WEBVTT - Matinee Science Playlist, Part 7: ‘The Tingler’ 0:00:03.000 --> 0:00:04.840 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of 0:00:04.880 --> 0:00:13.640 I Heart Radios How Stuff Works. Hey, you, welcome to 0:00:13.680 --> 0:00:15.880 Stuff to Blow Your Mind. My name is Robert Lamb 0:00:16.000 --> 0:00:18.760 and I'm Joe McCormick. And in the grand tradition of 0:00:18.800 --> 0:00:22.800 the Dark Crystal Highlander to the Quickening two thousand one 0:00:22.800 --> 0:00:25.560 of Space Odyssey. Boy, do we have a movie episode 0:00:25.600 --> 0:00:28.960 for you today? That's right. We would previously wondered if 0:00:28.960 --> 0:00:31.319 we would get outside of the sixties, seventies, eighties, and 0:00:31.400 --> 0:00:34.680 nineties for a movie episode, and now we have because 0:00:34.720 --> 0:00:38.959 this episode takes us to nineteen fifty nine. Uh, this 0:00:39.040 --> 0:00:41.519 is a very nineteen fifties kind of movie in multiple 0:00:41.560 --> 0:00:44.120 ways as Uh. They will actually kind of connect with 0:00:44.159 --> 0:00:46.760 our series on Psychedelics, though I'm not sure if that's 0:00:46.800 --> 0:00:48.800 why we ended up doing this. So today we're gonna 0:00:48.800 --> 0:00:52.400 be talking about William Castle's The Tingler. How did we 0:00:52.479 --> 0:00:55.920 arrive at The Tingler? What was this? This was your idea, right, Robert? Well, yeah, 0:00:55.960 --> 0:00:58.840 like basically, we just did that big series on Psychedelics 0:00:59.240 --> 0:01:01.440 five episode and I was thinking, well, it's time to 0:01:01.440 --> 0:01:04.120 do a movie episode again. Well, let's let's do a 0:01:04.160 --> 0:01:06.840 psychedelic film. And so I was thinking, well, maybe we'll 0:01:06.880 --> 0:01:10.280 do something like Blue Sunshine from Night, which we're both 0:01:10.319 --> 0:01:14.080 partial to, or yes, one of the ugliest films, right 0:01:14.959 --> 0:01:17.360 that that does concern like LSD. Or I thought, well, 0:01:17.400 --> 0:01:19.800 you know, maybe a more of like a modern film 0:01:19.840 --> 0:01:22.720 like Beyond the Black Rainbow, which is another psychedelic film 0:01:22.720 --> 0:01:25.600 that I really like. But then I started poking around 0:01:25.600 --> 0:01:30.560 and I realized that the the earliest reference to LSD 0:01:30.720 --> 0:01:33.800 and a major motion picture is none other than nineteen 0:01:33.840 --> 0:01:37.000 fifty nine. Is The Tingler really the earliest? I didn't 0:01:37.040 --> 0:01:39.039 know that. Yeah, that's what I That's what I've read 0:01:39.160 --> 0:01:41.760 is that the references to LSD in this film mark 0:01:41.800 --> 0:01:43.720 that the first time that LSD was referenced in a 0:01:43.760 --> 0:01:45.920 major motion picture. I mean, it would make sense because, 0:01:45.959 --> 0:01:49.160 as we know from our research on psychedelics, uh, there 0:01:49.240 --> 0:01:53.560 was legitimate LSD based therapy or l s D assisted 0:01:53.600 --> 0:01:56.840 therapy going on in the nineteen fifties. There was LSD 0:01:56.960 --> 0:02:00.440 therapeutic research going on in the nineteen fifties. It was 0:02:00.520 --> 0:02:02.200 it was kind of all over the place. And actually 0:02:02.240 --> 0:02:06.160 in the nineteen fifties it wasn't as controversial yet as 0:02:06.200 --> 0:02:08.520 it would become later, right, And it was legal at 0:02:08.520 --> 0:02:11.280 this point too. Yeah, uh yeah, and so there probably 0:02:11.320 --> 0:02:12.880 would have been a lot of experience. In fact, I 0:02:12.880 --> 0:02:16.160 remember reading a few accounts about people in Hollywood specifically 0:02:16.200 --> 0:02:19.000 saying that they benefited from LST assisted therapy. They were 0:02:19.000 --> 0:02:22.800 like movie stars in the nineteen fifties who had therapists 0:02:22.800 --> 0:02:25.359 in Beverly Hills that gave him LST and had him 0:02:25.360 --> 0:02:27.360 a lie on the couch and talk through their problems, 0:02:27.800 --> 0:02:29.640 and they were like, Wow, this stuff is great. So 0:02:29.720 --> 0:02:31.640 it's kind of surprising it didn't end up in the 0:02:31.639 --> 0:02:35.480 movies earlier. Yeah, it really is. But it's not surprising 0:02:35.840 --> 0:02:37.760 to me anyway that it ends up in a horror 0:02:37.840 --> 0:02:41.840 film and essentially kind of a B picture, because because 0:02:41.919 --> 0:02:43.480 that's where you you see a lot of like the 0:02:43.520 --> 0:02:48.000 first strikes, the first references to some sort of new idea, 0:02:48.160 --> 0:02:51.160 new movement, new sometimes a new technology, or some sort 0:02:51.160 --> 0:02:55.080 of new societal, uh concept or fear. I think we 0:02:55.120 --> 0:02:58.440 should give you the listener a direct sense of the 0:02:58.520 --> 0:03:01.440 flavor of the tingle. So can we do a little 0:03:01.440 --> 0:03:08.119 audio sample here. I'm William Castle, and I feel obligated 0:03:08.160 --> 0:03:10.519 to warn you about the next attraction you will see 0:03:10.520 --> 0:03:14.320 at this theater. The picture is the Tingler, which I directed, 0:03:14.919 --> 0:03:18.040 and for the first time in motion picture history, members 0:03:18.080 --> 0:03:21.240 of the audience, including you, will actually play a part 0:03:21.280 --> 0:03:25.040 in the picture. You will feel some of the physical reactions, 0:03:25.320 --> 0:03:28.960 the shocking sensations experienced by the actors on the screen. 0:03:29.919 --> 0:03:32.720 I guarantee that The Tingler has more shocks per minute 0:03:33.080 --> 0:03:36.040 in my last film, The House on Haunted Hill. But 0:03:36.080 --> 0:03:39.960 don't be alarmed. You can protect yourself. When you see 0:03:39.960 --> 0:03:43.600 the picture, you will be told and remember the instruction 0:03:44.040 --> 0:03:47.320 how you can guard yourself from attack by the Tingler. 0:03:48.320 --> 0:03:50.160 And now may I show you a few scenes from 0:03:50.200 --> 0:04:00.640 The Tingler? All right? So that was that is uh, 0:04:00.680 --> 0:04:04.840 William Castle himself just selling you on this picture. It's 0:04:04.880 --> 0:04:07.880 such a weird trailer because it was just part of it. 0:04:07.920 --> 0:04:10.200 But it's just basically him in front of the camera saying, 0:04:10.200 --> 0:04:12.040 I've got a picture for you. He's got It's like 0:04:12.280 --> 0:04:14.320 he's not like a film director. He's like a guy 0:04:14.360 --> 0:04:17.120 with the Traveling Medicine Show. He's like, I must warn 0:04:17.160 --> 0:04:19.720 you that these tonics are so potent they have been 0:04:19.760 --> 0:04:22.720 outlawed in four counties for the amazing benefits it has. 0:04:23.040 --> 0:04:25.480 You know, like he's just selling it and selling it 0:04:26.000 --> 0:04:28.760 and uh, and and so William Castle, of course was 0:04:28.800 --> 0:04:30.800 a horror director. He directed movies like The House on 0:04:30.839 --> 0:04:33.880 Haunted Hill, which also has Vincent Price. I don't know, 0:04:34.320 --> 0:04:36.360 did the cliff reveal that this movie has Bencent Price? 0:04:36.440 --> 0:04:39.320 The Tingler features Vincent Price in the lead role. So 0:04:39.480 --> 0:04:43.080 you mentioned House on Haunted Hill, fifty nine, Tinkler and 0:04:43.120 --> 0:04:45.880 fifty nine, follow that up with Thirteen Ghosts in nineteen sixty, 0:04:46.320 --> 0:04:48.359 you know, just back to back. Uh. He would go 0:04:48.480 --> 0:04:50.400 he would, you know, produce a number of pictures like this. 0:04:50.480 --> 0:04:53.599 He would go on to produce Rosemary's Baby in Night 0:04:54.440 --> 0:04:59.160 so produced not yeah, of course. So where we enter 0:04:59.320 --> 0:05:02.160 the Tingler to oratory here though, is after the success 0:05:02.160 --> 0:05:05.680 of House on Haunted Hill, Columbia Pictures set Castle up 0:05:05.680 --> 0:05:08.440 with his own unit, and uh and this was his 0:05:08.520 --> 0:05:13.280 first project under that unit. Uh. He this this was 0:05:13.320 --> 0:05:15.120 mainly because you know, he had a reputation for delivering 0:05:15.160 --> 0:05:18.159 films on time, under budget, and he was famously a 0:05:18.200 --> 0:05:21.680 promotion king when it came to these films. Uh, and 0:05:21.880 --> 0:05:24.679 was all throughout his career. Was often you know, pulling 0:05:24.680 --> 0:05:27.840 out these different gimmicks, like not just selling you the 0:05:27.839 --> 0:05:30.400 theater experience in the shock of the film, But but 0:05:30.560 --> 0:05:33.800 something beyond, like some new technology that was going to 0:05:33.880 --> 0:05:36.480 make the film, uh, you know, all the more evocative. 