Original subtitles

-♪ Hey, everybody, have you heard the news? ♪

♪ Joe Bob is back in town ♪

♪ He's over at the drive-in, hanging around ♪

♪ Watching crazy movies, so come on down ♪

♪ To Joe Bob's "Last Drive-In" show ♪

♪ Blood, beasties, boobies, and more ♪

♪ Joe Bob's "Last Drive-In" show ♪

♪ It's a spooky good time with monsters and ghosts ♪

♪ Crazy, kooky fun with the world's greatest host ♪

♪ Joe Bob's "Last Drive-In" show ♪

♪ It's gonna be legendary ♪

♪ Joe Bob's "Last Drive-In" show ♪

♪ It's gonna be very scary ♪

♪ Joe Bob's "Last Drive-In" show ♪

♪ Let's go ♪

-Welcome to haunted sleepover night!

-Whoo! -Aha!

An evening of classics that start out with

"I have a bad feeling,"

"I don't think we should go in that place,

so let's go in."

Haunted houses are just basics in horror.

Haunted houses are Horror 101, right, Darcy?

-Yes.

Because we can all identify with spooky things in the house.

-Darcy the Mail Girl, ladies and gentlemen,

here to help me guide you through the world

of doors and windows and attics and basements and...

Haunted house stories always use doors, windows,

staircases, hallways, places of entrance and exit

to suggest that something is there that shouldn't be there.

But I've been reading a lot of horror scripts lately,

and I had this thought, Darcy.

- Oh, no. - No?

Tell me if you agree with me on this.

A lot of horror stories waste a lot of time

explaining why the characters are isolated,

alone, cut off from the world, helpless.

-"My phone doesn't work here." -Exactly.

But no filmmaker, as far as I know,

has ever just set the story in Point Nemo.

-We have no horror movies about a Disney clownfish?

-No, this, Darcy, is Point Nemo,

the most isolated place on the planet.

See? There's nothing here.

The remotest setting for a movie.

In fact, the formal name for this

is the oceanic point of inaccessibility.

It's not claimed by any nation.

It's 1,670 miles from the nearest land.

There are no shipping lanes that go through there.

The water is about two and a half miles deep.

It has the worst weather in the world

because there's no land masses around it to slow anything down,

so you have 70-foot waves.

If you manage to get to Point Nemo on a boat,

the closest you'll get to any other human being

will be the astronauts aboard the International Space Station

when they pass sort of overhead to the north about once a week,

because they're only 250 miles away.

Is that isolated, Darcy? -That is isolated.

-Okay, here's the best part. -Okay.

-When spacecraft and satellites go out of commission,

you got two choices.

You can push them into deep space

where they just float forever.

But guess what?

You're never able to do that

because they don't have enough fuel to just say, "Floor it.

Push this mother past the gravitational pull of the planet."

Takes a huge amount of force,

or your second choice is crash 'em into the ocean.

But guess what?

If you decide to crash something into the ocean,

the margin of error is like a thousand miles.

You're trying to hit the Gulf of Mexico,

and instead you kill some old lady crossing

the street in Kentucky.

Nobody wants that, right?

So what you do is you point that sucker at Point Nemo.

There are 250 wrecked spacecraft on the ocean floor

right around Point Nemo.

Why aren't they making horror movies there?

-Maybe because you can't get there and nothing happens there?

-Well, but -- but here's where I got this idea.

-Okay. -Just last year,

two guys from England went to Point Nemo

and jumped into the water

so they would become the first human beings

to swim at Point Nemo.

They took video and everything,

but I'm thinking that's not good enough.

Has to be one person.

If it's the loneliest place on the planet,

you got to be lonely there.

Somebody's got to do solo Point Nemo,

and then we'll send a crew to make the movie.

-But then it wouldn't be solo.

-Well, you know, we'll go one day later.

-Okay. And what would your movie be about?

-Well, the two guys that went there last year,

they got attacked by an albatross.

That's how it could start out.

-Okay. Okay. That's one scene. -But -- But look --

look what you got to work with.

-Okay. -Isolation.

You can be damn sure the phones don't work.

-True. -Hostile environment.

-Okay.

-Potential for vicious creatures

never dreamed of by Jacques Cousteau.

-True. -Endless black ocean.

Ancient alien sludge.

We put the cast in a submarine

where they're forced to deal with one another

like in "Alien." -Yes. That's creepy.

-They get a sonar signal from 150,000 feet down,

and it's impossible for anything to be alive down there,

but something is breathing.

And the crew members start coughing up seaweed,

and the walls start sweating blood, and somebody mutates.

-Mutation always works.

-Yes. Somebody mutates... into a squid.

I don't know, Darcy. We'll work out the details later.

But bio mutation fu,

and then something floats up out of

the dead Russian spy satellite that's on the ocean floor

and we go to the Werner Herzog voiceover.

-Okay, now you've lost me.

-Yeah, me too, but I'm just saying,

you want isolation, you want remote?

Point Nemo.

-Did they really name it after "Finding Nemo"?

-Well, I think it's like that guy,

"Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea."

What's -- What's the guy's name in --

-Oh, Captain Nemo. -Captain Nemo, right.

-Well, I would be interested to see

how you connect all of this to "House on Haunted Hill."

-Well, it's directly connected. -Is it?

-But you just gave away our title for the night.

-I'm so sorry. How is it connected?

-Well, when Vincent Price says,

"Come to my house and spend the night,

and if you last till morning, I'll give you $10,000,"

then that's basically saying, "My house is Point Nemo.

This is the end of the world for you."

-No.

- It's not like that. - Alright.

"House on Haunted Hill" is written

and directed by the great William Castle,

best known for his gimmick horror flicks.

And the gimmick in this one is that when the skeleton appears,

an actual skeleton would fly over the heads

of the audience in the theater, and it's called Emergo.

He always had a name for the gimmick,

and Emergo means a skeleton jumps up out of a box

next to the screen and travels up to the projection booth

while everybody screams.

In the meantime, it's a pretty dang good movie

because in jump scare after jump scare after jump scare

is a group of six strangers trying to make it through the night

without becoming part of the body count.

Sure, we've seen it before,

but have we seen it with a decapitated head in a suitcase?

I think not.

Let's look at those Drive-In Totals and get started.

We have two dead bodies,

one dead rat, acid-bath spa treatments,

random disembodied heads,

falling chandelier,

ceiling blood-dripping,

chain clanking, door creaking,

ghost hovering, with snaking rope.

Firearm party favors, monster hand,

ghost organ recital,

gratuitous creepy caretakers,

gratuitous screaming, heads roll,

gaslighting fu, skeleton puppet fu.

Drive-In Academy Award nominations for Carolyn Craig

as the cute-but-dimwitted ingenue

for going into hysterics repeatedly,

Richard Long as the handsome pilot who says,

"I'm going to my room

and if anybody comes in, I'll shoot him,"

Julie Mitchum as the alcoholic gossip columnist

who asks the sensible question, "Who would want to haunt me?,"

Alan Marshal as the psychiatrist who says,

"Fear makes people do amazing things,"

Elisha Cook Jr. as the owner of the house

for being certain that everyone is going to die

and for saying, "The ghosts are moving tonight,

restless, hungry,"

Carol Ohmart as the entitled fourth wife who sneers,

"Darling, the only ghoul in the house is you,"

Vincent Price for hating his wife right back

and for doing that creepy thing,

and William Castle, the producer-director,

for making the audience part of the movie.

Four stars. Joe Bob says, "Check it out."

Did you ever watch Vincent Price before he became a horror guy?

-I have. My kid actually made me watch "Laura."

-Oh, "Laura." The Otto Preminger movie. Yeah. Me too.

That movie got numerous Oscar nominations,

and you would not even recognize Vincent Price

as the same person.

He's this oily rich kid who's never had a job in his life,

and he just scams women for sport.

He must have been in his 20s maybe.

-Vincent Price was never in his 20s.

Have you ever seen pictures of him as a kid?

-I don't think I ever saw pictures of him.

-He looked 45 when he was 9.

He was, like, born 45 and stayed 45 forever.

-That's kind of true.

And you think of him as an upper-class Brit,

but he's actually from St. Louis.

-Maybe that's why we can never be sure

whether he's a good guy or a bad guy.

-'Cause he's a shapeshifter.

-It's the stash, man. -True. The mustache.

Did he ever not wear the mustache?

-Very rarely. -In the dictionary,

Vincent Price's picture is next to the word "sly."

He's always sly. -And cunning.

-Sly and cunning.

