Homicidal in The Psycho Ward Forum

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Homicidal

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Doc Carruthers		#41	[-]
Oct 26 07 2:28 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Monsterpal wrote: The recent SIDEWAYS...although it was definitely not a horror film. It wasn't? "Your brain is too feeble to concieve what I have accomplished!!" Last Edited By: Doc Carruthers Oct 26 07 3:23 PM. Edited 1 times.
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Ted Newsom		#42	[-]
Oct 26 07 7:13 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	PS: Did someone say "Dirch Passer"? Yes. And his cousin, Gaspar. Up here in lower Solvang, we call him Gass. Last Edited By: Ted Newsom Oct 26 07 7:16 PM. Edited 1 times.
DonM435		#43	[-]
Oct 27 07 10:08 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Ted Newsom wrote: ... The old gal who plays the old gal may've been Russian-born, but her character is named "Swenson," which sounds like a good old Solvang name. To bad they couldn't find a role for Dirk Passer. THEN they'd have had a movie! ("No-vun's a frayed uff HOM-ee-CIII-dull, he's just a gurrlie boyyyyy.") ... That was my point. If you just want a foreign-type, go with what you have. If you want a Danish character, hire an appropriate actress. The facts suggest that they may have switched the nurse's backstory relatively late in the game.
Mike Mariano		#44	[-]
Oct 28 07 4:41 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	My take on this amazing film: HOMICIDAL (Warning: major spoilers and gender confusion) Now let me get this straight… In William Castle's HOMICIDAL, actress Jean Arless plays Warren, a man who impersonates Emily, a woman who's a homicidal maniac. (We'll leave out the fact Warren and Emily are married.) At the end of the movie, it is revealed Warren is actually a female, and that his, uh, HER mother raised her as a boy while keeping Warren's true gender a secret from her wealthy father, who desperately wanted a son to leave his fortune to. Okay, I think I've got it: Arless was not a woman playing a man who impersonates a woman. She was a woman playing a woman masquerading as a man, who impersonates a woman who's killing anyone standing in the way of her inheritance--all because SHE wasn't born a HE! (My head hurts.) To really throw a wrench into this mess, Castle hinted in interviews that Arless was, in real life, not a woman but a man… ENOUGH ALREADY! For the record, Jean Arless was a woman, whose real name was Joan Marshall and who appeared in a number of films besides HOMICIDAL, including TAMMY AND THE DOCTOR and THE HAPPIEST MILLIONAIRE. (She was also in the Twilight Zone episode "Dead Man's Shoes.") She was married to director Hal Ashby, who based his film SHAMPOO (in which she had a cameo) on her real-life personal experiences, which she related to Ashby--on his insistence--in their first months of marriage. (I've also heard SHAMPOO was based on the life of hairstylist-turned-producer Jon Peters [BATMAN, RAIN MAN]. Maybe the film draws from the lives of both; I'm not sure.) I don't know if I could convincingly argue that HOMICIDAL is Castle's best horror film (though it may very well be), but it's probably fair to say Arless helps make it his most twisted. Her facial expressions of hysterical anguish (during the murders), her tacky blonde wig, the awkward, jerky way she thrusts her knife--all push her portrayal of a psychotic killer (and the film itself) into the realm of bizarre camp. Her acting comes off so forced that it becomes ludicrous (not to mention delicious fun!), and her childishly nasty delivery of line after line of choice dialogue just adds to the insanity: [Calmly, to her "sister-in-law"]: "If you stay in this house one more minute, Miriam, I'm going to kill you." [At a fever pitch, as she's about to behead wheelchair-ridden old Helga]: "Helga! NOW!!!" [A favorite line, as she taunts Helga in the kitchen]: "Justice Adrims died last night… [in a harsh, shrill whisper] SCREAMING!!!… As if Arless wasn't weird enough, Castle set HOMICIDAL in Solvang, a picturesque little town located on the Southern California coast, known for its Danish-style buildings and shops. (I knew of Solvang before I'd ever seen HOMICIDAL, as my mother and her friends would sometimes go there for a weekend getaway.) I guess Castle used the odd locale because of its connection to Denmark--many of Solvang's population are Danish--where people go for "those" operations. (Am I confusing Denmark and Sweden?) The setting makes it all the more bizarre for me, when I think about HOMICIDAL's madness unfolding in this sweet little town where my mom would go to relax, sip tea, and shop for trinkets with her friends! Then there's the fright break. It may have helped sell tickets, but any suspense Castle manages to build in the movie just stops DEAD in its tracks when the clock appears onscreen at the end. Castle counts…and the whole movie sits there like a lead weight. And btw, anyone agree that the child actor who plays Warren as a boy in the beginning is one homely-looking kid who's in bad need of some major dental work? Joan Marshall died of cancer in 1992, in Jamaica. Dare I even try to touch the strange claim (mentioned on the IMDb) by her and writer/director Dirk Summers that they were twin brother and sister? They were the same age, attended the same high school, looked "remarkably alike" and... Aw, now just STOP IT, would ya? One last thing: In the "making-of" featurette on Columbia's HOMICIDAL DVD, David del Valle says he thinks Warren and Emily were actually played by two different people… That's it, gimme the knife! It's enough to drive anybody BONKERS!!! SOLVANG OR BUST? SCREAMING!!!...
