Ghosts, Italian Style

Some spotty editing is no help in trying to follow the plot twists that get more and more involved after a good start, with Vittorio Gassman and Sophia Loren moving into a castle that Gassman thinks is haunted by a wealthy nobleman. Actually, it's Loren's lover who is hiding out to be near her and this set-up is the start of a screwball comedy.

Most enjoyable aspect of the film are the performances by Vittorio Gassman and Mario Adorf who garner a lot of laughs out of what seems an impossible situation. Loren merely lends her rather somber presence to the comedy in a straight role that doesn't require comic skill.

The situations are played for laughs but the story convolutions become a bit hard to swallow once the film gets past mid-length and there are too many anti-climactic moments as one gag after another is offered in rather fitful fashion, including an especially silly one for the ending that involves Marcello Mastroianni.

There's a blank time lapse toward the end that seems to indicate a bad case of editing. The story suddenly lurches forward as if omitting details of what happened in between or as though scenes were left on the cutting room floor. Despite this flaw, it manages to be funny thanks to the artful performances of the male leads.

Sofia Loren and Vittorio Gassman do a good job acting this movie. The roles are intentionally silly but they are able to keep them from going overboard until the end of the movie, when everything falls apart. In other films, it seems sometimes that Vittorio Gassman is too aware of the camera, but not here. He allows his character to go wild, but I never felt that it was too much, until the end.

The direction is pretty good, until the end. There were some good funny scenes and everything seemed to flow well.

The writing was also pretty good, until the end when I wasn't sure what was going on. Even at the end there were some good scenes and some good jokes, it's a shame that everyone allowed the story to fall apart. This also had the negative effect of losing the thread of all of the tenants, the neighbor, and even the main story regarding the apartment. I would have liked to have had some closure on these stories.

I laughed a number of times during this movie, but they lost me after a while, and on top of that, what ever happened to the ghosts? Why were they given the apartment? It would have been better, and would have made more sense, if there had been ghosts. Without them, the whole premise of them getting the apartment for free was lost.

Watch this movie only if you want to see Sofia Loren at the height of her beauty and you would be happy watching her in front of a brick wall for 1 hour and 32 minutes.

Sophia Loren and gaunt, wide-eyed Vittorio Gassman play a destitute married couple whose luck seems to change when Gassman is offered free room and board in an empty, dusty mansion which supposedly houses a ghost. He doesn't tell his wife the history of the spooky place, and she doesn't tell him about a smitten former lover of hers who has moved into an upstairs room, hoping to steal her from her husband. Marital mix-up offers comic misunderstandings, some funny moments, and several beautiful shots of La Loren (although her auburn hair seems to get darker as the film progresses). The half-English/half-dubbed look of the picture is pretty shoddy, and the entire third act (which skips ahead in time, defying all logic and credulity) is nearly crippled by Gassman's over-acting (the biggest mystery is why Sophia married him in the first place). Still, there's a cute in-joke in the final tag, and enough modest laughs throughout to keep the silly circumstances lurching along. **1/2 from ****

Based on a play by the eminent Eduardo De Filippo, this old-fashioned but agreeable mix of haunted house thrills and comedy of errors is tailor-made for the talents of its two international stars - Sophia Loren and Vittorio Gassman (who particularly shines); incidentally, this constituted their only teaming following their stardom (having also made 3 other films together during the early 50s). Still, the film also treats several social issues like poverty, suicide, adultery and prostitution - but it's all done with a decidedly light touch.

The supporting cast is equally well chosen: Mario Adorf (as the head of an institution/order of nuns where Loren used to work and who still loves her, while being mistaken by Gassman as the house ghost!), Aldo Giuffre' (as the opportunistic caretaker of the haunted building) and Margaret Lee (as a Fellini-esquire hooker, abused but ever-optimistic, who also lodges at the house). The film also features a good score by the always reliable Luis Enrique Bacalov.

While no classic, the gags and lines are pretty consistent; the last joke even involves an uncredited cameo by Marcello Mastroianni!

The summary plot provides a decent outline of what you "should expect" from Ghosts, Italian Style. Unfortunately Ms. Loren's talent was totally wasted in this mixed up so-called comedy. It seems the director Renato Castellani kept losing focus on his star Ms. Loren who plays a frustrated but still loving and devoted wife named Maria Lojacono. Instead the director Renato Castellani in his attempt to keep the laughter rolling he focused more on Maria's husband a man named Pasquale Lojacono (played by actor Vittorio Gassman) who is a big loser in the income department and he gets sucked in to live in a haunted mansion for free rent.

Into the picture comes an infatuated former admirer of Maria Lojacono's whose name is Alfredo Mariano (played by Mario Adorf). Alfredo fell in love with Maria when she was a young girl living with the nuns in a monastery that Alfredo still manages and owns. When Maria walks back into Alfredo's heart once again he chases Maria and locates her in the haunted mansion that her husband Pasquale foolishly agreed to rent for free, ghosts or no ghosts.

This film ends up being a poor man's version of any one of the Abbott & Costello 1948-1953 franchise horror/comedy flicks that kept me laughing from beginning to end. In the film Ghosts, Italian Style I could not even force a fake laugh. When Sophia Loren was in any scene at least I smiled though.

Still, I can only rate this film a poor 3 out of 10 rating