0:05:36.600 --> 0:05:38.480 It was like for a time when people were bored 0:05:38.520 --> 0:05:41.080 with regular old movies, so they would try gimmicks of course, 0:05:41.120 --> 0:05:43.840 like three D right, three D glasses and all that. 0:05:43.880 --> 0:05:47.640 But but William Castle was sort of went in another direction. Yeah, 0:05:47.640 --> 0:05:50.560 he would beyond that. So howiseon Haunted On Haunted Hill 0:05:50.720 --> 0:05:54.480 was filmed in Immergo, which sounds fancy. It sounds like 0:05:54.560 --> 0:05:56.599 some sort of special filter that's used on the camera. 0:05:56.680 --> 0:06:01.000 Does Amergo have an exclamation point after? I don't think 0:06:01.040 --> 0:06:04.120 it did, but it was kind of implied. But basically 0:06:04.160 --> 0:06:07.120 this boiled down to a red eyed skeleton prop would 0:06:07.120 --> 0:06:10.280 float over the theater on wires during a key scene 0:06:10.279 --> 0:06:15.560 in the picture. Thirteen Ghosts was filmed in illusion oh, 0:06:15.640 --> 0:06:18.159 which meant audience This is actually a little more complicated. 0:06:18.200 --> 0:06:21.559 Audience members were given red blue screens to either see 0:06:21.800 --> 0:06:24.680 or hide the ghosts that appear in the movie. Oh 0:06:24.760 --> 0:06:26.760 I see. So yeah, there'd be like a like a 0:06:26.800 --> 0:06:29.280 color polarized kind of image on the screen, and so 0:06:29.360 --> 0:06:31.960 you could hold up the screens to either see or 0:06:32.000 --> 0:06:34.920 not see the ghost on the picture, and that's rather 0:06:35.000 --> 0:06:38.320 clever apparently like recent Blu Ray releases of the film 0:06:38.520 --> 0:06:41.719 like coming with a little gadget that that replicates this effect. Yeah, 0:06:41.760 --> 0:06:47.520 that's kind of fun. Homicidal from featured a fright break 0:06:47.760 --> 0:06:49.640 during which you you know, you could you have this 0:06:49.680 --> 0:06:51.799 break to catch your breath and decide if you wanted 0:06:51.839 --> 0:06:55.599 to stay and see then in the finale or leave 0:06:55.640 --> 0:06:57.760 and get a full refund. So you know, it's one 0:06:57.800 --> 0:07:00.040 of those you see this a lot with promotions of 0:07:00.120 --> 0:07:02.640 these pictures, like they're so confident, uh in its the 0:07:02.680 --> 0:07:05.960 ability to deliver that you you were offered a full refund. 0:07:06.720 --> 0:07:11.120 And then there was also Mr Sardonicus from nine and 0:07:11.160 --> 0:07:13.480 in this the audience got to vote with glow in 0:07:13.520 --> 0:07:17.000 the dark cards on the fate of the villain. And 0:07:17.040 --> 0:07:19.920 this one's interesting because it was it was almost certainly 0:07:19.920 --> 0:07:23.520 gimmicked because you had two endings. You had the mercy 0:07:23.680 --> 0:07:26.520 ending for the villain and then the the ending where 0:07:26.520 --> 0:07:29.440 the villain got his come up, and and there are 0:07:29.440 --> 0:07:32.320 allegations that they never even shot the mercy endings, like 0:07:32.360 --> 0:07:35.040 nobody was going to vote for it, so you know, 0:07:35.320 --> 0:07:36.920 you didn't really have the choice. It was just the 0:07:36.960 --> 0:07:39.640 illusion of the choice which audience is going to be like, 0:07:39.720 --> 0:07:43.880 I don't want the villain to be punished. Yeah. Castle 0:07:43.920 --> 0:07:46.960 claimed that he shot it, but but some disagree. And 0:07:46.960 --> 0:07:49.640 then there were various other promotional gimmicks and claims over 0:07:49.680 --> 0:07:52.320 the years, but The Tingler is ultimately, I think the 0:07:52.320 --> 0:07:55.520 most famous of these because it was filmed in percepto 0:07:55.960 --> 0:07:59.240 percepto that's so good. From what I understand. That means 0:07:59.240 --> 0:08:02.640 more like, there were some appliances installed in seats in 0:08:02.680 --> 0:08:05.560 the movie theater which would which would mess with members 0:08:05.560 --> 0:08:09.920 of the audience. Yeah. Basically, Castle purchased military surplus airplane 0:08:09.960 --> 0:08:14.120 wing de iceres, which are essentially vibration devices and motors. 