Homicidal

An attractive, but odd looking blonde woman named Emily pays a hotel bellhop to marry her, and then stabs the justice of the peace to death right after the ceremony. Thus does Homicidal get underway with a bang. What follows is a convoluted, implausible, but surprisingly effective suspense thriller with some pretty kinky undercurrents.Emily ,as played by Jean Arless/Joan Marshall, is one scary lady. Her sweet, innocent manner conceals a truly menacing character, who will let nothing stand in her way. She murders her victims with an enthusiasm bordering on glee, and audiences in 1961 must have been startled to see a woman act out such unexpected violence.There are classic horror movie clichés, such as the spooky dark house, the helpless old lady unable to tell others of her danger, an inheritance waiting to be claimed, secrets from the past affecting the present. The movie is usually considered to be a ripoff of Hitchcock's Psycho, which seems credible. There are definite plot parallels, but Homicidal goes off in some pretty weird directions all its own. Worth seeing at least once by horror movie fans. Castle really knew how to entertain a crowd.

I just had my first viewing of HOMICIDAL, having already heard that it "steals shamelessly from PSYCHO". Well it does do that, but it's also a surprisingly effective chiller that manages to set out on its own course and strikes up enough originality to make it well worth watching. The acting is mostly competent, given the film's era and genre. But I kept wondering all the while why such an unattractive actor was cast to play the role of Warren. Certainly, I thought, they could have found a trainload of reasonably handsome men to cast in this role(?) Of course, this odd point becomes somewhat cleared up in the end...that is, if the viewer is able to navigate the rather complicated (and rapid) unraveling of the family's dark history. I expect I'll have to view it again to make sense of it. But HOMICIDAL is cheesy campy fun of the best kind, so it will be a guilty pleasure to have a second stab at it.

<POSSIBLE SPOILERS> I've been reading the reviews for Homicidal, and I've seen several references to the "dubbing of Emily's voice". In William Castles' autobiography, "Step Right Up, I'm Gonna Scare The Pants Off America" there is a section where he discusses Homicidal, and he describes how he chose Joan Marshall for the part immediately after hearing her speak. The voice of Warren in the film WAS NOT dubbed. It's the voice of Joan Marshall herself! She had the ability to lower her octave/range, thus sounding as close to a masculine tone as a woman could. Needless to say, after Castle heard her he hired her on the spot. I urge you to read Castle's book; it's packed with insider tidbits on the making of all his films. I first saw Homicidal during its initial theatrical release in 1961, and it had audiences both jumping in their seats and out of their seats. Unfortunately the film has been endlessly compared with Pyscho. Not only do I not agree, but I don't see the similarity between the two. Homicidal is totally different both in structure and in storyline. And how does it "shamelessly steal from Pyscho?" Both films are as different as night and day. Don't get me wrong though, I'm also a Psycho lover! Thank God one national magazine had the guts to describe the film as being scarier than Psycho, placing it on their top 10 list for 1961. A well-deserved recognition; Castle must surely have been elated. I highly recommend Homicidal to anyone who has a taste for strange, bizarre films with a twist. I would also recommend that it be viewed late at night with the doors locked tight for full impact.

William Castle-directed shocker involves a murderous nurse and her 'husband' complicating an inheritance matter. Jean Arless has the flashy leading role, but in the end it's just a gimmick and she's not quite up to the stunt (to her credit, nobody in the cast comes out looking particularly good, as Castle's direction and Robb White's script are equally unsure). The film was photographed by the highly-adept Burnett Guffey, but only the outdoor scenes have a competent appearance; the interiors are over-lit, with heavy shadows, mundane art direction and design (with a staircase only Norman Bates might be happy to own). The film is full of amusingly square attempts at hysteria, but this script is over-complicated and the pacing dawdles. The plot doesn't bear close scrutiny--with a tag at the finish that seems like an apology. Still, you gotta love that "fright break"! ** from ****

