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Macabre

 
With William Castle we are safe side we are also insured. A beautiful plot, the right tension, the twist  at the end and the hearts the audience at the time. Heart attack, only for that, the brillant William in his first independent film ensures the audience to Lloyd's of London and occasionally puts an ambulance and fake medical personnel, outside of the cinemas . It’s only the beginning of his famous  gimmicks " that as we already see in "House On Haunted Hills" , , become more apparent. The film instead "is not just the beginning of ... " but it’s a movie that has the right characteristics to be considered a beautiful chapter of cinema. However, isn’t a horror as the title and poster ( nd the possibility of dying of a heart attack ) suggest , but it's a thriller at times purely cynical.
To find to is a lack, must be said that, the plot is very complex and must be careful to follow all the nuances and turns diabolically created by the talented Castle.
The cause of the whole affair is already a flash of genius that hit the imagination of the ninety-nine percent of the people. A little girl disappears. An anonymous phone call to the secretary of her father announced that she was buried alive.  There are a few hours to find her. From the funeral of the town has been stolen a coffin for children.
What seems a simple kidnapping, hides a dark story that unmasks slowly the large defects of the people of this small town, where everyone could point to something and can do everything possible to achieve it. We have Dott. Rodney Barrett, father of the missing girl, on which there are rumors that he preferred to stay with his lover Sylvia rather than stay with his dying wife. His secretary, Polly is obviously fond with him and there is also a disturbing governess (the last person who see the girl) . Then we have a strange cop, who has no sympathy for the doctor, a mortician indebted and the Barrett’s father-in-love, Jode , suffering from heart and who has seen dying, in addition to the first daughter (who had married Barret) also the second, a blind girl uninhibited, who died in mysterious circumstances.
The narrative plant constructed by Castle works well and is based on a number of excellent plots, that keep high the tension and are broken by some flashbacks about the lifes of the protagonists. Then, a good photography and the usual manner of the films of the era, add charm to this beautiful thriller, which reveals its mysteries only in the very last scene. The ending is perhaps a little ' too hasty but overall there is nothing here that goes wrong.
By mortgaging his homes, William Castle manages to find the funds for this first independent movie and also a number of actors who perform well, although they weren’t not closely related to the world of cinema. We find the famous soap opera’s actor and television series’ William Prince and Jim Backus from the world of radio, television, film and animation, especially, considering that he was the voice of the brilliant cartoon Mr.Magoo . Among women, however, there are Christine White seen in "Magnum Force", Jacqueline Scott as well as participated in several television series " Duel " and "Kill Charley Varrick " and especially Ellen Corby famous american should of cinema and television , candidate to Oscar for "Rember Mama" and went down in history for a role in the series "The Waltons ."


 

Sheet

Original Title: Macabre
Alternative Titles:Macabro (Italia), Makavrios Horos (Grecia)
Directed by: William Castle
County: USA
Years: 1958
Cast: William Prince, Jim Backus, Christine White, Jacqueline Scott, Susan Morrow, Philip Tonge, Jonathan Kidd
Production Company: Allied Artists Pictures Corporation
Lenght: 71'