The Headless Ghost (1959)

Sadly Over-hyped

Great Film overall

Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

Three foreign exchange students -- excitable Americans Bill (likable Richard Lymon) and Ronnie (the equally engaging David Rose) and smart Danish gal Ingrid (a charming performance by lovely buxom blonde Liliane Sottane) -- go on a day trip to the allegedly haunted Ambrose Castle in England. They spend the night and discover that the place is haunted for real by various ghosts that include one particular hapless headless fellow who the trio have to help regain his severed noggin. Director Peter Graham Scott, working from a lightweight script by Herman Cohen and Aben Kandel, relates the frothy story at a steady pace and maintains a perfectly amiable tongue-in-cheek tone throughout. The silly and inoffensive humor doesn't get many big laughs, but it does provide a sizable number of smiles. The ghosts are a colorful and entertaining bunch, with stand-out work by Clive Revill as the friendly, helpful Fourth Earl of Ambrose and Alexander Archdale as the jolly, mischievous Sir Randolph. Josephine Blake has a memorably sexy bit as a gorgeous slave girl who performs a sultry dance. John Wiles' crisp black and white cinematography boasts plenty of nifty fades and dissolves. Gerard Schurmann's dynamic score does the trick. A pleasant 62 minute diversion.

When " The Headless Ghost " was originally released in the United Kingdom it played the lower half of a double feature programme. The main feature was Roger Corman's " A Bucket of Blood ". I saw these two at the Biograph Cinema on Wilton Road, Victoria,in west London, at that time ( 1960 ), the oldest cinema in the capital. Although " The Headless Ghost " was rather tedious fare, it had an innocent charm, and I do recall the odd chuckle. The British Board of Film Censors passed the film for exhibition with a " U " certificate ( for viewing by all ages ). " A Bucket of Blood " was passed with an " X " certificate, for viewing only by those over 16 years of age. As a consequence, no young children were able to enjoy the ghostly delights in this particular double-bill, which, at a little over two hours, must rank as one of the shortest programmes ever. Give " The Headless Ghost " a chance. Play it with the Corman film and try to imagine what it must have been like sitting in a smelly flea-pit, located in a run down part of London, way back half a century ago.

If you remember seeing this film on local TV -- as I do -- then you know it's a short, cheap, shot-in-England black-and-white comedy with a few random ghosts thrown in. But it's still fun! Not only does the film feature the first credited film appearances of Josephine Blake (who would later be a British musical star) and Clive Revill (a great British character actor), but it's got a guy named David Rose who is about as close to a 1950s teen comedy Regis Philbin as you'll ever find. I don't know where they dug up guys like this one (and Bobby Van, and all the other horror/SF/fantasy "comedy relief" guys), but they're a cliché -- uh, staple of the time that you just have to look back and chuckle about. If you find the pacing slow (it is) and the plot thin (it is) and the comedy weak (it is), at least you know it's not very long...

I saw this many times on a local TV station back in the late 1970s. Every Saturday afternoon they showed two old horror films back to back. With a few exceptions they were BAD horror films. This is one of the worst.Stupid ghost story of three annoying teenagers (two American guys, one Danish woman) visiting a haunted castle in England. There they meet a ghost who has (literally) lost his head. They help him find it.Honestly...that's the entire plot! There's nothing else. The sets are real cheap looking (looks like they were made of cardboard), the special effects are atrocious (the headless ghost especially), the dialogue and plot are lame and the acting is really BAD! There isn't one remotely scary (or interesting or intelligent) moment in the entire film--it just drags on and on. The only reason I watched it was to avoid doing homework! Not even bad enough to be funny--just bad enough to be bad! A real must miss. I give it the lowest rating--1.