Invisible Ghost

Dr. Kessler (Bela Lugosi)is a kind doctor whose wife ran away with another man and then died in a car crash. However, it seems she survived and Kessler's gardener is keeping her hidden in the gardener's cottage until she recovers. Periodically she walks around and stares at Kessler. He sees her, goes into a trance and kills people.

OK--the plot is stupid and makes no sense. Also the dialogue is bad (even by Monogram standards) and has plenty of laugh out loud lines and just beyond belief plot twists. Still it works. It plays quickly (it's only an hour long), has a very handsome actor (John McGuire) who can't act but is very easy on the eyes and two excellent performances. One is by Bela (even when he acted in low low LOW budget work like this he gave it his all) and Clarence Muse who plays the black butler but is very dignified and intelligent--a real rarity in those days. The other actors are terrible (especially the police lieutenant who ALWAYS has a huge cigar in his mouth--I'm not even going there!). It's also well-directed (considering). But, what's with that title? There's no ghost or anything invisible in this! So, it's worth seeing (sort of).

I must say, I was a bit surprised after viewing "Invisible Ghost." It

could have been because of Bela Lugosi's sympathetic portrayal

of Charles Kessler, a warm and kind-hearted man, deeply

troubled by his wife's absence. Or ... it could have been Clarence

Muse, playing the black butler sans the usual comic relief.

Whichever way you look at it, "Invisible Ghost" is certainly worthy of

note. Too bad one has to rummage through so many bad movies

to locate the few really good ones. Here we have the late, great

Bela Lugosi, looking better than ever. His portrayal of a sympatheic

man under the control of powers beyond his comprehension is

somewhat of a diversion from previous characters. He's not

sucking the blood of beautiful ingenues. Nope. He's on a murder

rampage, suffocating his victims with a ... bedroom robe?

Okay ... a little quirky. What did you expect? Shakespeare?

What's impressive here is Mr. Lugosi's enormous acting talent.

Lugosi could express more emotion through a simple facial

expression than most actors could through an entire monologue.

He's an excellent example of a talented man giving a performance

greater than the movie itself deserves. No make-up effect or

computer generated effect could ever reproduce this. To this, I hold

Mr. Lugosi up next to Vincent Price ... as a man whose talents

barely reached the public surface. If only he were alive today and

making movies. No doubt he would have been treated with a great

deal more respect and admiration.

And so ... "Invisible Ghost" is a very good movie to enjoy. I was

lucky enough to purchase this along with seven other Lugosi films

in AMC's Monsterfest DVD collection. Pick it up if you get a chance.

It includes movies like "The Human Monster" and the amazing

"White Zombie." While some of these films were hits and others

were misses ... all feature the extraordinary presence of Bela

Lugosi ... certainly one of our greatest actors.

Maybe this is a spoiler, but I don't think anyone should watch this movie without knowing the following: this movie makes no sense.

Bela Lugosi stars as a wealthy estate owner who misses his wife and thinks she is dead. But she's not dead -- the gardener keeps her in a shed in the backyard. And sometimes she escapes in a bathrobe to steal a piece of chicken from the kitchen, only to be spotted through the window by Lugosi who thinks it's a ghost. This causes him to enter a trance and kill some random person. Even after several murders (maybe dozens) in the same house, the police never suspect Lugosi.

On one occasion, they arrest the boyfriend of Lugosi's daughter and execute him. A minute later in the next scene his twin brother shows up.

If you like Lugosi, this film is decent and quite fun. But seriously, don't try to figure out why the wife is in a shed or what causes him to go into a trance or why the police are so stupid. Because you will never make sense of this preposterous film.

The best quality this film possesses is a genuine creepy atmosphere. Especially good use of the weather (rain, stormy nights) enhances certain scenes particularly those in which Bela Lugosi's character Dr. Kessler is visited by his ghostly long-thought dead wife. Following this, Dr. Kessler is driven to unwittingly become a mad strangler. Just the result you'd expect?...no I didn't think so either.

Lugosi is actually quite good in the film and gives it his best effort. Also I felt Polly Ann Young, Betty Compson and Clarence Muse did fine jobs with what they had to work with.

The Inspector (played by George Pembroke) is an incredibly silly stereotype who comes across as thoroughly incompetent. However I did laugh when the visiting psychiatrist suggests it may be the Inspector who needs help.

This murder shocker, featuring some typically hilarious plot twists and insane character reactions, is buoyed by that inimitable Lugosi magic. Also worth mentioning is the surprisingly inventive direction by Joseph H. Lewis, as is the comparatively dignified treatment of the black butler character, well played by Clarence Muse. Fans of old Monogram and PRC programmers will be well entertained.