We don't know what you're up to, Vincent,

but we know it's cunning. -And sly.

-The ghosts are moving tonight. Restless, hungry.

May I introduce myself?

I am Watson Pritchard.

In just a minute, I'll show you the only really haunted house

in the world.

Since it was built a century ago, seven people,

including my brother, have been murdered in it.

Since then, I have owned the house.

I've only spent one night there,

and when they found me in the morning, I...

I was almost dead.

-I am Frederick Loren,

and I've rented the House on Haunted Hill tonight

so that my wife can give a party.

A haunted house party.

She's so amusing.

There'll be food and drink and ghosts,

and perhaps even a few murders.

You're all invited.

If any of you will spend the next 12 hours in this house,

I will give you each $10,000.

Or your next-of-kin, in case you don't survive.

Ah, but here come other guests.

It was my wife's idea

to have our guests come in funeral cars.

She's so amusing.

Her sense of humor is, shall we say, original.

I dreamed of the hearse.

It's empty now, but after a night

in the House of Haunted Hill, who knows?

This is Lance Schroeder, a test pilot,

so no doubt a brave man.

But don't you think you can be much braver

if you're paid for it?

And I happen to know that Lance needs

the $10,000 I'll give him...

if he is brave enough to stay all night.

This is Ruth Bridgers.

You've no doubt read her column in the newspapers.

She says her reason for coming to the party is

to write a feature article on ghosts.

She's also desperate for money. Gambles.

You've already met Watson Pritchard --

a man living in mortal fear of a house

and yet he is risking his life to spend another night here.

I wonder why.

He says it's for money.

This is Dr. David Trent, a psychiatrist.

He claims that my ghosts will help his work on hysteria,

but don't you see a little touch of greed there,

around the mouth and eyes?

This is Nora Manning.

I picked her from the thousands of people who work for me

because she needed the $10,000 more than most.

Supports her whole family.

Isn't she pretty?

The party is starting now and you have until midnight

to find the House on Haunted Hill.

-Well, where is everybody?

-It isn't a very warm welcome, is it?

-Only the ghosts in this house are glad we're here.

-Are we all strangers to each other?

Don't you two know each other?

-I'm afraid I don't even know your name.

-I am Nora Manning. -Lance Schroeder.

-Is Frederick Loren a friend of yours?

-I've heard of him, but I've never met him.

-I work in one of his companies, but I've have never seen him.

-I've never met the man either, just a phone call.

-Do you know him? -No.

-Well then, you're the only one of us who does.

-I don't know him.

All the details about renting the house

were done by mail.

-He's quite wealthy, isn't he? -Millions.

-And five wives, I believe.

-Four, I think so far.

-A $50,000 party for only five people

is a little steep even for a millionaire.

Well, if I were going to haunt anybody,

this would most certainly be the house I'd do it.

-Who closed the door?

-This thing's made of solid steel.

-Annabelle?

Our guest are here and fortunately still alive.

Is your face on yet?

-Dust and dirt everywhere. The water barely trickles.

Couldn't you have had the place cleaned? -Atmosphere, darling.

You know how ghosts are, they never tidy up.

Well, that's a very fetching outfit,

but hardly suitable for a party.

-I'm not going to the party.

-Mm, "You Spend the Night Ghost Party" was your idea, remember?

Since it's going to cost me $50,000, I want you to have fun.

-The party was my idea, until you invited all the guests.

Why all these strangers? Why none of our friends?

-Friends? Do we have any friends?

-No. Your jealousy took care of that.

-I had a reason for inviting each guest.

I wanted kind of a cross section,

from psychiatrist to typist,

and from drunk to jet pilot.

They share one thing. They all need money.

Now let's see if they're brave enough to earn it.

-And you call this a party?

-Could be.

-Why do you always do that? It spoils the champagne.

-It might explode. -Never does.

-Would you guarantee that?

-That isn't funny, Frederick. -Would make a good headline.

"Playboy kills wife with champagne cork."

Would you join me? -No, thank you.

-Just a sip. Might improve your humor.

-My humor is fine, thanks.

And I haven't poisoned it.

-It's always good to know that.

Have some, you'll enjoy the party more.

Go on.

-Your trust is so touching.

And I'm not going to the party.

-Of all my wives, you are the least agreeable.

-But still alive. -Hm.

Would you go away for a million dollars in tax-free?

You want it all, don't you?

-I deserve it all.

Your jealousy isn't tax free...

and your possessiveness is maddening.

-If ever a man had grounds for divorce.

-But can't prove them. -The time will come.

You'll slip up one of these days.

-You think so?

-If I live long enough.

You remember the fun we had when you poisoned me?

Something you ate, the doctor said.

-Yes, arsenic on the rocks.

Annabelle...

You'd do it again if you thought you could get away with it, wouldn't you?

-Darling, what makes you think that?

-Something about you.

I hear that hanging is very uncomfortable,

in case you get any more ideas.

Don't let the ghosts and the ghouls disturb you, darling.

-Darling, the only ghoul in the house is you.

-And don't sit up all night,

thinking of ways to get rid of me.

It makes wrinkles.

-This is what she used on my brother and her sister.

Hacked them to pieces.

We found parts of their bodies all over the house.

In places you wouldn't think.

The funny thing is the heads have never been found.

The hands and feet, and things like that,

but no heads.

-The wife, probably in a rage,

threatened her husband with a knife

and then, carried away by hysteria,

took a swing at him, and simply went on from there.

-Well, she certainly went on.

How many people did she kill, Mr. Pritchard?

-Only two. Her husband and her sister.

No one else was here. -So there are two loose heads

just floating around in here somewhere?

-You can hear them at night.

They whisper to each other and then cry.

-Since our host isn't here,

would anyone care to mix me a drink?

-Certainly. What will you have?

-Good evening.

I'm your host, Frederick Loren.

Since we're all strangers to each other,

let's get acquainted with a drink, shall we?

-Mr. Loren.

I advise you to call this party off now.

The ghosts are already moving, and that's a bad sign.

-Let me apologize for my wife. She will join us later.

What do we have? -"Scotch and."

-Doctor? -I'll have the same.

-Now before the party begins,

let's go over the details.

The caretakers will leave at midnight,

locking us in here until they come back in the morning.

Once the door is locked, there is no way out.

The windows have bars that a jail would be proud of,

and the only door to the outside locks like a vault.

There is no electricity,

no phone,

no one within miles,

so no way to call for help.

-Like a coffin.

-So, if any of you decide not to stay for the party

you must let me know before midnight.

Of course, if you leave,

I shan't be able to pay you anything.

-I'm interest in your reasons for this, uh, party.

Besides some pleasant company.

-Ghosts, doctor.

I think everyone wonders what they would do

if they saw a ghost.

And now my wife is giving us all the opportunity to find out.

-Amusing.

Ghosts, et cetera, being only creations of hysteria,

your party should be a success.

-Oh, Pritchard here promises us genuine ghosts.

-Seven now,

maybe more before morning.

-That's cheerful.

-Four men have been murdered this house.

And three women.

-You planned your party very well, Mr. Loren.

Four of us are men, three are women.

There's a ghost for everybody.

-So, Pritchard, why don't you take us

on a tour through the house and let's see what happens, huh?

-See that stain?

Blood.

A young girl was killed here.

And whatever got her wasn't human.

Don't stand there! -What do you mean? Where?

-It's too late. They've marked you.

-Ridiculous. The roof probably leaks.

-Oh, that must be what it is. Who would want to haunt me?

-I would say any self-respecting male ghost.

-I hope it doesn't come back.

-Oh, Mr. Pritchard, you're the life of the party.

-Oh, he hasn't even started yet.

Wasn't there a man who threw his wife

into a wine vat or something?

-That was in the cellar.

There's been a murder almost every place in this house.

All this belonged to a Mr. Norton,

who didn't die here.

He was electrocuted later.

Mr. Norton did a good deal of experimenting with wines,

but his wife didn't think it was any good.

So he filled a vat with acid and...threw her in.

She was supposed to stay down...

...but the bones came up.

It's a funny thing,

but none of the murders here were just ordinary,

just shooting or stabbing.

They've all been sort of wild...

violent and different.

-Look out!

-Thank God she didn't fall in.

-You mean there's still acid in there?

-Destroys everything with hair and flesh.

Just leaves the bones.

My, it's dry and dusty down here.

-Well, there's a -- a cure for that.

That stinks. Come on.

-How'd you get invited to this party?

No.

Let them go on.

I mean, what did he tell you?

