Do you remember the first movie you ever owned? It was probably a product of Castle Films. Before home video, Castle Films made every living room a screening room. For four decades the 16mm and 8mm film products of Castle Films were sold in every department store and hobby shop. Castle had big-screen movies for everybody: comedies with Abbott & Costello, The Marx Brothers, and W. C. Fields...monster movies with Frankenstein, Dracula, and the Wolfman...cartoons with Woody Woodpecker, Chilly Willy, and Mighty Mouse...westerns with Clint Eastwood, John Wayne, and James Stewart...travelogues of the world's picturesque places...newsreels of major headline stories...musicals with top singers and bandleaders.
Collectors have always wanted a reference book detailing the total output of Castle Films. Here it is. "Castle Films: A Hobbyist's Guide" is a complete filmography of every title printed between 1937 and 1977. For handy reference, there are separate indexes by title, subject, and serial number, a listing of Castle's color film releases, and a special section "decoding" Castle's various pseudonym titles and disclosing the "true identities" of many films.
"Castle Films: A Hobbyist's Guide" is a fascinating, nostalgic look at one of the pioneers of home entertainment.