Shanks

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source: Shanks

Moviecut—Shanks

source: Shanks

Schlock master William Castle's last film, 1974's "Shanks," is a travesty and not worthy of some of his earlier efforts. It's particularly awful considering the fact that he totally wastes the great French mime Marcel Marceau and everyone else of note in the cast. As far as movies go, this one has all the appearances of one directed by a deranged first-year film student. The pacing is entirely off, the editing is nearly nonexistent and the acting (if one can call it that) is so sophomoric as to be distracting to one's nerves. The fact that there's virtually no dialog in the movie qualifies as its only saving grace. The fault lies squarely with director Castle. He was a somewhat noted producer of low-budget yet effective fright films in his day, but directing surely was not his forte as this abomination clearly demonstrates. Lost in this mess are a few fine actors such as Don Calfa (best remembered for his role in "Return of the Living Dead") and Helena Kallianiotes (memorable in "Five Easy Pieces"). The less said about the rest of the cast, the better. As for Marcel Marceau, the so-called star of this turgid nightmare of a movie, he can only blame himself and his agent (maybe Mr. Castle too) for getting involved. The great Marceau certainly deserved better. Almost as sad as this worthless movie are the few reviewers who actually gave it a positive rating. Either they have never seen this pile of garbage or their collective expectations for what constitutes a work of art are on a par with what ends up in a cesspool.

Taken in the context of the 1970's, "Shanks" reflects the distorted perceptions of the time. Castle mixes beauty with the macabre, innocence with violence, and poetry with symmetry. While the film accomplishes much , it does so for only limited amounts of time, but what the film fails to accomplish through the script, does more to reflect the time period in which it was made. The craziness and drug infested 60's, had now become the distorted 70's, and the vision of America had become perverted. Kinda like today with a freakish Federal Government, and the control freaks trying to run their own asylum. Castle succeeds on some levels, in his comparisons, but the film really moves slowly, especially without the use of much dialog. I really enjoy a Castle film, and have viewed this one , only once, and final time. I think Castle knew this would be his swan song, and tried to create something artful and deep, to silence his critics. It appears to have mixed results. The film is a work of art, but like most works, should be seen in a museum. If you can get past the premise of reanimating dead bodies with a few well placed electrodes, and enjoy a slow moving film, then this would be your cup of tea. I think William Castle was at his best when he simply made film to entertain, and thrill the audience. This film gets a 3 out of 10, simply for the fact that you cannot bore the audience, and there is too much wasted space between the action. The actors do a fine job, but , not enough to carry the film.

Wearing tight pants and a wig, mute puppeteer Marcel Marceau (as Malcolm Shanks) takes over an expired old man's practice of re-animating the dead. Naturally, he begins by bringing back the old man. This process turns out to be more lifelike on chickens than people. Marceau gets a lot of grief from his brother's ex-wife, Tsilla Chelton, and her alcoholic husband, husband Philippe Clay. Pretty blonde Cindy Eilbacher (as Celia) is Marceau's girlfriend. Understandably, the underage girl's birthday is a cause for celebration, so Marceau has a party. An uninvited gang appears, stealing Marceau's puppets and abducting Ms. Eilbacher... This might have been a better film if director William Castle had settled upon a style. There are silent film "title cards" throughout, which are obviously there to accentuate the fact that Marceau is a mime playing a mute; but, other silent film techniques are unemployed. Incongruently, an obvious soundtrack seem the biggest strength. The visuals are tepid schlock horror. The more silent final segments, Eilbacher looking lovely in a sepia-tone and Marceau leading the cast in a bow, are most successful. ** Shanks (10/9/74) William Castle ~ Marcel Marceau, Cindy Eilbacher, Tsilla Chelton, Philippe Clay

