13 Ghosts (1960)

While I will mention the plot and the cast, while I will do my best to review 13 Ghosts in the same way I would review any other movie, a William Castle is a slightly different beast. The director was renowned for his gimmicks and showmanship, and it is important to bear that in mind when watching the films that best exemplify that (although it is good to remember that he also helmed a number of films that were a bit less sensational). 13 Ghosts was sold to people with the lure of Illusion-O and I will be getting back to that shortly.

Cyrus Zorba (Donald Woods) isn’t doing well. He is struggling to earn enough money to stop people from entering his family home, upsetting his wife (Hilda, played by Rosemary DeCamp), and taking away their furniture. Things look up when he inherits a house, one that may relieve the tension for his wife, daughter (Medea, played by Jo Morrow), and young son (Buck, played by Charles Herbert). The fact that the house is supposed to be haunted by numerous spirits is surely nonsense, right? Well, fortunately, there are also some special goggles that help people to see some of the spirits around them. 

While not on a par with his best movies (which both starred Vincent Price in two truly marvelous roles), 13 Ghosts is a fun time. I would have loved to have seen this in the cinema with the full Illusion-O experience. Patrons were apparently given a ghost viewer for the film, which allowed you to see or avoid the spooks, depending on whether you looked through the blue or red portion of the apparatus. It’s a simple way to filter the main image, and also allows Castle to present a number of phantoms that don’t have to stand up to very close scrutiny.

The script, written by Robb White (who collaborated with Castle many times), is disappointingly weak, but we know that it’s just a series of steps to move from one ghost to the next, perhaps even counting as we see each apparition. It lacks the wit and energy of other Castle movies, arguably hampered by the need to incorporate the USP throughout.

Thankfully, there’s a surprisingly enjoyable cast. Both Woods and DeCamp may be a bit weak, but they are often kept to one side as we spend time with Herbert (who manages to just avoid being too irritating as he happily seeks out the secrets of the house) and Morrow (who, to use a very well-worn phrase, positively lights up the screen). There’s also a good turn from Martin Milner, playing the lawyer who seems to be helping the family get things sorted, and a fun little role for Margaret Hamilton, with the most famous witch in cinema playing a housekeeper viewed as . . . a witch by young Buck.

There are good moments throughout this, even if you can see the strings moving things around onscreen, and the very last scenes are as devious and entertaining as they are predictable. I probably won’t revisit this one, apart from time I will spend checking out the wonderful wealth of bonus features on the blu-ray I own, but I enjoyed watching it while it was on. I have yet to see any William Castle film that I actively dislike. I hope things stay that way as I finally explore his other feature that I have had on my “to watch” pile for far too long.

6/10

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Prime Time: Dishonored Lady (1947)

Here's a strange bit of personal trivia to start things off today. Although I had heard of Hedy Lamarr over the years, and I MAY have first heard the name utilised in Blazing Saddles, I had never seen her in a movie. I could be forgetting something, it happens, but I really think that this is the first film I have watched featuring her in a main role. And I couldn't have made a better choice. Well, that's very debatable when considering sheer cinematic quality. But it's less debatable when you consider the plot details here, and pair that up with the reputation of someone who is credited with a frequency hopping radio system that is used today in WiFi, Bluetooth, and more.

So . . . what's it all about? Why am I so happy to have started with this? Well, it's all about Ms Lamarr, who plays a woman named Madeleine Damien, heading off to start a new life with a new identity. This is all for the sake of her mental health, and can you guess what has caused her to have such a problem? She's being viewed with disdain because she has been seen as someone who doesn't mind partying, and doesn't need to just stick to partying with one guy. Yes, the more things change, the more things stay the same. Dishonored Lady is a noir film revolving around the core idea that Hedy Lamarr is slut-shamed into starting a whole new life. Anyway, it works out well. She meets the lovely Dr. Cousins (played by Dennis O'Keefe) and the future looks bright. But her past isn't quite ready to stay in the past, and those who knew Madeleine before cannot believe that she has changed all that much. There's an attempt to ruin her happiness, there's a fair bit of alcohol, and there's a dead body, one that leads to an embarrassed Madeleine having to bear witness to a trial that seems more concerned with her lifestyle choices than any actual motivation for murder.