Mr. Loren said everybody would get $10,000.

-But he didn't say anything about being locked in?

-No. -Ah.

He just made a deal with me on the phone.

But nothing about having to stay.

-Aren't you going to stay?

-If I don't, I lose $10,000.

-I'm going to stay, too.

$10,000. -Yes.

Do you believe in ghosts?

I don't know.

-Well, I believe in what that doc says.

You can spook yourself.

I've done it in planes,

seeing things that aren't really there.

Or were they?

What're you gonna do with your $10,000?

If we get it.

-What do you mean "if we get it"?

Won't he pay us if we stay?

-Oh, sure he will.

$10,000 is no more to him than a nickel is to us.

-We were in a automobile accident.

Now I am the only one in the family who can make any money.

-Boy, I've never seen so many doors.

Closet.

Bottles.

-Does it go any where?

Lance!

Lance!

Help me! Please!

Lance is gone!

And there's a ghost!

-See what I mean? -Please, come on!

-Did you say Lance is gone? Gone where?

-We'll have to break it down! It's locked!

-Locked?

-Are you alright?

-Nothing that money won't cure.

I must have... must have bumped my head.

-The only way you could bump your head in here...

is to run head-on into the wall.

You didn't do that, did you?

Let's get a bandage on that.

-I wonder why they didn't kill him.

-Who?

-He didn't bump his head.

They hit him.

-They?

-Well, that's one way to get all the exposition out of the way,

just have Vincent Price describe each person in the movie

while their disembodied heads pop up on the screen.

Uh, William Castle never wasted time, did he?

But actually, the writer is Robb White,

who's never talked about when any of the William Castle films

are screened because Castle was such a big personality.

But Robb White wrote every one of Castle's most famous films --

"Macabre," "The Tingler," "Homicidal," "13 Ghosts" --

as well as a lot of "Perry Mason" episodes.

But writing for the screen wasn't even his main job.

He was a children's adventure novelist.

He wrote action stories for young boys,

with titles like "Secret Sea" and "Flight Deck"

and "Up Periscope" and "The Survivor"

and "Torpedo Run,"

using his wartime experiences as a naval officer.

But the single-most famous thing he wrote was "The Lion's Paw."

"The Lion's Paw" was this kind of a Huckleberry Finn-type story

set in Florida about three runaway orphans,

only instead of the Mississippi River,

they ran away on the Intracoastal Waterway,

fighting their way through swamps

and small towns on a sailboat, trying to find a magic seashell.

Heartwarming story, affirmative,

lots of kids remember it fondly...

but it's not as famous as his William Castle films.

But who cares about the writer?

Let's talk about

the va-va-va-voom blonde bombshell Carol Ohmart,

who plays Vincent Price's gold-digger fourth wife.

People who watch this movie for the first time tend to go,

"Wow, who is that and where did she come from?"

Whenever you read about beautiful blonde models

in the 1950s, their bio will always say

"groomed to be the next Marilyn Monroe."

And in Carol Ohmart's case, that was true.

Um, she was raised in Seattle by an abusive single mom.

She started working at age three in her uncle's vaudeville act.

She lived in many places in the western states

before starting her beauty career at age 19,

when she became Miss Utah.

And then she got fourth runner up for Miss America,

and fourth runner up was good enough

for a New York modeling career,

some early TV commercials, Broadway,

and then doing the floor wax commercials

for a TV show called "Versatile Varieties,"

which she co-hosted

along with Anne Francis and Eva Marie Saint.

She finally got her big chance at the age of 28,

when Paramount was impressed by her famous bikini photo shoots,

and they signed her and billed her as "the next Marilyn."

And then they cast her right away in a movie

called "The Scarlet Hour,"

directed by the great Michael Curtiz,

famous for "Casablanca,"

"White Christmas," "Yankee Doodle Dandy."

Um, and then Paramount assigned the legendary Edith Head

to do her costumes,

and she had the starring role,

and Nat King Cole was in the movie.

He sang in a nightclub scene.

The movie was a bomb, no fault of her own.

The dreary script was written by Frank Tashlin,

rarely rose above melodrama,

and Carol Ohmart's character was not at all likable.

So, Paramount gave her one more chance, though,

in a movie called "The Wild Party."

Once again, her character did her no favors.

She played this wealthy socialite who gets robbed

and kidnapped by Anthony Quinn and a pack of lowlifes.

Despite a $2 million publicity campaign

to make her a superstar, she had two flops in a row,

and that made everybody forget the bathing suit photos.

Mainly because they didn't really --

they didn't really sex her up in the roles that they gave her.

She came across as conniving and sarcastic,

just the way she is in this movie,

but it's highly appropriate in this movie.

So after Paramount wrote her off,

she ended up guesting on a lot of TV series where she was --

she was the hot girl on "Perry Mason,"

she was the hot girl on "Route 66,"

she was the hot girl on "Mannix," "Hawaiian Eye,"

and of course, this movie,

which turned out to be what most people remember her for,

along with Jack Hill's "Spider Baby."

And then she retired at the age of 47.

She was addicted to meds

that she'd probably been taking for years

in order to keep her weight down,

but she got clean and then she never looked back.

She devoted herself to a quiet life of painting and gardening

and writing poetry in Colorado,

where she died in 2002 at age 74.

Anyway, I love the scene

where Vincent Price and Carol Ohmart

talk about killing each other,

but they do it in that delightful way

that rich, witty people discuss horrible things.

It's probably the best-written dialogue scene

in the whole flick.

Back to the movie.

Hollywood just chewed her up and spit her out, Darcy.

-Sounds like it.

-The one thing a contract player could not influence

was the script.

You know, you get the right script, you're a star.

You get the wrong script, you're the hot girl on "Mannix."

-I mean, is that a bad thing, though?

-No, being the hot girl on "Mannix" is a wonderful thing.

-I would love to be the hot girl on "Mannix."

-Darcy, I would love to be the hot girl on "Mannix."

-All of that.

-Nora, when you came in, you said something about a ghost.

-There was something. -What did it look like?

-Well, it was wearing a black thing

that went all the way to the floor.

-Weren't you a little frightened at the time?

-Oh, well, yes.

-That, Mr. Loren, is hysteria.

-Well, then, doctor, how do you explain what happened to Lance?

Was that hysteria too?

-You better get that checked in a day or so.

-Thanks, doc.

-Wait for me in the hall.

-The ghosts are coming closer, Mr. Loren.

-You really believe in your pet ghosts,

don't you, Pritchard?

-Before the night's over, you will too.

-Would you like a drink, Lance? -No, thanks.

-I'd like one. Scotch and.

Mr. Loren, are you really going to pay anyone who stays all night?

-Certainly. $10,000.

-Will there be much red tape or...delay?

-In a hurry, dear? -Frankly, yes.

Or frantically.

-Here you are, my dear.

-Someone or something was in here when I came in, but where?

And if the door was locked, how did it get out?

What you saw might have been a ghost, Nora,

but what was in here with me was no ghost.

-I don't know. I was so scared.

-That sound different to you?

-Yes.

3, 6, 9, 12.

12 feet.

Three, six...

Now I'm going to knock on the other wall.

When you hear me, you knock on this wall.

Tap lower down!

Oh, Lance! I saw it again!

-Where did it come from? -From in here.

-But if it ran out of here, I'd have seen it.

-Lance, it doesn't run, it just floats.

-Yeah, but why didn't I see it?

-You don't believe me!

How can I?

-I'm Annabelle Loren.

You must be Miss Manning.

I realize this is a very unusual and a very, very dull party.

Wouldn't you like to freshen up?

This is your room.

Depressing, isn't it?

-I doubt if I'll spend much time here.

-It's going to rain.

The perfect atmosphere for my husband's party.

Why did you come here?

-He said he'd give me $10,000.

-Why did he pick you? -I don't know.

My supervisor just came and said I've been invited.

-How long have you known my husband?

-I just met him tonight.

-So...

...why you?

What were you doing, wandering around by yourself?

-Well, I was in the cellar with Lance.

Mr. Schroeder.

I just left, that's all.

-Don't do it again.

Don't go anywhere in this house by yourself.

Now, fix you face and I'll come by for you in a few minutes.

-But I...

-You're in danger.

We all are.

-But who?

-I hope for your sake you'll never find out.

I'm Annabelle Loren. Are you looking for something?

-Not exactly. -Are you the doctor?

-No. No, I'm Lance Schroeder.

-The pilot. You've hurt yourself?

-Oh, it's just a bump on the head.

Which is my room? -I believe this is it.