0:08:14.200 --> 0:08:16.960 Yeah uh, and put these up under some of the 0:08:17.080 --> 0:08:20.080 chairs in theaters showing the picture, and they went off 0:08:20.560 --> 0:08:23.480 at a key moment in the film during which the Tingler, 0:08:23.480 --> 0:08:25.880 the monster will describe in a bit, is on the 0:08:25.960 --> 0:08:29.800 loose in a theater in the film, and Vincent Price's 0:08:29.880 --> 0:08:33.640 character tells the audience to scream, scream for your lives. Uh. 0:08:33.720 --> 0:08:37.160 And then also Castle planted human screamers and key locations 0:08:37.200 --> 0:08:40.400 as well. Yeah uh. And so this is funny because 0:08:40.400 --> 0:08:42.960 this has been replicated in other films like the movie 0:08:43.000 --> 0:08:46.520 Gremlins too from what was that nineteen nine or so 0:08:46.679 --> 0:08:48.920 or the into the eighties whenever it is. That's a 0:08:49.040 --> 0:08:51.520 fantastic movie, by the way, one of the best of 0:08:51.559 --> 0:08:54.920 eighties motion pictures. Um. You know, one of my favorites, 0:08:55.160 --> 0:08:57.680 John Carpenters in the Mouth of Madness ends in a 0:08:57.720 --> 0:09:00.680 movie theater. Oh yeah, yeah, And so I think some 0:09:00.800 --> 0:09:03.280 of them are taking after this William Castle kind of thing, 0:09:03.280 --> 0:09:05.680 where like there's a scene in a movie theater and 0:09:05.760 --> 0:09:08.199 the movie kind of breaks the fourth wall to like 0:09:08.200 --> 0:09:10.520 wink at the audience and be like, just imagine you're 0:09:10.520 --> 0:09:13.559 in this movie theater. Yeah. I was actually lucky enough 0:09:13.600 --> 0:09:16.040 to see the thing there for the first time a 0:09:16.080 --> 0:09:18.760 couple of years ago at the Plaza Theater here in Atlanta, 0:09:19.000 --> 0:09:22.640 where it was riffed live by Trace Bolieu and Frank 0:09:22.679 --> 0:09:26.360 Conniff from Mr Sennen's Theater. Okay, they were there in 0:09:26.440 --> 0:09:28.480 person to to riff it, and there were no d 0:09:28.600 --> 0:09:31.439 ier is installed under the seats, but the screaming part 0:09:31.480 --> 0:09:32.840 of the film was still a lot of fun. Like 0:09:32.840 --> 0:09:35.280 everybody in the audience really got into it and screamed 0:09:35.280 --> 0:09:37.880 for their lives, right. They actually encouraged the audience to 0:09:37.880 --> 0:09:40.520 scream because they suggest that the monster from the film 0:09:40.520 --> 0:09:43.240 has become real and is out in the theater with you. Yes, 0:09:43.400 --> 0:09:44.800 I can imagine that was a lot of fun with 0:09:44.880 --> 0:09:47.800 Dr Forrester and TV's Frank on Hand. Oh absolutely, all right, 0:09:47.840 --> 0:09:50.480 So that's basically Castle in a nutshell. I don't know 0:09:50.480 --> 0:09:52.600 how much we really have to say about Vincent Price, 0:09:52.640 --> 0:09:55.600 because I mean, he's Vincent Brice. He was a legend, 0:09:55.679 --> 0:09:59.160 Hollywood legend. Acted more than a hundred films, everything from 0:09:59.200 --> 0:10:01.679 like the Tin Conn Endments in nineteen fifty six to 0:10:01.760 --> 0:10:04.880 a string of wonderful Led Girl and po adaptations. He 0:10:04.960 --> 0:10:08.920 was in The Fly, The Abominable Doctor fivees uh Ultiate, 0:10:09.080 --> 0:10:12.840 later on, towards the end of his career, Edward Scissor Hands. So, 0:10:12.960 --> 0:10:15.040 I mean he's and then he was in He was 0:10:15.040 --> 0:10:18.520 on Batman, he was on The Muppet Show. He was 0:10:18.559 --> 0:10:22.080 a cooking enthusiast and author, a supporter of commendable social 0:10:22.120 --> 0:10:24.160 issues and campaigns. I mean, he's one of those rare 0:10:24.480 --> 0:10:27.600 old Hollywood