The Ghost (1963)

as my subject line says,, the movie started of painstakingly slow, for the 1st hour,, then all of a sudden the last 30-35 mins, there was so much to take in and stuff was happening at break neck pace . never heard of Barbara Steele before, wow she's so sexy, and amazing her eyes are haunting to say the least. I can imagine any man doing exactly whatever she wanted him to do and be happ about it. Our poor Dr. Hitchcock plays a handicap bound to a wheel chair, his wife decides that she wants him gone and dead fast. so she get's the help of the family lawyer,, and they proceed to try and kill Dr. Hitchcock,, but did they really kill him.. appears so.. but watch and find out,, there are a lot of things I really liked about this one,, I just wish it wouldn't have taken forever for the movie to get a jumpstart,, but once it did I was very happy.. not a bad little movie at all, and enjoyed Barbara Steele immensely. .

Having struggled for a number of months to find a good DVD edition for Riccardo Freda's first Gothic Horror collaboration with Barbara Steele, (The Terror of Dr.Hichcock) I was relived to discover on Amazon that Alpha Video had brought out their second,and final movie:The Ghost out on a DVD that was being sold at a super-cheap price.Sadly,about 5 minutes after the Alpha DVD had arrived in the post,I realised that the reason the DVD was being sold at such a cheap price,was possibly connected to the picture quality looking like it had been chucked into a potato masher.Pulling my self backup from Alpha's disappointment,I decided to go on an extensive search in the hope of finding Freda's Technicolour glowing ghost. The plot:Scotland-1910: Suffering from a crippling illness,Dr.John Hichcock relies on the good will of his wife Margaret and the advance medical protocol performed on him by Dr. Charles Livingston,who along with giving John tiny doses of poison,in order for it to loosen up his bones and muscles,also takes part in the séances that John holds with Margaret and their house keeper Catherine Wood.Unbeknowst to John,Margaret and Charles have become passionate lovers,who are sick of the very sight of him.Taking part in a rather dangerous séance,Margaret convinces Charles that now is the perfect time to give John a little bit too much poison.Making sure to cover their tracks,the couple prepare for the hearing of the will,which will lead to them receiving all of the cash that "kind,old" Dr.Hichcock has left for them.Expecting to hear music to their ears,John and Margaret are instead given an unexpected surprise,when they are told that Hichcock has put all of the "will money" into a safe that only he has the key to.Franticly searching round for the key,Charles and Margaret begin to fear that the séances John held may have left to something else being left behind from "the other side" with his will… View on the film:With Ernesto Gastaldi's plodding screenplay being the main thing that led to The Terror of Dr.Hichcock being a huge disappointment,I was thrilled to discover that director Riccardo Freda had joined up with Oreste Biancoil to write the screenplay for this far superior film.Keeping the movie set in Hichcock's atmospheric castle,Freda and Biancoil impressively transform the movie gradually from a chilling Gothic Horror filled with "empty" wheelchairs moving around and a key which seems to always disappear,into a dark Film Noir as cracks begin to appear in Margaret and Charles's passionate lives over if they can truly trust,that neither of them will leave the other empty handed and run off with Hichcock's wealth all for themselves.For his terrificly stylised directing,Freda shows a surprisingly restrained approach to the Technicolour aspect of the movie,by filling the castle with mist and shadow to build up a shivering mood,that is ripped apart by bursting abrasive colours that Freda uses to give the movies most sinister moments a vibrant twist.Featuring in almost every single scene of the movie,Barbara Steele gives a truly tremendous performance that causes the viewer to become completely transfixed on the film,thanks to Steele being able to perfectly mix the movie's deep in the eyes Gothic terror,with a ravishing,double crossing side that leads to this being an appointment with Dr.Hichcock that you will happily remember.

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.

Succulent typecast Gothic horror with campy melodramatics bestowing sly twists and turns at the back end and the stunning beauty and capability of actress Barbara Steele. What starts off creaky, forms into a strong and gripping story of betrayal, greed, secret love and possible madness? Where we find the slow-boil situations manipulated and the hysterical nature breaks free with some effective shivers and thrills. The best thing is watching Steele's character's restless transformation, as is she cracking under the pressure by seeing her dead husband (who she plotted to murder) or is there scheming going on by her doctor lover (a decent Peter Baldwin) or is someone plotting against the both of them. The straight-laced script perfectly dissects and hides the feverish mystery with an excellent bittersweet conclusion. Riccardo Fredo's direction is pedestrian, outside some camera framing (like a death scene where the blood sprays the screen) and the dank, but haunting mansion. Ellia Jotta is exemplary as Dr. John Hitchcock and Harriet Medin is good too. Contrived, but agreeable ghost story.