The Ghost, 1963.

A spooky sixties Italian film starring the director of a bunch of episodes of Brady Bunch, Partridge Family, and Wonder Years, directed by some guy who made a bunch of bad Hercules films, and of course, to bless us with her eerie-yet-beautiful grace, Barbara Steele! Right from the get-go we have a guy drinking poison so he can get closer to the dead during some thunder-scored seances which sort of reminds me of that movie about the doctors forcing NDE’s. I think Kiefer Sutherland was in it. Anyways, I’m sure this is far better because it takes place in a spooky castle full of suits of armour and candelabra and not NYC or wherever that other film took place.

Mrs Steele is a crippled man’s wife but he’s been getting on her nerves so she starts cheating on him with the doctor. Husband is pretty depressed and goes through the whole Hamlet schtick of wanting to die so Mrs Steele and doctor boyfriend oblige, only to find out that Mrs Steele has been partially written out of the will – no stock options for her. Now we have a haunted house and some assholes trying to steal the ghost’s treasure. If you think perhaps that there is any reason to support these two, please think again as they shoot her late husband’s dog because it’s whining about it’s master’s death. I hope they get double-haunted.

The lead up to the husband’s death is pretty tense – lots of opportunities for him to get put under, by his own hand or another’s, but they always stop just shy of pulling the trigger. You know he’s going to die but dragging it out like this really makes you wonder when it’s going to happen. Good job. Is he going to shoot himself? Is he going to be poisoned? Will his wife get poisoned by the same glass? Is he going to get his throat slit? Creepy music-box tunes accompany this build up and it works very well. There’s some decent shots throughout, especially Mrs Steele’s hand helping fill a syringe like the father-son kamehameha when Goku and Gohan fight Cell.

Atmosphere is good but not perfect. I only say that because I’ve seen better, not necessarily because this is bad. The husband’s study is pretty good with odd shadows, strange angles, and all sorts of assorted clutter and vials of poison. The house is always bathed in shadow which is great. I wish the tomb-robbing scene was better. They go into the mausoleum, hang out for a minute, then leave. I want them brushing cobwebs aside, lighting the way with a candlestick, grim carvings of Victorian memento mori on the walls, fog and moonlight. The good stuff. Thankfully we do get a ghost doing the whole flashlight under the chin thing like he’s a ten year old at a campfire.

We have no breasts, beasts are in by way of ghosts and a little bit of ghostly blood dripping down on the clean white sheets. I was originally considering watching this in black and white but was too lazy to change my TV’s settings and I’m glad I didn’t. The blood is that classic bright red. Mrs Steele brings the meldorama to bold new heights as her and her doctor-lover hallucinate all over the damn place. The use of the music-box motif is used well though the rest of the score isn’t anything too exciting. The ending is enjoyable – everyone gets theirs. One Thumb Up Seal of Approval.