-Thank you, Mrs. Loren.

-Annabelle, Lance.

You were with the young girl in the cellar.

Why was she so upset? -Was she?

-And you don't look like the type

to go around bumping his head.

What did it really happened, Lance?

-Well, Nora thought she saw a ghost,

but I didn't see anything.

-She was just frightened then?

-And mad at me I think. I kidded her about it.

-I wouldn't joke about anything else that happens here tonight.

-Now, don't tell me that you're taking all this seriously.

-Aren't you?

-Well, I'd like to find out what hit me.

-Lance...

...if I need help, may I count on you?

-Yeah, sure, I guess so.

Look, what's going on here anyway?

I mean, what is with this party business?

-This is no party. He is planning something.

-Your husband? -I wish I knew what it was.

-Must be pretty big if he is going to lay out $50,000.

-The money doesn't mean anything.

He has a reason for getting us all up here

to this dreadful old house.

-Well, what for? He doesn't even knows us.

-Maybe that's exactly why you're here.

-Well, what can he get away with?

-Oh, he thinks that big money like his

can get away with anything.

You know of course that I'm his fourth wife.

The first simply disappeared.

The other two died.

Lance,

I don't want to join them.

-You mean he, uh...?

-All his doctors said they died of heart attacks.

Two girls...in their 20s.

-Well, what can he do?

-My husband is sometimes insane with jealousy.

Nothing matters to him then.

Please be careful.

-Would he hurt you?

-He would kill me if he could.

-This is that part of the movie where Vincent Price says,

"It's close to midnight."

It's hard to even say those words without singing --

without singing them, right? -Yep.

-♪ It's close to midnight ♪

'Cause -- 'Cause they would become the first words

of the most successful music video in the history

of the world, Michael Jackson's "Thriller."

And when this movie came out, Michael Jackson --

Michael Jackson would have been six months old

when the movie came out,

indicating that he must have watched it later

as a kid growing up in Gary, Indiana,

on one of the late-night Chicago horror shows,

possibly the original Svengoolie.

He could have watched that show.

Anyway, Michael Jackson was the world's

biggest Vincent Price fan,

as evidenced by Price doing the zombie cemetery voiceover

on "Thriller" right before the ghouls start dancing.

And when you see this movie today,

it seems natural that William Castle would hook up

with Vincent Price, but actually it happened --

it was a total accident that it happened.

William Castle was, of course,

one of the greatest marketers of all time.

He had worked for Hollywood Studios for 15 years.

He had already directed 41 movies

by the time "House on Haunted Hill" came out.

He started out as a theater director

in his hometown of New York City,

back when there were dozens of theaters changing shows weekly

and where it was really hard to get noticed

if you had a lackluster play on your hands.

And often he would be hired by producers

who knew that if you had no stars and a mediocre book,

Castle might get the company

into the black with his ballyhoo.

And his biggest publicity triumph came with a German play.

Castle was German.

His birth name was William Schloss.

Schloss is the German word for castle,

and so he sometimes directed plays in the German language.

So, in 1939 he directed "Das ist nicht fur Kinder,"

which translates "This Is Not For Children,"

um, starring a beautiful young dancer named Ellen Schwanneke,

who had starred in a famous 1931 German movie

about girls at a boarding school

trying to figure out their lesbian feelings.

And Castle pretended to be a famous German director

fleeing Hitler,

and shortly after the play's premiere,

Ellen Schwanneke received a telegram from Hitler

inviting her to perform in Berlin.

She said no to Hitler,

and Castle made up this story about how outraged Hitler was,

and he started billing her as

"the girl who said no to Hitler,"

and the play was a success,

even though the play is so unmemorable

that no copies of the play have been preserved.

But the stunt got Castle noticed by Harry Cohn,

the head of Columbia Pictures,

and Castle's film career was launched.

Oddly enough, once he got to Hollywood,

Columbia consistently rejected all his ideas for promotion.

He was just a hired-gun director --

no control over script, casting, editing,

marketing or anything except designing the shots.

'Cause this was in the days when directors

were just expected to do what they were told.

And Castle was a great studio director.

Time and again he delivered more than what his material deserved.

If you want to take a little film-nerd journey,

watch the William Castle films of the 1940s and '50s.

You will discover that his style...is no style at all.

I mean, he made everything.

"The Whistler" is an early film noir based

on the popular radio series.

It would lead to seven sequels.

"When Strangers Marry" is a tight little thriller

starring Kim Hunter as a woman

who has a whirlwind romance

with the traveling salesman Dean Jagger,

marries him, only to discover he just might be a murderer,

and that sets off an amateur investigation

with her old friend Robert Mitchum.

Um, "Hollywood Story" is a thinly disguised treatment

of the real-life murder

of silent-film director William Desmond Taylor,

which was never solved.

"Slaves of Babylon" is a biblical epic

about the prophet Daniel

freeing the Israelites from King Nebuchadnezzar.

Um, "The Fat Man" with Julie London and Rock Hudson

is a private eye film set in the circus world.

"It's a Small World" is a heartwarming tale

of a dwarf tempted to join organized crime.

"Undertow" is about a man on the run from the Chicago mob,

who hides out in the apartment of a woman that he just met.

He made at least eight westerns,

including "The Conquest of Cochise,"

"The Law vs. Billy the Kid," three westerns in 3-D,

including a great one called, uh, "Fort Ti,"

uh, plus "Jesse James vs. the Daltons."

That was a good one. The list goes on and on.

Castle was averaging three or four movies a year

in addition to shooting TV series,

but his shooting style was just straightforward --

get the job done, no frills.

And after he turned in the film,

Harry Cohn had no interest in listening to his ideas

about how to sell the film.

And then, fortunately for us,

William Castle got sick of working for the man,

and he mortgaged his house

in order to form his own production company.

The result was a movie called "Macabre,"

psychological thriller in 1958

that Castle barnstormed across America with.

He would park hearses outside the theaters

where it was playing,

and he would rise up out of a coffin at the premiere.

Um, he stationed nurses at every screening.

Uh, he ensured every insured member for $1,000

in case of death from fright.

Um, and that promotion worked, and Allied Artists --

which most people still remember

as the old Poverty Row studio Monogram --

Allied Artists earned $5 million on an investment of $125,000,

and $125,000 was $35,000 more

than Castle actually spent making the movie.

And so, with his reputation firmly established

as a master of showmanship,

he ran into Vincent Price in a coffee shop...

and the world got better for everybody,

but especially for William Castle.

And I'll tell that story at the next break,

but right now, let's get back to the movie.

So...roll it.

You know, one thing that bugs me, though...

...the inside of this haunted house

doesn't really match the outside.

-I know, right?

The outside's ultra modern, and the inside is kind of Victorian.

-The exterior is actually the Ennis Brown House

in the Los Feliz neighborhood of LA,

and it's made out of 27,000 concrete blocks,

and it's been used in more than 80 movies.

You see it when all the guests are arriving in the hearses

in the opening scenes.

-So, the Haunted Hill is famous,

and the House on Haunted Hill is famous.

-Yeah, it's like right there by The Greek Theatre. The, um...

Ron Burkle, the billionaire, he used to own it,

but now it's owned by some, uh, cannabis billionaires.

-What? Really? Who? I might know 'em.

I'm just saying. Maybe.

-Uh, Robert and Cindy Rosenheck.

Uh, they paid $18 million for the house in 2019,

uh, out of their CBD beauty line empire.

That was the most ever paid for a Frank Lloyd Wright house.

-Wow. -They bought the "House on Haunted Hill" house

by selling body lotion made from weed.

How weird is that? You probably use it.

-It's possible. -It's the Lord Jones brand

of weed body lotion. -Oh, okay.

It's not what I was thinking of then.

-Do you use cannabis cosmetics?

-I'm not opposed to it. -Whenever we discuss weed,

I feel like you have all kinds of arcane knowledge

that nobody else has.

That's why I ask -- I ask you these questions.

If you say so, sir.

-Annabelle, you're missing all the fun.

Nora Manning was almost killed by a falling chandelier.

The pilot bashed his head in.

-Is he badly hurt?

-The saturnine psychiatrist bandaged him up.

Don't you want to go and console him?

As you do with most men... in your fashion.

-You are so clever, Frederick.

-Yes, I lie awake at nights, wondering why I married you.

It was rather a mistake.

-You didn't marry me, dear. I married you.

Unpleasant, but no mistake.

-Hurry up.

-Frederick, for last time, I'm not going to your party.

-And for last time, it's not my party, but yours.

