The Ghost of Sierra de Cobre

Nice ghost story, directed by Joseph Stefano and starring Martin Landau as architect and paranormal investigator, Nelson Orion. He agrees to look into the case of a man apparently receiving phone calls from beyond the grave - but things soon take another turn. Tom Simcox plays the blind client, Diane Baker his wife, and the new housekeeper is Judith Anderson (the sinister Mrs Danvers in Alfred Hitchcock's version of Rebecca). The performances are good - especially from Landau and Anderson - and despite some of the effects looking a bit hokey today, it's pretty atmospheric with some great seafront and clifftop locations. This was originally intended as a pilot for a proposed TV series called The Haunted (the whole thing has a distinctly Dan Curtis feel to it). In the end the series wasn't picked up, so additional scenes were filmed and it was released as a standalone feature. Very enjoyable - should be better known. 7/10.

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.

In the mid 1960s, a pilot titled 'The Haunted' was shot in the hopes of launching a new series that would be something like 'The Twilight Zone' and 'The Outer Limits', but would concentrate more on flat-out horror. The series was not picked up, so what we now have is a stand-alone TV movie that is good and interesting, and a notable entry into genre television. (There also exists the version 'The Ghost of Sierra de Cobre', which includes some additional scenes, and which this reviewer will be referring to.) Robert Stevens, a veteran of 'Alfred Hitchcock Presents' and TZ, started directing, but fell very ill, and directing chores were then turned over to writer-producer Joseph Stefano, who of course had adapted Robert Blochs' novel "Psycho" for Hitchcock.

Martin Landau stars as Nelson Orion (a neat name, that), an architect who fights for the preservation of historical buildings. He also dabbles in the supernatural, because it's an interesting subject for him. He investigates hauntings, yet doesn't automatically reach for the most outlandish explanation. He grants that a good number of them can be no more than pranks, or otherwise have a reasonable explanation. He comes to the aid of blind rich man Henry Mandore (episodic TV veteran Tom Simcox), who thinks he's being haunted by his late mother. The plot thickens in intriguing ways, as Nelson meets Henry's wife Vivia (the pretty Diane Baker, "Strait-Jacket") and mysterious housekeeper Paulina (Dame Judith Anderson, "Rebecca").

'The Ghost of Sierra de Cobre' can legitimately claim to be genuinely spooky. It has the kind of wonderful atmosphere that the best "old dark house" movies possess. Two of the people responsible for its great look are the renowned cinematographers Conrad L. Hall ("Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid") and William A. Fraker ("Rosemary's Baby"). (The latter was the camera operator here.) And Dominic Frontiere did the shuddery score.

The movie doesn't miss opportunities for humour, considering the relationship that Nelson has with his witty housekeeper, Mary Finch (Nellie Burt, another TV veteran). She professes not to believe in the supernatural, while he prefers to be open to all possibilities. This leads to an interesting conversation between the two of them.

This is sort of done in the tradition of great black & white horror like "The Haunting" (1963), except that this time we do get to see the spirit, and it's a pretty good effect for a TV movie shot over 50 years ago. It's appropriately gnarly-looking.

More people should be made aware of this one. At the least, it's a good candidate for a cult favourite.

Eight out of 10.

I can remember this being shown on Melbourne TV a few times in the 60's, and the 70's; always very late at night. It was the most effective ghost story I can ever remember seeing: it scared me stupid as a kid. Surely this still exists in someones "vault" of movies. I hope it one day sees the light of day on DVD. If Martin Landau does have a copy perhaps a copy can be made of this, then it can be digitally restored for us all to enjoy. At the very least it would make an excellent addition to a "decent" classic Outer Limits DVD set (presently they have no extras at all) as a tribute to Joseph Stefano. A few years ago I contacted TV stations, particularly our ABC in Australia but sadly no memory of this film exists with anyone now.

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.