I feel like Macabre (1958) was William Castle getting his feet wet. I never felt like this was prime real estate as much as a plot of land in need of some grooming. Castle's movies always have characters with dastardly plans and appear to be one way but are actually quite another. Macabre is no different. This is my second Castle film of the month, and I have two more I plan to watch this year (Homicidal & The Tingler). I think you could state the case that Mr. Sardonicas is a much better option than Macabre, but the latter came on this morning, so I had the opportunity to record it on my DVR. So, matter of convenience. Yeah.
The film deals with a doctor (not a good man, at all, even though the film tries to put him over as a flawed human being who still loves his daughter and wishes to find her) dealing with a kidnapping of his daughter, supposedly buried somewhere in town...according to this laughing, sinister voice heard across the phone of the doctor's secretary (who seems to fancy him). The doc was at home with another woman (who supposedly ruined her own marriage, this time ruining someone else's) at the time his daughter was born and ill wife dies (we get a flashback from the secretary of her trying to reach the doc and him all cozy at the home of the other woman, set to marry him now that the wife is dead). He gets back to his office and Jim Backus of Gilligan's Island (the sheriff of the town) had some punches to the jaws waiting for him. The film spends time with the doc and secretary (with other locals soon following suit, like the dead wife's heart-weary pops and the little girl's nanny) trying to locate the girl. As often happens in Castle's movies, the culprit might not be who you expect.
Considered a bit talky and lacking any camp that often is associated with Castle's films, I have often read Macabre mentioned as dull and absent the fun that accompanies the body of the director's work. I thought this was okay, but I wouldn't say Macabre is essential October viewing. But it has a wonderful end credits animation sequence, and the twist is rather clever. There's the use of a breathing machine in the funeral parlor, the accidental murder of a caretaker, a grotesquely skeletal doll that gives a character a coronary, and this ode to Hitchcock regarding umbrellas at a funeral that offer some fun highlights.
The film deals with a doctor (not a good man, at all, even though the film tries to put him over as a flawed human being who still loves his daughter and wishes to find her) dealing with a kidnapping of his daughter, supposedly buried somewhere in town...according to this laughing, sinister voice heard across the phone of the doctor's secretary (who seems to fancy him). The doc was at home with another woman (who supposedly ruined her own marriage, this time ruining someone else's) at the time his daughter was born and ill wife dies (we get a flashback from the secretary of her trying to reach the doc and him all cozy at the home of the other woman, set to marry him now that the wife is dead). He gets back to his office and Jim Backus of Gilligan's Island (the sheriff of the town) had some punches to the jaws waiting for him. The film spends time with the doc and secretary (with other locals soon following suit, like the dead wife's heart-weary pops and the little girl's nanny) trying to locate the girl. As often happens in Castle's movies, the culprit might not be who you expect.
Considered a bit talky and lacking any camp that often is associated with Castle's films, I have often read Macabre mentioned as dull and absent the fun that accompanies the body of the director's work. I thought this was okay, but I wouldn't say Macabre is essential October viewing. But it has a wonderful end credits animation sequence, and the twist is rather clever. There's the use of a breathing machine in the funeral parlor, the accidental murder of a caretaker, a grotesquely skeletal doll that gives a character a coronary, and this ode to Hitchcock regarding umbrellas at a funeral that offer some fun highlights.
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