And you are going.

-I am not. -You ready, dear?

-No. -Are you ready, dear?

-Yes, damn you.

-Would you adore me as much if I were poor?

No, all you want to be is a lovely widow.

It's almost time to lock up the house.

Then your party will really begin.

And I wonder how it will end.

It's close to midnight, Lance.

-Okay, I'll be down in a minute.

-Who is it? -Your host, my dear.

It's almost midnight, Nora.

We're all going to get together down in the living room.

-Alright, Mr. Loren, I'll be right down.

-Come with us.

Come with us before he kills you.

-Where is Nora? Miss Manning?

-I don't want to stay here!

-Nora, what happened?

That's Jonas Slydes and his wife.

They have been caretakers here for years.

She's blind, you know?

-I'm not going to stay here!

-Well, doctor, it looks like

we have a real case of hysteria on our hands.

-Oh, I thinks she's just a little upset, not hysterical.

-Good evening.

-Hello, my dear.

This is my wife. These are our guests.

Ruth Bridgers.

Dr. Trent.

You know Watson Pritchard, of course.

Nora Manning, and, uh, this is Lance Schroeder.

-Get me out of here.

-Now what about the $10,000?

-I don't care. He wants to kill me.

-Who wants to kill you?

-Mr. Loren.

-May I have your attention, please?

I think you all remember the bargain we made

about staying all night -- $10,000 apiece.

If any of you don't survive,

$50,000 will be divided amongst the rest of you.

If I should die...

...you will be paid by my estate.

When the door is locked from the outside by the caretakers,

we'll all be forced to stay in this house until morning.

If any of you decide not to stay,

you must leave with the caretakers now.

You won't have a chance to change your minds later...

because there'll be no way to get out.

-I don't want to stay! -Wait.

-It isn't midnight yet. Who told them they could leave?

-They never leave before midnight.

-Well, they've gone now.

I was going to ask you whether you wanted to stay or not,

but it seems that the caretakers have made the decision for you.

We're all locked in now.

-But I don't want to stay.

-I sorry my dear, but it's too late now.

-Darling, haven't you had enough of this silly game?

Get some cars up here for these people and let them go home.

But pay them first.

-This is your party, remember?

In spite of my wife's faith in my ability to do the impossible,

we will all have to stay in this house

until 8:00 in the morning.

But we have some party favors for you

in these little coffins.

This is my wife's idea,

and I must say I think it's rather dangerous.

I suppose you all know how to use one of this things,

but in case you don't...

you just press down on this lever with your thumb

and then pull the trigger.

You see? They're loaded.

-These are no good against the dead, only the living.

-Doctor.

Lance.

Nora.

-Go ahead, take it.

-Miss Bridgers.

And here is yours, dear. -I don't need it.

-It was your idea.

Who knows, you may want to use it on me

before this night is over.

-Throw these guns away. They won't do you any good.

-I agree with Pritchard on that point,

although not for the same reason.

-Dr. Trent...

...don't you approve of our little party favors?

-Suppose Nora had had a gun when she mistook

the blind woman for a ghost.

-I don't think anyone else is going to

walk around in total darkness.

-Oh, I'm sure we're not gonna go running round the house

shooting each other, aren't you?

-Who knows? Fear makes people do amazing things.

-Mr. Pritchard, you said your sister-in-law

killed a man and woman here and cut them up.

You said they found hands and feet,

but they never found any heads.

Would you like to see one of those heads?

Would you all like to see one of those heads?!

Well, then just follow me!

-Darling, I really don't need this.

-Pistols as party favors in little coffins.

What a great idea! Let's arm the entire cast.

Everybody except the one

who seems most likely to be homicidal,

Annabelle.

So, the story I mentioned at the last break

is that after "Macabre" was a big hit,

there was a lot of pressure on William Castle

and his screenwriter, Robb White,

to come up with a follow-up movie.

They started developing "House on Haunted Hill,"

and Castle happened to see Vincent Price dining alone

in a coffee shop, and he didn't know him,

but he strode over to his table

and he told him he wanted to hire him,

and Price was amused by that and asked him to sit down,

and it turns out that Price was somewhat depressed.

He had been cast as the chief villain

in a big-budget western starring Jimmy Stewart,

but Jimmy Stewart had gotten sick,

and he had to be replaced at the last minute by Alan Ladd.

Remember how tall Vincent Price is in those 1940s melodramas,

Darcy? -Yeah, he, like,

towers over everybody else.

But I think they used his height in "Laura"

to make him seem kind of clownish.

-So, Alan Ladd was famous

as the shortest movie star in Hollywood.

And so the studio said,

"We can't have the two of you in scenes together,"

and Price lost the part to somebody shorter.

So, um, now can I digress for a moment about that?

-We live for your digressions. Please.

-Don't be sarcastic. Alright.

I was in this scene one time with a very famous actor

who I won't name because I don't want to,

you know, cause anything... -Name him!

...but I was a very minor character,

he was the star of the movie,

and the cinematographer said, "We need to position them

so that Joe Bob doesn't dominate the shot."

And this particular movie star said,

"Just give me an Alan Ladd."

And I didn't know what he meant.

But the term Alan Ladd was used to mean an apple box.

Apparently, Alan Ladd was shot standing on apple boxes

for much of his career, to the point

that his name became shorthand for the box itself.

Anyway, Vincent Price often had to act, I guess,

opposite people standing on apple boxes.

So Vincent Price was drowning his sorrows

over losing the part

and there weren't enough apple boxes

to make Alan Ladd as tall as Price.

And Castle commiserated with him,

and then at some point in their conversation,

Castle pitched him on the plot of "House on Haunted Hill,"

and Vincent Price loved the synopsis,

and he agreed to do the movie on the spot.

But Allied Artists didn't just want another movie,

they wanted another gimmick.

And the one William Castle came up with is

the most complicated one that he ever tried.

At a certain point in the movie,

a black box next to the screen would pop open

and a 12-foot skeleton would light up, jump out of the box,

and fly over the heads of the audience

all the way to the projection booth,

and Castle advertised this as

"the first film with the amazing new wonder Emergo --

the thrills fly right off the screen."

And it took a while to get it to work,

'cause at the first screening,

the skeleton dangled for a few seconds

and then bounced right back into the box.

At the second screening, the skeleton flew halfway up

and then fell on top of the audience,

where kids threw it back up into the air.

But when they finally did get it working,

it became a sensation

that did just what Castle hoped it would do --

it made people talk about it.

And the word of mouth was so good, in fact,

that the movie earned $5 million on an investment of $200,000,

and that established Castle as the gimmick king.

Unfortunately, kids started bringing slingshots to the theaters

and wait for a chance to knock the skeleton down,

and the theater owners eventually became annoyed

by the whole expense

and the trouble of messing with the skeleton,

so most of the skeleton rigs were just thrown away as junk.

Which is why today serious memorabilia collectors

will pay up to $75,000

for a single "House on Haunted Hill" skeleton,

and even more if it comes with a full rig

that allows it to be pulled on a wire

over the heads of the audience.

But anyway, the --

-Whoa. -Okay.

Of course, in -- Of course, in 1959,

they couldn't achieve the supreme effect

of our own in-house flying skeleton.

Can you try that again, Shane?

It's -- -Oh!

-Oh! -So scary!

-I don't think this is the --

Are you scared? -I'm so scared.

-Back -- Back to the movie. -Whoa!

-How many movies were made with Emergo?

One?

-I guess once you've seen a flying skeleton,

you've seen a flying skeleton.

-Ooh, a flying skeleton.

- Okay. - Oh, no!

-O-Okay, Shane.

We get it. We get it. -Stop saying "Shane."

-What do you mean? Shane Morton, our special effects guy.

-It is not a special effect.

That is an actual flying skeleton spirit. Look.

-Oh, okay. -Whoo!

-Shane, put your undead aeronautically engineered skeleton back in his cage.

Okay?

-Aw.

-Just go look in my suitcase.

Just go look.

But it was in there! A woman's head!

-Nora, I think you're a little upset.

Would you care for a sedative?

-Get out! Get out, all of you!

All of you, get out of here and leave me alone!

Just get out of here!

-You think it's alright to leave her by herself, doctor?

-I wished she'd taken the sedative.

-Well, what do you suppose she thought she saw?

-They're closing in on her.

-Look, doc, I think somebody ought to stay with her.

-There could be a million people around her.

If they wanted her, they'd get her.

-What if he's right?

-He's too drunk to know what he's talking about.

-I wonder.

