The Tingler
Directed by William Castle
Written by Robb White
1959/USA
Columbia Pictures/William Castle Productions
First viewing/Netflix rental
Dr. Warren Chapin: Ladies and gentlemen, please do not panic! But SCREAM! Scream for your lives!
William Castle and Vincent Price make delightful co-conspirators.
Dr. Warren Chapin (Price) is a pathologist with an inquiring mind. One of his duties is to perform autopsies on executed prisoners. He discovers one of the dead men died of a fracture to the spinal column rather than electrocution. Xrays reveal that there was some kind of foreign object living in the area.
Through means too complicated to describe, Chapin decides that the object is what causes death from fright. He calls it “The Tingler”. The only way to overcome The Tingler is to scream. A theater owner’s deaf-mute wife is the perfect test subject …
This movie is one gimmick after another. That is what makes it so much fun! There are all sorts of scares designed to prompt screaming by the susceptible. Even the most jaded will at least smile. Price is at his hammy best. What I would have given to have seen this in the theater on release.
Trailer