Based on a play, and adapted for the screen by Edmund H. North (who also happened to write one of my favourite films of all time, The Day The Earth Stood Still), Dishonored Lady is a simple and effective little thriller that also ticks some of the boxes to qualify as a noir. You get the moral shadiness, and that's without considering how '40s audiences may have viewed the central character, you get various people scheming to get results, and the corpse turns up just in time for the third act to step everything up.

Director Robert Stevenson handles everything well, making the most of his cast to easily further move away from any potential staginess in the material (and, kudos to North, there is plenty done in the adaptation to add some cinematic quality to everything). It's not flashy or overly complicated, Stevenson is a professional who keeps this focused on the main character, her journey and her big dilemma.

Lamarr is fantastic in her role, and I'll be seeking out more of her movies whenever I remember to make the time for them, and O'Keefe does well as the nice and proper love interest. John Loder and William Lundigan have two vital supporting roles, they do fine, while Morris Carnovsky has to be the exposition for a couple of main scenes in which he portrays the doctor who has tried to help Lamarr move on from her "unhealthy" past. And Margaret Hamilton is good to see in a small role, playing a landlady who likes her tenants but doesn't like the turn of events when the police come calling.

I can see people dismissing this easily enough. It's never all that gripping, it's essentially a love story interrupted by a bit of drama (as opposed to a noir with some chemistry between the leads), and there aren't enough big names padding out the cast list. It just all worked for me, thanks to the parallels you can make between attitudes of yesteryear and attitudes of today, and thanks to the central performance from Lamarr.

8/10

There doesn't seem to be any decent disc release for this, which is a great shame. Surely some major Lamarr retrospective boxset is out there, or due at some point.

Comin' Round The Mountain (1951)

While this is an enjoyable enough effort from Abbott & Costello it also feels like a bit of a step backwards. There is definitely some decent comedy here and there throughout the movie but you also get plenty of recycled gags (which should come as no surprise to anyone who has more than a passing knowledge of the A & C  filmography) and a few songs as well. Okay, the songs are quite entertaining but they still take up time that could have been given over to numerous comedy routines.

The plot is a riff on the old Hatfield-McCoy feud that happened in the latter part of the nineteenth century. It comes to light that Lou, playing Wilbur Smith, is a long lost relation of the McCoy family and his return should be enough to prompt the matriarch of the family to reveal the whereabouts of some family treasure. Bud, as Al Stewart, will go along for a share of the loot and singer Dorothy McCoy (played by Dorothy Shay) may soon regret ever informing Lou of his feisty family tree.

All of the usual suspects are in attendance behind the camera. Charles Lamont directs once more and the script includes contributions from Robert Lees, Frederic I. Rinaldo and John Grant. But it's the cast that lifts the whole film from something potentially dull and below average to a solid slice of comedy. Bud and Lou are their usual selves and Dorothy Shay is a sassy lass but the supporting players are even more enjoyable - Ida Moore is great as Granny McCoy, Shaye Cogan is still very cute despite being a bit of a tomboy character, Glenn Strange makes his second appearance beside our comedy leads (albeit this time without the heavy make up required to play Frankenstein's monster) and Margaret Hamilton has a bit of fun with her reputation as the most well-known witch in cinema history.

When I started writing this review I was going to give the movie a 6/10 rating at most but the more I think about it, the more I realise that this is a very enjoyable piece of entertainment. I still have misgivings about the songs and the amount of recycled gags but I can't deny that I was smiling and laughing from start to finish. Which is why it ends up getting a 7.

7/10

http://www.amazon.com/Costello-Foreign-Frankenstein-Invisible-Mountain/dp/B00023P4O2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1338933506&sr=8-1