The Ghost Walks

In THE GHOST WALKS, a group of travelers gets stranded at a huge mansion on a -wait for it- dark and stormy night.

A strange, apparently unbalanced woman named Beatrice (Eve Southern), just happens to be staying at the house on the anniversary of her husband's murder. She spends most of her time wandering around the place, and speaking to someone that only she can see.

During dinner, the lights go out, and the fun begins. Mystery, murder, and thrills commence.

This is indeed another take on the "old dark house" idea, only this time there's a nice twist involved. The horror and comedic elements are balanced well. Throw in an escaped mental patient and a "shock" finale, and we're off!...

On their way to a country house to hear a new play being read a theatrical producer, his secretary, and the playwright end up stuck in the mud. They make their way to a nearby house, only to end up at the home of the playwright's fiance. If you can't guess that murder and mayhem are about to take place then you haven't been paying attention.

This is a a good entry in the old dark house genre. Not only does it have a good mystery, you also have some very funny one liners wandering through it. The cast is across the board excellent and they're more than willing to have a good time with what is good material.

I would love to say that this is one of the best of the genre, it should have been, but for me something happened on the way that made me down grade the rating to only seven out of ten. I can't tell you what it is, not for certain anyway. Perhaps its the sense that I knew where it was going almost from the outset, or perhaps its something else, I'm not sure what, but there was something that I couldn't shake that made me like this film despite wanting to love it. It just missed being great and somehow fell short.

That said I DO SUGGEST YOU SEE IT. It is after all a very witty film, that entertains fully, despite just missing being great.

Your average story of people being stranded in the road on a dark and stormy night and they seek nearby shelter with a stranger who happens to have a very large mansion. Then strange and spooky things happen. I actually enjoy this clichéd scenario with horror films.

This one is cute. It's sometimes funny, sometimes interesting, sometimes with neat imagery. The story of course is nothing special but it's a fun movie to watch. Although it's not a film to seek out but it is one that is pretty good to watch from a film pack or a free copy to view online if you happen upon the film and like older cute "dark and stormy night" films.

I would describe this film as a comedy-mystery horror - and if you like that kind of movie then you might like this one.

6/10

After their car crashes into a tree, theatrical producer Herman Wood (Richard Carle), his secretary Homer Erskine (Johnny Arthur) and playwright Prescott Ames (John Miljan) seek refuge from a storm in a nearby house, the home of Dr. Kent (Henry Kolker). The evening takes an unexpected turn when one of occupants of the house, a strange woman called Beatrice (Eve Southern), disappears during a power outage at dinner and later turns up dead.

This old dark house murder mystery has all of the clichés covered, with a stormy night, secret passageways, a revolving bookcase, a booby trapped four poster bed, a painting with eyeholes, and an escaped homicidal maniac. It also features a neat twist in which most of the characters turn out to be actors performing Ames' new thriller in order to impress the producer. The murder, however, was not part of the plan. When Wood discovers Ames' script and realises that he has been duped, he refuses to believe that the murder is real, especially when Beatrice's body conveniently disappears.

This should have been a whole lot of macabre fun -- the premise is a good one -- but the film suffers from pedestrian direction from Frank R. Strayer, an overly talky script, and too much humour that detracts from the horror. When all is said and done, there has been no murder after all, and the escaped lunatic is easily apprehended and taken back to the asylum.

With its twist, the film reminds me a little of Pete Walker's House of the Long Shadows (1983), but that one had four icons of horror in it. The Ghost Walks doesn't.

Some nice plot twists keep the viewer sitting up through this old dark house mystery featuring John Miljan as a playwright with a new play to read—a thriller, this time!

Among a supporting cast of vaguely familiar faces, Richard Carle and Johnny Arthur lend comic relief as a Broadway producer and assistant accompanying Miljan. Producer Carle is constantly firing and un-firing assistant Arthur, which is cute but predictable; on another level entirely is their merry insistence for a good chunk of the film that the entire "mystery" taking place is part of Miljan's presentation of his new play, put on for their benefit!

Nothing particularly unusual here, otherwise, but those of us who enjoy being trapped in a dark house on a stormy night with an escaped lunatic in the neighborhood will find an hour of fun. As a bonus, the final few minutes feature a couple of bursts of really ripe maniacal laughter.