William Castle claims that he had the idea for this film while he was sleeping. If so, I can only assume that he was dreaming about Alfred Hitchcock's masterpiece, 'Psycho' because the blatant homage to the earlier film is difficult to ignore. Castle injects all the same themes and many of the ideas from Psycho into this film, but luckily; the master of entertainment has enough ideas of his own to ensure that Homicidal isn't merely a rip-off. Besides, Castle himself had a small hand in the events leading up to the release of Hitchcock's low-budget thriller...so I guess he earned the right to homage. The film starts off with one of Castle's campy intro features, and we also get a 'Fright Break' towards the end; but on the whole, this film is slightly more serious than earlier films such as The Tingler and House on Haunted Hill. The film opens properly with a sequence that sees a beautiful blonde woman pay a hired hand at a hotel to marry her. One thing leads to another, and she quite shockingly ends up sticking the knife into the Justice of the Peace...the plot thickens with the introduction of the elderly Helga and an inheritance of $10 million. This film is never as good as Hitchcock's Psycho, but the master of entertainment always ensures that there's enough going on to ensure that it doesn't get boring. Much of the plot takes place in a dark, creepy house; which helps the director to implement a morbid and macabre atmosphere. One of the major faults with the film with regards to the scare factor comes from Castle's own showboating. The 'fright break' towards the end kills the shocking atmosphere that Castle has spent the rest of the film implementing, and as a result; the final macabre sequence is not nearly as effective as it could have been. The final twist is a clear derivative of Psycho, but it's actually quite well worked. The film introduced the talents of Joan Marshall (appearing here as Jean Arless) to the cinematic world, and her performance is what makes the film what it is. It's a shame that she never went on to make much of a splash after this film. I wouldn't hesitate to label Homicidal as one of William Castle's better efforts, as even though it's not quite what audiences have come to expect from the master of entertainment, and it's purely derivative; Homicidal is still a fine quality B-movie shocker.

William Castle's little fright flick was obviously rushed into production to cash in on the Psycho craze. However, it is surprising how well it stands on it's own. Indeed there are elements and moods that seem directly lifted from Hitchcock's masterpiece....hotel scenes, driving scenes and the full explenation of the story at the jail house. And while the film does not come close to the sheer artistry of Psycho it manages some good things all on its own. First and foremost, the structure of the script is very good keeping you out of the loop and in a state of confusion and always trying to guess what is going on. It's a nifty little storyline. Secondly, the performance by Jean Arliss is very good! Yes, her take on the Warren character is believable (though the actor dubbing the lines could have been better)but her performance as Emily is what really drives the piece. Her discomfort is very believable and she puts just enough glee in her evil side to give the film it's campy charm. An attractive, strong actress who should have had a more succesful career. The rest of the cast serves it's purpose in more generic roles. I did enjoy the character of Helga....a woman who happens to know more about what's going on right in front of her face but just can't tell anyone because of her inability to speak. Taken in the right vein, this film is very enjoyable. This is a good companion piece to the Roger Corman produced Dementia 13 (directed by Francis Coppola and also made to cash in on the success of Psycho)as low buget gems of that time.

This movie was frightening, but it was hokey. So, I was confused; why was it so scary when everything seemed so obvious? Well, the film plays on a lot of childhood fears, in ways that are not entirely obvious. Furthermore, it seems like some of the scary bits are just patched on. So, you come away puzzled, but still disturbed. The killer is a girl who was raised as a boy, because of the greed of adults she has no control over. The old woman in the chair is powerless, terrified and not taken seriously by anyone. So, she's covered in shame and fear, as well as guilt for the horrible deed she's done to this girl. Anyone can identify with that and this character does it enough to make your bones ache. The bit with the doll was confusing, until I realized the killer was just envious of the normal girls childhood. Oddly, she seems far less threatening playing the boy than she does playing a woman. Of course, she's always playing something; that's the tragedy. Still, as her own gender she is the most menacing; that's irony. Constantly throughout the film your pounded with this feeling of helplessness as the characters do things that bring them so much danger and it all seems so avoidable. So, there's a sense of guilt, in not preventing their doom and shame in not being able to. Finally, the ending seems timely for 1961, because many folks saw our society as too materialistic. The detective coldly sums it all up as a murder plot motivated by greed, when in reality, the character would have gladly paid for the "privilege" of murdering her victims, without any reward, other than revenge.

