mhcaesar The Ghost has two leading actresses. One: Barbara Steele, the quintessential Scream Queen of early Goth Euro Horror. Two: Barbara Steele's lips/mouth. That mouth. That sultry, sulking tempestuous mouth that takes on a life of its own in each scene; literally devouring each scene they are in. Watching her mouth move in this movie is like being put in a trance for 90 minutes. The supporting actors, Peter Baldwin, Elio Jotta, and Harriet Medin deliver flawlessly in their roles and help to build the rising tension with the clever suspense filled story line. And some of the dialogue is priceless....(paraphrase)"You can't die....think of all those starving leper children in Calcutta you promised to save!" Each, noir lit scene is precious. Each stare from Steele; a jewel. Many Euro Horror fans ignore this movie and that is sad. It really shines in a sea of lesser made horror movies of that time. Break out the Jiffy Pop, break open the soda pop, plop down on the sofa, and treat yourself to a bit of Horror Heaven.

Bezenby Don't you just hate it when your housekeeper starts speaking with your murdered husband's voice? And it's simply impossible to get them ghost blood stains out of your duvet! Don't even mention those bloody wheelchairs that move about on their own...These are some of the many problems facing Italy's favourite Scouser, Barbara Steele, after she manages to convince her lover to finally bump off her emotionally crippled, and also physically crippled, husband cripple John 'Cripple' Surname.It's a case of what came first, John's séances and messing with poisons or Babs' affair with the doctor. You'll have plenty of time to mull this over because this film takes thirty-five minutes to get anything remotely spooky. Although you do get to see how messed up this situation is for everybody.Once John's bumped off and buried, it's time to find his treasure! The problem is that a little 'being dead' doesn't seem to put John off, as he keeps appearing everywhere, things move about, and his spirit is seemingly using the housekeeper as a glove puppet.Is it all real or some sort of ruse? It's worth waiting to find out as we get a pretty grim ending where one character is brutally and graphically set about with a straight razor (then burned!) and the rest of the cast suffer pretty horribly too (except a smug priest).Slow at first, but then the twists and atmosphere get more impressive as it continues on. Barbara Steele gets a lot to do here so that always helps.

The_Void As you might expect, this film is really quite similar to Riccardo Freda's earlier horror flick "The Terror of Dr Hitchcock", although for my money; I'd say this one is slightly better. The two films share a director and a lead actress in common, as well as a lead character name. This film firmly fits into the 'Gothic' side of Italian cinema, which Steele often starred in, and Freda makes excellent use of this style with some real standout cinematography. It became clear that Riccardo Freda was, in fact, a hack; as it turned out that the great Mario Bava did most of the work on a lot of his films, and his later stuff - Tragic Ceremony and The Iguana with the Tongue of Fire to name a couple - was a million miles away from being brilliant. This film would appear to be Freda at his best, therefore, and it's actually not bad. The plot centres on Dr. John Hitchcock; a cripple who wants to die. His wife is, naturally, having an affair with her husband's doctor, and pretty soon the two of them conspire to murder Dr Hitchcock for his money. However, they didn't bargain for him haunting them after his death...The film's title suggests that it's a ghost story, but I would say that The Ghost is more of a mystery chiller. There's not a great deal of real bona fide horror, and to be honest; I felt the film was a little too talky and would have proffered it to be a bit more visceral. The film's main draw is, obviously, Barbara Steele and the 'Queen of Horror' looks great throughout the film. The decor and set design is great too, and these allow Freda to build an oppressive and macabre atmosphere, which benefits the plot line quite well. The main problem with the film is the fact that a lot of it feels really amateurish. The dubbing is atrocious (even more so than usual) and some of the things the characters say are ridiculous. Whether or not that's down to the translation, I don't know. The climax is the best part of the film for me. Of course, it's not a completely sense-making ending and there are a few holes left; but it's a nice twist at least, and it does justify the shortfalls of some of the rest of the movie. Overall, I won't go as far as to say that The Ghost is a horror classic; but it's good entertainment, and fans of Gothic horror will enjoy it.

Hitchcoc I remember getting my drivers' license. It allowed me to travel to towns a few miles from mine and see movies (only one was shown at a time in those days) at small local theaters. In the sixties we had Vincent Price, Peter Lorre, Sebastian Cabot, and others entertaining us with lightweight, scary little films. Many were based loosely on the works of Poe. Though I never saw this until a few minutes ago, it fits in with that genre. It has wonderful atmosphere. The heroine is not blameless, but has a case for murdering the old meany. Of course, she's going to pay a price, as is her doctor lover, when the old guy comes back to haunt her. There's a little Rebecca and Gaslight here, but it all works nicely to a satisfying conclusion. He who laughs last, of course. The performances are good and the atmosphere of the castle and its bleak goings on is a lot of fun. There is an intensity at work here that build, till people become paranoid and suspicious. See this. It's not a bad ghost story.