Invisible Ghost

source: Invisible Ghost

Moviecut—Invisible Ghost

A demented masterpiece from director Joseph H Lewis. Faced with a script that makes no sense (Lugosi's wife is mentally unbalanced after a car crash, so the loyal servants keep her in the garden shed and pretend to Lugosi that she dies, in order not to upset him!) Lewis pulls out the stops, adding startling and classy and baroque and unusual directorial touches everywhere he can. The film must have been shot it a week, and feels like it was scripted in an hour. No time for re-writing - the hero goes to the electric chair, but we need a romantic interest - quick, give him a twin brother! My favourite moment is when Lugosi, having hammed it up at every opportunity, however inappropriate, has to describe the sight of a man briefly (and pointlessly, in narrative terms) rising from the dead. "It was horrible" he remarks, casually, over breakfast. The one moment where a bit of passion would have been useful, and the great Bela belatedly discovers underplaying. He will be missed. Kudos to Clarence Muse for keeping it real, and check out the references to "a lot of murders" which have been committed in this house - are there so frequent that no one can remember how many? And nobody thought to question Lugosi, who is known to be several bats short of a belfry...

What a pathetic, degrading waste of talent on the part of actor Bela Lugosi, cast ludicrously in what comes close to equaling such bottom-of-the-barrel schlock as BRIDE OF THE MONSTER. And yet...and yet... ...if you love Lugosi's mellifluous, Hungarian-accented intonations (as I do), just sit back and ignore (or "enjoy") the film's imbecilic dialogue, implausible plot, stilted acting, and utterly hilarious direction, and allow yourself to be carried away by the erstwhile treasured voice that gave Bela Lugosi the fame and stature he so rightfully deserved back in the 30s from such memorable films as THE RAVEN, THE BLACK CAT, THE INVISIBLE RAY, SON OF FRANKENSTEIN and, of course, Dracula.

The acting is just about par for the course. The plot is very silly going on near incomprehension. It does feel a lot longer than it's 64 minute running time and the way everyone reacts after the poor guy gets executed gives off an air of, 'oh well, swings and roundabouts'. Don't let any of this make you think this movie is a fun one in the so bad it's good category, it's not it's just plain dull, stupid and repetitive. I'm just glad I only paid £1 for the DVD maybe I can get 50p credit if I take it into Blockbusters. This is one for people who 'have' to see all of Bela Lugosi's films, trust me there are to many good movies out there and to little time in a life to bother with this 64 minutes. 2/10

The Invisible Ghost starts on the anniversary of Charles Kessler (Bela Lugosi) wife leaving him for his best friend, an event which understandably traumatised him so much that he has his butler Evans (Clarence Muse) set a place at the dinner table for her still. Charles daughter Virginia (Polly Ann Young) doesn't seem to worry about it that much. In fact Charles wife (Betty Compson) was involved in a car crash that killed her lover but which she survived & was rescued by the gardener Jules (Ernie Adams) who now keeps her in the basement of a barn, or something like that. One night as Charles stares out of his studies window he sees his wife standing out front, for some reason this makes Charles strangle his new maid Cecile (Terry Walker) for which Virginia's boyfriend Ralph Dickson (John McGuire) is accused & convicted. Ralph's identical Brother Paul (McGuire again) flies over from South Africa to investigate the case, however the murders continue & Lieutenant Williams (George Prembroke) is baffled as to who may be responsible & their motives... Directed by Joseph H. Lewis this is another low budget black and white horror mystery film from the early 40's that really isn't any good. First of all I'm not sure as to why it's called The Invisible Ghost as no one is invisible & there are no ghosts in it. Anyway, the script by Al & Helen Martin offers no explanation for anything that happens. It's all written in a very linear way as well, there is no mystery elements at all as everything is revealed within the first 10 minutes or so. The Invisible Ghost makes no sense whatsoever & after watching it you will be scratching your head as to what it was all about. Ralph's Brother Paul doesn't seem interested or distressed by his execution & for most of the film appears totally unconcerned. The main problem is that there is no reason why Kessler would kill people after seeing his wife & then not remember a thing about & why nobody seem bothered about the fact that multiple unsolved murders have taken place in the same house, the entire plot is meaningless & the film isn't satisfying to watch as it never rewards your patience, which believe me you will plenty of. There are plenty of silly & baffling scenes like when a dead body is found standing upright behind a pair of curtains, I mean would a dead body just 'stand' there until someone opened the curtains at which point the body falls over to take the normal lying on the floor dead body position? I'm just not sure a dead body would stand up perfectly straight for any length of time... Technically it's pretty poor with bland black and white cinematography basic sets & cheap production values. The acting is predictably wooden with Lugosi not putting a lot of effort into it. Generally speaking I didn't like The Invisible Ghost too much, as a piece of entertainment it simply doesn't work as there is no conceivable story. Even with a running time of just over an hour The Invisible Ghost seems longer, don't waste your time.

