurse for companionship, only to experience a miracle cure.
Release Date:1945-10-30
Department:Writing
Job:Writer
Vote Count:15
A criminal psychologist treats an artist whose blackouts coincide with a series of murders.
Release Date:1945-09-27
Department:Directing
Job:Director
Vote Count:4
The life of American public enemy number one who was shot by the police in 1934.
Release Date:1945-04-25
Department:Writing
Job:Writer
Vote Count:30
A drifter claims the money in an old bank account. Soon he finds himself the target of two men who turn out to be the sons of the man's old partner, who is now in prison because of a conflict with him over the money in that account.
Release Date:1944-10-09
Department:Directing
Job:Director
Vote Count:15
A naive small-town girl comes to New York City to meet her husband, and discovers that he may be a murderer.
Release Date:1944-08-21
Department:Directing
Job:Director
Character:Man in Photograph Given to Police (uncredited)
Vote Count:29
Wartime workers deal with homefront dramatics.
Release Date:1944-06-29
Department:Directing
Job:Director
Vote Count:1
A guilt-ridden man blames himself for his wife's death and secretly pays an assassin to kill him. But then he finds out that his wife isn't dead at all. And now the assassin is on his trail, with no way to call off the hit.
Release Date:1944-03-30
Department:Directing
Job:Director
Vote Count:24
A young man in Alaska finds himself accused of murder, and must fight to clear his name.
Release Date:1943-12-16
Department:Directing
Job:Director
Vote Count:3
A mad scramble for stolen loot ensues after Boston Blackie has prisoners released for work in a wartime defence plant.
Release Date:1943-10-26
Department:Directing
Job:Director
Vote Count:5
Documentary short film depicting government methods of detecting black marketeers during wartime rationing.
Release Date:1943-08-19
Department:Directing
Job:Director
Based upon the novel by Jack London, two friends in the Klondike aid settlers being terrorized by outlaws.
Release Date:1942-01-23
Department:Writing
Job:Story
Vote Count:3
Set in Paris, this romantic comedy revolves around the beautiful estranged wife of a wealthy banker who hides a handsome and fiery Communist fugitive in her apartment.
Release Date:1940-08-31
Character:Policeman
When a jury member takes in the defendant he couldn't convict, she has a bad influence on his son.
Release Date:1940-08-07
Character:Angry Juror #1 (uncredited)
Vote Count:24