Scream Factory is releasing two beautiful black & white William Castle productions, released by Columbia in 1959 (Tingler) and 1964 (S-J).
While neither are films to which I’d normally gravitate, each have a myriad of fans, and thus, their quality needs to be reported here.
Let’s begin with The Tingler, which used Mr. Castle’s trade-mark publicity to involve the audience with certain gimmicks.
Here we had Percepto, via which audience members were accosted by buzzers mounted beneath certain seats. The gimmick was that if you felt fear, you had to scream in order to avoid the tingler, a worm-like creature. There may have been people planted in various areas of the audience to begin the screaming.
Vincent Price, who had moved from leading man to horror maestro, as he aged, was between his Fly films, and his entire into the wonderful world of Roger Corman in 1959. The female lead, in a non-speaking role was Judith Evelyn, probably best remembered from another non-speaking role, Miss Loneyhearts. The Tingler would be her final film appearance.
Scream Factory’s Blu-ray is a gorgeous affair, the norm from films coming out of Columbia. Nary a single problem in sight.
Strait-Jacket was another odd one, and in some ways, I wish it had not been produced, as aside from Baby Jane, I prefer to remember Miss Crawford in her non-horror roles.
Regardless, the film has many fans, especially Crawford completists, and like The Tingler, Scream Factory’s new Blu, also courtesy of Columbia, is running on all twelve cylinders.
Image – 5
Audio – 5
Pass / Fail – Pass
Upgrade from DVD – you betcha!
RAH
Robert has been known in the film industry for his unmatched skill and passion in film preservation. Growing up around photography, his first home theater experience began at age ten with 16mm. Years later he was running 35 and 70mm at home.
His restoration projects have breathed new life into classic films like Lawrence of Arabia, Vertigo, My Fair Lady, Spartacus, and The Godfather series. Beyond his restoration work, he has also shared his expertise through publications, contributing to the academic discourse on film restoration. The Academy Film Archive houses the Robert A. Harris Collection, a testament to his significant contributions to film preservation.
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