The Tingler (1959)

Director:

William Castle

Writer:

Robb White (written by)

Release Date:

29 July 1959 (USA)

Genre:

Horror | Sci-Fi

Tagline:

In Screamarama

Plot:

After much hard work, a pathologist discovers and captures a creature that lives in every vertebrate and grows when fear grips its host...

Plot Keywords:

Fear | Scream | Autopsy | Creature | Movie Theater

Cast

Vincent Price	...	Dr. Warren Chapin
Judith Evelyn	...	Mrs. Martha Ryerson Higgins
Darryl Hickman	...	David Morris
Patricia Cutts	...	Isabel Stevens Chapin
Pamela Lincoln	...	Lucy Stevens
Philip Coolidge	...	Oliver 'Ollie' Higgins

Runtime:

82 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | American Sign Language

Color:

Color (one scene) | Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound Recording) | Stereo (partial)

Certification:

Argentina:13 | USA:Approved | Finland:(Banned) (1961) | UK:15

Company:

William Castle Productions

Trivia:

Originally had a short sequence filmed partially in color. It was the scene when the deaf-mute Mrs. Higgins (Judith Evelyn), terrified by unknown forces, runs into a bathroom to hide and sees blood coming from the faucets of her sink and her bathtub filled with blood. Everything else in the scene is black and white except for the blood, which appears in garish red color - a typical William Castle gimmick. The USA home video release and the Turner Classic Movies print shown on Oct. 31, 2008 include the restored partial-color sequence. The short sequence is grainy and appears to have been inserted from an old deteriorated copy, or possibly a 16 mm print, as the rest of the movie's quality is crisp and sharp.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: When the tingler attacks the sedated Dr. Chapin, you can see the wire that is pulling it.

Quotes:

Dr. Warren Chapin: I came because I was a bit worried about your wife, a shock like that can have bad after effects you know.
Oliver 'Ollie' Higgins: You know I've been worried about her too, she hasn't eaten hardly a thing and she can't sleep. Ever since she saw that blood, she just roams around the theater all night.

Movie Connections:

Featured in "TCM Underground: 13 Ghosts/The Tingler (#1.37)" (2008)

If You Ever Feel Fear, Scream to Save Your Life!

The coroner and scientist Dr. Warren Chapin (Vincent Price) is researching the shivering effect of fear with his assistant David Morris (Darryl Hickman). Dr. Warren is introduced to Ollie Higgins (Philip Coolidge), the relative of a criminal sentenced to the electric chair, while making the autopsy of the corpse, and he makes a comment about the tingler-effect to him. Ollie asks for a lift to Dr. Warner, and introduces his deaf-mute wife Martha Higgins (Judith Evelyn), who manages a theater of their own. Dr. Warner returns home, where he lives with his unfaithful and evil wife Isabel Stevens Chapin (Patricia Cutts) and her sweet sister Lucy Stevens (Pamela Lincoln). Dr. Warner, upset with the situation with his wife, threatens and uses her as a subject of his experiment. When Martha dies of fear, Dr. Warner makes her autopsy and finds a creature that lives inside every human being, feeds with fear and is controlled by the scream. Once Martha was not able to scream, the tingler was not rendered harmless and became enormous. When the living being escapes, Dr. Warner and Ollie chase it in a crowded movie theater.

"The Tingler" is very hilarious and cheesy B-movie, but with a great potential of cult-movie. I can imagine the behavior of the real audiences with the instructions of the character of Vincent Price ordering in the dark to scream in the movie theaters to save their lives, while he is looking for the tingler on the screen, and a device installed underneath their seats is vibrating in the scene. The flawed screenplay is silly but also very, very funny indeed. There are two great moments along the story: the ahead-of-time acid trip of Dr. Warren Chapin (in 1959); and the red colored bathtub full of blood, the unique colored scene along the whole black and white film. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Força Diabólica" ("Evil Force")