stars that the more you learn about him, 0:10:27.920 --> 0:10:29.280 I feel like, you know, the more you look up 0:10:29.280 --> 0:10:30.760 to him, the more you respected, the more you can 0:10:30.760 --> 0:10:33.840 even relate to him the rare case where you there's 0:10:33.840 --> 0:10:36.319 a famous person who doesn't turn out to be more 0:10:36.360 --> 0:10:39.800 and more of a sleeves bag the more you like. Yeah. 0:10:39.960 --> 0:10:42.760 And then there's a finally of note here there's the 0:10:42.800 --> 0:10:45.800 screenwriter of The Tingler, which it's easy to overlook with 0:10:45.840 --> 0:10:48.280 films like this, that yes, somebody wrote this, there was 0:10:48.320 --> 0:10:51.040 a screenwriter, and the screenwriter someone of note because it's 0:10:51.240 --> 0:10:54.440 it was Rob White, who lived nineteen o nine through 0:10:54.520 --> 0:10:58.080 nineteen ninety, and he was a prolific writer. That's probably 0:10:58.080 --> 0:11:00.520 best remembered as the author of the nineteen seventy two 0:11:00.600 --> 0:11:04.280 novel death Watch, which has been adapted twice, once with 0:11:04.360 --> 0:11:07.679 Andy Griffith and Sam Bottoms and a second time with 0:11:07.720 --> 0:11:12.640 Michael Douglas and Jeremy Irvine. White had previously worked with 0:11:12.720 --> 0:11:15.720 Castle on House on a Hunted Hill, uh, and he 0:11:15.800 --> 0:11:19.320 was impressed, apparently by a creepy white worm prop on 0:11:19.360 --> 0:11:22.800 the set. But he was also inspired to make the 0:11:22.840 --> 0:11:25.640 mad science angle in the story a little more cutting 0:11:25.760 --> 0:11:30.800 edge by bringing in LSD. So Turner. Classic Movies insider 0:11:30.840 --> 0:11:35.920 Info shares a quote from an interview that authored Tom 0:11:35.960 --> 0:11:39.000 Weaver had with White. Tom Weavers great by the way. 0:11:39.040 --> 0:11:41.320 He does some really good commentaries on some of the 0:11:41.600 --> 0:11:45.720 Universal Monster. Yeah, he's the author of this particular book. 0:11:45.760 --> 0:11:48.280 It's from his apparently Return of the b Science Fiction 0:11:48.320 --> 0:11:51.679 and Horror Heroes. And this is White's White speaking here. Quote. 0:11:51.679 --> 0:11:54.360 I wanted something different from the typical shot or pill 0:11:54.440 --> 0:11:57.920 that you see in movie trips. Algis Huxley told me 0:11:58.000 --> 0:11:59.760 about a doctor at U C. L A who was 0:11:59.800 --> 0:12:03.680 run in an experiment on online sergic acid LSD. So 0:12:03.760 --> 0:12:06.160 I went up there to see this man, Dr Cohen, 0:12:06.440 --> 0:12:08.720 and he gave me some of it. He took me 0:12:08.760 --> 0:12:11.640 into a nice little room with a cod in a radio, 0:12:11.880 --> 0:12:14.040 and he got something out of his refrigerator and gave 0:12:14.040 --> 0:12:16.720 me a shot. It was all legal. Then I watched 0:12:16.760 --> 0:12:19.160 the grain in the wood writhing around and listened to 0:12:19.160 --> 0:12:21.600 the music. It was very pleasant, although I did never 0:12:21.640 --> 0:12:23.720 want to do it again. This is funny that he 0:12:23.760 --> 0:12:26.800 describes it as pleasant because it is specifically deployed in 0:12:26.840 --> 0:12:30.560 the movie as part of the like acid exploitation kind 0:12:30.600 --> 0:12:33.760 of vibe where it like gives you nightmares and drives 0:12:33.800 --> 0:12:37.600 you insane. Right now, Huxley, you might remember from our 0:12:37.600 --> 0:12:41.040 psychedelic episodes. Not only wrote Brave New World. But he 0:12:41.120 --> 0:12:44.719 wrote the highly influential book The Doors of Perception ur 0:12:44.800 --> 0:12:48.360 which explores the psychedelic experience. Yeah, and Huxley had a 0:12:48.400 --> 0:12:53.280 correspondence with Humphrey Osmond, who was an important nineteen fifties 0:12:53.480 --> 0:12:57.040 psychedelic researcher, and they it was from their correspondence I 0:12:57.080 --> 0:13:01.360 believe that the term psychedelic came. Yeah. And then oh, 0:13:01.480 --> 0:13:02.960 by the way that I think we may have touched 0:13:02.960 --> 0:13:04.840 on this in past