Horror Classic 6 of 50: INVISIBLE GHOST
Please note that the correct title of this film is Invisible Ghost, not The Invisible Ghost. Times were tough in 1941, and articles were hard to come by. Like last week's Black Dragons, Invisible Ghost stars horror veteran Bela Lugosi, which means that Disc 2, Side B of this 50-movie collection is a Lugosi double feature! Also, they're both very short... the combined running time of both movies is only 130 minutes, or 28 minutes less than There Will Be Blood. Anyway, let's get to talking about the movie... I for one can't wait to see the titular ghost! I hope it's scary... but not too scary!Synopsis
Mr. Kessler (Lugosi!) is a nice ol' guy who lives in a big ol' house. As the film opens, his butler Evans is serving dinner for Kessler and... and an empty chair. "You're looking beautiful this evening," Kessler tells the chair, and to be fair, the chair does look ravishing. Kessler's daughter Virginia arrives at the house, followed by her boyfriend Ralph, and their expositiony dialogue gives us the story so far: Several years ago, Kessler's beloved wife ran off with his best friend, but their affair was abruptly ended by a car crash that killed both of them. Kessler has never gotten over it.
Then Virginia and Ralph grope each other a little bit, but they're being watched by Cecille, Mr. Kessler's new maid. You see, Cecille and Ralph had a fling a while back, and though he's over it, she still wants to "dust his mantelpiece," if you know what I mean (and I certainly don't). The two exes argue about this outside the house after Ralph has said goodnight to Virginia, but they don't realize that Evans can hear every word they're saying. Ralph leaves, and Cecille goes to the kitchen to have a casual, nonchalant discussion about all the murders that keep happening at the Kessler house. Some weather we've been having, eh? Did you see the game on Sunday? What's the deal with the murders in this house, anyway?
We now turn our attention to Jules, the gardener, as he raids the refrigerator. He takes the food outside to a shed in the woods behind the house, goes down some stairs, and gives the food to... MRS. KESSLER! She's alive! She's been alive this whole time, but Jules has felt it wise to hide her, because... because... well, gawrsh, I dunno.
She's been in pretty sad shape since the accident, but she really wants to see her hubby, so she lumbers out that night and stands outside the house, glaring at him as if he left the toilet seat up. Kessler sees her, causing him first to squint a lot, then to go into a deep trance, lurching down the stairs like a wind-up toy. He enters Cecille's room and suffocates her with his coat. When her body is found the next morning, the police are summoned, and the evidence (Evans's testimony and a note in Cecille's room) points to Ralph as the killer. Before you can say "montage," poor Ralph has been charged, tried, sentenced and executed for a crime he didn't commit.
Weeks later, Kessler and Virginia are startled by the arrival of an unexpected guest: Ralph's identical twin brother Paul! He just got back from South America, and he's determined to clear his bro's good name. Oh, and can he crash at Kessler's place for a while? Thanks, man. That's really cool of you.
Soon after, crazy Mrs. Kessler decides to make another cameo appearance, standing outside her husband's window and sort of serenading him, only with chilling, mesmerizing fear instead of music. Again Kessler does that funky dance craze the Murderous Stagger, this time killing gardener Jules. The cops are baffled. Who keeps committing these murders which are happening in Mr. Kessler's house to employees of Mr. Kessler who also live in Mr. Kessler's house? Who could it be? Paul and the cops suspect Evans.
Of course. Soon after, Kessler hires a new cook with self-esteem issues. Will she be the next victim? Actually, no, she's not. But if nobody figures out what's going on, Kessler may just keep killing people unwittingly until there's nobody left!
Is It Scary?
Sometimes. The murder of Cecille actually moved to shout at my TV: "What?! What are you -- OH NO!" So that was pretty effective.
Lessons I Learned
- According to the psychiatrist consulted by the police: It's quite common for a man to act normal for months at a time, then go insane for an hour or so.
- When Bela Lugosi is in your movie, he's probably the murderer. (See also Black Dragons.)
- Yawning really is contagious! When Lugosi yawned onscreen, it made me have to yawn, 67 years later.
Although this film was clearly shot on a limited budget on a limited number of sets, it's the best movie in this DVD set since Carnival of Souls. (Creature From the Haunted Sea did what it set out to do, but it was more silly than scary.) The director makes a real effort to keep things interesting. In the aforementioned Cecille murder scene, there's some quick cutting between a radio playing jazz and the leering face of Lugosi that genuinely heightens the tension. Shadows are used effectively in a few places as well, and there's a nifty scene shot from inside the fireplace.
Bela Lugosi really gives his all in everything I've ever seen him in. He's usually the highlight of any film he appears in, which I suppose is the reason he was in so many of these things. Still, having seen Tim Burton's Ed Wood, I find myself wondering with morbid curiosity whether he was shooting up at the time of this movie.
Kessler's butler Evans (played by Clarence Muse) is African-American, but it's to the filmmakers credit that there's no sign of the cringe-inducing shtick one might expect from such a character in a film of the era. In fact, Evans even gets to crack a few clever jokes.
Considering the fact that Paul -- the spitting image of Ralph -- shows up without any advance notice, Virginia takes it pretty well. I think I'd be a little more freaked out if the double of my dead lover suddenly moved into my house. Maybe she had a little bit of a Jimmy-Stewart-in-Vertigo thing going on...
I was quite relieved that the audio was clear on this movie. All the movies on this set are in the public domain, so some of them have been of questionable quality. But I could understand every word of dialogue and every DRAAA!MAAA!TIC! music cue here. (I love those big, dramatic old movie scores.)
Hold on just a dad-blamed minute! There was no ghost in this movie! Man! First there's no vampire in Atom Age Vampire, then there are no dragons in Black Dragons, now this. At least there was a castle and nightmares in Nightmare Castle. Unless... maybe there was a ghost, and I just didn't notice him because he was invisible. Heck, he might have been in every scene!
It's been interesting to note certain themes and motifs that keep popping up in these movies. Check out the tags at the bottom of these posts to keep track of them.
Letter grade for Invisible Ghost: B
Next movie in the DVD set: One Body Too Many. The title implies that there is some number of bodies which is exactly the right number of bodies. My question to you, the readers, is: Precisely how many bodies is one body too many? Make your guesses and come back next week to see if you're right!
One more thing! I know this post is getting long, but I just wanted to point out that, as all of the movies from the 50 Movie Pack: Horror Classics are in the public domain, most of them can be viewed for free on the Internet Archive. Click here for Invisible Ghost, if you're interested.
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