Homicidal Movie Review 1961

Castle's "Psycho" imitation makes a belated debut on home video. He takes all the key elements of Hitchcock's original and reshuffles them: the big old house with the steep staircase, the creepy invalid older woman, a troubled young man, the blonde who's up to something, the cheap hotel, the vaguely threatening cops, the unexpectedly graphic knife violence, the young couple who investigates. And a central gimmick which is cheesily transparent; most viewers will tumble to it early on and that's part of the fun, too. With enthusiastic overacting from all the leads, the whole thing becomes a minor camp masterpiece.

Distribution

Sony Pictures Home Video, Sony Pictures Plz., 10202 W. Washington Blvd., Culver City, CA 90232, Phone: (310)244-7306, Fax: (310)280-2485, URL: http://www.spe.sony.com, Remarks: Formerly Columbia Tristar Home Entertainment

Available on DVD
Running time 87 minutes.

Cast and Crew

Genres

Screenplay

Robb White

Cast

Glenn Corbett, Patricia Breslin, Alan Bunce, James Westerfield

Cinematography

Burnett Guffey

Director

William Castle

Music

Hugo Friedhofer