Macabre (1958)


Director and producer William Castle had been steadily making movies since the early 1940s.  These ranged from romantic potboilers to crime dramas and, often, second- and third-tier westerns.  He worked almost exclusively within the realm of the b-movies.  His output was of varying quality but, by and large, entertaining enough to engage audiences.  It didn't hurt that he was a pretty good director as well.

What he is most famous for is the various gimmicks he used to promote his films.  This began with Macabre.  The movie itself is a pretty straightforward crime thriller with the usual labyrinthine storytelling of Robb White, but Castle managed to increase attendance with rumors that the movie was so frightening that audience members had passed away at showings.  He worked that angle, often parking hearses or ambulances outside theaters showing the movie, hiring fake nurses and, although I'm sure they never had to pay out, offering real insurance policies from Lloyd's of London to ticket holders in case they were to suddenly be scared to death while watching the film.

Dr. Rodney Barrett (William Prince) is a smalltown doctor.  He is a widower, his wife Alice (Dorothy Morris) having died during childbirth while he was visiting a female friend named Sylvia (Susan Morrow).  This has made him a target of local police chief Jim Tyloe (Jim Backus), who was in love with Alice and also had a love affair with her sister Nancy (Christine White).  Nancy has recently passed away, something that Tyloe also blames the doctor for.

On the night of Nancy's funeral Rodney goes to visit Sylvia and returns home to find his secretary Polly (Jacqueline Scott) distraught.  She receives a phone call stating that the doctor's daughter Marge (Linda Guderman) has been kidnaped and buried alive, and that the doctor only has five hours to find her.  Polly and Rodney proceed to search the graveyard while keeping the kidnaping a secret, but it soon reaches the ears of her grandfather Jode Wetherby (Philip Tonge), who is already distraught after the death of his daughters.  As the night unfolds various jealousies and grudges come to the surface as those involved try to untangle who hates the doctor enough to kill his daughter.

Like most of Robb White's scripts for Castle Macabre is a bit messy, although it does offer a twist ending that is worth the time spent watching it.  A good deal of the story is told in flashback and a ticking clock motif, blatantly borrowed from High Noon, is used to heighten the tension.  There are a number of interesting shots, such as the blinking neon in the funeral home and many of the foreboding scenes in the graveyard.

For those expecting to be scared to death that was not the case in 1958 nor is it now.  The lurid subject matter, as well as many of the subplots - including one involving abortion - were sensationalistic and perhaps pushing the envelope at the time.  However, Macabre is a rather talky whodunnit with little on the action side.  Although that can be said for many of his films the later movies at least tried to provide more entertainment and played things a bit more tongue-in-cheek.  Castle's serious movies later on, like Homicidal, eclipsed this film in every way.

Macabre still isn't a total waste of time.  It's entertaining, has a good ending and decent acting.  However, it in no way lives up to the way it was promoted at the time, which unfortunately cast a pall over the better William Castle films to come, often with the promotion overshadowing what are some fine thrillers. 

Macabre (1958)
Time: 72 minutes
Starring: William Prince, Jacqueline Scott, Jim Backus, Christine White 
Director: William Castle
 

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