Reviews


The Living Ghost (Limited Edition Collection)

Even as Monograms go, this one's...

Ever spend an hour rethinking your entire existence? Or at least, 'Why am I watching this movie?' Funny, until a couple of days ago if you said 'William Beaudine' my first thought would've been 'low-budget quickies.' After watching the 1949 bootleg beef film Tough Assignment and this one, my new first thought is closer to 'waste of time.' He'd better come through with something better, and darn quick. As it turns out, I'd seen this film about ten years ago under an alternate title, A Walking Nightmare. The film has since been made available through MGM's MOD program under its original name, and in a much better print, so there IS that. 'The movie is lousy but the print is good. Good night, folks' would be a perfectly acceptable review, but, since I want you to think you're getting your money's worth, let me expound on that. Synopsis: a pretty good Poverty Row cast, a stinko script, and an old dark house full of murder suspects who stand around talking and talking and talking in front of a static camera in cavernous rooms. Yep, it's a Monogram film, alrighty. When wealthy financier Walter Craig disappears, his family calls in super sleuth Nick Trayne (James Dunn), an ex-detective who appears to be an idiot, and in this case appearances aren't deceiving. Dunn romances pretty secretary Billie Hilton (Joan Woodbury) while dodging mysterious knife-wielding maniacs in a rainswept old mansion. Things take a turn for the worse when Craig is found alive, but his mind is now gone and he seems to be a zombie. Was he the victim of a sinister experiment? Is he under the control of an unknown criminal mastermind? Did he suffer a massive brain meltdown while watching this film? Anything's possible. The opening scene is the best one, as Trayne is introduced in his new, post-detective career as a professional listener, the 'Sympathetic Ear'. He charges an hour to listen to his clients' troubles; he offers no advice, just listens. One of his clients is comic actor Danny Beck, who gets to reprise his old vaudeville routine as a doubletalker who spits out a mile-a-minute mouthful of gibberish and then adds things like, 'Don't you think?' Danny also has an invisible dog named Hirohito. The film should have been about him (Danny, not the dog, although that would've been okay too). Trayne turns out to be less concerned with uncovering the killer than he is with uncovering Miss Woodbury, and his one-liners and wisecracks invariably fall flat. Million-dollar James Dunn Wisecracks That Invariably Fall Flat: Of the movie's Mrs. Danvers-type: 'She looks like she'd make a good zombie.' Why must there always be a butler in every murder mystery?' I'm beginning to think that everybody around here is nuts except us and I have my doubts about us.' To Ms. Woodbury: 'Anybody would think we were married, the way you yell at me.' Of course, in the end he gets the girl and the killer, so there IS that. But this is not just a 'cheat' horror film, it's a cheat ANYTHING. It's not much of a mystery, comedy, thriller, spook show, or anything. I guess maybe Monogram was laying the groundwork for their idea of a Nick & Nora series, and I like Dunn (especially when he's singing with Shirley Temple) and I like Joan, I guess, but seriously, I don't recall the last time I watched a movie and came away thinking that there was nothing whatsoever of interest in it. At all.