Macabre (1958)

Simply A Masterpiece

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

William Castle, the Sultan of Schlock, proudly presents a movie so horrifying that you might want to take out life insurance before watching! The young daughter of a man with enemies disappears and a mysterious caller reveals that the girl is buried alive with only enough air for five hours. The frantic search begins, the clock on the funeral parlour marks the passing time, and everyone is a suspect. I lived through the movie but, as requested by Castle himself (in a brief voiceover epilogue), won't reveal the ending. If you don't think about it too hard the plot is interesting (although the climatic revelation generates as many questions as it answers), there are some effective scenes as people desperately search for the girl in the creepy local cemetery, and some of the characters quite intriguing (notably, the fast-living blind girl). Stick around for the amusing credit sequence (including typos).

So far, this is the best Castle film that I have seen; I personally think it is quite a bit better, more believable, and way more involving then any of his other films (well, the one with Joan Crawford was pretty dang good!)Also, without giving too much away, the ending caught me completely off guard too. The DVD print is frigg'n AMAZING! I thought it was a Blu-ray it looked so sharp and detailed. At first, the dialog seemed a little clumpy and stiff, but as you get into the story and begin to understand the relationships and history between the characters, it starts to smooth out a little.Another thing that surprised me was the 'adult' nature of some of the story content. Not anything visual; nothing like that, but some of the situations that the characters got into were rather sordid and seedy for 1958 I would think! Probably the weakest point of the film is the acting and to a lesser degree the script; again a bit stiff. But, interestingly as you get more and more into the story and the search for the little girl, you DO indeed get drawn into and become more involved in what is going on.This movie is of course not of the FILM NOIR genre, which ended just about the time this movie came out. But, the dark edge that many of the characters have and some of the shadowy photography reminded me somewhat of the genre. Primarily the flashback sequences and the morally dubious tone of a lot of the people. There are some similarities to films in the latter NOIR period.Anyway, not that I am really an expert on William Castle or anything, but so far amongst his films that I have seen, I feel that this one is far and away the more serious and classier of them. I know that many feel that 'THE TINGLER' and 'HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL' are Classics, but personally I found the acting and dialog in them quite sub-par compared to this one...So, if you are in the mood for an older Suspense / Mystery Thriller with a dark NOIR edge and can put up with a little stiff acting (and NO, I do not mean this is a porn film...) and if you would like to see what a Castle film is like BEFORE he started introducing all the heavy CHEEEEEEEZ, then you should find it quite entertaining...

Like many teens of the time, I was pulled in by the heavy-handed ad blitz on TV. Needless to say, once past the ticket-taker, my pulse never lapsed once, so their insurance policy was safe by me. I recall having trouble following the many plot complications then, and still do. But the narrative is not the movie's strong point, anyway—something about an unpopular doctor having only a few hours to save his daughter from being buried alive. Meanwhile all these people keep dropping in and out in none too cogent fashion. Had the narrative developed the characters more distinctly, the whodunit part could have excelled. Nonetheless, director Castle shows he's still got the visual style he had in the classic 1940's noir series The Whistler. So there're a number of creepy visual set-ups that help redeem the title. The ending is still a grabber that I didn't see coming even if I couldn't quite figure out the logic. Anyway, with more work on the screenplay, this could have been something memorable instead of the okay thriller it is. I'm just sorry Castle traded his very real talents to become the 50's premier huckster of movie gimmickry.

A doctor in a small town has done a good job of making himself hated because of his role in the deaths of two sisters. When his daughter disappears and a caller announces that she has been buried alive, will the unpopular doctor uncover the MACABRE scheme, or will the cute little girl die a horrible, frightening death?Any movie that dares cast the lovable Jim "Mr. Magoo" Backus as the sort of brutish sheriff that Sterling Hayden could have done in his sleep does have something going for it. Any movie that features a slutty rich blind girl (who makes time with the pool boy AND Jim Backus AND our surly doctor hero) has a definite noir appeal. And the attention paid to clocks and the passing of time shows that the director at least has a concept of how a film might generate suspense.But, a movie with the amount of bad, bad acting this one does, indicates a director perhaps more concerned with the promotion of his movie than the making of it. The logical flaws of the film are really extraordinary, beginning with small things, such as the distance between the small town and its old creepy graveyard, and advancing to the large, such as our hero's steadfast refusal to call the cops. And the final resolution, alas, is more disappointing than surprising. The best thing that can be said about the "promotional" aspects of the film -- mostly a rather campy opening announcement about how really truly scary all this is going to be, and a Charles Adams - like animated closing credit sequence, is that these campy things really don't get in the way.Worth seeing, because the Jim Backus performance is the sort a revelation that can happen when a good character actor is totally cast against type. But the world won't come to an end if you miss this.