Malcolm Shanks is a deaf/mute street puppeteer who's enlisted by a aged scientist to assist in experiments to reanimate dead animals. When the mad scientist abruptly dies, Shanks carries out his work, using the dead doctor's own body... and before long, more bodies begin stacking up. Love it or hate it, "Shanks" is one of those films that leaves an indelible impression on everyone who's seen it. Sadly, that seems to be very few. This is not a mainstream movie by ANY stretch, but it certainly deserves to be better known than it is. I first caught the film on TV decades ago and, while I didn't clearly remember the specifics of the plot (of which there's very little) until I caught it on TV again last night, I vividly remembered the corpses skulking about the screen. There's something intensely and appropriately creepy about the actors' performances as the dead bodies. Although "Shanks" is artier than the usual William Castle fare, there's traces of the director all over the movie, from the camera-work to the humor to the makeup (the dead doctor looks uncannily like the blind woman from "House on Haunted Hill") to the hallucinatory sequence to the gimmicky silent-film cards (there's very little dialogue) to the director's cameo. Unfortunately, like most William Castle films, it loses steam as it nears its conclusion. The climax features a group of bikers who appear out of nowhere to threaten the titular hero. I love a bad biker flick, but it was an element that felt wholly out of place in this film. Further marring the movie, the final minute or two felt like an insult to the previous 90 minutes of surreal grotesqueness. Still, despite the shortcomings of the finale, the performers are incredible to watch, the production design is beautiful, the use of sound and music is superb and it's nice to see Castle was still making unique films right up to the end of his career. If only Paramount would give this never-available curio a widescreen DVD release, I'd be a happy camper.

Shanks (1974) *** (out of 4) Leave it to William Castle, the ultimate trick master, to save his strangest film for last but that's pretty much what he's done with SHANKS. In the film, Marcel Marceau plays a deaf puppet master who takes over for his scientist friend in a bizarre experiment that allows one to control the dead like you would a puppet. Soon the once abused man becomes in control of everything he's ever wanted. This is a pretty bizarre little movie and I can't imagine it being a big disaster when originally released because it's doubtful too many horror fans wanted to see a horror movie without any violence, blood, spooks or anything like that. Instead of going for cheap thrills, Castle has instead pretty much created a film that is all atmosphere and there's so little dialogue that one could nearly call this a silent film. We even get title cards to explain some of the action so it's extremely close to being a silent. Castle's direction handles the material incredibly well and I'd probably argue that this is perhaps his best made movie. There aren't any gimmicks or tricks being thrown out and instead Castle appears to be wanting to prove to critics that he was able of creating a movie without them. The atmosphere of the film is incredibly thick as it really does seem like you're watching something that doesn't take place on Earth or set during any particular time period. Famous mime Marceau is excellent in his role and really delivers a remarkable performance. His turn at playing this mute is without question one of the best I've seen from any actor as he doesn't have one false step and there's never a single second where it seems like we're just seeing an actor play a deaf man. Tsilla Chelton and Philippe Clay are also excellent especially when they're the "puppets" as it was quite amazing to watch them do their thing. The cute Cindy Eilbacher is the perfect mix to be a friend to Marceau. This isn't a very well known movie, which is a shame but part of this might be due to the fact that it has yet to ever get an official release. Hopefully one day it will get a wider release and people will give the film a second shot because it certainly deserves it and I can't help but think had it been made somewhere between the 40s and the 60s then it would be looked at as a minor classic. Being lost in the 70s, the film is in major need of rediscovery.

I saw "Shanks" in Chicago on it's original release with another William Castle project "Bug". I remember it as being not very good, it had terrible word of mouth and was dumped into limited release. It was at the old Adelipha theater on the North side. I remember basically agreeing with this.... but one long, long shot of Helena Kalliniotes has lingered in my mind all these years.... She is a very distinct presence, I'm surprised She didn't do more after "Kansas City Bomber" and her memorable cameo in "Five Easy Pieces." I wish "Shanks" would surfice on DVD so I could take another look. It certainly isn't, or wasn't, the same old thing.