The Ghost of Sierra de Cobre

Blind, incredibly wealthy Tom Simcox keeps getting phone calls from his mother. She has been dead for some time, but possessed of a fear of being entombed while still alive, had a phone installed in her crypt. Simcox's wife, Diane Baker, seeks out architect and skeptical ghost hunter Martin Landau to find out what is going on. Does this link to an earlier case of murder-by-ghost that turned out to be poisoning?

It's a very well cast and run little spooky movie, originally intended as a pilot for a TV anthology series. Landau's intelligence and low-affect performance serve it well, and writer-director Joseph Stefano has a good arc of what starts out as atmosphere, and bursts into something more disquieting. With Judith Anderson and Nellie Burt.

The synopsis for The Ghost of Sierra de Cobre differs from the actual movie storyline. OK, yes, the telephone rings from a connection to the crypt BUT as the story goes on, there's no relevance. Creepy housekeeper, played brilliantly by fellow Aussie actress Dame Judith Anderson (she was wonderful in Hitchcock's Rebecca) is a sinister, mysterious character. Diane Baker as Vivia is also very good as the frightened wife of a rich, blind man. There's obviously some hocus-pocus afoot, hence the entry of Martin Landau as Orion.

This was originally filmed as a pilot for an anthology TV series which never got picked up because it was considered too dark for 1960s viewers. Extra footage was then added and it was aired as a TV movie.

I give it a 7/10.

It was thrilling to see this artistic off-shoot of Joseph Stefano's "The Outer Limits" after so many years -quite an achievement and true craftsmanship. Especially the black & white cinematography by the great Conrad Hall -even his camera operator here William A. Fraker (who also worked on "Incubus", made by Stefano's "Outer Limits" partner Leslie Stevens), graduated to shoot such distinguished films as "Rosemary's Baby", "Bullitt", "WarGames" and "Looking for Mr. Goodbar".

Stefano's mixing of so many horror elements, ranging from the Gothic waves crashing against the rocks at the climax, even a late in film white nightown sequence for the final ghos appearance, plus the familiar reverse negative optical effects from "The Outer Limits" is most satisfying. Casting Diane Baker, just before her memorable caqreer highlight in "Mirage" provided that beauty with her always perfectly coiffed hair as a perfect counterpoint to Hitchcock's parade of blondes. I can envision cool Martin Landau emerging as the Frank Lloyd Wright architect cum ghost hunter entertaining us weekly, but alas, CBS, despite its adventurous sponsoring of the series "Route 66" at the time found this concept one step beyond their network's outer limits of content.

I too saw this in 1964 in Manila, Philippines and my sister and I would love to see it again....it was so scary and we thought no one else remembered this movie...so I was surprised to see a lot of people have seen it as well...please let us know if anyone knows how to get a copy of it. I remember the howling cry of the bleeding ghost as it went down a hallway and the scary fish pond !!! and also the phone by the coffin and the bony hand reaching out for it when it rang !!! I hope we'll get to see it again..I'm 50 now so getting on in age..saw this when I was about 7 yrs old ...please someone find it so we can see it again !..thanks so much....and have a great day !

In '64 or '65 my father ,who was working at CBS brought home a 16mm print of this film which had been screened at the network as a potential pilot,but was rejected because the network (CBS) felt it was too scary for television audiences. I was 7 years old at the time& my Brother was 9 when we first watched this film, and it was the most frightening thing we had ever seen."The Bleeding Ghost" as we referred to it gave us both nightmares for many years to follow,but we still watched it over &over again.When I was 18 my families house burned completely to the ground & the 16mm print was lost in the fire with everything else.I am now 47 and images & sounds from this film still linger in my mind.My father, my brother & I would all very much like to find a copy,in any form, of this classic work of horror. Any leads would be greatly appreciated.