31 Nights of Halloween Horror - Night 17 - The Ghost




The Ghost
Dir. Riccardo Freda
97 mins.
1963/Italy

Another classic gothic horror movie starring Barbara Steele doing what she does best.  Sort of unofficial, but kind of mostly in character name only sequel to The Horrible Dr. Hitchcock.  But you don’t need to watch that movie at all to understand or appreciate The Ghost.  It stands on its own.



Directed by Riccardo Freda who also brought us the aforementioned Horrible Dr. Hitchcock as well as Caltiki, the Immortal Monster.  In this one Barbara Steele again plays the wife of Dr. Hitchcock.  This time Dr. Hitchcock is crippled and in a wheelchair.  He is assisted by the handsome Dr. Livingston, in combining deadly poisons given at the correct dosage to heal him.  Kind of like two wrongs make a right.  But the wrong dosage could ultimately kill him without the antidote.  It is quite obvious in this classic tale what is up next.  Barbara Steele and Dr. Livingston are having an affair and want to kill off Dr. Hitchcock and steal his money.

One evening while administering the poison to Dr. Hitchcock, he begins to choke, Dr. Livingston decides not to give him the antidote and Dr. Hitchcock meets his demise.  After the reading of the will, Barbara Steele find out that her now deceased husband is giving 60% of his fortune locked in his safe to charity.  Eager to get to the safe first, the two saboteurs can not locate the key.  They soon find out it was buried with Dr. Hitchcock, so to the crypt they go to retrieve it.  Once they get the key and open the safe it is found out that there is no treasure inside.  In the end Dr. Hitchcock has the last laugh.  But wait, what spills out of Dr. Livingston’s bag but a bunch of jewels, did he get to the safe before Barbara Steele and was he going to leave her behind?  And what about the ghost of Dr. Hitchcock that appears throughout the house?  Is he real or is Barbara Steele slowing going insane?



Old Gothic castle?  Check.  Wolf howling?  Check.  Thunderstorm?  Check.  Mad doctor?  Check.  Hidden bookcase?  Check.  Skulls?  Check.  Coffin?  Check.  Good musical score?  Check.  Creepy ghost stuff?  Check.  Barbara Steele?  Check.  Sure, we have seen this story numerous times, but all these elements together make for a classic Gothic Horror tale if that is your bag.  I kind of enjoyed it a little more than Nightmare Castle.



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