Macabre

Macabre (1958) was shown on Turner Classics Movies not too long ago on their TCM Underground which was exciting to me because it is one of William Castle’s lesser known and renowned films. I’m an absolute William Castle fan. Love the guy. Love his movies. This is a film with a plot that is a bit too soap opera for my liking but nonetheless he has some morbid aspects associated with it that at least appealed to my horror tastes.

For instance, it has a father and his girlfriend/secretary searching for his daughter, gone missing and reputed (thanks to a phone caller who seems to have an agenda and reasoning for this) to be buried alive somewhere. It has the father and the secretary searching a foggy cemetery in the hopes of finding a grave freshly dug containing her. A caretaker of the cemetery believes the two are graverobbers or something, packing a shotgun, and gets clunked over the head when it looks like they could be shot. The one who clocked the caretaker is none other than the father-in-law of disgraced town doc, Rodney Barrett (William Prince). The father-in-law, Jode Wetherby (Philip Tonge), accidentally kills the caretaker and Rodney knows the situation has gone from really bad to worse. With the town’s police chief, Jim (Jim Backus of Gilligan’s Island), not particularly fond of Rodney (he was in love with Alice, Rodney’s wife), just looking for an excuse to make his life miserable, the whole ordeal is a nightmare continuing to spiral out of his grasp. Who would want to bury a child alive just to make Rodney suffer? Who could be so macabre? Not only do you get Rodney searching the cemetery but also a funeral parlor for his little girl. Castle’s films always feature oddballs and strange developments, so Macabre follows that pattern (the fact that this was one of his first films kind of serves as an example of that). I always like how these films have past events that initiate the ongoing plot as it continues, with details emerging that explain why the characters are where they are.

You have Jonathan Kidd as the funeral director, Ed, telling Chief Jim that one of his coffins was stolen (early foreshadowing of the little girl being kidnapped and stored in it, with it buried somewhere), and Rodney will raid Ed’s parlor looking for his girl (believing she’s there when the cemetery seems to not be the location of her whereabouts).

Rodney isn’t exactly a saint; far from it. He had been cheating on his sickly, pregnant (and a good woman who didn’t deserve it) wife, Alice (Dorothy Morris) with a woman named Sylvia (Susan Morrow). Jim is considered a heavy in the film but once Rodney’s transgressions are shed to light, he isn’t such a villain. In fact, his pain makes sense. He was in love with Alice but she chose Rodney. That was her mistake. Alice is left to be sick and bedridden, later to die after giving birth to Rodney’s child…all the while, he’s at Sylvia’s house having a drink. Jim does use him as a punching bag when Rod returns to his office.

The funeral, at midnight, culminates with a shooting, a casket found (and opened to reveal…someone or, better yet, something…), and revelations foretold. Rodney and Ed, in particular, have some details to share. The phone call turns out to be somewhat fraudulent, Rodney’s actions aren’t exactly what they appear, and the little girl’s whereabouts are soon revealed. Polly (Jacqueline Scott), the secretary, is an duck. She appears to love Rodney (not sure why, but I digress…), but Polly has some things to get off her chest regarding his despicable behavior. Jode’s a rich man with a healthy bank account (and lousy ticker that could quit with just the slightest shock after a compounding series of deaths (his two daughters) have left him emotionally devastated), Nancy (Christine White) is a blind and quite promiscuous wild child who playfully enjoyed Jim’s company, and Ed owes serious debts to several people in town (and perhaps a debt owed factors into the twist at the end). Several characters of questionable moral fiber show up in the busy plot.

I can’t say I really liked this one. I love the ending credits with the animation and rather ghoulish comedy, but the twist just didn’t wash with me. The structure of the film was rather messy (the flashbacks, particularly, could have been better interjected in the film more smoothly to me; Nancy’s character never quite gets the love so devoted to others and it seems a good portion of her demise doesn’t quite get development; at least, Alice’s own death, her suffering, is milked for emotional highs), and the way characters go in and out of the film perhaps deserve a bit more time. I think part of the problem is that Castle had little money, producing the film on his dime, and the running time for the film is 70 minutes. He would shore this up when Columbia Pictures started backing him and he had more time to develop his characters/plots. Homicidal, for me, is a good example of this. Strait-Jacket, another fine example. You have specific details from the past that motivate the murders and actions of a killer, with innocents perhaps caught in the crossfire. Motivations (sometimes money, but most of the time the psychopathy of the killers come from past horrors/events that shape their mental states (Strait-Jacket & Homicidal, previously mentioned) emerge by film’s end and the twists are rather intriguing in a psychological thrillers sort of way. Agatha Christie seems to be an influence. I did think the return to the clock (emphasizing that time for the girl was of the essence and always reminding us that time was drawing short) was a clever device that could exploit suspense of the plot's central "race against time" theme. Regarding the gimmick with the insurance policies for audience members who went to see this movie: I realize part of the camp appeal for Castle is his marketing approach to getting ass in seats, but I actually appreciate the films themselves and not just the use of gimmicks.

While Rodney surfaces as the most ultimate heel of the film, Macabre opens with him an aching mess of a man with plenty of mistakes behind him and a town against him. Rightfully so, his affair with Sylvia while his wife was sick and pregnant doesn’t help his cause. I guess Castle felt, since the lead character (with the little girl lost) seems to be punished for his sins through his past behavior, Rodney might as well go out as a creep much deserved of his fate. Someone had to since the film establishes a villain at work. When Rodney wasn’t immediately going to the authorities (regardless of his relationship with Jim, a child’s safety and welfare should rise beyond any rivalry), red flags should go off…so such plotting is a bit clumsy. That and the fact that others like Polly or Rodney’s hired help, Ms. Cushins (Ellen Corby) wouldn’t take it upon themselves to go to Jim; the developing plot is questionably dubious.

I guess that’s why Macabre remains relatively critically bereft and falls down the list of Castle’s resume. I’m glad I had a chance to see it but understand why it isn’t mentioned in the same breath at House on Haunted Hill or The Tingler (both of which have wacky scripts but still feature plots and characters that are far more fun and less dull as those in Macabre).