classicsoncall Even though the story doesn't stand up under close scrutiny, I had the greatest time with this flick. I'm not going to be one of those people who say they saw the twist ending coming from a mile away because I didn't. In fact the real twist came right at the end when Jean Arless (real name Joan Marshall) revealed her role as both Emily and Warren. You could have blown me away at that point, I just couldn't believe the same person played both characters, and even then, I thought it would have been a male impersonator. Which made me think back to whether Emily and Warren ever appeared in a scene together in the picture, and I would have bet they did, but turns out only in that late night scene in the bedroom, and that was another gimmick of the story. Pretty cool.But it's a Castle film, so I guess you have to expect the gimmicks. The opening admonition from Castle himself was a decent set up, but I roared when the countdown clock showed up on screen. I guess I was part of the brave audience that persevered to see what happened when Miriam Webster (Patricia Breslin) stepped through the door, no fright break worth it's salt was going to stop me.I didn't think I'd seen Breslin in a movie before but she sure did look familiar so I had to look up her other credits on IMDb. Somewhat surprisingly, my memory dredged up another TV show from my childhood past I used to watch all the time - 'The People's Choice'. In it, Breslin was married to Jackie Cooper's character, 'Sock' Miller. The name of the series was a play on words, Breslin was Amanda Peoples Miller, daughter of the town mayor John Peoples. None of this would probably have been memorable if not for Sock's pet, a sad looking basset hound named Cleo, who's thoughts about what was going on was provided by a narrator. His insights were meaningful but hilarious. Now I've got to hunt down some of those episodes.Anyway, all you have to do is think about the story line here and it all falls apart pretty quickly. Since Warren and Emily were the same person, an opening scene in which Warren took the doll away from half-sister Miriam could never have happened the way it did. And if Warren and housekeeper Helga (Eugenie Leontovich) moved away to Denmark after the death of Warren's abusive father, who wound up raising Miriam? But the real kicker while all this was going on was the way anyone in contact with Helga simply stood there during any of her frantic attempts to get attention - why didn't someone just hand her some paper and a pencil?

Johan Louwet It might not be on the level of Les Diaboliques but I thought this was a surprisingly good mystery and psychological thriller. After the energetic start I thought it would be a roller-coaster. Instead I got much more of a psychological game between the numb wheelchair bound Helga and her caretaker Emily and on the other side between Miriam and her half-brother Warren. There was something not right about Warren I thought right from the start and I had a feeling he was planning something evil together with Emily. I guess I was partially right even though I didn't expect that one of the two didn't really exist (and not going to say who). It certainly had a Psycho feeling but I thought Homicidal was more clever and had better character development. I have to applaud actress Joan Marshall/Jean Arless for pulling of such a stunt!

bbickley13-921-58664 William Castle seems more like a ham than a man who wants to be Hitchcock. Hitchcock never hosted his movies only his TV show, but he does have charisma, more so than the fat man.Jean Arless is outstanding as Emily. I really believed she fell off the deep end, and should not be messed with.I could tell from the moment Warren, Emily's fiancé, appeared in the movie that something was up with him, but I could not put a finger on it, which made the ending great. It was a good job by all the actors and filmmakers to one-up Psycho in brilliance.Psycho got a lot of cred for it's lack of blood and a few bodies, which is a 180 on this film that has way more blood and a few more gruesome deaths. the killing that opens the movie comes out of nowhere which makes it more gruesome.The one downplay from the Campy Castle was his fright break, a gimmick that probably works better in a Grind house than it does on home video. The clock that appears on screen timing down when the real scary stuff is about to happen while William Castle tells you to leave if you are too scared was cheesy, but Ironically once the break is over, the actual fight lives up to the clock's purpose.If you've seen Psycho you should check this out and compare.

MARIO GAUCI This is among the director's most popular works, being the one that overtly played him up as a potential rival to Alfred Hitchcock (complete with Castle's cheeky introduction a' la Hitch's own TV appearances); at the same time, its deliberate nods to PSYCHO (1960) did not really endear it to critics but, of course, audiences at the time lapped it up… which only goes to prove just how much of a milestone the Hitchcock classic was when it first emerged and has remained so over the years through countless imitations!Anyway, taken on its own merits, the film is certainly an above-average chiller for Castle – yet one is left wondering whether he was audacious or foolhardy in his approach towards the all-important plot twist; Hitchcock was certainly wiser in keeping "Mother" in the background, whereas Castle throws the secondary personality of the titular figure in our faces almost from the get-go! Indeed, the prologue should have been omitted entirely – as it really gave the game away to discerning viewers. The transvestism element, then, elicits unwarranted comparisons throughout with Ed Wood's notorious GLEN OR GLENDA? (1953) – but the PSYCHO borrowings, at least, are fairly well integrated into the narrative: a stint by the blonde leading lady at a run-down motel, a near-brush with the Law, a nosy investigator, an invalid also staying at the house, the put-upon young couple, etc. Having said that, the aforementioned prologue, the sadistic mistreatment of the latter character and the underlying "greed is the root of all evil" theme clearly anticipate the next phase in Horror film-making: the "Grand Guignol" chillers spearheaded by Robert Aldrich's WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE? (1962)…Still, while it also has an early and would-be shocking (because apparently unprovoked) murder – that could have pointed out to yet another childhood sexual trauma in other scenarios – one cannot sensibly compare the impact of the bloody yet extremely clumsy stabbing of James Westerfield with the legendary shower sequence from PSYCHO involving Janet Leigh! Incidentally, even if we do get to hear the two personalities speak in the same sequence (as Anthony Perkins did in the earlier film), their never actually appearing together – to say nothing of the man's distinctly effeminate appearance – should have alerted audiences as to the nature of the ruse (not that her eventual uncovering – preceded by the gimmicky 45-second "Fright Break" – is totally ineffective, unlike her ultimate come-uppance…which comes off as rushed)! Casting-wise, it is obviously Jean Arless (actually Joan Marshall, who adopted the pseudonym so as not to be typecast, but her subsequent roles were negligible at best!) who makes the biggest impression, whereas Eugenie Leontovich's stroke victim – with her incessant banging to attract attention – gets on one's nerves very quickly!