User reviews

When " The Headless Ghost " was originally released in the United Kingdom it played the lower half of a double feature programme. The main feature was Roger Corman's " A Bucket of Blood ". I saw these two at the Biograph Cinema on Wilton Road, Victoria,in west London, at that time ( 1960 ), the oldest cinema in the capital. Although " The Headless Ghost " was rather tedious fare, it had an innocent charm, and I do recall the odd chuckle. The British Board of Film Censors passed the film for exhibition with a " U " certificate ( for viewing by all ages ). " A Bucket of Blood " was passed with an " X " certificate, for viewing only by those over 16 years of age. As a consequence, no young children were able to enjoy the ghostly delights in this particular double-bill, which, at a little over two hours, must rank as one of the shortest programmes ever. Give " The Headless Ghost " a chance. Play it with the Corman film and try to imagine what it must have been like sitting in a smelly flea-pit, located in a run down part of London, way back half a century ago.

Headless Ghost, The (1959)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

Three teenagers, looking for ghosts, spend the night in a haunted house and meet a headless ghost who needs to locate his head before passing to the "other side". This horror/comedy from AIP has somewhat of a small, cult following behind it but I'm really not sure what they see in it. Yes, every film has at least a small group of fans but I must admit that this movie just didn't do it for me. The movie has a lot more comedy than anything else or perhaps I should say this film tries to go for comedy more than anything else. I honestly can't remember laughing a single time, which is pretty bad considering the movie tries to get a laugh every few seconds. I also wasn't overly thrilled with any of the horror elements, which are pretty much held to the castle and the main ghost needing the help. The cast, including Richard Lyon, are all pretty standard but they're no better or worse than countless films like this from the decade. The film runs 62-minutes and goes by rather fast so if one finds the comedy working then I'm sure they'll enjoy it.

A trio of students aren't convinced that Ambrose Castle is haunted, so they contrive a way to stay overnight, and discover one or two surprises.

It's a little unfair to judge this film in 2020, because to my eyes it is unsophisticated and silly, but at the time I imagine this would have been somewhat imaginative and definitely a little different. For 1959 it looks pretty good, with nice sets and costumes, and a few decent effects. The banquet scene looks very good.

On the downside it is silly, perhaps one to watch with youngsters that enjoy a ghost story, as it does have the feeling of a children's ghost story. Not to be taken seriously, but mildly entertaining. 5/10

Mercifully short ghost story with two American leads to ensure a release in USA.

Three students, two Americans and a well upholstered Danish girl, visit a castle outside London which is reputed to be inhabited by a headless ghost. Staying there after visiting hours they encounter a ghost and there follows a Macguffin.

The only real actor winces as a woman belts out her lines at him in a moronic monotone, although the lines are so poor it would be difficult for any actor.

I saw this many times on a local TV station back in the late 1970s. Every Saturday afternoon they showed two old horror films back to back. With a few exceptions they were BAD horror films. This is one of the worst.

Stupid ghost story of three annoying teenagers (two American guys, one Danish woman) visiting a haunted castle in England. There they meet a ghost who has (literally) lost his head. They help him find it.

Honestly...that's the entire plot! There's nothing else. The sets are real cheap looking (looks like they were made of cardboard), the special effects are atrocious (the headless ghost especially), the dialogue and plot are lame and the acting is really BAD! There isn't one remotely scary (or interesting or intelligent) moment in the entire film--it just drags on and on. The only reason I watched it was to avoid doing homework! Not even bad enough to be funny--just bad enough to be bad! A real must miss. I give it the lowest rating--1.

If you remember seeing this film on local TV -- as I do -- then you know it's a short, cheap, shot-in-England black-and-white comedy with a few random ghosts thrown in. But it's still fun! Not only does the film feature the first credited film appearances of Josephine Blake (who would later be a British musical star) and Clive Revill (a great British character actor), but it's got a guy named David Rose who is about as close to a 1950s teen comedy Regis Philbin as you'll ever find. I don't know where they dug up guys like this one (and Bobby Van, and all the other horror/SF/fantasy "comedy relief" guys), but they're a cliché -- uh, staple of the time that you just have to look back and chuckle about. If you find the pacing slow (it is) and the plot thin (it is) and the comedy weak (it is), at least you know it's not very long...

