The P.T. Barnum Of Horror Films

In 1968 came William Castle's biggest commercial success, "Rosemary's Baby," starring Mia Farrow: a tale of a young married couple who wants to have a baby, moves into a new apartment building, and ends up with the literal spawn of Satan (per IMDb). The story focused on Catholicism and its dark side, Satanism.

According to an article at Turner Classic Movies, Castle bought the rights to the novel, written by Ira Levin, before it was even out of its galley phase, thanks to a literary agent pal. Castle's plan was to direct and produce per usual, but since he'd spent all his money on securing the rights to the novel, he had to jump to a different studio who, famously, insisted Roman Polanski direct the film. Castle agreed to produce, and leave the directing to Polanski, but he wasn't happy about it.

Castle wrote about a particularly painful case of gallstones in his "Step Right Up!" autobiography (via TCM), along with several other unlucky happenings to the movie's cast and crew. "The story of Rosemary's Baby was happening in real life," he wrote. "Witches, all of them, were casting their spell, and I was becoming one of the principal players."

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