Celebrate the horror classic that stars Vincent Price as an obsessed scientist who discovers where fear grows in the human body and how to destroy it.    Also Starring: Judith Evelyn and Darryl Hickman 
Director: William Castle

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtQTVLutDWI]

The financial success of House on Haunted Hill was reason enough for Columbia to produce The Tingler. Vincent Price was on board again, this time with Darryl Hickman playing his assistant and newcomer Pamela Lincoln playing his sister-in-law. Patricia Cutts played Price’s beautiful but unfaithful wife, Isabel.

Director William Castle was never one to miss an opportunity for publicity. He convinced Pamela Lincoln’s real life fiancé Darryl Hickman to join the cast as her fiancé in the film. At first Darryl declined but finally agreed after William Castle convinced him it would help Pamela’s career. According to Darryl, William Castle did such a good job of convincing him it would help Pamela that he did the part for no salary. Darryl Hickman who was 1.78 m (5’10″) was required to wear lifts in his shoes for the scenes with 193 cm (6’4″) Vincent Price to offset the disparity of their heights.

Judith Evelyn was hired at the request of Vincent Price who previously worked with her on Broadway. She also received attention in another prominent “non speaking role” as the suicidal “Miss Lonelyhearts” in Hitchcock’s Rear Window (1954). Dal McKennon, who played the projectionist (uncredited in the film) had a successful career as the voice of many screen and TV characters including “Buzz Buzzard” in the Woody Woodpecker cartoons and “Gumby” in the TV clay animation series. Jack Dusick, makeup artist for The Tingler was the father of singer/actress Michelle Lee.

The Tingler was Vincent Price’s second and last outing with William Castle and the fifth performance that would ultimately brand him as “The Master of Menace”.

Film Prologue:

Much in the manner of Universal’s groundbreaking Frankenstein (1931), William Castle opened the film with an on screen warning to the audience:

“I am William Castle, the director of the motion picture you are about to see. I feel obligated to warn you that some of the sensations— some of the physical reactions which the actors on the screen will feel— will also be experienced, for the first time in motion picture history, by certain members of this audience. I say ‘certain members’ because some people are more sensitive to these mysterious electronic impulses than others. These unfortunate, sensitive people will at times feel a strange, tingling sensation; other people will feel it less strongly. But don’t be alarmed— you can protect yourself. At any time you are conscious of a tingling sensation, you may obtain immediate relief by screaming. Don’t be embarrassed about opening your mouth and letting rip with all you’ve got, because the person in the seat right next to you will probably be screaming too. And remember— a scream at the right time may save your life.”

—William Castle, opening scene

Gimmicks:

William Castle became famous for his movie gimmicks, and The Tingler featured one of his best, “Percepto!”. Previously he had offered a $1,000 life insurance policy against “Death by Fright” for Macabre (1958) and sent a skeleton moving above the audiences’ heads in the auditorium in House on Haunted Hill (1959).

Percepto: “Scream for your lives!”

For “Percepto!” William Castle attached electrical “buzzers” to the underside of several seats in the auditorium. The buzzers were small surplus vibrators left over from World War II. They had been installed inside the wings of air craft and when activated would vibrate to help de-ice the wings by shaking and cracking the ice. The cost of this equipment added $250,000 to the film’s budget. It was predominantly used in the larger theaters.

During the climax of the film, the tingler escaped into a movie theater. On screen the projected film appeared to break as the silhouette of the tingler moved across the projection beam. The film went black, all lights in the auditorium were turned off and Vincent Price’s voice warned the audience “The Tingler is loose in THIS theater! Scream! Scream for your lives!” This cued the theatre projectionist to activate the buzzers and give several audience members an unexpected jolt.

An alternate warning was recorded for Drive-in Theatres, this warning advised the audience the tingler was loose in the drive-in. Vincent Price’s voice was not used for the Drive-in version.

William Castle’s autobiography Step Right Up!: I’m Gonna Scare the Pants off America, erroneously stated that “Percepto!” actually delivered electric shocks to the theater seats.

Two Joe Dante films contain scenes which reference the Percepto gimmick: “Gremlins 2: The New Batch” (1990) and “Matinee” (1993).

