Customer Reviews

Step Right Up!: I'm Gonna Scare the Pants off America

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I found this book to be one of the best autobiographies I have ever read. William Castle made every bit of his life a thorough joy to read.. It was a book that I could not put down. I took it everywhere, just to see what crazy gimmick he would come up with next. A must read. I don't want to give you any details because it would just spoil the book. This book and the two below give a true sense of what it was like to make "quality" B-movies in the 50's and 60's

Check out - Roger Corman's: How I Made A Hundred Movies In Hollywood and Never Lost A Dime. and Samuel Z. Arkoff's: Flying Through Hollywood By The Seat of My Pants.

For any 1950s - 1960s horror fan, this cult classic filmmaker writes about his experiences within the crazy & zany Hollywood system of the past in the most entertaining fashion of storytelling. Wonderful tales about how Castle created some of his horror film gimmicks & publicity stunts, to his producing experiences with Roman Polanski on 'Rosemary's Baby.' It is an honest auto-biography in which boths side of Castle are revealed (from the Hollywood filmmaker to the family man he was). If you find this book, get it! It is a collector's item!!!!

Autobiography of William Castle originally published in 1976. In it he gives a quick overview of his childhood, his experience in stage and his pictures--in particular the gimmicks he used. It is fun finding out how he came up with the gimmicks like "Emergo" or "Percepto" and sold them--but that's about all he talks about. There' s plenty of info on how he dealt with the tyrannical head of Columbia studios Harry Cohn but next to nothing on how he cast the movies, how the actors were, how he liked directing. He only gets into detail about working with Roman Polanski on "Rosemary's Bbay", Joan Crawford doing "Straight-Jacket" and Marcel Marceau doing "Shanks" but nothing about Vincent Price, Barbara Stanwyck, Robert Taylor and any of the other actors he directed. So while I did enjoy the book (it's quick and fun to read) I wanted more info on the actors he worked with and the stories. This book has precious little of both. Still it comes from him and this is probably all we'll ever know about Castle. So it's VERY good but just a little lacking.

What fun. Smooth transaction, and now the recipient in Iceland--a HUGE William Castle fan--is loving the book. I was grateful to receive it right away so I could deliver it myself in time for the holidays.

This was a great book. It's perfect for anyone who loves movies. William H. Castle was a genious. By the way, this is JOHN WATERS' favorite book.