The Ghost

This Euro-horror coupling is laudable for packing a real double-bill from the mid-sixties. Dead Eyes of London (1961) is a b&w crime thriller by Alfred Vohrer (1918 - 1986), a German director known for "krimi" noir films and a progenitor to the flame later carried by the likes of Italian director Dario Argento. On the subject of Italy, director Riccardo Freda (1909 - 1999), who helmed The Ghost (1963), was making a name for himself with horror/fantasy films such as the Blob-ish spinoff Caltiki: The Undying Monster (1959). Actually, that's a bad example, since Freda supposedly later claimed to walk off that project in order to give the then accomplished cinematographer Mario Bava (1914 - 1980) some directorial chops. Bava, who would end up being a direct mentor to Argento, found his first directorial credit (thanks to Freda's inability to get along with producers) the following year with the film that really put Barbara Steele on the map; Black Sunday (1960), a film whose rich black-and-white gothic atmosphere is still cited by many fans as a milestone to the genre. While The Ghost stars Barbara Steele and also evokes a gothic sensibility, it's a decidedly different animal that substitutes the supernatural with a noir-ish cynicism regarding a crippled husband and his deceitful wife as they both flirt with the netherworld. One of the most memorable moments makes startling use of its color stock when red blood pours over the camera, melding the audience point-of-view with that of the victim, all the while intercutting this with some wild close-ups. The trailer boasts of "Horror sharp as a razos edge." Dead Eyes of London is based on a detective novel of the same name by Edgar Wallace (1875 - 1932) and it takes the viewer into the foggy nights of London to see some night-club action with gambling and prostitutes while a lumbering blind killer (a former wrestler and Viennese-version of Tor Johnson, Ady Berber, who also starred in two Dr. Mabuse films) goes about killing people at the behest of some unknown force. While at times a talky crime thriller, the film has some nice props and art-direction, interesting characters that include a blind reverend, a fetching Braille expert, and the twitchy Klaus Kinski who appears 20 minutes into the film looking like Andy Warhol after one too many cappuccinos. Some decent suspense scenes involve an elevator shaft and cautionary notes on the dangers of peeping through holes placed behind crucifixes, along with an interesting death trap scored to Beethoven. Something about the whole affair feels like an old Batman comic, which certainly precedes the film but comes after the career of Edgar Wallace. Maybe it can be chalked up to the "krimi" zeitgeist. An earlier version of the same story exists as The Human Monster (1939), starring Bela Lugosi. Retromedia's dvd release of Dead Eyes of London and The Ghost features both films in their original 1.66:1 aspect ratio and includes a still gallery, trailers, and a complete reproduction of the original German movie program book for Die toten Augen von London. For more information about The Ghost/Dead Eyes of London, visit Image Entertainment. To order The Ghost/Dead Eyes of London, go to TCM Shopping. by Pablo Kjolseth