The Ghost (1963)

Simply A Masterpiece

A Disappointing Continuation

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

An adulterous wife (Barbara Steele) impatiently awaits the demise of her moribund husband to inherit his wealth and mansion. Her dalliance with his personal doctor, virtually in plain sight, eventually tempt them both to bring about his premature death. Unfortunately, things soon start going bump in the night and their now public relationship rather quickly disintegrates as they become consumed by greed, guilt and suspicion. The whole sorry affair is ended abruptly by another murder and the inevitable plot-twist this genre seems to demand.Although I respect Freda and his pioneering greatness for Italian horror cinema, I found this rather poor quality suspense film pretty slow and predictable. The story is so transparent, I had worked out all the plot details within the first 15 minutes! Visually, the film is very interesting though. There are some very creative shots which help in creating a moody, Gothic atmosphere. The cast are capable enough, with particular mention to the husband's lawyer. But it is Barbara Steele who is the big name here; her at once vulnerable beauty and femme fatale guile give her such charisma, her on- screen presence lend as much to her performance as any of her acting skills do. However, in this film, I felt she could have did better in that department.This murder mystery blends in to many of the others of the day and has nothing to offer of considerable value that makes it stand out from the rest. Not that it is a bad film though, rather it is a tame and vaguely entertaining piece which will do nothing more than amuse for 90 odd minutes.

To see ravishing Barbara Steele in color is the main point of interest here since there's no ghost to be found during the first 40 minutes of this mild scare flick.With the help of her boyfriend/thief-in-cahoots, Barbara tries to procure the fortune of her recently expired husband. Unfortunately when he was buried, the sonuvabitch had the key to the safe in his damn pocket. Now Barbara must dig him up in order to get to the stash. Subsequently, bellowing cries and squeaking footsteps can be heard throughout the house.... *yawn*.Routinely boring supposed-to-be-a horror movie, but Barbara Steele is quite the beautiful woman - as well as a fine actress - and she commands whenever she's on screen.

This is one of the best Italian Gothic horror movies of the 1960s. A crippled doctor is murdered by his wife and her lover and seems to haunt them. The haunting triggers, or rather bring to surface, the greed and distrust in the ex-wife, played perfectly by Barbara Steele. The haunting scenes are competently crafted and there is a surprisingly violent and gory scene as well. The finale is reminiscent of Poe. Unfortunately, the transfer on the available DVD (a double bill with the German thriller DEAD EYES OF London, in line with the movie's original double bill in its US theatrical release) is not as pristine-looking as one wishes it was. The picture quality on the said DVD is OK, but not as pristine as the movie deserves. I read that the French DVD was no better.

I can accept 1960's horror movies are nowhere near as scary as the ones from the 1980's but this looks more like a long episode of Tales From The Crypt than a horror movie.The evil Dr. Hitchcock is now confined to a wheelchair, if you saw the first movie you'd understand why. Anyway, Cynthia Hitchcock and Charles plot to kill old Hitchcock himself and when they do, his ghost supposedly haunts them.First, the whole plot is straight from the 50's but its definitely worth a look. The movie moves progressively slow, almost boring at times but its definitely has its moments. I will say the plot twist at the end was a nice touch but still everyone will be asleep before they see itI'm not going to sit her and BS everyone, its old and anyone my age will probably fall asleep watching it but if you're willing to take a look, the highlight of the movie is Cynthia gets ticked off the wolf is too loud so Charles shoots it.4 out of 10