The Ghost Goes Gear

"The Ghost Goes Gear" is a dismal affair. You hear about it and see that The Spencer Davis Group are the stars of the movie and you think it ought to be at least interesting. Well, it would have been if The Spencer Davis Group had more numbers in the film. They only perform in the first half and they don't do any of their big hits. (Well, "When I Get Home," which they play on a boat in the opening scene, was a hit in England, but if you want to see them do "Somebody Help Me," "Gimme Some Lovin'" or "I'm A Man," forget it. Not here anyway).

Instead, the bulk of the film deals with the group's manager and his parents and their attempts, with the help of the group, to save their ancestral home. They make up something about a ghost and then have a concert with a bunch of lesser English groups and that's it for 79 minutes.

A couple of the groups are not bad (The St. Louis Union, The M6), but most of the rest are a really square lot: Acker Bilk (not doing "Stranger on the Shore," thank God), The Three Bells, Dave Barry, The Lorne Gibson Trio, not a memorable moment among them. I will say this: they are all beautifully photographed, but that's all.

So what else do you get? Clumsy, unfunny slapstick, crummy dialogue, the annoying Sheila White, a group of acts that may have meant something to British audiences, but come across as blah to most American ears.....and not enough of The Spencer Davis Group. You'd have to be a total 60s die-hard to find much to enjoy here.