I'll join you in a minute.

-Do you think it would do any good

if you went in and talked to her?

-Well, do you think there really was a head in her suitcase?

-I don't know.

-A thing like that would put me right over the edge.

-Well, could you sort of stay up here,

I mean, in case she needs help?

-Alright. I'll be in my room.

Just call if you need.

-Thanks.

-Are you sure there are only seven people in this house?

-Positive, except for the ghosts.

-I don't believe in ghosts, nor in frightening women.

In Nora's case, it's gone far enough.

Perhaps too far.

-What do you suggest we do about it, doctor?

-Don't frighten her any more!

-Nora?

Nora?

Nora?

Nora!

What do you know about this?

-They've taken her. In a little while she'll be one of them.

-Where is N--

Where is she?

-It's too late. It's too late.

You'll never find her again.

-Pritchard, if you know where she is, you'd better tell me now!

-She's gone! She's gone with them!

And there's nothing you can do about it.

-Nora.

-Take her down!

-Nora?

-She is dead, Mr. Loren.

Your wife hanged herself.

-Suicide.

- Lance! - Nora!

-Lance, hide me. Please hide me.

-What's the matter? -Hide me!

He tried to kill me.

He grabbed me and choked me and put me in that room.

And then he went away and left me.

-Who?

-He thought I was dead.

-Who?

-Mr. Loren.

-Are you sure about this?

-I don't know. It -- It was dark, but it must have been him.

-Has anybody seen you since he left you?

-I heard some people in that room,

but I went by and nobody saw me.

-Mrs. Loren is dead.

-But how?

-Loren said she committed suicide.

But I think somebody killed her.

-Him?

-I'm sure you've come to the same conclusion I have.

-Yeah. I think so.

-Let's all have a meeting and discuss what to do.

The living room? -Okay. In a minute.

I've got to go downstairs.

Now you lock yourself in here

and don't let anybody know you're here.

If he thinks you're dead he won't come here.

And I'll get back as soon as I can.

You'll be alright.

And if you have to...

you use it.

-So beautiful.

So greedy.

So cold.

What are you doing in here? -Wait, don't we...?

-What do you mean coming in here?

-I don't want them to take her away.

-You're drunk. -They will if you don't watch her.

-You're drunk! Alright, out with it, Pritchard!

Why did you come into this room?

-I'm the only one who understands.

Understands what?!

Your wife isn't there anymore. She's already joined them.

-Now, Pritchard, I've had enough of your spook talk.

Get out, you sot, and don't come back into this room again!

-One thing that always amuses me about this film

is how Frederick is constantly annoyed by Pritchard.

And the interplay between, um, Vincent Price --

Shane, stop!

Shane. -Oh, no!

-Shane, I know you worked hard on this flying skeleton,

but once you've seen it, it's really not scary anymore.

-But he's so cute. -Yes, skeletons are cute.

It's one of the problems with Halloween

and one of the problems with the older horror films.

We just don't react to skeletons anymore.

I react.

-Yes. You think they're cute. I get that.

Anyway, the interplay between Vincent Price

and Elisha Cook Jr. is priceless.

Elisha Cook is the owner of the house,

but also the old coot who warns you not to go into the house

and somehow he sells that.

I think throughout the film we're all thinking,

"Listen to Elisha. He's crazy, but he's seen things."

One of the most famous character actors of all time.

60-year film career.

Always quirky.

His picture is next to the word "eccentric" in the dictionary.

He was the guy you called

if you needed a neurotic or a high-strung character

or a hophead, a drunk, a pimp, weak-kneed gangster,

and he's done so many hundreds of iconic scenes

that it's hard to single anything out.

Um, the one I remember is his drum solo in "Phantom Lady."

He's a jazz drummer. He's high on something.

He's staring at Ella Raines in a nightclub

as he does this frenzied drum solo

that pretty much amounts to an orgasm.

But he also has this great scene

where he gets gunned down in the street

by Jack Palance in "Shane."

Um, he may be best known for playing the cheap crook Wilmer

in "The Maltese Falcon."

He was in a lot of film noirs, including the original one,

uh, "Strangers on the Third Floor."

He was especially memorable in TV westerns.

He did a lot of those -- "Rawhide,"

"Wagon Train," "Gunsmoke," "Bonanza."

But he was so famous within the industry

and so needed

that directors would send people to track him down

after he dropped out of Hollywood

and started living like a hermit in the high mountains

near Bishop, California, middle of nowhere.

And he was still getting tracked down

and cast in stuff well into his 70s and 80s.

Had great performances in, um, "Electra Glide in Blue"

and "Carny" and, uh, "Blacula" and, uh,

as the character Icepick in many episodes of "Magnum, P.I."

Anyway, he does a great job in this movie

of being the wild-card character who might just be a drunk,

or might be a psychic, or might be a killer,

but his main job is to get on Vincent Price's nerves

every chance he can.

Alright, let's get back to the movie.

Roll it.

You ever been to Bishop, California?

-Um, I don't think I've had the pleasure.

-It's not quite as bleak as Pioneertown.

It's definitely one of those dusty, redneck California towns

that seem to have been transplanted from Oklahoma.

-Let's go. -Mule capital of the world,

Darcy. -I love mules.

-You do not love mules. -I love mules.

-But, yeah, we should.

But we could go to Bishop Mule Days,

where they celebrate the history and dignity of the mule.

-Alright. When is that?

-Well, we'd have to wait till May.

But if you want a great mule show...

-And who doesn't?

-Black Ruby once raced there at Mule Days.

Black Ruby, fastest mule who ever lived.

Girl mules are frequently faster than boy mules, so...

Of course they are.

-I could see Elijah Cook owning a mule.

-I like to think he did.

-Where is what's her name?

Nora?

-I didn't disturb her since I don't think this concerns her.

-No, you're right.

-Mr. Loren, isn't there some way

we can get out of this house now?

-No. None at all.

-We could try breaking out.

-The only door to the outside is made of steel.

The bars at the windows are set in solid stone.

We gotta stay.

-I'm not afraid of your ghosts, Pritchard.

-But I am afraid.

When we came here a few hours ago,

the only thing we had in common was the $10,000 we'd get.

Now, however, we share something else --

the death of Mrs. Loren.

So far tonight...

one of us was almost killed by a falling chandelier...

...one of us was mysteriously slugged...

one of us is being driven to the brink of absolute hysteria...

...and one of us is dead.

Were these accidents? Suicide?

And we must stay here for six more hours?

-Six hours?

Six of us.

Time enough.

-Who will be next?

How will it happen?

-Let me ask you a question, doctor.

You were the first one to see my wife dead.

Did you also see anything that she could have climbed up on

and then jumped? -No.

-Did any of you?

There was nothing.

How then did she get up there

so high? -Exactly, Mr. Loren, how?

She couldn't have pulled herself up there.

She couldn't have dropped from the ceiling.

Do you think your wife killed herself?

-No.

She was murdered.

By one of you.

-Or you, Mr. Loren.

To deliberately kill someone, you must have a reason.

-We were all strangers to your wife.

Only you had a motive for murder.

-What husband hasn't at some time wanted to kill his wife?

What husband hasn't had a thousand opportunities

to do it in such a way so that he'd never be suspected?

I'm not such a fool as to hang my wife

from a ceiling by a rope.

-The fact remains that you

or one of us murdered Mrs. Loren.

And that's a matter for the police.

-So, how do we get the police?

-That's my point. We can't until morning.

What began as a silly party given by an eccentric

has now involved us all in murder.

-For once, Pritchard may be right.

If another murder is in the works, let's stop it now.

-Another murder? -Why not?

Maybe one of us saw much.

-Why should even a millionaire want to give each of us $10,000

to spend one night in a gloomy old house?

To see some ghosts? To have a party?

No. -Have you finished trying me, doctor?

And is the verdict guilty of murder?

-Oh, this isn't getting us anywhere.

Somebody killed Mrs. Loren, we know that.

One of us is guilty and the rest of us are innocent. Okay.

Now, what we have to do for the next six hours

is to protect ourselves... from each other.

-Do you really think...? -I don't think anything.

I just know that I'm going to my room,

and if anybody comes in, I'll shoot him...or her.

-And if we all stay in our rooms, we'll be safe.

Because the innocent will have no reason to leave his room,

and the guilty will admit his guilt if he or she does.

-And we all have guns. -Then we are all agreed?

-Oh, I wish this night were over.

-Rooms? Guns?

I tell you it doesn't make any difference.

They are through with us yet.

What's the use in saying good night?

