William Castle at Film Forum

In the 1950s, with television wolfing its share of the entertainment market, Hollywood tried any number of stunts to get people into the theaters. The master of those stunts --- actually, King of the Gimmicks, as he was known --- was William Castle, who married cheesy scripts and low budgets to sideshow antics in a string of films that constitute an enjoyable little slice of the golden age of B-movies. Film Forum is currently highlighting this consummately American director with a 15-film retrospective, complete with all of Castle's effects: 3-D, buzzers under the seats, punishment polls, life insurance policies for audience members, and skeletons that fly through the theater.

Few of these movies are any good, and we'd wager that they'd be downright hard to sit through at home. But they are great fun to see in the theater, where their earnest attempts to amuse combine with their campy pleasures to ensure a lively and appreciative crowd. (The audience at House on Haunted Hill met the zipline skeleton with boisterous cheers.) They also bear watching to see how much they've filtered down to our own times --- Tim Burton and Stephen King blew their allowance on these movies, after all. And if you get scared, the Coward's Corner is set up in the lobby.

Photo: thanks