Purely Joyful Movie!

A Major Disappointment

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

The Ghost (1963) ** 1/2 (out of 4) Italian shocker has Dr. Hitchcock (Elio Jotta) dying but his doctor Charles (Peter Baldwin) is battling hard to try and extend his life. So Dr. Hitchcock thinks. In reality Charles is having an affair with Hitchcock's wife Margaret (Barbara Steele) and the two are trying to kill him. Once dead, the new couple feel they have a fortune coming to them but soon they believe the dead man's ghost is after them.After the success of THE HORRIBLE DR. HITCHCOCK, director Riccardo Freda and Steele teamed up for this film. Even though one of the main characters here is named Dr. Hitchcock I don't think they two films are really connected, although some horror fans give some pretty good theories as to why they are. Either way THE GHOST is a great looking picture with a lot of very good things in it but at the same time there are a couple major issues that keep it from being much better.I'll get the flaws out of the way first but there's no question that there's way too much melodrama going on. I say that because there are way too many scenes at the start of the picture where we're waiting on the doctor to die and I personally felt it took too long to happen. Once the two lovers begin to fight I felt there were a few too many scenes that got dragged out without adding much to the picture. The 95-minute running time certainly drags at times due to the slow pacing.With that said, the film does offer up some very good atmosphere that can only be found in these Italian Gothic pictures. Freda does a nice job at building up this atmosphere and he certainly makes a very good looking picture. Another major plus are the performances with both Baldwin and Jotta doing nice work. The real star is of course Steele who steals the picture as the double crossing wife. Add in a couple nice twists throughout the film and THE GHOST is worth watching.

Generally speaking, I love this type of film: slow, Gothic, ghosts, mystery and horror but this one is just OK - not nearly as good as I thought it would be. I'm extra shocked because Barbara Steele is in the film - and I like her a lot.Dr. John Hichcock is in a wheelchair is married to the lovely Margaret. Margaret and Dr. Charles Livingstone are having an affair and Dr. Hichcock knows it. Dr. Hichcock also knows he's being poisoned and even asks his personal doctor, Dr. Charles Livingstone, to give him the antidote. One day Dr. Livingstone and Margaret decides they want John dead so Charles refuses to give John the antidote after his daily poisoning. Margaret and Charles are now happy until they see the "ghost" of John. Is it John's ghost or is John still alive? It's s-l-o-w-l-y paced until the ending. As I said earlier, I like slow films but this one is just OK - and extremely slow.4/10

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.

The Ghost finds Barbara Steele and Peter Baldwin as the lady of the house and the live in physician doing a whole lot of kanoodling right under the nose of husband Elio Jotte. The husband has been lingering on death's door for some time and Steele and Baldwin would just like it if were to go just do it quickly so they can start spending the fortune Jotte's alleged to have left.There does come a point when the two decide to hurry things a long and even raise a few eyebrows among the neighborhood when Baldwin continues to live at the estate. But when all kinds of things start to go bump in the night the relationship starts to come apart at the seams. Housekeeper Harriet Medin who is the only other person living in the estate is loyal to her late master and makes no attempt to conceal her disgust with Steele and Baldwin.The Ghost is an Italian production with foreign players from the USA and UK and is not too bad in the thrill department. It won't give any competition to Alfred Hitchcock. Might however for William Caste.