Questi fantasmi

This is the kind of film that local TV stations used to program on Sunday afternoons: unfunny 60's comedies no one had ever heard of. The confused plot reads like one from a screwball comedy, but the necessary energy to pull it off are missing. Instead, there just a lot of poorly paced talking and ranting.

Totally sucking the life out of the film is the odd re-dubbing of every sound effect and line of dialog. Since everyone's mouths seem to match English perfectly, you have to wonder what the purpose of this was. Since everyone constantly sounds four inches from the microphone, whether they're running down the stairs or whispering across an alley, the film has a strange antiseptic quality, devoid of any room noise or natural ambiance. Sophia fans should simply watch her and mute the sound.

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

Newlyweds Sophia Loren and Vittorio Gassman are struggling to make ends meet after he loses his job. When offered a 17th century mansion rent free, the husband quickly accepts. The catch is that it's supposedly haunted. They move in and soon the husband starts noticing a lot of strange things going on, such as money mysteriously appearing. He chalks this up to ghosts. In reality, it's his wife's wealthy admirer, who is providing for her without the husband's knowledge in hopes she will sleep with him. Later a hooker moves in and the wife believes the husband has become a pimp. It gets even stupider after that.

What a mess. It aspires to be a screwball comedy but this is pretty unfunny stuff. The leads try hard, and Sophia's certainly always nice to look at, but it's just a misfire from start to finish. Avoid unless you're a huge Sophia Loren fan.

Some spotty editing is no help in trying to follow the plot twists that get more and more involved after a good start, with Vittorio Gassman and Sophia Loren moving into a castle that Gassman thinks is haunted by a wealthy nobleman. Actually, it's Loren's lover who is hiding out to be near her and this set-up is the start of a screwball comedy.

Most enjoyable aspect of the film are the performances by Vittorio Gassman and Mario Adorf who garner a lot of laughs out of what seems an impossible situation. Loren merely lends her rather somber presence to the comedy in a straight role that doesn't require comic skill.

The situations are played for laughs but the story convolutions become a bit hard to swallow once the film gets past mid-length and there are too many anti-climactic moments as one gag after another is offered in rather fitful fashion, including an especially silly one for the ending that involves Marcello Mastroianni.

There's a blank time lapse toward the end that seems to indicate a bad case of editing. The story suddenly lurches forward as if omitting details of what happened in between or as though scenes were left on the cutting room floor. Despite this flaw, it manages to be funny thanks to the artful performances of the male leads.

Sofia Loren and Vittorio Gassman do a good job acting this movie. The roles are intentionally silly but they are able to keep them from going overboard until the end of the movie, when everything falls apart. In other films, it seems sometimes that Vittorio Gassman is too aware of the camera, but not here. He allows his character to go wild, but I never felt that it was too much, until the end.

The direction is pretty good, until the end. There were some good funny scenes and everything seemed to flow well.

The writing was also pretty good, until the end when I wasn't sure what was going on. Even at the end there were some good scenes and some good jokes, it's a shame that everyone allowed the story to fall apart. This also had the negative effect of losing the thread of all of the tenants, the neighbor, and even the main story regarding the apartment. I would have liked to have had some closure on these stories.

I laughed a number of times during this movie, but they lost me after a while, and on top of that, what ever happened to the ghosts? Why were they given the apartment? It would have been better, and would have made more sense, if there had been ghosts. Without them, the whole premise of them getting the apartment for free was lost.

Watch this movie only if you want to see Sofia Loren at the height of her beauty and you would be happy watching her in front of a brick wall for 1 hour and 32 minutes.