Ghost Story

Behind this film's uninspired title lies a really uninspired storyline: in the early 1930s, three university acquaintances convene at an old country house for a few days of hunting but one of the men discovers that the building in which they are staying is haunted. Now this well-worn plot might not have been so bad had director Stephen Weeks cranked up the tension and gone all out with the scares, but his film delivers tepid chills and zero suspense and is unlikely to unsettle all but the most lily-livered of viewers.

It doesn't help that the three central characters are such an unlikeable bunch: there's effeminate fop McFayden (Murray Melvin) who lies about the true reason for the reunion; Duller (Vivian MacKerrell), who is rude and arrogant; and wimpy Talbot (Larry Dann), who is afraid to tell the others about what he is seeing and hearing in the old house. In a series of 'visions', Talbot sees glimpses of the past, when a previous occupant of the house, Robert (Leigh Lawson), committed his own sister Sophy (Marianne Faithfull) to a nearby loony bin -- because he had incestuous feelings for her. Sophie gets her chance for revenge when the lunatics break out of the asylum and she is able to pay Robert a visit...

Ghost Story is so trite that it even resorts to that hoary old horror cliche, the creepy doll, which appears to be possessed by Sophy's spirit and ultimately kills Talbot and McFayden. Why? I haven't the foggiest, but I didn't really care -- I was just happy that the film was finally over.

It's a tad difficult to completely take this seriously. With the exaggerated mannerisms of speech and body language of those chief characters to whom we're first introduced, and the off-kilter dynamics between them, all that's missing is discrete comedy for this to come off like a P. G. Wodehouse movie. While always enjoyable in its own right, Ron Geesin's music also seems quite scattered: sometimes appropriate and lending atmosphere, sometimes curiously ill-fitting for the proceedings, and sometimes almost parodic; a theme to greet our ears in a scene just after the one-hour mark sounds like something Mike Patton might have recorded with Mr. Bungle or Fantomas. (Could Geesin have just been ahead of his time, to the detriment of this title?) With that especially in mind it's hard to tell what tone the picture is trying to strike, and even more so as the tone rather shifts from one scene to the next. The storytelling itself pointedly jumps around a tad, only complicating matters, and as the halfway mark rolls around there's still little cohesiveness to be had. There are some facets that are decidedly dark, and others that are wry; a singular element to take prominence, not least in the last minutes, raises a skeptical eyebrow; some dialogue is almost laughable, and between the writing of Talbot and McFadyen, and the respective performances of Larry Dann and Murray Melvin, one can't say who comes off more peculiarly. The narrative does gel as the length enters its home stretch, but still the connective threads between the two halves are questionable, and the audience is asked to take a lot purely on faith with the benefit of active suspension of disbelief.

Mind you, I do think 'Ghost story' is more well done than not, and there's much to appreciate here. The panoply is odd, but I do actually like the acting, above all the strange energy that Dann and Melvin bring with them. Geesin's music is a true smorgasbord, but I kind of love it. Stephen Weeks illustrates a keen eye at times for orchestrating shots in a way that helps build the intended ambience, especially with some smart use of lighting. The filming locations are splendid, and the art direction; those stunts and effects that are employed look swell. Though it's a long and uneven road to get there, ultimately we are treated to the horror flavors that we crave, with underhanded dread airs and some nefarious goings-on. I can honestly say that I did enjoy this, and I'm glad I took the time to watch. Yet the fact remains that a viewer must put in some work to find the value herein - not because the feature is abstruse or cerebral, but just because the entire experience is very much all over the map. At some points it's earnestly creepy, and at others nearly inspires mocking snickers; scenes that are tongue-in-cheek or sprightly are adjoined with others that are violent and grim. None of this is accidental. I see what Weeks was doing, as director and as producer, and what he and his co-writers assembled. It's not that sum total doesn't work, but only that it doesn't come off very well; instead of a calculated conglomeration, the film feels more like a slapdash kluge of parts that don't entirely fit together. I mean no disrespect to Weeks or anyone else involved when I say that it would have taken an especially delicate, expert touch to make this work as it is, and failing that, the concept needed some reworking.

When all is said and done it is worthwhile, but it is hardly something that demands viewership. 'Ghost story' is a piece to check out on a quiet day, and not something for which to specifically set aside time. I'm glad for those who appreciate it more than I do, and I can't begrudge those who engage honestly and view it less favorably. I say this best suited for the audience that is receptive to all the wide possibilities that cinema and the genre have to offer, and who can look past the shortcomings to find the worthiness within. So long as one is open-minded and willing there is a great deal to admire here, and that is perhaps the best mindset to adopt when sitting to watch.

