How Basie blended into the popular culture of the day is underscored throughout Keys’ film. He’s seen onstage with legendary singers Billie Holiday (“God Bless the Child”) and Billy Eckstine (“Stormy Monday”) and his music is featured in Jerry Lewis vehicles of the early '60s such as Cinderfella (“Cute”) and The Errand Boy (“Blues in Hoss’ Flat”), with the slapstick comedian conducting pantomimes to the Count’s tunes.
Living A Scream Dream
Castle, a B-movie director and producer during the '50s and '60s, gets the tribute treatment, in separate interviews, from family members, former associates and present-day directors who explain why his shlock stock continues to rise.
Described as a “poor-man’s Alfred Hitchcock,” Castle learned showbiz from the ground up, taking his first movie job as Bela Lugosi's assistant on the set of Dracula. As he moved up the ladder, Castle learned how to manipulate the press, then the public, in promoting his movies. “He enjoyed promoting them as much as he enjoyed making them,” said his daughter Terry. Several of his delightful film promos are included, and he’s heard in voiceover narration discussing episodes of his career.
Castle worked with Orson Welles (The Lady from Shanghai) in 1947, whose advice to his friend was “to make sure your name is all over” any future projects.
Those projects turned out to be “B” horror flicks that came with gimmicks providing cheap thrills and chills: House on Haunted Hill in 1959 had “Emergo,” where ghosts and skeletons emerged from the screen to hover over audiences, guided by a flimsy wire; also made in ’59, The Tingler, starring Vincent Price and called by John Waters “the best movie ever made” (surely, he jests), used “Percepto,” basically a buzzer that was planted in theater seats to shock the living daylights out of frightened filmgoers; then there was 13 Ghosts in 1960, which utilized “Illusiono,” effects from 3D-type cardboard glasses called “Ghost Viewers” that allowed anyone to see the spooky spirits on screen or make them disappear.
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