Rapfred		#45	[-]
Oct 28 07 8:01 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Fascinating stuff, Mike, especially the Marshall/SHAMPOO tidbit. Analysis-wise, I agree with you on all counts (the Warren/Emily back story is truly the stuff that migraines are made of and that dopey fright break puts the kibosh on any built-up suspense), with one exception: Arless' facial expressions and herky-jerky knife thrusts strike me as anything but campy. Truth be told, Emily in kill mode has been spooking the bejesus out of me ever since I first saw HOMICIDAL back in '61. To this day, my inner eight-year-old takes over during that scene. The moment James Westerfield moves in to kiss the bride my heart skips a beat and I start looking for the quickest way to the coward's corner.
davlghry		#46	[-]
Oct 28 07 8:26 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	<< As if Arless wasn't weird enough, Castle set HOMICIDAL in Solvang, a picturesque little town located on the Southern California coast, known for its Danish-style buildings and shops. A quibble but Solvang isn't coastal, it's in the mountains above Santa Barbara. I also wonder about Hal Ashby using Joan Marshall's life history in SHAMPOO. Robert Towne and Warren Beatty wrote the script before Ashby became involved. But who knows? They might have amended it with some of Ashby's input.
TomWeaver999		#47	[-]
Oct 28 07 8:32 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	For horror-oldie nuts, one of the great awkward moments in TV talk show history is the MIKE DOUGLAS SHOW where (I think it was) Little Richard starts telling fellow guest Alfred Hitchcock about individual scenes in PSYCHO that he still remembers vividly, and how much they scared him, and Hitch is nodding politely -- even though it's scenes from HOMICIDAL that Little Richard is describing! (Or was it James Brown? Anyway, SOMEbody like that.) TIME magazine, I'm told, raved about HOMICIDAL -- the year after they panned PSYCHO. In the Hollywood trade papers of 1960, Columbia tried to pass off the non-existent Jean Arless as a real actress, calling her a "26-year-old Chicago beauty who has done some TV films." Columbia initially tried to cast Victoria Shaw in the part, but she didn't want to do it and actually went on suspension to AVOID doing it.
TomWeaver999		#48	[-]
Oct 28 07 8:37 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	The last time I was in the Santa Barbara area, a gal-pal and I went to a town called Los Olivos (I think) where I interviewed Fess Parker -- and on the way back, I saw signs for Solvang and said that's where we should have lunch, 'cause I wanted to see it. It's still very quaint; I made sure we went to the most Danishy-looking place we could find, and had something Danishy. A fun day.
HalLane	I feel good and scared	#49	[-]
Oct 28 07 9:26 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	TomWeaver999 wrote: ...and Hitch is nodding politely -- even though it's scenes from HOMICIDAL that Little Richard is describing! (Or was it James Brown? Anyway, SOMEbody like that.) Yes, it was James Brown. And yes, it was embarrassingly awkward to watch. The Godfather's praise seemed very genuine, though. Btw, anybody else have an opinion about who looped Warren's loopy voice?
Mike Mariano		#50	[-]
Oct 28 07 9:28 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Tom, I've read it was the Godfather of Soul, James Brown, who, on the Mike Douglas Show, told Hitch he very much enjoyed his movie HOMICIDAL. Hitch reportedly shot a nasty look at Brown. I'll bet William Castle loved it! "I feel good! HEY!"
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Rick		#51	[-]
Oct 29 07 10:12 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I also had never heard of the Marshall-SHAMPOO connection, but maybe it's no coincidence that William Castle appears in a memorable scene in SHAMPOO.
Monster Kid		#52	[-]
Oct 31 07 9:53 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	HOMICIDAL easily tops PSYCHO for me... in fact, I prefer it to PSYCHO.
Monsterpal		#53	[-]
Nov 1 07 6:03 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Did anyone correct James Brown on the air? Or did they let it pass?
TomWeaver999		#54	[-]
Nov 1 07 7:54 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I'm sure nobody there knew what movie Brown WAS talking about, and everybody just sorta nodded in agreement as he enthusiastically went on and on, even though some (and certainly Hitchcock) knew that it wasn't PSYCHO he was describing and praising.
Bill Warren	Oops, wrong title	#55	[-]
Nov 2 07 1:47 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Was it a radio show or TV when Jerry Lewis was (to his obvious anger) complimented for BELA LUGOSI MEETS A BROOKLYN GORILLA?
Stuart4th		#56	[-]
Nov 2 07 6:38 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I think it was a TODAY SHOW interview; it's mentioned in Shaun Levy's Lewis book. As I recall, David Lettermen invited Sammy Petrillo on his old NBC show soon after, to surprise Jerry who was a scheduled guest, but Petrillo turned him down.
LCranston		#57	[-]
Dec 5 07 1:34 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Something I haven't seen mention yet that I'd like to get an answer to is regarding the name of Patricia Bresiln's character: "Miriam Webster." Really? MIRIAM WEBSTER? Almost every character uses the full name at some point in the film. I tried doing a little research, and saw that the Merriam-Webster name wasn't used on dictionaries at the time, but was someone (Castle?) trying to make a pun? Or was it a complete coincidence? Still a fun movie, and when I saw it for the first time earlier this year, I was glad I didn't know what the ending was going to be like. Neat. "I live the unknown, I love the unknown... I AM the unknown."
TomWeaver999		#58	[-]
Dec 5 07 7:17 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	There's a Republic serial, can't remember now which one (FIGHTING DEVIL DOGS?), where two of the main suspects (they might be the masked mystery villain) are Benson & Hedges.
Monsterpal		#59	[-]
Dec 6 07 12:03 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Did Benson & Hedges kill people by giving them cancer?
CreatureFeature		#60	[-]
Jul 13 08 9:46 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I first discovered Homicidal last year on TCM. My co-workers & I discuss Movies all day long.We like a lot of the same Flicks. I went on & on about the Film after seeing it . For Christmas last year I bought the 3 of them the DVD. I can't believe I'd never seen it before ! I bought the DVD too, even though it's not widescreen.....For the short featurette & trailer on it. Joan Marshall is the wallpaper on My cell phone & My computer. A little obsessed.........yeah.
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