The Ghost — The Ghost(UHD, Blu-Ray, & CD)

From the early 1960’s, The Ghost is a prime example of Italian Gothic horror. It features a creepy grand house and mausoleum, an eerily building atmosphere & amping it up melodrama. As well as, ghoulish & bloody effects, and last but hardly least, we have Barbara Steel, on top form. Here from those prime cinematic ghouls, Severin- it’s a ltd four-disc release of the film. It takes in a UHD, two Blu-rays, and a CD. It features a new 4k print, four hours of special features, a 2019 doc about Italian Gothic horror, and a seventy-minute CD- bringing together three scores by the film's composer.

The Ghost (Lo Spettro) is from the year 1963. It was filmed in a real Scottish gothic mansion- Blair Drummond House, Cuthil Brae, Stirling, with the building and its surrounding grounds used to great effect.

It was directed/co-written directed by Riccardo Freda- a fairly prolific & genre-jumping Egyptian-born Italian director, who helmed some of the early Italian horror films like 1957’s Lust of The Vampire and 1962’s The Horrible Mr Hitchcock- as well as later spy films, melodramas, a western, and Gallio- such as 1969’s Double Face, 1971’s The Iguana with the Tongue of Fire , & 1972’s Tragic Ceremony.

The film is set in 1910’s Scotland. We open on a candlelit evening in the grand house, where the housekeeper, Catherine Wood (Harriet Medin) is tied down and in a trance, talking in tongues. The main lights go on, and we are introduced to our key players- there’s the wheelchair-bound, only one hand working, gauntly pale lord of the manor, Dr John Hitchcock (Elio Jotta). His bejewelled and hair-up wife Marget (Steel), and their rather shifty from-the-off/ goateed physician Charles Livingstone (Peter Baldwin).

As we get into things, it becomes clear that John is very poorly- literally on the edge of death. He’s invented a serum to try & fix his failing limbs & body, which Charles injects his hands every day. Fairly soon it becomes clear there is an affair going on between Charles & Marget- and they’ve decided to off John….the plan is set in motion, and he dies- but things start to go rather a miss around the house- is it Marget’s rather vagile psyche?, has John come back from the grave?, or is something else going on?.

I guess it takes around forty or so minutes to get to the killing, but beforehand, we get an engaging enough mix of coming to a head melodrama and building tension/ unease. After John is offed, and put in the family's mausoleum, things start to rapidly build- going from a runway wheelchair.. Onto decaying hand phantoms, noose swinging grey figures, and voices billowing from beyond the grave. Towards the end we get a few moments of slashing & battering bloodiness, and a neat enough double twist in the tail.

Cast-wise, Steel is on top form- moving between gloomy melancholy & deceitful, onto bug-eyed fearful, tearful and freaked out, and manic. Jotta is good, but here weird at points, creepily odd husband. Baldwin, as a physician, is ok, though really best when he’s been shifty. I’d say the highlight here, after Ms Steel, is Harriet Medin- as the unsmiling/ sleek back hair housekeeper- she creeps around the house wonderfully, and has a few moments of eyes rolling back/ speaking to the dead trances.

The Ghost certainly is a great example of the Italian Gothic form, with both an uneasy atmosphere, great setting, some neat creepy moments, ghoulish to gore set pieces, and fittingly twisted resolve.

I’m reviewing the four disc edition of this release- it’s also available as two & one disc edition. So the first disc is the UHD- this takes in the film, a commentary track with gerne expert Kat Ellinger, a audio interview with Barbara Steel, and a US/ Italian trailer. The next disc is a Blu Ray- this of course features the film, the UHD extras, and other extras- but more on these later.

The third disc is another Blu Ray- this takes in the 2019 Italian documentary Hangmen, Masques and Secrets: the Italian Horror in the Sixties (Boia, Maschere, Segreti: l'horror Italiano Degli Anni Sessanta) It was directed by Turin born Steve Della Casa- who has helmed a few other interesting docs, such as Un'altra Italia era possibile, il cinema di Giuseppe De Santis(2023) which looks at the career of writer/ director Giuseppe De Santis.And Profondo Argento (2023) which of course looks at the career of Dario Argento.The film which runs at one hour and twenty minutes. This is in Italian with English subtitles. It features interviews with Barbara Steel, and directors such as Dario Argento, Pupi Avati, and Bertrand Tavernier.

The final disc is a CD entitled Musica De Masi- this is a twenty eight track compilation bringing together five scores from soundtrack composer Francesco De Masi, including The Ghost- I’ll come onto this late, when I break down the other extras.

So, lets focus first on the first Blu Ray disc- as this takes in the film, and all it’s extra. The film gets a 4k scan- and this looks great, with all the gothic elements wonderfully enhanced. There is a option to have either orginal Italian or English dub- the latter features clean English subtitles, with a good mix of Italian dialogue and score.

On the new extra side, we get a commentary track with genre expert/ author Kat Ellinger, and as we’ve come to expect from Ms Ellinger this is wonderful researched affair. She begins by declaring The Ghost is high watermark in the Italian gothic horror cinema. Talks about the releasing of film from the genre in the last few years- and how this has gone in leaps and bounds with releases like Severin’s excellent Danza Macabra boxset series, which is in it’s now in its fourth vol . She chats about how Italian gothic is very different from it’s English and America counterparts. She gives a history of gothic horror cinema in general- before focusing in on the Italian take on it. Later on she discusses female gothic films- touching on great films/ notable actresses in this subgenre. She talks about Barbara Steel additions to the genre, and more. This track has much more of general Italian gothic focus, instead of the film to hand- but she does of course touch on it along the way.

Otherwise on the new side we have: Till Death Returns (22.27) Interview With Roberto Curti, Author Of Italian Gothic Horror Films, 1957–1969. Wounds Of Deceit ( 11.22) Video Essay On Barbara Steele By Dr. Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, Author Of 1000 Women In Horror, 1895–2018, and Give Up The Ghost( 28.14) Video Essay By genre expert Tim Lucas.

Otherwise we have the following, which I’m unsure if are new or not. An audio interview with Barbara Steel( 43.10). An audio interview With Actress Harriet Medin And Tim Lucas(10.39). Barbara Steele Presents The 4K Restoration At The Venice International Film Festival And L'Étrange Festival In Paris(16.58). With original US and Iltain trailers.

The final disc is as mentioned earlier is Musica De Masi. This is a twenty eight track affair, and it takes in four scores by Rome born Francesco De Masi, who has an impressive one hundred and forty two score credits to his name. The scores featured here are for The Ghost ( 1963), Rapina al quartiere Ovest (1960), Crime Boss (1972), and The Big Game(1973). And as you’d imagine it’s a fairly varied compilation. We move from the tolling & haunting music box led orchestrion of “Melanconia Autnmale” from The Ghost. Onto the sassy & playful vibes, horns, and steady grooving beat of “Quatiere Ovest. Seq.3” from Rapina al quartiere Ovest. Theres the bouncing jew harp twang, joyful warbling pipes, acostic guitar jaunt of “I familiari delle vittime non saranno avvertiti. Seq 5”. And the bounding key rolls, psychic guitar bounds, and mellow string swoons of “The Story Of Dream”.

It’s wonderful to see Severin giving such care and consideration to the release of The Ghost, as it truly is one of the great films of the Italian gothic horror genre. I’d say it’s well worth investing in this four disc edition- as along side the great 4k scan and extras on the main discs, we get the full length documentary, and the nearly seventy minute compilation disc.