This film is variously known by various titles such as 'Passing Clouds', 'The Spell of Amy Nugent", "Ghost Story", and "Spellbound". It was originally known by the last of these but when it was later released in the USA the title was revised to avoid confusion with the 1945 Hitchcock "Spellbound". I'd never heard of it before I saw it. As other reviews have noted this film is -to modern eyes- rather slow paced and something of a period piece. However to a great extent I wouldn't expect anything else; after all this film is now nearly eighty years old, much closer to the start of film as a medium than anything else. The subject matter is unfamiliar to most and the social context is quite literally another world.
I think it is an interesting film because it explores a subject area which doesn't lend itself to film-making, not without dissolving into the realms of fantasy, which is largely avoided here. I've only scored it 6/10 mostly because it won't appeal to modern tastes, partly because the print that had been used for the video transfer I saw was in diabolical condition. One or two badly repaired film breaks are almost inevitable in an old print but this had at least half a dozen which I found somewhat intrusive. At least they were not at the most critical junctures. This isn't a cinematic masterpiece by any means but if you can overlook its shortcomings it is at heart a competently made and intrinsically interesting film.
