“I once loved this island. This is where I found peace and quiet. The peace of waves forever breaking on the shore, the quiet of tranquil moonlight on the sea. When the night wind rises and the fingers of the fog steal i, they say you can hear voices. They say it’s the dead growing restless and calling to the living. I never believed it, until that evening Vi came looking for me.”
If you’re a fan of some of the old almost-forgotten films, then you’re a fan of Film Masters. For a few years now they’ve been digging up a lot of these old “classics” and spending the time and resources to give them the full 4K restoration treatment. It appears that lately they’ve had their sights on some of the early films from The Filmgroup, which of course is the moviemaking machine of Roger Corman. Corman became the king of making quality low-budget films that almost always made at least a little money. In the 1960’s and 1970’s you could watch these wonderful budget horror and science fiction films doubled up at your local drive-in theaters.
This time Film Masters turns to another filmmaker who also provided many of those drive-in movies targeted to please the teen culture with plenty of rock ‘n’ roll and fast cars.
Of course, we’re talking about Bert I Gordon. He was almost always working on his own financing schemes and managed to deliver some low-budget gems to the drive-ins of the 1950’s and 60’s. His films usually depicted insects, animals, and even people who grew to huge and terrifying proportion. There was usually a teen cast that included music and cars. Films from Gordon in the 50’s included Empire Of The Ants, War Of The Colossal Beast,The Amazing Colossal Man, The Cyclops, The Spider, Village of The Giants, which was based on H.G. Wells’s novel The Food Of The Gods which he later made outright, and his first film, King Dinosaur. When he wasn’t threatening the world with giants in one form or another he’d go the other way and shrink a group of teens by a mad scientist in Attack Of The Puppet People. But in 1960, with the change of the decade, Gordon decided to try something new. The result was a convincing ghost tale called Tormented. Now thanks to Film Masters you’re going to get the best copy of that film that anyone has seen since … well … 1960.
Richard Carlson was no stranger to horror fans. In the 50’s he starred in several classic horror films, most notably The Creature From The Black Lagoon and It Came From Outer Space. Here he plays Tom Stewart, who is a pretty renowned jazz piano player who lives on a secluded island in the shadow of an ancient lighthouse. In his party days he was hanging out with a hot blonde singer named Vi, played by Juli Reding. But now he’s planning to settle down in his life, and that means no more party girl. He’s planning on marrying Meg Hubbard, played by Lugene Sanders. She comes from a rich family and represents a more ‘normal’ and well-established life. But before the wedding, Vi decides to head over to the island and explain to Tom that he’s not going to marry Meg. If she can’t have him no one will. They argue at the top of the old lighthouse, and the rail gives way and Meg is hanging on for dear life. Now she’s begging Tom, whom she has just tried to blackmail, to save her. Not so fast. Tom has to think this over and realizes it wouldn’t be all that terrible if Vi fell to her death, and that’s just what he allows to happen.
Anyone with even a passing familiarity with Edgar Allen Poe’s The Tell-Tale Heart can pretty much predict what’s going to happen next. Tom’s guilt is getting the best of him. At first he hears Vi’s voice; then he sees extra footprints in the sand while he’s walking with Meg. Before long he’s seeing her hand, ala Thing from The Addams Family, and finally a severed head who just won’t shut up about having been killed by Tom. Don’t you just hate when those disembodied heads start spreading those kinds of gossip around? It appears it’s Tom’s conscience getting the best of him … or is the ghost of Vi truly haunting the conflicted musician? We never know for sure, but there are some compelling moments in the film, and we know pretty early that things aren’t going to end well for Tom.
Bert I Gordon knew how to get the best out of a small budget. Certainly the footprints appearing on the sand are pretty much old-hat even in 1960. But there’s a truly brilliant scene early in the film that is quite haunting and compelling. The morning after the “accident” Tom sees Vi’s body floating just beyond the surf. He swims out and carries the dead girl onto the beach and lays her down on the sand. In a series of nice time-lapse moments, Vi’s body begins to be covered by seaweed until it literally becomes nothing more than a pile of seaweed. It’s an effect much like Jack Pierce used on Lon Chaney, Jr. for his Wolf Man transformations and has the same quality. It’s a spooky scene that is used to pretty much set the stage for all that is going to come after.
“It’s bad enough to accept a musician into this family, but a jazz musician is asking too damn much.”
The haunting is putting a strain on the relationship as the family plans the wedding. And it’s not like Meg’s family are really keen on having a musician in the family. Lugene Sanders and Juli Reding didn’t go on to have much in the way of acting careers, but they play their parts pretty well. All Reding is asked to do is be a sultry ghost, and Meg merely has to grow increasingly frustrated. There are rumors that tell me Juli Reding filmed a second set of her ghost appearances in the nude for some South American markets. Not sure if that’s true, and I’ve never seen any footage or stills to back that up. But the rumors truly inform you of what assets she was providing for the movie. Throw in a blackmailer who had brought Vi to the island and notices she’s not around anymore and never went back. He wants “5 thou” to keep quiet, and I imagine you can guess what happens to him.
Now Meg’s little 8-year-old sister is the film’s cuteness factor. She loves Tom and tries to understand the adult world around her while also wanting some attention for herself. It’s a pretty neat part, and the 8-year-old actress gets second billing behind Richard Carlson. Was she that good? Yeah, she was good, but it helps that young Susan Gordon was Bert’s daughter. But to be fair, she had a few child roles under her belt including Picture Mommy Dead with Don Ameche and The Five Pennies as Danny Kaye’s daughter.
It was a Gordon film that I somehow missed over the years. So I honestly didn’t know what to expect. Ghost stories can be really tough to pull off, and this one certainly has a plethora of flaws, but it’s better than it should be, and Richard Carlson didn’t phone it in because of the budget. His performance is intense, and he sells the haunting the entire picture. The movie is also surprisingly atmospheric. The lighthouse was matted into the frame and photographed convincingly enough that the entire setting was pretty much perfect.
Gordon borrowed a bit from fellow filmmaker William Castle. There’s a scream lifted from House On Haunted Hill as well as portions of the score. Gordon also borrowed Castle’s showmanship at screenings by paying for stunts like fainting young women, and he asked theatres to rope off part of their lobby as a first-aid station with a fake nurse or doctor. A couple theatres even had an old ambulance parked out front. It was also one of the first films to have midnight screenings long before Rocky Horror Picture Show had them. The film has a nice place in horror cinema history and is worth a watch here with a pretty solid print. There is an odd blur line in the middle of the screen at times, but I found I could ignore it.
Extras include an interview with Gordon, who still looked rather spry, but it was literally months before his death at 100 years of age. Sadly daughter Sandy passed over a decade earlier at only 62. Gordon has the distinction among low-budget directors to have had the most movies riffed on Mystery Science Theatre 3000, and that episode is included for you to enjoy as well. There’s a Bert I Gordon short biography and restored trailers. I urge you to go and pick this one up and add it to your collection. Now why would I urge you to do that? “Well, friends usually try to help one another.”