episodes of Stuff to Blow Your Mind. 0:13:04.840 --> 0:13:09.120 But Huxley experienced a fantasia. He couldn't form, you know, 0:13:09.160 --> 0:13:12.280 mental images in his mind except when he had large 0:13:12.360 --> 0:13:17.240 quantities of mescaline. That's interesting. So, uh so White had 0:13:17.240 --> 0:13:20.040 this experience worked it into the plot, and we'll discuss 0:13:20.040 --> 0:13:22.880 how he does that later. But then apparently White related 0:13:22.960 --> 0:13:25.959 his experiences to Vincent Price, hoping that it would convince 0:13:25.960 --> 0:13:29.640 Price to give a more convincing performance in the film, 0:13:30.040 --> 0:13:32.199 you know, specifically in the scene where he's supposed to 0:13:32.200 --> 0:13:35.400 be on LSD. But then Price allegedly just disregarded the 0:13:35.440 --> 0:13:38.040 suggestion and did it like the typical like Vincent Price 0:13:38.080 --> 0:13:40.360 freak out the scene. Oh yeah, he's got the wide 0:13:40.360 --> 0:13:43.760 open mouth and the ohh he's I think he's supposed 0:13:43.800 --> 0:13:46.760 to be hallucinating that the walls are closing in on him. 0:13:46.800 --> 0:13:50.400 But the scene is hilarious because he's trying to prevent 0:13:50.440 --> 0:13:52.679 the walls from closing in on him by running back 0:13:52.720 --> 0:13:55.080 and forth between the walls, and it's like a thirty 0:13:55.120 --> 0:13:58.520 foot wide room. So he runs and pushes on a wall, 0:13:58.800 --> 0:14:01.000 then runs all the way to the other side, moaning 0:14:01.040 --> 0:14:04.920 and pushes on that wall. Uh. I don't want to. 0:14:05.000 --> 0:14:07.839 I don't want to, you know, blame Price in any 0:14:07.920 --> 0:14:09.800 of this, because I mean, he still gives a really 0:14:09.800 --> 0:14:12.840 solid performance. Was ultimately like the glube holding the whole 0:14:12.840 --> 0:14:15.880 thing together. His charisma carries the film. I mean, one 0:14:15.920 --> 0:14:18.560 thing I will say about this movie is I was 0:14:18.679 --> 0:14:22.240 surprised how engaging it was. We watched it just last night. 0:14:22.520 --> 0:14:24.520 I don't know how I've made it this far without 0:14:24.520 --> 0:14:27.320 seeing The Tanler before, especially because I love, you know, 0:14:27.520 --> 0:14:31.320 nineteen fifties horror movies, and and and I how did 0:14:31.360 --> 0:14:34.440 it happen? I think for some reason I had maybe 0:14:34.520 --> 0:14:37.720 been told or I just assumed somehow that it was 0:14:37.840 --> 0:14:41.560 one of those really dull, dry nineteen fifties sci fi 0:14:41.600 --> 0:14:43.640 horror movies and you know, there are a number of those. 0:14:43.680 --> 0:14:46.760 There are a lot of fifties horror movies I like 0:14:46.880 --> 0:14:50.080 that maybe have a great, funny looking monster, great set 0:14:50.160 --> 0:14:52.560 or prop or something, but a lot of the characters 0:14:52.600 --> 0:14:56.440 and the dialogue are just infinitely stiff, you know, kind 0:14:56.480 --> 0:15:01.920 of like gray neutral things receding into infinity, and so 0:15:02.040 --> 0:15:04.360 it just happened sometimes I assume this was one of those. 0:15:04.680 --> 0:15:08.640 Not the case at all. This movie is like highly engaging, 0:15:08.880 --> 0:15:13.760 really funny camp and I couldn't stop. I couldn't stop watching. Yeah, 0:15:13.800 --> 0:15:16.200 I think it's it's easy to overlook it from our 0:15:16.240 --> 0:15:20.160 standpoint looking back through cinematic history, because on one hand, 0:15:20.240 --> 0:15:21.560 if you if you see just a line of a 0:15:21.600 --> 0:15:24.160 different movie Monsters, the Tingler is not going to be 0:15:24.200 --> 0:15:27.560 as captivating as you know, certainly like Universal Monsters, but 0:15:27.600 --> 0:15:31.120 even other things like the crawling brain creatures and Fiend 0:15:31.120 --> 0:15:34.280 without a Face that sort of thing. Uh, and yeah, 0:15:34.320 --> 0:15:36.360 it can easily be lost in the shuffle. It also 0:15:36.440 --> 0:15:39.360 doesn't help that the trailer for it is just William 0:15:39.400 --> 0:15:41.240 Castle telling