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Greetings, and welcome to VIEWING THE CLASSICS. Here you'll find capsule reviews of vintage movies from the early days of cinema through the 1970s, with a special emphasis on sci-fi, horror, and mystery movies. Be sure to check out the Pages links, where you can find a Film Index of all my reviews, links to the reviews organized by cast members, directors, and other contributors, and links to my reviews of the films of talented young director Joshua Kennedy.

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Tuesday, March 10, 2015

Macabre (1958)

Starring William Prince, Jim Backus, Christine White, Jacqueline Scott, Susan Morrow
Directed by William Castle
(actor & director credits courtesy IMDB.com)

A small-town doctor, blamed by many for his absence during his wife's death in childbirth, has no one to turn to for help when his daughter is kidnapped and buried alive.

To the best of my knowledge, this was the first in Castle's series of horror thrillers promoted with special gimmicks to draw in curious audiences.  Per Wikipedia, the gimmick here was an insurance policy that would be awarded to anyone who "died of fright" while watching the picture.  There's no big names in the cast, although audiences will recognize Backus from Gilligan's Island reruns and his Mr. Magoo cartoon voiceovers.  It's an efficient small scale chiller, on par with Castle's best work, and held my interest throughout.

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