Vincent Price is as smooth as ever in The Tingler (1959), a wickedly convoluted tale containing an original idea about the source of screams – and death – in the highly frightened. The movie teems with characters who are not what they seem to be, from a mad scientist to his wife to the grey little theater owner. Heck, as the projectionist struggles for his life in his 20 seconds of screen time, I expected to discover some startling new facet to the plot – and about him.
But the writer was wise enough to realize his original idea was not the true center of the story, but rather a pivot on which to tell a real story – or two – about dysfunctional families. For those possessed of precise minds, this tale may enmadden, for vagueness and ambiguity command this landscape – is the long hours of the scientist to blame for his family, or his wife’s vulgar narcissism? The opening scene signals this long, long theme, as Vincent is berated – in a friendly fashion – by an attractive young woman. His lover, daughter, friend, what? All those guesses sets a tone that dominates as more and more surprises unfold – the uncertainty of perception, a good pairing with a mad scientist.
Eventually, amidst all the human monsters we make the acquaintance of the promised monster, and for those conditioned by current visual standards of Hollywood, there will be disappointment in the rubber thing pursuing its prey. This is a false disappointment. The relatively crude depiction of the monster serves to remind us that the most apparent monsters are often the most impotent, and the most insidious are those we never even notice.
Until they merge into one.
The movie isn’t perfect, of course. There’s a plot hole in that it seems everyone knows what is meant by The Tingler, and unless I missed something, or a scene was cut, it doesn’t make sense – unless it’s a reference relevant to the 1950s, but not to now. And the insertion of scenes from a silent movie at certain points seemed a little longish and nonsensical; I never really connected them to our movie, unless it’s a movie-within-a-movie analogy of some sort.
But the acting was very good, staging good, script excellent, dialog passable…
Recommended.
