Tormented

Bert I. Gordon - cleverly shortened as B.I.G - is a notorious director/producer/writer whose films are too often automatically categorized as 'awful' and textbook material for spoof-shows as MST3K. Even 'Tormented' featured in the legendary show and I, for one, think this was really unjustified. Underneath all the cheapness and inferior production values of this project homes a modestly grim and slick thriller. The plot handles about a successful piano player (Tom) who lives on a remote island community. He's all set to wed a rich high society girl but first he has to get rid of his Marilyn Monroe-like mistress Vi. Things seem to turn out fine when she falls off the lighthouse but Vi comes back to haunt Tom; body part by body part. This thriller with obvious Freudian influences is quite atmospheric and features interesting sub-plots and a few genuine frights. It only suffers from too many scenes in which the protagonist (Richard Carlson) wanders around the beach talking to himself. It's not a bad film at all and most people probably just refer to it as a turkey because Gordon directed it. Whether his films feature giant fake mutated animals (Empire of the Ants, Food of the Gods) or not, they all get labeled the same way. Cinema is a hypocrite industry, my friends. It's up to you to give this 'Tormented' a look and realize it should be rated slightly higher.

The first thing to notice is the photography of Ernest Laszlo, a veteran of film noir who shot the classic "D.O.A.", "Kiss Me Deadly" and Fritz Lang's "While the City Sleeps." (And the same year "Tormented" came out, he did "Inherit the Wind"!) He elevates this little ghost tale no end, with nice compositions such as the shots through broken lighthouse windows.

Classical ghost stories usually don't have very far to go, and that's probably why there aren't too many of them in American cinema. Someone's haunted, that's it. Such tales are atmosphere-heavy instead of plot-heavy, since motive and outcome are usually obvious. In this case, the atmosphere is a combination of spookiness (with some clumsy effects, and some smooth ones, like the pan shot across the room to reveal the missing LP which has somehow moved to the record player) and the neurotic paranoia of the hero, who reveals himself as trapped a sap as many a noir fool who blames his troubles on a dame. The plot delays and prolongs, but the last act juggles several nice twists. By the end, this cynical little flick has shown more style and imagination than several recent special-effects ghost movies.

That Bert I. Gordon made some wacky flicks!

This film definitely has a dark, somber mood and rightly so. Is it really happening too Tom or is guilty conscience and insanity taking over? Despite the hindering of special effects at the time, the apparition scenes are pretty funny. Sandy really did grow up a lot during this movie. Was it a message of how the best laid plans end up crumbling like dust in the wind? Hey, can you blame Tom for falling for Vi? Oh, was there unintended humor when Tom asks the blind housekeeper if she saw something, and when she reminds him of her handicap, he says, "Sorry, I forgot.?" I always crack up at that one scene and anytime the beatnik shows up.

"No habla beatnik!"

Tormented is quite a scary ghost story from Mr Big. No giant insects in it though.

On a remote island,a musician's former lover falls to her death from a lighthouse even though he could have stopped her. He then tries to carry on with his life and prepare for his forthcoming wedding but she comes back to haunt him. This leads to many strange and creepy happenings including a record player playing on its own accord, the supposedly disused lighthouse working, footprints in the sand and the flowers wilting at his wedding. She also causes him to murder a young man. He then returns to the lighthouse to confront the ghost...

Despite reading bad reviews about this movie, I found it quite enjoyable and certainly scary at times.

The cast includes sci-fi/horror regular Richard Carlson (It Came From Outer Space, Creature From the Black Lagoon), Mr Big's daughter Susan Gorden, Lugene Sanders, Juli Reding, Joe Turkel and Gene Roth (Earth vs the Spider).

Catch this if you get the chance. Excellent despite the low budget.

Rating: 3 stars out of 5.

If you're looking for first-class or even second-class acting, this is not your movie. However, if you're familiar with and like other Allied Artists B-movie horror entries circa 1960, this one fits the bill. It's somewhat like a Beatnik version of the tell-tale heart.

Tom is a rising jazz pianist about to marry a girl from a prominent family. Unfortunately his ex-lover, buxom nightclub singer Vi, refuses to let go and threatens to show Tom's fianceé the letters he wrote her. Tom is afraid of exposure - I suppose his sheltered fiancé would be shocked! shocked I say! to find out that a 35 year old man is not a virgin! Vi leans against the railing of the old lighthouse they are arguing in and the railing breaks. Tom has a few seconds to save her as she clings to the railing screaming for help. However Tom was against saving her before he was for it and he lets her drop to her death. Now technically he has done nothing wrong - she did fall on her own - and if he went to the police now and said she fell he might get away with it. But he just walks away, leaves the lighthouse, leaves the body in the sea, and figures nobody will ever know... but his conscience knows.

So suddenly what should be a happy time in his life is filled with visions of his dead lover. Sometimes it's her hand trying on his fiancée's engagement ring, sometimes it's her head rebuking him, sometimes it's her whole body in a ghostly apparition popping up in engagement party photographs. However, only he sees these things - for awhile. As someone else said, at first you can somewhat sympathize with Tom, but as Vi's "head" predicts, he goes from bad to worse to cover up his crime, until at the end he is contemplating the most horrific act imaginable.

The acting here, except for Richard Carlson as Tom and Juli Redding as Vi, is so wooden you could build a bonfire out of the performances, but it all just fits in so well to the spartan Allied Artists early 60's horror atmosphere that I didn't mind. Even Ms. Redding has some weird Marilyn Monroe vibe going, but it's all part of the fun. The really weird part is the large section of the film dedicated to Tom's future sister-in-law - all of nine - doing her prepubescent best to win Tom away from her sister.

If you like films like "The Hypnotic Eye" and "Macabre" give this one a try, just realize it's much more camp and cheese than horror.