I've just watched The Headless Ghost for the first time and quite liked it, even though I'm not a huge fan of comedy. This had a little drama with it two.

A coach load of tourists arrive at the haunted Ambrose Castle and three of these, two Americans and a young Dainish woman decide to stay behind for the night to see if it really is haunted. It isn't long before strange things start to happen and one of the ghosts appears from a painting and later, they confront the Headless Ghost of the title and end up helping him to get reattach his head to his body and achieve this at the end.

Despite it being a comedy, The Headless Ghost is rather creepy and atmospheric at times.

Watch it if you get the chance. Great fun.

Rating: 3 stars out of 5.

This is a very low budget and mercifully short B from England. Three exchange students visit a stately home and stay after closing to meet the historical ghosts. The two guys are innocent Americans (one of them is Richard Lyon, son of Ben Lyon and Bebe Daniels, and ,at that time, a TV favourite) and the girl is a pneumatic Dane, who should have gone on to better things. The ghosts are not portrayed as scary, and prominent among them is Clive Revill who would have a decent run in the business in later years. Like a lot of British pictures of the time,it feels like it was made with an eye an giving cast and technicians work, rather than with any desire on producing a quality movie. Overall, easy to watch, easy to forget

A very silly but pleasant way to spend an hour, not really enough humour or scary moments but fun nevertheless. As one reviwer commented it reminded me so much of an episode from Scoobie do

"The Headless Ghost" is a harmless, very minor but fairly likable little comedy filmed on the cheap in Britian. Three foreign exchange students - Americans Bill (Richard Lyon) and Ronnie (David Rose) and Danish gal Ingrid (Liliane Sottane) - take in the locations of the Ambrose Estate. Ronnie wants to investigate the stories of the place being haunted for his college newspaper and the three certainly do find plenty to write about. The ghosts are real, starting with amiable, helpful Fourth Earl of Ambrose (the great character actor Clive Revill, in his first credited screen role). One of the ghosts, Malcolm, needs his body and his severed head to be reunited so he can properly rest in peace. Bill, Ingrid, and Ronnie are reluctant at first but are eventually persuaded to see this "mission" through to its end. As written by Aben Kandel and producer Herman Cohen, and directed by Peter Graham Scott, there are no real comedy fireworks here. At best, the movie does elicit some modest chuckles, but at least it's all easy enough to take. The trio of protagonists have the potential to annoy some viewers, especially Bill, but the enthusiasm of the actors' performances is effective, and that accent of Sottanes' is hard to resist. Revill scores as the easygoing ghost, and Alexander Archdale is a hoot as the fun loving spirit of Sir Randolph. One debit is that even at a mere one hour and three minutes, this definitely feels padded: better pacing and this could have run even shorter. Still, one can't completely dislike the padding, as it features some incredible dance moves by a sexy performer named Josephine Blake. The special effects aren't bad, the music by Gerard Schurmann is good, and the movie isn't totally without decent black & white atmosphere. Originally released as the second movie in a double feature with Roger Cormans' "A Bucket of Blood", this is indeed lightweight stuff, and pretty damn silly, but it's also impossible to hate. After all, it's not as if we don't know what we're in for judging by the opening credits. Six out of 10.

I was impressed at the good grace with which the Earl of Ambrose (Jack Allen) took the impertinence shown by a brash young American visitor in suggesting that claims of the castle being haunted were just 'mularkey' cooked up to draw in the punters; especially as the little oaf doesn't even inquire if he's ever actually seen any ghosts himself.

Despite the whimsical title sequence, the racy exotic dance by Josephine Blake that accompanies the ghostly banquet and a fairly gruesome moment involving a snake (plus the fact that on its original release Anglo-Amalgamated paired this film with the incredibly nasty 'Horrors of the Black Museum', also scored by Gerard Schurmann) belied my initial expectation that this would be a children's film.

The rather grand castle set looks as if it was left over from an earlier production, and the torches in wall mounts left burning overnight would probably even in 1959 have been in breach of fire regulations.

Danish actress Liliane Sottane with only 4 movie credits I know of, sadly enough, steals the movie as she tries to resolve the ghostly issues of a headless royal. Visually, lovely Lillian livens things up even more when she takes her coat off, wearing a tight top over a bullet bra.