Homicidal ***½ (1961, Joan Marshall, Glenn Corbett, Patricia Breslin, Eugenie Leontovich, Alan Bunce, Richard Rust) – Classic Movie Review 4700

Producer-director William Castle’s mysterious and eerie 1961 Psycho-style shocker is patently absurd but compelling none the less. It stars Joan Marshall as a homicidal nurse called Emily, who shares a mansion with a paralysed Swedish woman Helga Swenson (Eugenie Leontovich), Miriam Webster (Patricia Breslin) and her half brother, a weird boy called Warren.

Miriam is due to share Helga’s inheritance with Warren, and Robb White’s story centres on a murder plot to collect it.

Castle’s horror thriller may be cheaply made and preposterous, but there are lots of thrills on screen, delivered with mounting tension and compulsive style. Burnett Guffey’s black and white photography is a distinguished asset. At the very least you feel that it was believed in by Castle, known for his showmanship and gimmicks, who was the prototype for the John Goodman character in Matinée. Marshall was billed as ‘Jean Arless’.

Also in the cast are Glenn Corbett, Patricia Breslin, Eugenie Leontovich, Alan Bunce, Richard Rust, James Westerfield, Gilbert Green and Wolfe Barzell.

Castle does needlepoint while introducing the movie, then shows it as the film title, followed by the credits, also in needlepoint.

It was advertised as THE PICTURE WITH A ‘FRIGHT BREAK!’ When Breslin’s Miriam is about to go into the house at the film’s climax, there was a one-minute Fright Break in which Castle told the audience that anyone too scared to see the climax could go into the cinema lobby and get their money back.

Castle is the cult director of Homicidal, 13 Ghosts (1960), The Night Walker (1964) and House on Haunted Hill (1958).

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 4700

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