House on Haunted Hill (1959 Crime, Horror, Mystery film)

House on Haunted Hill is a 1959 American horror film produced and directed by William Castle, written by Robb White and starring Vincent Price, Carol Ohmart, Richard Long, Alan Marshal, Carolyn Craig and Elisha Cook Jr. Price plays an eccentric millionaire, Frederick Loren, who, along with his wife Annabelle, has invited five people to the house for a "haunted house" party. Whoever stays in the house for one night will earn $10,000. As the night progresses, the guests are trapped within the house with an assortment of terrors.

The film uses many props used in carnival haunted houses to generate fear and terror.

Plot
Frederick Loren, an eccentric millionaire, invites five people to a party he is throwing for his fourth wife, Annabelle, in an allegedly haunted house he has rented. He promises to give each guest $10,000 with the stipulation that they stay the entire night in the house after the doors are locked at midnight, all the windows are barred, and there are no phones or radios to use. The guests are test pilot Lance Schroeder, newspaper columnist Ruth Bridges, psychiatrist Dr. David Trent, who specializes in hysteria, Nora Manning, who works for one of Loren's companies, and the house's owner, Watson Pritchard. All are strangers to both the Lorens and each other, their only commonality being their lust for money.

Cast
Vincent Price as Frederick Loren
Carol Ohmart as Annabelle Loren
Richard Long as Lance Schroeder
Alan Marshal as Dr. David Trent
Carolyn Craig as Nora Manning
Elisha Cook Jr. as Watson Pritchard (credited as Elisha Cook)
Julie Mitchum as Ruth Bridgers
Leona Anderson as Mrs. Slydes
Howard Hoffman as Jonas Slydes
Skeleton as Himself

Production
Exterior shots of the house were filmed at the historic Ennis House in Los Feliz California, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and built in 1924. The bulk of the film was shot on sound stages, depicting the interior of the house in a combination of styles, including 1890s Victorian, with gas chandeliers and sconces. The poster for the film included an illustration of a house in yet a third style, that of a fanciful four-story Romanesque structure.

The theatrical trailer promoted the film as The House on Haunted Hill, although all advertising material and the title on the film itself were simply titled House on Haunted Hill.

The film is perhaps best known for a promotional gimmick used in the film's original theatrical release called "Emergo." In some theaters that showed the film, exhibitors rigged an elaborate pulley system near the theater screen which allowed a plastic skeleton to be flown over the audience during a corresponding scene late in the film. (Several modern repertory cinemas including the Film Forum and Loew's Jersey Theatre have hosted revival screenings of the film during which the "Emergo" gimmick has been recreated.)

Thanks in part to Castle's gimmickry, the film was a huge success. Alfred Hitchcock took notice of the low-budget film's performance at the box office and made his own low-budget horror film, which became the critically acclaimed hit Psycho (1960). Castle was himself a Hitchcock fan and would try to imitate Hitchcock's work in later films such as Homicidal (1961).

The production of the film had been partly inspired by the success of Shirley Jackson's book, "The Haunting of Hill House", which had been released earlier that year. Notably, the film's title is a reworking of Jackson's book title, and both reference the same subject. The value of books had been keen on William Castle's mind.

When Ira Levin's "Rosemary's Baby" had been in the proof stage, Castle raised the money to purchase the movie rights. He instinctively knew it would become a valuable property that he could produce and direct. Although he wasn't able to direct it, he was able to both negotiate a deal to produce that film and produce other movies for the same studio.