NOT Available on DVD: ‘Shanks’

Director William Castle was more famous as a showman than an artist and discussion of his work usually begins and ends with references to the gimmicks that he used to promote his films. Castle was of course famous for parlor tricks such as “Percepto�, electric buzzers attached to the theatre seats to shock his audience of THE TINGLER and “Emergo�, a skeleton attached to a wire that floated over HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL’s audiences (both in 1959). What’s often left out in discussions of Castle is that he was a very skillful and accomplished director. Working with low budgets, Castle’s thrillers always delivered the goods in terms of pacing and suspense. (watch the nail-biting I SAW WHAT YOU DID for example). William Castle’s last film was the “grim fairy tale� SHANKS in 1974 starring famed French mime Marcel Marceau. SHANKS was Castle’s most artful and offbeat film, a ghoulish zombie farce correctly described on its’ own poster as “Deliciously Grotesque� but, like too many of Castles’ films, it is NOT available on DVD.

SHANKS is the story of Malcolm Shanks (Marceau), a mute puppeteer who lives with his obnoxious sister and her alcoholic husband. He works as an assistant to the elderly Mr. Walker (also Marceau), an eccentric inventor of electrical gadgets that can make the dead become mobile like puppets. When the older man dies, Shanks gets the idea to apply the same principle to his corpse. Through electrical devices placed at certain points on his body operated by remote, Shanks is able to make Mr. Walker shuffle around his Gothic mansion. Later, he gleefully reanimates his sister and brother-in-law after killing them. A potential love interest for Shanks arrives in the form of a young woman (Cindy Eilbacher) who is enchanted by his puppet shows. At first she’s horrified at his invention, then entertained as they make house with the walking dead as their servants. Things take a nasty turn when the mansion is besieged by a biker gang led by the dramatic Mata Hari (Helen Kallianiotis) culminating in rape, death, revenge and madness.

As you can tell from the above synopsis, SHANKS is an imaginative and bold story, a theatrically macabre fairy tale that is a far cry from the PSYCHO-inspired thrillers that William Castle made in the 1960’s. Castle and Marceau may seem like an off-beat pairing and in his autobiography “Step Right Up I’m Gonna Scare the Pants Off America� Castle writes about how impatient and difficult Marceau was to direct but admits the mime’s contributions were brilliant. Castle makes the movie fascinating by capitalizing on its oddness and wisely giving Marceau (and his friends) lengthy stretches to perform their ghoulish pantomime routines and have fun with the choreography of these undead robots. The lurching, contorted movements of the living dead here are unnerving, more like arthritic marionettes (sometimes with popping sounds of rigor mortis) than zombies from subsequent horror films. SHANKS at times plays like a silent film with wordless scenes and the use of vintage-style title cards to connect them. There are lengthy sections of SHANKS that have no speech at all and these are greatly benefited by Alex North’s brash, Oscar-nominated (!) score. The finale with biker gang is jarring a bit cruel after the whimsical fantasy of the preceding hour but bikers were popular movie villains in the early 70’s and this was just probably Castle’s way of introducing an exploitation device.

Marcel Marceau is the 20th century most famous mime (somebody has to be) but he only appeared in a handful of films (notably BARBARELLA and Mel Brooks’ SILENT MOVIE) but SHANKS is certainly where he best gets to showcase his physical talents. Whether as the soulful Shanks or the reanimated Mr. Walker, twitching mechanically and twisting himself into preposterous angles, Marceau is a pleasure to watch and it’s amazing to observe a performer display such control over the movement of his own body. Phillipe Clay and Tsilla Chelton, cast as Shanks evil sister and brother-in-law, were also French stage mimes who had worked extensively with Marceau and they’re given plenty of screen-time here themselves. Helen Kallianiotis, a severe, raven-haired beauty is commanding as Mata Hari. Kallianiotis made a huge impression (and received a Golden Globe nom) the year before as Raquel Welch’s nemesis in the roller derby epic KANSAS CITY BOMBER and is best remembered as the hitchhiker in FIVE EASY PIECES. I always found her an exciting presence in 70’s cinema and I wish she had acted in more films.

SHANKS, like William Castle himself, is a true original. It was his last film and represented a magnificent exit for a unique director who proudly reveled in gimmicks and showmanship. It’s an extraordinary fable, unlike another movie I can think of and doesn’t quite fit into any genre. Watch for Castle’s cameo as crusty old shopkeeper in SHANKS. It was the last glimpse of a true artist who was never afraid to try something unconventional. Interestingly, only a few of Castle’s horror films are currently available for home viewing. HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL, THE TINGLER, HOMICIDAL, MR. SARDONICUS, and 13 GHOSTS are easy to find but SHANKS is on a list with I SAW WHAT YOU DID (now out of print), ZOTZ, THE OLD DARK HOUSE, LET’S KILL UNCLE, and the terrifying THE NIGHT WALKER as key William Castle shockers that are NOT available on DVD.

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