Thanks for the memories!

Better Late Then Never

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Three college age kids decide to spend the night in a gloomy old country British castle and end up in a comic mystery where they help the other worldly residents in their desire to move onto the next world. It's an amusing but inconsequential little B movie bought by American International for release in the United States, but has a charm that cannot be denied. The three intruders (Richard Lyon, Liliane Sottane, David Rose) act with tongue in cheek, making it obvious that they were having a ball making this, and each of the ghosts gets their own personality. In a sense, it reminded me of "The Canterville Ghost" and brought back ghostly memories of the opening sequence of a Betty Grable musical, "That Lady in Ermine", where a bundle of undead nobility sing about the desire to protect the castle they've been haunting from a foreign invader.If I had been one of the college age kids acting in this film, it would be a difficult task in keeping myself from laughing at the antics of the hilarious character actors playing the castle phantoms. The headless ghost itself isn't credited, even for their voice, but they get a delicious sense of humor of the fate, while the first phantom seen (Clive Revill) is a noble soul throughout. Even the worst of the lot, a ghost whose desire to stay put where he is, isn't all scary, so this is a film that kids can enjoy, that is if they can get past some British cultural references and the black and white photography. In a sense, this could be compared to a Laurel and Hardy film or the Abbott and Costello film, "Hold That Ghost", where everybody is having fun, and the screenwriter's tongue distinctly inserted in cheek. There's even a "kooch dancer" ghost, giving a performance that must have even had the headless ghost's head spinning.

Coming down with a nasty cold,I started looking round for an easy- going film to view.With having originally watched the movie for IMDbs Classic Film boards beast of 1959 poll,I decide that it was the perfect time to go ahead and meet the headless ghost again.The plot:Planning to write a paper based on a haunted castle,Ronnie and his friends Ingrid and Bill decide to take a tour of the castle.Reaching the end of the tour,the trio are told that the ghosts come out at night.Hiding in the castle until all the tourists have gone,Bill,Roonie and Ingrid soon uncover a curse that has been touring the castle for centuries. View on the film:Before getting to the movie,I have to mention that Network have given the title an excellent transfer,with the soundtrack allowing the viewer to hear every ghostly scream,and the clear picture allowing the viewer to see a headless ghost dart across the screen.Running at a trim 60 minutes,the screenplay by Herman Cohen & Aben Kandel offers a delightful mix of light comedy and horror,as the ghostly events of the castle are joined by the "Aww shucks" of the trio.Locking the ghosts in the castle,the writers give each of them unique,funny features which go from the unlucky 4th Earl to the playful Sir Randolph.Uncovering the secrets hidden in director Peter Graham Scott's shadow-filled castle,the alluring Liliane Sottane gives a terrific performance as Ingrid,with Sottane giving Ingrid a real sense of excitement over solving the curse,the gang start to get a head of the headless ghost.

"The Headless Ghost" is a harmless, very minor but fairly likable little comedy filmed on the cheap in Britian. Three foreign exchange students - Americans Bill (Richard Lyon) and Ronnie (David Rose) and Danish gal Ingrid (Liliane Sottane) - take in the locations of the Ambrose Estate. Ronnie wants to investigate the stories of the place being haunted for his college newspaper and the three certainly do find plenty to write about. The ghosts are real, starting with amiable, helpful Fourth Earl of Ambrose (the great character actor Clive Revill, in his first credited screen role). One of the ghosts, Malcolm, needs his body and his severed head to be reunited so he can properly rest in peace. Bill, Ingrid, and Ronnie are reluctant at first but are eventually persuaded to see this "mission" through to its end. As written by Aben Kandel and producer Herman Cohen, and directed by Peter Graham Scott, there are no real comedy fireworks here. At best, the movie does elicit some modest chuckles, but at least it's all easy enough to take. The trio of protagonists have the potential to annoy some viewers, especially Bill, but the enthusiasm of the actors' performances is effective, and that accent of Sottanes' is hard to resist. Revill scores as the easygoing ghost, and Alexander Archdale is a hoot as the fun loving spirit of Sir Randolph. One debit is that even at a mere one hour and three minutes, this definitely feels padded: better pacing and this could have run even shorter. Still, one can't completely dislike the padding, as it features some incredible dance moves by a sexy performer named Josephine Blake. The special effects aren't bad, the music by Gerard Schurmann is good, and the movie isn't totally without decent black & white atmosphere. Originally released as the second movie in a double feature with Roger Cormans' "A Bucket of Blood", this is indeed lightweight stuff, and pretty damn silly, but it's also impossible to hate. After all, it's not as if we don't know what we're in for judging by the opening credits. Six out of 10.

Three college students go on a visit to Ambrose Castle in England. However, the ghosts want their help and lock them in the place at closing. One of the ghosts appears to them and begs them to help them find a decapitated ghost's head and mutter some incantation to restore it to his body. And, not surprisingly, they do complete the mission...but I was left not caring in the least.Technically speaking, the film wasn't horrible. The acting wasn't particularly good but the project didn't have the Ed Wood quality that would have given it a score of 1 or 2. One question I did have was who was this actress Liliane Sottane? She was supposed to be playing a Swede but sure sounded French or Belgian. IMDb and the rest of the internet had almost nothing about her.I watched this film because I thought it was a horror movie--and I love horror films. However, it turned out to be a 'horrible' movie instead. And, it turned out to be the sort of horror film you might expect from an episode of "The Brady Bunch" or "Gilligan's Island" or perhaps a Dean Jones film for Disney. I thoroughly hated it, as the film was dumb...and completely underestimated the intelligence of the audience (unless their intended audience was 10 and under). But, for a VERY undemanding viewer, it's all harmless entertainment (provided, of course, you find any of it entertaining--I sure didn't).