Horror Classic 38 of 50: TORMENTED
This movie is from 1960, and it's called Tormented. Who will be tormented, and what will be tormenting him or her? As I sat down to watch the film, I couldn't wait to find out. This week, my old pal, fellow movie nerd, and loyal Ryan Watches 50 Movies reader Sara was visiting, so she had the enviable privilege of joining me as I watched an old movie no one's ever heard of. Synopsis
Tom Stewart is a jazz pianist, successful enough that he has a concert coming up at Carnegie Hall. (But how will he get there, har har har?) Right now he's spending some time on a lovely island, which has a sunny beach, an impressive old lighthouse, and the tide coming in which drowns out the dialogue in all the scenes shot outdoors.
Tom is about to marry his girlfriend Meg, but trouble shows up in the form of his ex, Vi. (When the credits said "JULI REDING AS VI", I wasn't sure if her name would be pronounced "Vie" or "Six.") Vi hasn't quite gotten over Tom, and she prepared to do everything in her power to derail his marriage before it's begun. In a confrontation at the top of the aforementioned lighthouse, she threatens to show Meg the old love letters Tom wrote her.
But then the railing she's leaning on breaks, and suddenly she's dangling precariously over the unforgiving rocky shore below. Tom could save her life, but instead he decides to make things easier for himself, and he lets her plunge to her death. Bye, Vi!
The next morning he feels kinda bad about it, so when he sees her body floating in the ocean ("Her boobs are keeping her afloat!" Sara remarked, and in truth they do appear quite buoyant), he dives in to retrieve it. But when he dumps it on the beach, it turns into seaweed. What the heck? Was Tom makin' out with a pile of leaves that whole time, or is there something else going on here?
Then there are more characters: Mrs. Ellis is a blind lady who is concerned about Tom in a grandmotherly way. Meg is his fiancee, who doesn't really seem like much of a catch. Sandy is Meg's precocious little sister, who seems to have a weird crush on Tom. One of my favorite parts of the movie, unrelated to the story, involved Sandy doing a magic show, wearing a top hat and a moustache. In fact, even if I had hated this movie, I would have had to give it pretty good letter grade just for having a little girl wearing a top hat and a moustache.
So where does the tormenting come in? Thank you for patience; now here it is: As Tom tries to convince himself that he's not culpable in Vi's death, strange things start to happen. First, the wedding ring he bought for Meg disappears... and reappears on VI'S DISEMBODIED FLOATING HAND! The effect here is surprisingly good, and I'm honestly not sure how they did it. It really looks like the hand is just floating there next to Tom's piano.
Later, Tom and Meg pose for a Polaroid, and when it comes out, the photo also includes... an image of VI'S DISEMBODIED FLOATING HEAD! As if that's not bad enough, said floating head later shows up in Tom's room, and has a little chat with him about how she's going to haunt him and there's nothing he can do about it. Well, he could break up with Meg, but she's just so gosh-darned excited about getting married. Of course, she's a little less excited when her dress suddenly gets ruined... by being WRAPPED IN SEAWEED!
The appearance of a guy named Nick doesn't help things at all... He's the dude who gave Vi a ride to the island, and now he has some pretty astute suspicions. He could ruin everything by squealing, which is why Vi's ghost tells Tom to kill him. And he does! Unfortunately, little Sandy witnesses it. Oops. Now what? Will Tom ever get to live a torment-free existence? Or will it be impossible for him to marry Meg and live happily ever after?
Is It Scary?
Some of the ghost stuff was actually pretty spooky. The hand, for example. But Vi's disembodied head hanging out on Tom's end table? That was just funny.
Lessons I Learned
- Don't lean on lighthouse railing.
- Ghosts produce an oddly sweet smell which does not resemble the smell of roses.
- Little girls with top hats and moustaches are funny.
- Tom's inner monologue, after failing to prevent Vi's death: "My conscience? Why should it bother me?"
- Sandy, looking at the lighthouse late at night: "There's a light on up there!"
Meg: "It's probably a boy and a girl. You wouldn't understand."
Sandy: "People go up there to neck."
• This was not a great movie, but it was better than most of the films on these DVDs. As my friend Sara pointed out, there was an interesting, Telltale Heart-style mood... Tom could see and hear the various manifestations of Vi, but no one else could, which raised the question of whether he was imagining it all as a product of his guilt.
• The director of Tormented was Bert I. Gordon, who shares his names with three Sesame Street characters: Gordon, Bert, and the letter I.
• You know who played Nick the doomed blackmailing guy? Joe Turkel. You don't recognize the name? Neither did I, but Sara quickly determined that he's the same guy who played Lloyd the bartender in The Shining. That film, of course, starred Jack Nicholson, who appeared in last week's movie, The Little Shop of Horrors. Isn't that amazing?
• Speaking of Nick, in his attempts to extort money from Tom, he used practically every slang word for money: scratch, dough, bread, a "fin", "five thou", horseshoes, Uncle Pineapple, blurpleguff... I may have made up a few of those.
• Vi is supposed to be some kind of singer. When Tom tries to practice the piano, he's interrupted by his record player turning on by itself, and playing a record called "Tormented"... sung by Vi. That was a nice touch.
• It makes me very happy that there are now two entries in this blog with the label "disembodied head." Do you remember what the other one was? Go ahead, click on it down there and see.
Letter grade for Tormented: C+
Next film in the 50-movie set: The Monster Walks. Well, that's good. I hope the monster also eats plenty of vegetables.
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