-Good night.

-Good night, doctor.

-Nora, it's me, Lance.

Are you okay?

They've all gone to their rooms and locked themselves in.

-Lance, I've been thinking.

It was so dark there. Maybe it wasn't Mr. Loren.

-It was him, alright.

He tried to kill you, and he did kill his wife.

-How can you be so sure? -She tried to warn me,

asked me to help her.

The doc thinks he is going to try and kill one of us.

Now there must be a way out of this place and I'm going

to find it and get the police before he does.

-I'm going with you.

-But if he finds out you're alive...

No, Nora, you're safer here than any place else.

Now just lock yourself in and keep quiet.

If I find a way out, I'll come back and get you.

-No.

No. No!

No.

No!

Lance!

-What do you think of Nora's screaming abilities?

-Oh, she's amazing.

-There's a certain kind of scream

that women did in the '50s.

I think they copied it from one another.

But Carolyn Craig, she's better than the rest.

She knows how to belt them out.

If she wasn't a good screamer,

they would have dubbed her screams.

But, uh, because

William Castle did know how to do that.

When it's a screaming male, of course,

they often use the Wilhelm Scream.

We've talked about that before. The Wilhelm --

the Wilhelm Scream is legendary in sound design history.

-Is that a "Trivial Pursuit" category?

Yeah.

Sound design history is the ultimate nerd category.

No, it started in a Gary Cooper movie

called "Distant Drums" 1951.

This guy gets bitten by an alligator

in a Florida swamp and he screams.

And the actual scream was recorded in the studio

by Sheb Wooley, who would later become

immortal for his 1958

sound design novelty song "Purple People Eater."

But in 1951, he was a grunt in the Warner Brothers ADR studio.

ADR stands for additional dialogue recording.

Um, and they call it the Wilhelm Scream

because it was such a good scream

that they used it again two years later in the Western,

"The Charge at Feather River,"

in a scene where a character named Private Wilhelm

gets shot with an arrow.

It has since been used in more than 400 movies and TV shows.

Uh, anyway, enterprising sound designers have always

been searching for the female Wilhelm Scream, to no avail.

There's a scream called the Howie Scream female variant,

which is a version of the scream emitted by Howie Long

when he fell from a train in the 1996 film "Broken Arrow."

And there's one in the BBC library

that's just labeled blood curdling scream.

That is female.

Nobody knows where that one came from,

but I think the owners of "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre"

should license Marilyn Burns' screams.

-Yeah, but Nora didn't need that.

-Right. She's a true scream queen.

She's not a cheater.

But most actresses in the '50s cheated.

-How do you know that?

-You can tell the scream doesn't match their face.

-Well, that's not their fault.

The director probably dubbed it after they were gone.

-Exactly.

And I think female screams are harder to do also

because they have a greater range.

And so the context matters a lot.

Carolyn Craig, who played Nora, had a sad life.

She started a career as a model.

In 1955, she made a famous series of photographs showing

the health benefits of being a housewife.

Like, how using a mop tones your arm muscles.

And then she broke into movies in a very small role

as the daughter of Elizabeth Taylor in "Giant."

Um, she had one major lead in a crime drama called

"Portland Exposé" in 1957.

She kept playing teenagers well into her '20s.

She got a part on "General Hospital."

She married a Buick dealer in L.A.

and stayed married for six years,

and then went into a deep depression

after her divorce in 1970,

and she killed herself with a handgun at the age of 36.

But while we're speaking of females in this movie,

I shouldn't pass up, Ruth, the money hungry,

alcoholic newspaper columnist.

That's Julie Mitchum, the older sister

of Robert Mitchum, who was --

She was a nightclub singer, rarely seen on screen.

In fact, this was her last role.

But that character is so underwritten it seems

like an afterthought to kind of fill out the runtime.

I should also mention Richard Long,

who plays Lance, known as one

of the best looking actors in Hollywood

and married to one of the hottest women in Hollywood,

Mara Corday, who was known as,

"The most photographed model in the world"

and became Playboy Playmate of the Month for October 1958,

which was the issue that came out

while they were filming this movie.

Um, she was a showgirl. She also starred in "Tarantula."

She would go on to be in four Clint Eastwood films.

She had a tumultuous relationship with Long,

but they stayed married for 17 years until he also --

he also died early. He had a heart attack at age 47.

Best known for TV roles, "The Big Valley,"

he was in "Nanny and the Professor."

He was in the movie "Follow the Boys" in 1963,

opposite Connie Francis and Paula Prentiss.

Okay, we now approach the strange conclusion

of "House on Haunted Hill," but more importantly,

the scene where the lighted skeleton jumps out of the box

and terrorizes the audience.

So, roll the film.

-Shane, not funny.

Shane, funny.

-This is why theater owners eventually

destroyed the skeletons.

-It is irresistible. -What's irresistible?

-Making the skeleton fall on someone like that.

-I -- I don't get the joke.

-Ha! Welcome to our world, man.

Ha-ha!

-An admission of guilt, doctor?

-Certainly not.

There's either somebody else in this house

or one of us has left his room.

Did you hear anything?

-Organ music? -That and someone walking.

-You got yours?

Ready?

-You look downstairs and I'll look up here.

-Why not together?

We maybe only minutes, seconds left to someone's life.

Why waste time?

-It's almost over, darling.

Every detail was perfect.

-What's happening? -We've done it.

The perfect crime. Beautiful.

-Has she killed him?

Not yet.

But she will.

-Get me out of this hanging harness.

What's taking that girl so long? What time is it?

-At first I couldn't get Nora to want to protect

herself with a gun.

But after you appeared at the window

everything began to work just as we had planned.

You were wonderful.

Just the touch which finally drove her

into complete hysteria.

-It will be worth all of our planning, darling.

Where is Nora now?

What's happening? -On her way to the cellar.

So scared, she'll shoot the first thing that moves.

-And Frederick? -On his way to the cellar, too.

-David, are you sure none of them will suspect us?

-Of what?

An hysterical girl accidentally shoot somebody?

Who would suspect that we planned it that way?

That we drove her to it. -What about my suicide?

-For just a ghost party gag.

We'll claim it was a dummy since I'm the only one

who touched you.

-And the caretakers?

-Well, they had no idea what they were really doing.

-What about Nora? She's not stupid, you know?

-Darling, believe me. Everything we planned is working perfectly.

-Nora is sure Frederick murdered you.

She thinks Frederick attacked her in the cellar, not me.

And now Nora is almost out of her mind with fear.

The heads, the music, your hanging.

I tell you, when Frederick walks in there, she'll shoot him.

-It's taking too long.

David, you ought to be there.

-When you hear the shot, come down to the cellar.

-Nora! No!

-Ugh!

-David?

David.

-At last you've got it all.

Everything I have, even my life.

But you're not going to live to enjoy it.

Come with me, murderess, come with me.

-Good night, Doctor.

Good night, Annabelle.

The crime you two planned was indeed perfect.

Only the victim is alive and the murderers are not.

It's a pity you didn't know when started your game of murder

that I was playing, too.

-There must be some way to get in here!

-It's right along here, some what.

-Lance!

I've shot Mr. Loren! He's down in the wine cellar.

-Alive? -I don't think so.

It's him! He's alive!

-You didn't shoot anyone, my dear.

I loaded your gun with blanks.

I can tell you all now

Trent and my wife were planning to kill me.

They failed.

Trent tried to throw me in the vat.

My wife stumbled and fell.

I'm ready for justice to decide

if I'm innocent or guilty.

-Now there are nine.

There'll be more, many more.

They're coming for me now.

And then they will come for you.

-So Vincent Price was the master puppeteer,

orchestrating everything, including the hokey skeleton

that terrorizes Annabelle.

I have a question, Darcy. -Yes.

-The two conspiratorial lovers, Annabelle and Trent,

they have planned this whole thing

so that Nora will kill Vincent Price.

And the way they do that is they make her so nervous

that she's jumpy, and then they give her a gun,

and then they send Vincent Price down to where she is.

-Correct.

-Isn't that kind of a lame plan

with very little chance of success?

I mean, it depends on, A, she has to be a scaredy cat.

B, she has to believe in the ghost of Annabelle.

And by the way, when the Annabelle ghost appears to her,

what's that whole thing about the rope

that snakes out of the window and circles her feet,

and then it un-circles her feet,

and then it goes back out of the window and...

-Yes?

-And, C, she has to be good with a gun.

She has to not miss.

And, D, she has to want to kill Vincent Price.

