This fun little film includes one of William Castles great gimmicks to put people in theaters when so many were just opting to stay home and watch television. While he was too low on the food chain to have Cinemascope or Color or any of those other fancy doo-dads, he was clever enough to come up with cheap gimmicks to keep it interesting.
In this case, it was electric joy buzzers in the seats of the cinema, cleverly worked into the plot of the movie. Or maybe not clever.
The plot is that Vincent Price is a scientist examining the nature of fear, and he postulates that a force he calls "The Tingler" affixes itself to the spine of a terrified person. He also postulates, in the best of pseudo-science, that a scream will chase away or immobilize the creature. He is able to recover a specimen from a deaf-mute woman who has been scared to death by a conniving husband (in a strange sequence that implies Vinnie's guilt, and includes some limited color in an otherwise black and white film.)
Of course, the live Tingler gets loose in the theater, at which time, they would set off the joy-buzzers in everyone's seats. What a card that Bill Castle was.
Vincent Price carries this movie above it's usual silliness.
In this case, it was electric joy buzzers in the seats of the cinema, cleverly worked into the plot of the movie. Or maybe not clever.
The plot is that Vincent Price is a scientist examining the nature of fear, and he postulates that a force he calls "The Tingler" affixes itself to the spine of a terrified person. He also postulates, in the best of pseudo-science, that a scream will chase away or immobilize the creature. He is able to recover a specimen from a deaf-mute woman who has been scared to death by a conniving husband (in a strange sequence that implies Vinnie's guilt, and includes some limited color in an otherwise black and white film.)
Of course, the live Tingler gets loose in the theater, at which time, they would set off the joy-buzzers in everyone's seats. What a card that Bill Castle was.
Vincent Price carries this movie above it's usual silliness.