William Castle is one of my favorite directors. Movies like Homicial, The Tingler, House on Haunted Hill, 13 Ghosts and Strait-Jacket are some of his films that I have a real blast watching for decades. Most of these films were gimmicky films which is what he was known for, however in his 1966 film, Let’s Kill Uncle, there were no gimmicks which he had abandoned a few years earlier.

Let’s Kill Uncle is your basic familiar story about a person trying to murder someone for an inheritance. We have all seen it in plenty of mystery films over the years, but we didn’t know who-done-it until the end. In this case Major Kevin Harrison (Nigel Green, Jason and the Argonauts) a former British Intelligence officer is blatantly trying to kill his only living relative, his nephew Barnaby Harrison(Pat Cardi, Battle for the Planet of the Apes) and his sister (Mary Badham, To Kill a Mockingbird) for his pending inheritance due to the death of his parents, which is a healthy 5 million dollars. He must wait until he reaches the age of maturity to receive the money and must also survive his uncle’s attempts at murdering him while being stuck living on the island. And he is trying to kill Barnaby while his guardians Sgt. Frank Travis(Robert Pickering) and Aunt Justine(Linda Lawson) are still on the island, right under their noses. Major Harrison tried to kill his nephew with mushrooms, hypnotism and throwing him into a pool with sharks. Barnaby, in serious trouble, gets advice from his sister, to turn things around and go on the offensive, saying “Let’s Kill Uncle”. The cat and mouse game of murder becomes even more deadlier with Barnaby and his uncle trying to off each other!

I found this movie to be a bit of a disappointment, pretty much juvenile silliness with annoying dialog among the child actors throughout. Nigel Green was too polite and charming to come across as man who would kill his own nephew. There are a few scares, but it just was not compelling enough, perhaps a little too tongue in cheek. It was like a toned-down William Castle film. The film is a comedy horror, but the comedy was lacking, and the suspense and horror aspect was mild. It was a far cry from Night of the Hunter a movie with a similar theme (children being hunted by an adult).

Some of you might recognize that part of the soundtrack for Let’s Kill Uncle was borrowed from Creature from the Black Lagoon, which was used when Steward(Nestor Paiva who was in Creature from the Black Lagoon ironically enough), Major Harrison’s groundskeeper appears. He is the scariest aspect of the film.  Also, notice the pool where it’s dirty and yucky on top, while underwater it looks perfectly clear and obviously taken from another film or source!  

Let’s Kill Uncle gets its long-awaited, often requested Blu-ray release from Kino Lorber. The movie is on a dual-layered BD-50 disc. The film’s video is presented in 1080p with a 2K scan and looks exceptionally brilliant. Colors, particularly reds and greens look bold and vivid with excellent details to interior inside the house and some great, lush exterior shots of the jungle. Black levels look balanced, as you can see characters easily in nighttime scenes. Skin tones look spot on perfect. This is easily the best the film has looked on home video.

The English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 track for this release sounds perfectly fine with no hissing or drop-outs. The kids yelling and screaming, and musical scores do sound the most aggressive, while standard dialog and other action noises were clear and flawless.  English SDH subtitles are available for this offering.

Bonus materials include an audio commentary with film historians Kat Ellinger and Mike McPadden, where they talk about the cast, compare the film to the book, and discuss many aspects of the film. It is a great commentary and more than worth a listen.

There is an interview with actor Pat Cardi, called “Mr. Castle and Me: An Interview with Pat Cardi” where he talks about meeting William Castle and some other behind the scenes information from his point of view.

Two theatrical trailers for Let’s Kill Uncle is the last of the extras.

Fans of William Castle should pick this one up, despite the film not being his best work, it is the best that it will ever look and sound. Coupled with a few great extras, this release is highly recommended!

Let’s Kill Uncle

Director- William Castle

Cast- Nigel Green, Mary Badham, Pat Cardi

Country of Origin- US

Distributor – Kino Lorber

Number of Discs – 1

Reviewed by – David Steigman

Date- 6/24/20