Questi fantasmi

Pasquale Lojacono (Vittorio Gassman) and his wife Maria (Sophia Loren) are working poor. Pasquale spots a mansion for rent with "unusual advantages". It comes rent free... but with ghosts. Maria does have an obsessed admirer in Alfredo Mariano (Mario Adorf) who Pasquale mistakes for a ghost.

This is a bit of a cash grab with Sophia Loren's rising stardom. It's a screwball comedy with a fun oddball premise. I like the premise. It doesn't get much funnier as the story keeps going. It's mildly funny. The dubbing probably takes some of the humor out of this. It screws up the tone and the comedic timing.

The summary plot provides a decent outline of what you "should expect" from Ghosts, Italian Style. Unfortunately Ms. Loren's talent was totally wasted in this mixed up so-called comedy. It seems the director Renato Castellani kept losing focus on his star Ms. Loren who plays a frustrated but still loving and devoted wife named Maria Lojacono. Instead the director Renato Castellani in his attempt to keep the laughter rolling he focused more on Maria's husband a man named Pasquale Lojacono (played by actor Vittorio Gassman) who is a big loser in the income department and he gets sucked in to live in a haunted mansion for free rent.

Into the picture comes an infatuated former admirer of Maria Lojacono's whose name is Alfredo Mariano (played by Mario Adorf). Alfredo fell in love with Maria when she was a young girl living with the nuns in a monastery that Alfredo still manages and owns. When Maria walks back into Alfredo's heart once again he chases Maria and locates her in the haunted mansion that her husband Pasquale foolishly agreed to rent for free, ghosts or no ghosts.

This film ends up being a poor man's version of any one of the Abbott & Costello 1948-1953 franchise horror/comedy flicks that kept me laughing from beginning to end. In the film Ghosts, Italian Style I could not even force a fake laugh. When Sophia Loren was in any scene at least I smiled though.

Still, I can only rate this film a poor 3 out of 10 rating

Based on a play by the eminent Eduardo De Filippo, this old-fashioned but agreeable mix of haunted house thrills and comedy of errors is tailor-made for the talents of its two international stars - Sophia Loren and Vittorio Gassman (who particularly shines); incidentally, this constituted their only teaming following their stardom (having also made 3 other films together during the early 50s). Still, the film also treats several social issues like poverty, suicide, adultery and prostitution - but it's all done with a decidedly light touch.

The supporting cast is equally well chosen: Mario Adorf (as the head of an institution/order of nuns where Loren used to work and who still loves her, while being mistaken by Gassman as the house ghost!), Aldo Giuffre' (as the opportunistic caretaker of the haunted building) and Margaret Lee (as a Fellini-esquire hooker, abused but ever-optimistic, who also lodges at the house). The film also features a good score by the always reliable Luis Enrique Bacalov.

While no classic, the gags and lines are pretty consistent; the last joke even involves an uncredited cameo by Marcello Mastroianni!

Maria and Pasquale (33 year old Loren and Gassman) are newlyweds, and live in a haunted house. Pasquale is a tone deaf singer, and bad luck follows him everywhere. Maria has an old friend, a guardian angel, who helps them. And wants Maria. A fun, silly storyline... in return for living in the castle, they must make it look very active and occupied. For some reaon. A madcap caper! From what I can tell, it was filmed in Rome, so some actors are speaking english, while the natives speak italian. The Turner Classic version is all dubbed in english. Co-stars Mario Adorf. Some fun, silly situations. All story driven. Pretty good. And Sophia Loren! Directed by Renato Castellani. Nominated for a Bafta for the 1955 version of Romeo and Juliet. Distributed by MGM in the US and England. Based on a play by Eduardo De Filippo.

Sophia Loren and gaunt, wide-eyed Vittorio Gassman play a destitute married couple whose luck seems to change when Gassman is offered free room and board in an empty, dusty mansion which supposedly houses a ghost. He doesn't tell his wife the history of the spooky place, and she doesn't tell him about a smitten former lover of hers who has moved into an upstairs room, hoping to steal her from her husband. Marital mix-up offers comic misunderstandings, some funny moments, and several beautiful shots of La Loren (although her auburn hair seems to get darker as the film progresses). The half-English/half-dubbed look of the picture is pretty shoddy, and the entire third act (which skips ahead in time, defying all logic and credulity) is nearly crippled by Gassman's over-acting (the biggest mystery is why Sophia married him in the first place). Still, there's a cute in-joke in the final tag, and enough modest laughs throughout to keep the silly circumstances lurching along. **1/2 from ****