There is great suspense as faithless wife Barbara Steele shaves wealthy husband Leonard Elliott with a straight razor in Riccardo Freda’s THE GHOST.


(with especially disturbing de- cayed hands) that shake up the household, sometimes possess- ing the requisite sinister house- keeper (Harriet White Medin, credited as “Harriet Medin White”) to issue vows of vengeance. Jus- tice is eventually served, as is irony, and Steele gets a full Lady Macbeth emotional work-out, going fetchingly from fake de- voted spouse/widow-in-training to scheming harlot-minx to ter- rorized guilty party to homicidal madwoman. The kind of claustrophobic


piece that teases by letting audi- ences guess some of the many plot twists, THE GHOST has in common with other Freda projects of the 1960s a certain slung-to- gether feel, with elements from many old dark house and/or plot- ting heir movies (including the treasure hunt and clue-dripping will from THE CAT AND THE CANARY) stirred into the mix. Vignettes of nastiness and cru- elty look forward to the extremes of later gialli: as is often the case in Italian psycho-thrillers, simple


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avarice rather than insanity or the supernatural is at the bottom of the evil, albeit in a misty, high- collared period setting that rep- resents an Italian’s idea of the Britishness of Hammer or the Poe of Corman. Never as trans- gressive as L’orrible segretto, it’s an important, fascinating film and we’re glad to see some ef- fort taken with its release. The opening scenes, confusingly out of order in US theatrical prints and all previous video releases in an effort to get the opening titles out of the way fast, are back to their proper place, which makes the intricate story easier to follow. DEAD EYES OF LONDON, an


early entry in the krimi cycle, adapts Edgar Wallace’s novel about a Mabuse-style, double-liv- ing master villain who runs an extraordinarily elaborate scam involving an endless supply of heavily-insured middle-aged co- lonial transients with no depen- dents who turn up drowned in the Thames with scraps of Braille-imprinted paper in their pockets. Scotland Yard deduces


that “the blind killers of London” are back in action, and starts pursuing clues that lead to a home for blind indigents run by the Reverend Dearborn (Dieter Borsche). It offers stretches of foggy, cobblestoned London at- mosphere and striking bit-play- ers (hairy-handed hulking Adi Berber, sneaky dark-shades- sporting Klaus Kinski ) but Borsche is no Lugosi and the rendition of Wallace’s plot is draggier and even more con- trived than in the 1939 film. Nei- ther the Teutonic comedy relief of prissy Eddi Arent nor the banter between heroic copper Joachim Fuchsberger and Braille expert missing heiress Karin Baal are as intriguing as the few horror-styled sequences. Vohrer’s odder stylistic touches (a POV shot from inside a mouth as a water-pick is used) and a modernist, throbbing music score do hold the interest. Though we’ve seen far worse


presentations of these films, Retromedia’s disc presents nei- ther feature in optimal condition. The source prints are surprisingly free of damage and the transfers are letterboxed to 1.66:1, but the color of THE GHOST is faded and smeary and the noir-look of DEAD EYES comes out as a wa- tery grey (and widescreen moni- tor presentation does few favors). The only soundtrack options are hollow English dubs, which—as usual—are disappointments. Both films are preceded by the 1970s-era “our feature presen- tation” card recently spliced onto KILL BILL, VOL. 1—a touch which somewhat undermines the attempt to recreate a specific 1960s double bill. Fun trailers are provided, and a gallery of stills and posters for DEAD EYES—but the nicest extra is an enclosed booklet that reproduces the Ger- man pressbook for Die Toten Augen von London.


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