Producer/Director William Castle is famous for House on Haunted Hill with a skeleton flying out from the screen, and The Tingler with vibrating seats. He was a showman like P.T Barnum, who Castle admired.

The Tingler was filmed in black and white, but a scene with blood in the bathtub is in color, with the background and actress still in black and white.

This was accomplished by making the set and the actress' make-up, black and white, then filming in color.

That footage was hand-spliced into each release print. That’s dedication to your art. Also, Castle sent out teams with boxes of airplane wing deicers to put under theater chairs. Those would vibrate patrons at precise moments in movie.

The woman playing the deaf-mute seeing the blood is Judith Evelyn, 'Miss Lonely Hearts' in Rear Window. She was Vincent Price's friend and co-star from the Broadway play Angel Street, 1941-1944. 1,295 performances.

The Tingler has the first use of LSD in a movie, eight years before Roger Corman's The Trip, as Price takes an acid-trip to scare himself.

For House on Haunted Hill, Castle had a skeleton hidden at the side of the screen. When the on-screen skeleton attacked, that skeleton flew over the audience on a wire.

Castle directed 65 movies, producing 24 of them. Remembered for his exploitation movies, many don’t know that Castle bought the book of Rosemary’s Baby to produce and direct himself.

Paramount Pictures executive Robert Evans was interested in giving Castle the money for it, but only with Roman Polanski directing. Castle took the deal as producer only and appeared in one scene of the movie.

In that scene, Rosemary is making a call in a booth on the street. A white-haired man appears outside the booth with his back to her. Rosemary (and the audience) thinks he’s the white-haired villain Dr. Sapirstein, played by Ralph Bellamy. The man walks off and then returns. She sees his face and it's not Bellamy. It's a stranger, played by Castle, who wants to make a phone call.

Director Polanski had Ralph Bellamy coming into the shot first with his back to the camera, stand there, walk off and then Castle came in. A hidden detail to make the movie more unsettling. The audience thinks it’s the same actor: Castle.

I only discovered this when reading Castle's autobiography, and then checking that scene closely. You can tell the difference between Castle and Bellamy if you look closely.

Rosemary’s Baby, budgeted at 2.3 million dollars, as opposed to Castle’s usual $200,000 budgets, was his biggest hit. It grossed 15 million dollars in America. It is now regarded as a classic.

Castle told his fan club members to say this three times a day:

William Castle is the master of movie magic.

I still do sometimes for fun.

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