The Bloody Bathtub Scene:

Although The Tingler was filmed in black and white, a single b&w/color sequence was spliced into each print of the film. It showed a sink (in black and white) with bright red “blood” flowing from the taps and a black and white Judith Evelyn watching a bloody red hand rising from a bathtub filled with bright red “blood”. Castle used color film to film the effect. The scene was accomplished by painting the set white, black, and gray and applying gray makeup to the actress to simulate monochrome.

Tingler on DVD Special features: scream for your life featurette subtitles: english spanish portugese chinese korean thai talent files theatrical trailers and more.

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

Gremlin is an English folkloric creature, commonly depicted as mischievous and mechanically oriented, with a specific interest in aircraft. Although their origin is found in myths among airmen, claiming that the gremlins were responsible for sabotaging aircraft, John W. Hazen states that “some people” derive the name from the Old English word gremian, “to vex”.Since World War II, different fantastical creatures have been referred to as gremlins, bearing varying degrees of resemblance to the originals.

 

• In 1943, Bob Clampett directed Falling Hare, a Merrie Melodies cartoon featuring Bugs Bunny. With Roald Dahl’s book and Walt Disney’s proposed film being the inspiration, this short has been one of the early Gremlin stories shown to cinema audiences in which multiple gremlins featured.It features Bugs Bunny in conflict with a gremlin at an airfield. The Bugs Bunny cartoon was followed in 1944 by Russian Rhapsody, another Merrie Melodies short showing Russian gremlins sabotaging an aircraft piloted by Adolf Hitler.

• A 1963 episode of The Twilight Zone, “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet” directed by Richard Donner, featured a gremlin attacking a plane.This episode was remade as a segment of Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983). In the original television episode, the gremlin appears as an almost ape-like creature which inspects the aircraft’s wing with the curiosity of an animal and then proceeds to damage the wing. William Shatner plays the passenger who sees the Gremlin on the plane’s wing. No one else sees the Gremlin and Shatner’s character is removed from the plane on a stretcher with symptoms of psychosis. In the movie segment, the gremlin more resembles a troll or a goblin, with green skin and a frightening grin. This incarnation of the gremlin appears to be more intellectual and menacing, and is also shown to be capable of flying. The episode was famous enough to inspire at least two parodies:

 

  

• A gremlin makes an appearance in a Halloween special of The Simpsons paralleling The Twilight Zone’s “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet”, (the segment is even named “Terror at 5½ Feet”) in which the gremlin attempts to destroy the wheel of Bart’s school bus.

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  • A Tiny Toon special titled Night Ghoulery (a spoof of Night Gallery, with Babs presenting in Rod Serling’s style) has a segment named “Gremlin on a Wing”, which parodies “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet” as well, with Plucky in William Shatner’s place, accompanied by Hamton in an airplane, and a gremlin similar to that which appearen in Bugs’ short Falling Hare. In fact, this gremlin is so persistent, he even appears at the end as if he had impersonated the stewardess (who looks remarkably similar to Star Trek character Lt. Uhura).

 

As is not uncommon with folkloric creatures in fiction, the nature of gremlins differs greatly depending on the setting. Creatures called gremlins are encountered in various forms in video games, fantasy literature, role playing games, etc. Many of the gremlins encountered in popular culture have little in common with the original critters from the air force legend other than their name.

A famous example is the 1984 movie Gremlins and its 1990 sequel Gremlins 2: The New Batch. The gremlins in these movies had nothing obvious to do with aircraft in particular, although they were portrayed as adept at subverting or sabotaging mechanical systems; more explicit connections between the films’ Gremlins and those of folklore were drawn in the novelizations however. The gremlins in these movies differ from traditional folkloric mythology as they appear as monsters with large ears that are similar to a bat’s, sharp teeth and claws, red eyes, and dark reptilian skin.

In fact, the creatures of this movie are named “gremlins” because the protagonist, Billy Peltzer, recalls a speech by his friend, Murray Futterman, about the legend of gremlins. Thus, noting the similarities, he names them “gremlins”.

Another example of gremlins in popular culture appears on the episode of Charmed named “The Power of Three Blondes” where two little blue creatures Paige referred to as gremlins start sabotaging things at her new temp job.

–source Wikipedia