MACABRE

William Prince and Jacqueline Scott

MACABRE (1958). Director: William Castle.

Dr. Rodney Barrett (William Prince) lost his wife, Alice (Dorothy Morris), when she died in child birth, something for which Sheriff Tyloe (Jim Backus of Angel Face) has always blamed Barrett. Tyloe was in love with Alice but married her blind sister, Nancy (Christine White). Now Nancy has died and her funeral is to be held at midnight in the town cemetery. Then the doctor learns that his and Alice's young daughter, Madge, has been kidnapped, and is buried in a small coffin somewhere in the cemetery ... The race is on to find the child before the air runs out and everyone becomes a little crazier than they already are. 

William Prince and Jim Backus

Macabre is William Castle's first horror film, although it might be more accurately called a thriller, with the location of the cemetery adding to the horrific ambiance. The acting in the film -- especially by Jacqueline Scott, who plays Barrett's nurse, suffering from unrequited love, in her first movie -- is considerably overwrought even when one takes into account the desperate situation, but I suspect Castle directed everyone to act a little strange so as to increase suspense and suspects. 

Prince and Scott in the office

Prince gives a good performance, and Backus is better than I've ever seen him. Christine White scores as Nancy, and Jonathan Kidd makes an effectively quivering funeral director. Les Baxter [Jungle Heat] offers one of his better scores, which adds a great deal to the eerie quality and tension of the film, as does the photography by Carl E. Guthrie. Castle's direction is generally good but there are clumsy moments, and Robb White's script -- taken from the novel The Marble Forest (which was apparently written by several crime writers as an experiment) -- has its dumb aspects, making some sequences unintentionally comical. All in all, this is an interesting and yes, macabre, motion picture with a very good premise and plot. 

Verdict: One of Castle's better pictures. ***.