I first encountered GHOST STORY on VHS in the late 1980s where it had been retitled in America as MADHOUSE MANSION to avoid confusion with the better known 1981 Fred Astaire GHOST STORY. Although the print wasn't great, I was immediately attracted to the story of three 1920s British school chums who get together for a weekend of hunting at a Victorian estate recently inherited by one of them. Shortly after their arrival, strange visions are seen by only one of the three. They involve the former inhabitants of the house and are linked to a porcelain doll that was left behind.

The three men are an interesting mix. The owner is a rich fop while another is a class conscious snob who is secretly there to ghost hunt having been told the place is haunted. The third is a fish out of water. He's a mild mannered, overly talkative, rather pathetic soul who is looked down upon by the other two. It is to him rather than the ghost seeker that the visions appear. They depict a brother and sister who lived there before. The brother has the sister committed to a local insane asylum in order to prevent him from acting on his "feelings" for her.

The cast is a curious one. Ken Russell regular Murray Melvin plays MacFayden, the owner of the estate. Cult actor Vivian MacKerrall (WITHNAIL & I) is the ghost seeker/hunter while the plum role of the schoolmate who is visited by the ghosts went to stage and TV actor Larry Dann. Singer Marianne Faithfull, still recovering from her longtime drug addiction but cast for her marquee value, is the unfortunate sister while Leigh Lawson plays her tormented brother. Hammer horror regular Barbara Shelley portrays the asylum matron and Anthony Bate is the asylum director.

Writer-director Stephen Weeks, who had earlier done I, MONSTER with Christopher Lee and GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT, shot the film in India on a Maharajah's estate that was built during the Victorian era. While this shaved production costs, it created a host of other problems with poor sanitary conditions impacting the health of the cast and crew. Once completed, the film was barely released and had to wait for the advent of home video in order to be discovered and appreciated. Several bonus features on this release chronicle the ups and downs of the production.

The Blu-Ray release is an all region affair and comes with a plethora of extras. These include a 72 minute documentary on the making of GHOST STORY, 7 early short films by Stephen Weeks, and the surviving 30 minutes of footage from THE BENGAL LANCERS. This was intended to be a major motion picture with Michael York, Trevor Howard, and Christopher Lee but after 10 days it was shut down because its financing collapsed due its backers participation in an elaborate insurance fraud scheme of which the filmmakers were unaware...For more reviews visit The Capsule Critic.

With a title as vague and dull as "Ghost Story", your film must be pretty darn amazing and suspenseful to be memorable! Alas, this 1974 TV-production is weak altogether, and I guess that's why nobody has ever heard of it. The story, setting and atmosphere certainly hold a lot of potential, but the film is too talkative and slow-paced, with unlikable characters and too many plot-aspects that don't make any sense. Three former college mates gather at an old gothic and remote mansion that one of them inherited, supposedly for a reunion, but they clearly never were close friends. That already causes for a big dent in the plausibility. Through sleeping in a room with an eerie porcelain doll, Talbot - the nerdy one of the bunch - gets a spiritual connection with Sophy Kwykwer; a woman who used to live in the mansion. Sophy was emotionally tormented and eventually submitted to a mental asylum by her no-good husband. A handful of sequences, some involving the doll and some taking place at the uncanny asylum, are noteworthy, but "Ghost Story" isn't worth purchasing. The two most famous names in the cast, namely Marianne Faithfull and Barbara Shelley, hardly have any screen time. Before this film, I only knew Faithfull from her fantastic song "The Ballad of Lucy Jordan". The story and dramatic tone of this four-minute chant is already a lot more intense and impactful than this entire movie.

A singularly disjointed and eccentric Murray Melvin vehicle pulling in tropes, inspirations, and homages from left and right, delightful until the last second of the closing credits. Production and costume design are something else entirely-so many questions that yield no answer. I suppose people come in for Marianne Faithful but the film is so blatantly uninterested and unaware of women the leading lady looks more like an afterthought. I wonder if this is a TV movie or people actually went out to watch it in theatre at the time of its release, as the aesthetics, the campiness, and the narrative structure are more reminiscent of TV productions yet it is not marked as one. Very seventies and yet timeless.