"The Tingler"

Well, OK. The movie house that's featured in "The Tingler" (Columbia, 1959) isn't the Silent Movie Theatre on Fairfax. But we can assert that it was inspired by it. Like the real one, the theatre in the movie is a silent house in a big city that's still finding a clientele in the late 1950s. And it's also run by a couple who do all the jobs themselves and live in an apartment above the theatre. 

See the page about the Silent Movie Theatre on the Los Angeles Theatres site for some photos and a history of that venue. It opened in 1942. 

 

William Castle directed this strange story about a beast that lives adjacent to the spine in all of us. It grows in response to fear and, in extreme cases, may kill us -- unless we scream! It was presented in "Percepto," which involved wiring selected seats in each theatre with buzzers underneath so that audience would feel a tingling sensation. At some screenings there were individuals planted in the theatre who screamed. 

The film features Vincent Price, Judith Evelyn, Darryl Hickman, Patricia Cutts and Philip Coolidge. The cinematography was by Wilfred M. Cline.

 

 A wider view of the back lot theatre facade.  

 

 

Vincent Price pays a visit. 

 

 

Vincent talking to Philip Coolidge, playing the co-owner of the theatre. The other half of the theatre team, played by Judith Evelyn, is deaf and dumb. This causes Vincent to think he can isolate the Tingler if Judith is scared and is unable to scream. Yes, she dies after he gives her an injection of LSD.  

 

In the auditorium, presumably a screening room at Columbia with a few exotic light fixtures added. While Vincent and Philip are talking in the apartment upstairs, the Tingler escapes and crawls down a crack into the auditorium.  

 

 

The back of the house. 

 

The creature crawling down the aisle. Screaming and chaos ensue. 

 

 

Vincent in the lobby turning off the lights. Why? Well, just so Castle can black out the image and tell the audience to scream in the dark. 

 

 

In the booth. 

 

 

 

Vincent declaring that there's no reason to worry. All is well.

 

But the Tingler is coming in through a porthole. 

 

 

Trapping the beast in a film can.

On IMDb: "The Tingler"