you how scary it's going to be, and 0:15:41.520 --> 0:15:43.680 like shots of people screaming. Yeah, but it is a 0:15:43.720 --> 0:15:46.160 really fun movie, I think because a lot of it 0:15:46.200 --> 0:15:50.160 I think has to do with the charisma of Vincent Price, 0:15:50.240 --> 0:15:52.360 and like the weirdness of the premise. A lot of 0:15:52.400 --> 0:15:55.320 it also just has to do with the zany nous 0:15:55.360 --> 0:15:58.400 of the plot. Yeah, it has a zany plot and 0:15:58.400 --> 0:16:01.080 and really just a weird premise. We're gonna get into 0:16:01.080 --> 0:16:04.640 this and and ultimately draw some some science out of it, 0:16:05.000 --> 0:16:08.560 but yeah, this is a weird plot. And even if 0:16:08.560 --> 0:16:11.520 White's LSD experiences didn't have a huge influence on Vincent 0:16:11.520 --> 0:16:14.480 Price's performance, and ultimately they don't even factor into the 0:16:14.520 --> 0:16:18.800 plot all that deeply, I still wonder, if you know, 0:16:19.200 --> 0:16:21.480 if what we're looking at here some of the weirder 0:16:21.520 --> 0:16:24.200 aspects of it might have something to do with the 0:16:24.240 --> 0:16:27.600 psychedelic experience. I think it is a more engaging film 0:16:27.680 --> 0:16:30.760 because it was written by somebody who had an LSD experience. 0:16:30.800 --> 0:16:33.600 I'll go I'll go that far and make that assumption. 0:16:33.800 --> 0:16:36.680 So maybe we should just describe what happens in the movie. Warning, 0:16:36.720 --> 0:16:40.160 we're gonna have some spoilers for this movie from If 0:16:40.160 --> 0:16:43.000 you want to watch it fresh, pause the podcast. Now 0:16:43.240 --> 0:16:46.080 go see it. It's available you know, for rent at 0:16:46.120 --> 0:16:52.200 all major online movie rental websites, alright, so the plot 0:16:52.200 --> 0:16:53.400 of the film is kind of a mess, but here's 0:16:53.400 --> 0:16:57.280 how it goes. The crazy central nugget upon which everything 0:16:57.400 --> 0:17:01.640 is based is that Dr Warren che Happen. That's prices character. 0:17:01.720 --> 0:17:04.400 I think they say Chapenha've been a couple of years 0:17:04.440 --> 0:17:07.399 and I've seen it. So Dr Chapin, he's a pathologist 0:17:07.640 --> 0:17:11.920 who makes a game changing discovery about human physiology, something 0:17:11.960 --> 0:17:17.560 that scientist healers shamans uh you know, body hacking warriors 0:17:18.080 --> 0:17:22.959 uh failed to discover throughout our species entire history. And 0:17:23.000 --> 0:17:26.680 this is it. We all have a centipede like paraside 0:17:26.800 --> 0:17:30.679 a k a. A tingler affixed to our spine and 0:17:30.760 --> 0:17:34.720 it curls up and feeds whenever we exhibit fear, and 0:17:34.760 --> 0:17:38.920 if it keeps feeding, it kills us by constructing constricting 0:17:38.920 --> 0:17:42.240 our spinal cord. But we have a way to cope 0:17:42.240 --> 0:17:46.520 with it. Screaming weakens the creature and stops its strangulation 0:17:46.680 --> 0:17:49.080 on the human spine. So you can tell this was 0:17:49.160 --> 0:17:51.480 kind of I think written around the idea, or I 0:17:51.520 --> 0:17:53.320 don't know, maybe maybe it was adapted to what was 0:17:53.359 --> 0:17:56.119 already in the script, the idea of getting people to scream, 0:17:56.200 --> 0:17:58.199 as like a gimmick in the theater. So they're like 0:17:58.240 --> 0:18:01.040 parts of the movie that just have people screaming. It's 0:18:01.080 --> 0:18:03.760 like divorced from the plot. It's just faces on the 0:18:03.800 --> 0:18:09.920 screen screaming into the camera with really ragged, real sounding screams. 0:18:10.200 --> 0:18:12.560 This kind of shocking because usually the screams you hear 0:18:12.600 --> 0:18:15.280 in a movie feel a little bit smoothed over. They're 0:18:15.280 --> 0:18:18.720 a little bit sanitary as far as screams go. Yeah, 0:18:18.720 --> 0:18:22.040 but these are these feel unsettling for sure. Yeah, totally. 0:18:22.400 --> 0:18:26.960 And so this premise is amazing so Vincent Price. It 0:18:27.040 --> 0:18:31.320 starts off with him as a guy who does autopsies. 