Maybe this is a spoiler, but I don't think anyone should watch this movie without knowing the following: this movie makes no sense. Bela Lugosi stars as a wealthy estate owner who misses his wife and thinks she is dead. But she's not dead -- the gardener keeps her in a shed in the backyard. And sometimes she escapes in a bathrobe to steal a piece of chicken from the kitchen, only to be spotted through the window by Lugosi who thinks it's a ghost. This causes him to enter a trance and kill some random person. Even after several murders (maybe dozens) in the same house, the police never suspect Lugosi. On one occasion, they arrest the boyfriend of Lugosi's daughter and execute him. A minute later in the next scene his twin brother shows up. If you like Lugosi, this film is decent and quite fun. But seriously, don't try to figure out why the wife is in a shed or what causes him to go into a trance or why the police are so stupid. Because you will never make sense of this preposterous film.

Invisible Ghost is yet another example of how Bela Lugosi felt it was necessary to keep working no matter what he was asked to appear in. This one is from Sam Katzman at Monogram Pictures and it definitely shows all the Katzman touches from incoherent story, zero production values, and pedestrian acting. Bela Lugosi is a man who lives with his daughter Pollyanna Young and a staff of various servants. Several years ago his wife Betty Compson ran off with another guy and this unhinged Bela. He believes Compson dead along with her paramour in an automobile accident. Only Compson is still alive unhinged herself and being taken care of by the estate gardener Ernie Adams. Only every now and then she gets out and appears at Bela's window trying to get back in. This is where Lugosi goes off his rocker. One sight of her turns him into homicidal strangler and since he can't reach her he strangles whoever is available. No one catches on, they even arrest John McGuire and send him to the chair for Terry Walker's murder. All I can say is that this is such utter nonsense even Lugosi's most nondiscriminating fans will either laugh or be bored. Not quite Ed Wood, but Invisible Ghost comes close.

Charles Kessler lives with his daughter, Virginia, and servants in his large house, but Kessler still awaits the return of his wife, who ran away with another man and disappeared following a car crash with her lover. Mrs. Kessler, unknown to her husband, is living in the gardener's tool shed, afraid to return home. She occasionally sneaks out of the shed, and spies on her husband through the window. One night Kessler sees his wife through the window and falls into a mad hypnotic state where he strangles Cecile, the new maid at the house. The crime is framed on Ralph Dickson, Virginia's fiancé and former love of Cecile. Dickson dies at the hands of the law, and his identical twin brother Paul comes to the Kessler residence, hoping to posthumously clear his brother's name. Kessler, under another trance, kills the house's gardener and nearly strangles his daughter, and it becomes obvious to the police and everyone in the house that the murders are the work of a madman, but how will Kessler be uncovered in this strange case. This film is probably the best of the Lugosi Monogram series, primarily due to Joseph Lewis' superb direction where there is a lot of suspense and neat twists. Good performances by the cast make this and a very good ending make this a good one to watch, despite a few plot holes. Rating, based on B mysteries, 8.

Lugosi once again gets to try to instill sincerity into a ridiculous plot. He's a seemingly kindly doctor who becomes a psychotic killer (committing the deeds while in a trance) when he spots his insane missing wife (Betty Compson) whom he adored, but in denial over the fact that she abandoned him for another man. In the meantime, boring daughter deals with a dull romantic subplot involving fiancee (John McGuire) who is accused of killing the possessive maid Terry Walker who became Lugosi's first victim. One of his duller Monogram programmers, Lugosi couldn't add life to this by adding his own plasma. Obviously cheap sets (that look like they are about to collapse), a script that even lacks camp, and a dull supporting cast (lead by Young as his unfortunate daughter given a dull romance for a secondary story line) are other flaws. Young highly resembles her more popular sister (Loretta) but doesn't have her acting chops. McGuire has the oddest twist in the plot, suddenly coming back moments after the execution, as the twin nobody knew he had. Lugosi's performance is fine until he has to go into his sudden trance, but that seems to be a fault of the direction, not his choices. Veteran black character actor Clarence Muse fortunately avoids stereotypes as the loyal butler who is actually the smartest person in Lugosi's household. Compson, a star of the early 30's, would have been better to have skipped this one, looking as if time had not been kind, and photographed in an unflattering light. The circumstances surrounding her character make absolutely no sense. The eerie musical score was also heard in Lugosi's 1932 horror classic, "White Zombie", but seems strangely inappropriate here. The painfully slow pacing destroys this even further.