Clearly, William Castle was no great director, certainly no Hitchcock, but this silly little gem of a B-movie works better than most Castle movies because the camera man, Joe Biroc, gives the picture a macabre dignity mostly lacking in Castle's other work as a director... (Just imagine if Castle's first movie with Joan Crawford, STRAIT-JACKET, a film with obvious potential, had been photographed by Biroc and all its sloppy, slipshod flaws were obscured -- it would have wound up the masterpiece Castle had hoped it would be, instead of a tacky cult curio). I SAW WHAT YOU DID presents a cozily idyllic, B&W, semi-rural, claustrophobic alternative reality at midnight, what with the split-level house on a hill in the middle of a really cool farm, and Crawford and John Ireland competing in the Who's Creepiest sweepstakes... and William Castle even uses a very effective fog in the latter scenes which makes me wonder why none of the other grand dame guignol pictures ever did that, not even HUSH... HUSH, SWEET CHARLOTTE (which Biroc also shot). So ISWYD works on atmosphere and good-naturedness.
Review of I Saw What You Did