William Castle's 1950s camp classics 'The Tingler' and 'House On Haunted Hill' are lots of fun, and highly recommended to all horror fans with a strong sense of the absurd. I expected 'Homicidal' to be a similarly silly but entertaining affair, especially as it was also written by Robb White, but was quite surprised at just how dark and effective it was. Apart from Castle's typically hammy introduction, and the "fright break" towards the climax (a not too dissimilar idea to the one Gaspar Noe used several years ago in his shocking 'I Stand Alone'!), 'Homicidal' is nowhere near as gimmicky and tongue in cheek as most of Castle's best known movies. Maybe that is why it is rarely mentioned when his work is discussed. Too bad, to me it is one of his most interesting and effective shockers. While obviously inspired by 'Psycho', and made on a shoe-string budget with variable acting, I was quite impressed by it. The opening sequence is memorable - a beautiful blonde (Jean Arliss) checks in to a swanky hotel, and offers a shocked bellhop cash to marry her, assuring him that the marriage will be annulled immediately after the event. He is puzzled but agrees, and at the ceremony the next day the mysterious blonde quite unexpectedly murders the JP! We then follow her to a house where she looks after an elderly woman (Eugenie Leontovich) who is mute and confined to a wheelchair after a stroke. The old woman is obviously terrified of her, but is unable to convey this to any visitors to the house. Pretty soon we meet the other characters, and learn of a $10 million inheritance, and things start to get real interesting... I won't elaborate any further for fear of spoiling the plot. The major twist will no doubt be guessed by the viewer fairly quickly but there are still some surprises and shocks in store. Arliss (actually Joan Marshall) gives an intriguing performance. Why she didn't go on to bigger and better things after this is beyond me. I urge fans of Castle's better known movies to check out this little gem. I really enjoyed it and highly recommend it to all fans of b-grade thrillers and horror movies.

Homicidal (1961) ** (out of 4) Incredibly disappointing film from director William Castle is more or less a rip of Hitchcock's Psycho. A beautiful blonde (Joan Marshall) kills a man, which starts a lot of secrets to come out of the closet within a weird family. The big plot twist is easy to spot if you've seen the Hitchcock movie so I'm really not sure what Castle was trying here. On one hand, the film doesn't contain too many gimmicks unlike the director's most famous films. This is a problem because since the film's twists are all obvious, I think it would have helped had the director had fun with the crowd. The film plays mostly straight and it's incredibly dull after a pretty good opening twenty-minutes. The "coward break" towards the end wasn't needed in a film that plays itself straight up until that point. The performances are all incredibly dull and the screenplay is rather weak so there's really not too much here to work with. I thought the first murder was very well done and it actually caught me by surprise but nothing else came close to this moment.

William Castle "borrowed" rather liberally from Hitchcock's slightly earlier PSYCHO for this tale of a knife-wielding blonde beauty--but as usual, he gave it his famous showman's tacky spin. In theatrical release, the film featured a "fright break:" as the action approaches a climax, a clockface appears on the screen and Castle himself urges those too terrified to return to the lobby for a full refund. But there was, of course, a catch: you had to walk in yellow footsteps applied to the carpet past the jeering audience and agree to sit in "The Coward's Corner" until the movie was over and every one had filed out past you! Needless to say, few (if any) movie-goers ever took him up on it. But the famous "Fright Break" isn't the only thing HOMICIDAL has going for it. The story itself is more sophisticated than that of most William Castle films, and the female leads are quite effective. Jean Arless, a surprising beauty, is quite startling as "The Homicidal Girl"--a blonde bombshell who has a way with a knife--while both Patricia Breslin and Eugenie Leontovich are quite convincing as two of those on her list of intended victims. And lastly, the film offers a surprise conclusion that can still blindside some less suspecting viewers even today. That aside, HOMICIDAL has plenty of camp appeal, all of it resting on Jean Arless' WAY over the top performance as she entices, ices, and slices her way from one victim to the next--and as one reviewer has already remarked, you'll feel pretty sure that Annie Lennox borrowed Arless' look (and in some pretty unexpected ways, too) for several of her videos. I must admit that I don't consider HOMICIDAL in the same league with other William Castle schlock-favorites such as 13 GHOSTS, HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL, or STRAIT-JACKET--largely, I think, because it seems Castle really is making a bid for cinematic respectability here and that sorta detracts from the fun. But all the same, most fans of Castle's silly horror flicks should get a stab--I mean, a KICK--out of it! Gary F. Taylor, aka GFT, Amazon Reviewer