Isn't that a really long chain of stuff

that has to happen before they get what they want?

-It's a William Castle movie. -Okay.

If we scare her bad enough, she'll definitely kill him.

-Exactly. It makes sense. -Okay, well,

this was the second hit in a row for William Castle,

and it led to another Vincent Price success,

"The Tingler." -Ooh.

-One of Castle's most famous films, the one

where he wired the seats so that the audience got a little shock

when the parasite got loose in the theater.

Castle made several more horror films.

He made "Homicidal," he made "Mr. Sardonicus,"

he made "Strait-Jacket" with Joan Crawford.

He made "13 Ghosts."

You wore these things.

This is a ghost viewer.

To see them, you look through here.

This is a ghost remover down here.

"To not see the ghost, look through here."

You know, like, who's going to look through here?

Scaredy cat.

-So, anyway, um,

he thought he'd finally gotten to the top of the industry

when he bought the rights to Ira Levin's

best selling novel, "Rosemary's Baby."

He mortgaged his house to buy that novel,

and Paramount Pictures was willing to make the film,

but not with William Castle as director.

The studio just didn't regard him as a "real" director.

So he became a producer on that project instead.

Roman Polanski got the directing assignment,

and Roman Polanski got the glory

when the 1968 film version became one of Paramount's

biggest hits and one of the most successful

horror films ever made.

Castle would live till 1977.

He would retire with 66 directing credits,

including "Bug," which was his answer to "Jaws"

that was released shortly before his death.

And by the way, the guy who turns out to be

the villain, Dr. David Trent, he's played by Alan Marshal,

who also met a most untimely death.

Um, he's the guy who died on stage

while appearing in the play "Sextette"

with Mae West in Chicago in 1961.

So "House on Haunted Hill" was released on

February 17, 1959 at the Golden Gate Theater

in San Francisco, where it made the highest grosses

in that theater's history.

The line was six blocks long.

To get in, there was a huge tombstone

erected in front of the theater with the inscription,

"Here lies the body of Frisby Quill.

He went to see 'House on Haunted Hill.'"

And it happened to open on the same day as the arrival

of William Castle's second child, a daughter.

So to celebrate, Castle gave a cigar

to every patron in the theater, including children.

Aww.

-The film earned over $4 million on a budget of $150,000.

And those were numbers that caught the attention

of Alfred Hitchcock, who was inspired

to make "Psycho" as a result.

And the modern era of horror was launched.

What do you think, Darcy? -About "House on Haunted Hill"?

-Yeah. -It's amazing. It's amazing.

-Okay, that's your succinct review.

"House on Haunted Hill," amazing.

That's it? -Do I really have to explain

why this movie is awesome? -Yes.

-It's the perfect blend of camp,

but not too campy.

It's got beautiful, creepy atmosphere.

Vincent Price at his sinister best.

Serving elegance and a side of menace.

Right? -Yeah.

The practical effects, haunted house tropes.

Just amazing.

It's playful, but genuinely eerie.

Is that enough for you?

Does that explain it? -Alright.

-It's fun. -I'll take that.

-Well, alright, we got The Innkeepers coming up

in a few minutes here on Haunt Night.

Um, but first... -We have mailbag.

-Oh. -You distract me

with all your talking.

-Alright, what you got?

-Hold on. Here you go.

-Alright. -It's from Zach White of Austin.

-Man, a lot of stuff in here.

"Dear -- Dear Joe Bob."

What in the world?

Okay. Oh. "Dear, Joe Bob.

I have been a fan of yours since the days of 'MonsterVision.'

I felt right away our senses of humor just clicked.

I had definitely found a kindred spirit in this horror loving,

quirky Texan named Joe Bob Briggs."

Kindred spirit, Darcy. -They exist.

"As with so many of your fans,

you've helped me through some dark times

and kept me laughing at the absurdity of life.

As a fellow Texan and particularly a native Austinite,

I too am enthralled, obsessed,

and oddly, constantly reinvigorated by

the cultural phenomenon that is 'The Texas Chain Saw Massacre'

and all the mystique that surrounds it.

And to that end, please send me a copy

of your Texas Monthly article on 'Chain Saw.'

I'm really looking forward to reading it."

Um, should I point out that that article

has been greatly expanded and will be out

this year in book form?

-I feel like you just did. -Alright.

-Um, "I have a 'Chain Saw' story of my own I think you will like.

When my mom and dad and some extended family

were visiting Ireland some years ago,

they found themselves in conversation with some locals

in a downtown pub." -Downtown where?

-Downtown Ireland. -Okay.

Um...

"One -- One of the men, upon hearing they were from Texas,

promptly gave his solemn condolences to my dad

for the terrible tragedy

that had happened 'down there in Texas.'

Realizing the Irishman was referring to

the 'Texas Chain Saw Massacre,' my dad assured him

that it had in fact been only a movie.

The man fell silent and took on an air

of having had his intelligence insulted,

as if my dad had burst his proverbial bubble

by contradicting his long held belief

that the "Texas Chain Saw Massacre"

had been a real life tragedy,

a horrific affliction shared by all Texans.

My dad told me in hindsight he wishes he had played along."

You know, I get this all the time. Um...

-Comments from pubs in downtown Ireland?

-Well, no, but people telling me they know

the real life families involved in

"The Texas Chain Saw Massacre."

-What...are you saying?

That people in Texas would lie about that?

-Everyone, everywhere, not just in Texas,

everyone everywhere lies about "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre."

Well, they're not really lying.

I think they're just deluded. Anyway...

Alright, "Lastly, please find enclosed a photo" --

Here it is -- "Of my dad, granddad, great uncle, cousin,

and the hero of 'The Texas Chain Saw Massacre,'

the truck driver."

"Ed Gwynne, circa early '90s.

My dad met Ed in the '80s after moving to Austin

and they became fast buds

through their mutual musicianship.

I asked dad recently if he ever discussed 'Chain Saw' with Ed

back in the day, and he said no,

that 'Chain Saw' was still very taboo at the time,

more something to be shied away from rather than be analyzed,

much less celebrated.

Thank you for your time in reading this, Joe Bob.

Drive-in will never die because it resides in each

and every one of us.

Forever yours in kindred spirit in the Texas Hill country

and in the absurdity of this crazy thing

we call consciousness, Zach White, Austin, Texas."

And enclose this picture, I can point him out.

This is Ed Gwynn on the left, the guy who stops

his semi to let Sally jump in,

and he throws his wrench at Leatherface

and knocks him down at the end of the movie.

And -- And over here on the, um, extreme right,

um, that's Jack's dad.

Uh, and this appears to be --

Or I guess this is Jack's dad,

and this appears to be at, um, Deep Sea headquarters,

which is the cool Marina in Port Aransas,

where you go out 30 or 40 miles to catch the Marlins

and the sailfish and the yellowfin

and all the big boy stuff.

The wahoo.

You ever eat a wahoo, Darcy?

-I don't eat fish. -You're missing out.

-Oh, I'm -- I'm okay with that. -Okay.

Okay. Thank you, Jack,

for those reminiscences and for making me feel at home.

I'm going to go down to Port Aransas

and get me a mackerel, and that's it for me.

Joe Bob Briggs speaking for myself

and for Darcy the Mail Girl when I say that

you can't get -- you can't get lard

unless you boil the hog, and the drive-in will never die.

I entered 10 puns in a contest to see which one would win.

-And? -No pun-in-10-did.

-Ha. Well, I like that kind.

I like the cheesy ones. -Huh?

-Why don't blind people skydive?

Because it scares their dogs.

-Alright, guy goes to confession.

He says, "Bless me, father, for I have sinned.

On Friday, I went golfing and I used the F word."

And the priest says, "Well, tell me about that, my son."

And the man says, "Well, I was on the first tee

and I shanked it wide left."

And the priest says, "Oh, you must have said --

said the F word after you did that."

The man goes, "No, because the ball went into the woods.

It hit a tree and bounced back into the middle of the fairway."

And the priest says, "Then what happened?"

The man says, "I hit my second shot

and I sliced it wide right."

The priest says, "So that's when you said it?"

The man says, "No, because my shot hit the ball

washer machine on the next hole,

popped up, rolled back into the low rough."

And the priest says, "Oh, so you said it

when you ended up in the rough?"

And the man says, "No, because I took my wedge and I hit it,

and it wound up on the green about six inches from the cup."

And the priest takes this in and thinks about it,

and then he says, "Don't tell me you missed that fucking putt?"

-They really like that one.

-Oh! -Not the skeleton. Oh, no!