Director – Riccardo Freda (Lust of the Vampire)
Starring – Barbara Steele (The Silent Scream), Peter Baldwin (Even Stevens), and Elio Jotta (Samson in King Solomon’s Mine)
Release Date – 1963
Rating – 3/5
UHD Release – 4/5
Way back in 2013 I was asked to contribute on Horror Society for a short period of time. That was 13 years ago now and I’m forever grateful for the opportunities that this has given me. During that time I was not friends with the boutique labels that I am now so I would just buy random movies to review. During this time I snagged an old box set from FYE I think it was that featured the 1963 gothic horror film The Ghost starring the legendary Barbara Steele. I reviewed it then and never watched it again.
Fast forward 13 years later and my friends over at Severin were kind enough to send over a copy of their UHD release of The Ghost for me to review. This was the perfect reason to give this movie another watch. Like always, I want to thank Severin for sending this one over!
**Spoiler Alert** The film follows Margaret Hichcock (Steele) who, along with her secret lover Dr. Livingstone (Baldwin), plot to poison her ill husband and make off with his fortune. The pair succeed and the sickly man dies.
At the reading of the will Margaret discovers that her late husband left her only 60% of his fortune. She tries to sneak off before the counsel can audit his fortune to give her the proper amount and discovers that the key to his safe is missing. Other strange occurrences have been happening in the castle forcing the couple to question if they actually killed the sick ghost3man or if his ghost are haunting them.**Spoiler Alert**
After watching this I started realizing that the story for this movie seemed to be a theme with the last 3 or 4 films in this cheap set that I had bought. Once again this story is very similar to Nightmare Castles with Barbara Steele’s role reversed. In Nightmare Castle Steele is a young girl that is mentally unstable and her new husband tries to drive her insane and possibly death to inherit her fortune. Now Steele is in the role where she is trying to poison her husband to gain his fortune. Once again this shows that money can not buy creativity.
The acting in this one is decent at best. Some of the actors did over due it a bit making the scenes awkward to watch or even follow for that matter. Sadly, even Steele’s performance was mediocre. She, too, contributed to making the scenes awkward to watch. The story is once again a rehashing of films from previous years with the addition of what they considered clever twists. Lack of originality was the true downfall to this flick. It is like watching the same movie just with a different cast and setting.
Finally, those looking for great special effects and on screen kills will not be satisfied by this one. However, the film’s true praise point is the atmosphere and tension. The director definitely knew how to drive suspense and it showed especially in the later scenes. Overall, The Ghost is not going to be anyone’s favorite film or remembered as a memorable performance from Steele but it is still a solid gothic supernatural tale that deserves to be seen. I highly recommend checking out this UHD release from Severin!
Special Features:
UHD:
Audio Commentary With Kat Ellinger, Author Of Daughters Of Darkness
Audio Interview With Barbara Steele
Italian Trailer
U.S. Trailer
Blu-ray:
Audio Commentary With Kat Ellinger, Author Of Daughters Of Darkness
Audio Interview With Barbara Steele
Audio Interview With Actress Harriet Medin And Tim Lucas, Author Of Mario Bava: All The Colors Of The Dark
Barbara Steele Presents The 4K Restoration At The Venice International Film Festival And L’Étrange Festival In Paris
Till Death Returns – Interview With Roberto Curti, Author Of Italian Gothic Horror Films, 1957–1969
Wounds Of Deceit – Video Essay On Barbara Steele By Dr. Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, Author Of 1000 Women In Horror, 1895–2018
Give Up The Ghost – Video Essay By Tim Lucas
Italian Trailer
U.S. Trailer
Bonus Blu-ray: EXECUTIONERS, MASKS, SECRETS: ITALIAN HORROR OF THE 1960s (80 mins)
Bonus Disc: Musica De Masi Compilation CD
Feature Specs for THE GHOST:
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Runtime: 95 mins
Audio: English Mono, Italian Mono
Subtitles: English SDH, English
Region: A/B/C
