Friday, February 3, 2012

LET'S KILL UNCLE / William Castle Productions - 1966

Welcome to Friday Night Drive-In with Tabonga, here at The Dungeon!.. William Castle gets plain weird in the sixties, this, SHANKS and PROJECT X are good examples of that weirdness. Based on a novel by Rohan O'Grady, the story's about a 12-year-old boy who has just inherited his father's fortune and is trapped on an island with his famous uncle, a former British intelligence commander who intends to kill him in order to get his hands on the inheritance himself...

William Castle gives himself a choice cameo as the accident victim at the beginning of the movie, the dead millionaire industrialist, Russell Harrison.

The music is by the great Herman Stein, who had 101 composing credits that includes film titles like SON OF ALI BABA, CITY BENEATH THE SEA, ABBOTT AND COSTELLO GO TO MARS, IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE, CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON, THIS ISLAND EARTH, TARANTULA, THE MOLE PEOPLE, THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN, THE LAND UNKNOWN and THE MONOLITH MONSTERS!

Lettuce bring in our littlest Dungeon helper and Friday Night button pusher, Rufus The Gnat!.. Howdy dort, Rufus! Let's get the ball rolling, so, push the big red 'GO' button, now, Rufus! Here's our Eariffic Soundclip for... LET'S KILL UNCLE, BEFORE UNCLE KILLS US!

From left to right... Pat Cardi as heir Barnaby Harrison, Robert Pickering as Sgt. Frank Travis, Mary Badham as Chrissie and the familiar Nestor Paiva as the ship's steward. They're on the way to the island.

Linda Lawson plays Justine, here, she tries to explain boys to Chrissie.

Bill would be remiss if he didn't add one of his extra strange characters to a production, this time it's Ref Sanchez as the creepy dude on a creeper, Ketchman! Ref also played Igor in EVERY THING YOU ALWAYS WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT SEX * BUT WERE AFRAID TO ASK.

We like showing book covers, here at The Dungeon.

Chrissie and Barnaby go exploring the island. Mary was in TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD and a classic episode of TWILIGHT ZONE. Pat went on to be in BATTLE FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES and HORROR HIGH.

Well, if it isn't one hole, it's another!

I chose this still because I'm super alergic to bananas.

Chrissie runs out the door and falls directly into that mucked up pool, which is infested by sharks!! This mismatch of reality and images is like having someone spin you around and then sucker punch you right in the nose.

Ketchman is mysteriously there to help pull her out of the pool, just before a shark sinks it's teeth in!

Uncle finally joins the fun, flying in with his plane. Sadly, Nigel Green died at age 47 in 1972 from an overdose of sleeping pills. Go figure.

Anyway, before long, the real fun begins!

Uncle pretends to be poisoned, just for fun!

He also has a fun assortment of deadly weapons in his cabinet!

Ralphie The Tarantula even shows up for a fun little role as the spider!

This is how you milk an airplane!

And, we all know what happens when you run out of milk!

Got blood?!..

Uncle is also a master hypnotist and commands Barnaby to do some pretty weird things.

You'll have to see for yourself how it all ends, got this nice print off TCM!

6 comments:

Debbie D said...

I haven't seen this Castle flick.

Thanks!

Prof. Grewbeard said...

me neither!

Pat Cardi said...

Thanks for the article. I had a great time working with Castle, Mary Badham, and Nigel Green. This is probably my favorite project. Cool screen shots thanks! - Pat Cardi (cardifilm@yahoo.com) also on Facebook.

Eegah!! and Tabonga! said...

Pat, it's an honor for us to have you check in at The Dungeon! Thank you for your input, it's appreciated ~

Anonymous said...

I just stumbled my way onto your fine blog - and LET'S KILL UNCLE is a film I've been questing for - unsuccessfully - for some years now, largely because I couldn't remember its name! I just remembered the fuzzy plot outline: two kids, crazy uncle, and so forth. I think I saw it on a late movie when I was a boy. Thanks for setting an old Famous Monsters guy on the right path with your swell write-up! Cheers!
- Aratak

Dr. Theda said...

I remember seeing this one as a kid... No one that I have ever told of this film had never heard of it ... Cool Post Good Sirs....

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