0:18:31.800 --> 0:18:36.600 He's like doing autopsies on executed condemned prisoners who were 0:18:36.720 --> 0:18:40.120 murderers and stuff, and he keeps getting this idea, why 0:18:40.160 --> 0:18:44.520 do I find the spinal column cracked and destroyed? You know, 0:18:44.600 --> 0:18:47.439 and these people who died of fright. There's actually a 0:18:47.480 --> 0:18:50.520 great part where he's he says something like, I've thought 0:18:50.600 --> 0:18:54.120 about not for two years, but the spinal cracking due 0:18:54.119 --> 0:18:58.680 to fear. So yeah, you just kind of have to imagine, 0:18:58.720 --> 0:19:01.600 like all of his conversation ends of his family and friends, 0:19:01.640 --> 0:19:04.520 it all comes back to the spinal column breaking due 0:19:04.560 --> 0:19:07.160 to fear and yeah, and so he makes this discovery 0:19:07.200 --> 0:19:09.680 that it's it's a Tingler. It's a parasitic organism that 0:19:10.000 --> 0:19:13.120 not just these individuals have, but that everybody has. Right, 0:19:13.160 --> 0:19:16.040 everybody's got a Tingler. And and I'm it's been a 0:19:16.040 --> 0:19:19.000 while since I've I've seen it. But as I recall, like, 0:19:19.080 --> 0:19:22.760 he uses LSD to try and invoke an intense enough 0:19:22.880 --> 0:19:26.200 experience of fear in himself to better study the Tinglers. 0:19:26.200 --> 0:19:29.399 That right, Yeah, So he's trying to to document the 0:19:29.400 --> 0:19:32.000 Tingler I think by taking X rays of people's spines 0:19:32.160 --> 0:19:36.360 right after they're mortified and uh. And so he wants 0:19:36.400 --> 0:19:40.040 to do it to himself, but he laments the fact 0:19:40.119 --> 0:19:44.040 that nothing scares him. It's like, you know, when I 0:19:44.080 --> 0:19:46.880 was a child, I could have been afraid, but now 0:19:46.920 --> 0:19:49.600 I'm just grown up and nothing, nothing really scares me 0:19:49.680 --> 0:19:52.240 like that. So he gets the bright idea to inject 0:19:52.320 --> 0:19:56.159 himself with LSD and this will they explain helpfully in 0:19:56.160 --> 0:19:59.159 the film that this will induce nightmares like nothing else. 0:19:59.680 --> 0:20:01.719 And so he does it, and the walls start closing 0:20:01.720 --> 0:20:03.800 in and he starts looking at a prop skeleton and 0:20:03.920 --> 0:20:07.520 his laboratory and this causes him to have such terror 0:20:07.560 --> 0:20:09.720 that I guess the tingler comes out of him. But 0:20:09.760 --> 0:20:12.679 the problem is, I think what he's try that's right, 0:20:12.800 --> 0:20:15.600 it activates, right, it activates, which means it like puffs 0:20:15.640 --> 0:20:17.639 up like a balloon on your spine and you can 0:20:17.680 --> 0:20:20.080 see it in X rays when you wouldn't normally be 0:20:20.160 --> 0:20:22.359 able to see it. Uh. And so the thing that 0:20:22.400 --> 0:20:24.720 he's trying to do, I think is get the tingler 0:20:24.760 --> 0:20:26.679 to puff up and then see what happens if he 0:20:26.800 --> 0:20:30.320 doesn't scream. But he's not able to do it. He's 0:20:30.359 --> 0:20:33.239 so overcome with fear that he has to scream. And 0:20:33.320 --> 0:20:36.440 from this, I think he concludes that it is impossible 0:20:36.800 --> 0:20:39.919 to avoid screaming if the tingler swells up to a 0:20:39.960 --> 0:20:43.560 significant size, And like, screaming is a natural response that 0:20:43.600 --> 0:20:47.760 you can't avoid unless, say, you are incapable of screaming. Ah. 0:20:47.760 --> 0:20:49.959 And that's where we get to our next plot element, 0:20:50.560 --> 0:20:54.679 because meanwhile, theater owner Oliver Higgins has a terrible relationship 0:20:54.680 --> 0:20:58.960 with his wife Martha. Oliver also owns a theater. This 0:20:59.040 --> 0:21:01.840 is the theater that is used later. And I believe 0:21:01.880 --> 0:21:04.760 they just do they just show silent films, that's right, Yeah, yeah, 0:21:05.080 --> 0:21:07.919 they don't. They only do the old movies and the like. 0:21:08.040 --> 0:21:10.600 At one point, there's a there's a long scene towards 0:21:10.600 --> 0:21:13.119