The Ghost backdrop
The Ghost poster

THE GHOST

Lo spettro

1963 IT HMDB
March 30, 1963

A woman and her lover murder her husband, a doctor. Soon, however, strange things start happening, and they wonder if they really killed him, or if he is coming back from the dead to haunt them.

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Crew

Production: Luigi Carpentieri (Producer)
Screenplay: Riccardo Freda (Writer)Oreste Biancoli (Screenplay)
Music: Franco Mannino (Original Music Composer)
Cinematography: Raffaele Masciocchi (Director of Photography)

REVIEWS (1)

As Chianese
To cure an ailment that makes him a victim of frequent paralysis, Hitchcock must take a daily potion based on curare. To "cure" him is Dr. Livingstone, who is secretly the lover of his wife Margaretha. When the two kill him by giving him a double dose of curare, the ghost of the necrophiliac doctor will torment them until both die. Dr. Hitchcock returns and there are again troubles for the beautiful Barbara Steele! With a Peter Baldwin not perfectly at ease and a screaming, not very psychotic Steele, the film resembles too many other American films of that period with the fake death and the persecution of the two culprits. Sequel to the successful "The Terrible Secret of Dr. Hitchcock," the film suffers from a poor screenplay but has considerable visual talent on the part of Freda. Image after image, there is a heavy sense of déjà-vu, but Freda's direction, as usual impeccable and rich in references, raises this film several notches above other gothic films of the period.
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Wuchak

Wuchak

6 /10

Italian Gothic Horror with a young Barbara Steele and Peter Baldwin

In 1910 Scotland, a paralyzed estate-owner (Elio Jotta) dies in a dubious manner and his wife and young doctor (Barbara Steele & Peter Baldwin) experience ghostly happenings, including poltergeist phenomena. Harriet Medin is on hand as the housekeeper.

“The Ghost” (1963), aka “Lo Spettro,” is Italian Gothic horror, a reimagining of the French hit “Les Diaboliques” (1955). It influenced future movies; for instance, the blood from the ceiling was later done in “The Devil’s Nightmare” (1971), aka “The Devil Walks at Midnight.” Meanwhile the music box angle was used in “For a Few Dollars More” (1965).

While this is an Italian movie, the cast is international with Steele being English, Baldwin & Medin American and Jotta Italian. Barbara is youthful and bright-eyed at the age of 24 during shooting.

While the story is simple, the eerie ambiance is to die for. “The Ghost” is worth checking out for anyone interested in ghostly Gothic horror taking place in spooky Euro-styled castles or manors, such as “The Innocents” (1960), "The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll" (1960) and “The Tomb of Ligeia” (1964).

The film runs 1 hour, 36 minutes, and was shot in Rome.

GRADE: B-

Reviews provided by TMDB