The Ghost Camera

"Ghost Camera" is a medium-budget British programmer that's interesting today mainly as a precursor to Hitchcock's "The 39 Steps" (man stuck in a boring routine finds both adventure and romance, involving the same woman), as well as Antonioni's and De Palma's much later "Blow Up" / "Blow Out" (a photograph that depicts a murder). It is also notable for some well-executed POV camera shots, as well as an early role for Ida Lupino in her pre-Hollywood ingénue phase. Other than that, it is nothing really special, and moves slower than an one-hour programmer should. Henry Kendall is OK in the lead, but not as funny as he was in the same year's (1933) "Shadow". ** out of 4.

Driving back from a holiday, a man finds a camera in his car. Developing the negatives, he discovers a photo which shows a murder and others offering clues to the location. He identifies a young girl in another photo and she joins him on the trail.

Low budget second feature which has grown in reputation, with interesting locations and a script to make it worthwhile. Henry Kendall leads with early appearances by Ida Lupino and John Mills. Some scenes with Miss Lupino now feel uncomfortable given her age.

This is a truly solid early British thriller attempt. It might not be as good as the German and American work from the same period but overall it's a solid, original and interesting enough movie.

The concept and overall story of the movie are great- and original thriller material. The movie is however really short and therefor some elements in the story felt rushed. It didn't took enough time to build its tension and mystery.

The main character of the movie, played by Henry Kendall, is at times hilarious, at other times he's borderline annoying and at times he's just plain irritating as an over-the-top English-gentleman. So no, not a great consistency of the main character. It doesn't always help to make the movie and its story enjoyable and interesting to watch.

The movie screams for a remake really. The concept and story of the movie are good, mysterious and tense enough to make a real solid thriller, by todays standards, with. The movie its story really deserves a modern update.

As a whole is a quite solid early British take on the thriller-genre, which is still enjoyable and interesting enough to watch by todays standards, mainly thanks to the really original concept of the movie that is executed well enough but not to the max. I can however still really recommend this movie to the fans of early cinema and to those this movie is perhaps even a bit of an must-see, also a bit due to the very solid and at times quite revolutionary original editing, from none other than David Lean!

7/10

http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

This is no great work of art but once you've watched this for five minutes, even if your dog starts to recite Shakespeare whilst riding a unicycle around your living room, you will not be able to avert your eyes from this wonderful nonsense.

Henry Kendall who was marvellous in Hitchcock's superb subversive RICH AND STRANGE is just as marvellous in this. He plays a what wound be called a bit of a nerd today. He's so absurdly fuddy duddy that he's far too silly to be believable but that really doesn't matter. This is just a daft, fun adventure story, it's not meant to be an Scarface! The brilliant voice he does is reminiscent of Harry Enfield's Mr Cholmondley-Warner if anyone remembers that great 1990s sketch show? He's very amusing but more importantly, he's very likeable.

Ida Lupino is also lovely in this even though she was just fifteen years old! She's such a good actress and with Henry Kendall being rather scatty, it's down to her to hold this all together. Who says kids grow up faster these days! Considering some of the appalling acting around in this era both here and in Hollywood Ida Lupino is outstanding - and just fifteen as well!

Director Bernard Vorhaus was constantly frustrated making the quota quickes where the objective was to provide reels of film to the cinemas at less than £1 per foot! Twickenham Studios' boss Julius Hagen therefore let him experiment as much as he could within budget and even allowed him to take his own camera home at weekends to get some location shots. With THE GHOST CAMERA, Vorhaus had fun and turned what should have been a cheap, bland, mundane hour and a bit of wallpaper viewing into a cheap but thoroughly enjoyable, professionally and imaginatively produced piece of entertainment.

"The Ghost Camera" is a very early but nifty British mystery with a rudimentary screenplay but also a surprisingly sinister premise. The intelligent but lonely chemist John Gray returns from another unexciting holiday and notices there's an unknown camera on the backseat of his car. The development of the film results in photo-evidence of something that strangely looks like murder, but then the camera and negatives are stolen from his practice. The boring chemist quickly turns into an adventurous detective as he and gorgeous Mary track down the origin and location of the other photographs on the film. For obvious time and budget-related reasons, this film hasn't got any special effects or famous stars and thus it completely relies on the its compelling storytelling and great use of sophisticated British humor. John Gray is a typically nervous and talkative character and his clumsy interactions with his female counterpart are genuinely pleasant. Another joy to behold is Victor Stanley as Gray's honest but very simple-minded assistant. The whole story, including the little twist at the end, isn't all that overwhelming or extraordinary but the pace is good and the settings are very original and beautiful. A fun trivia element is that director David Lean, one of the greatest filmmakers of all time with pure classics on his repertoire like "Doctor Zhivago" and "Lawrence of Arabia" did one of his very first editing jobs for this film. Recommended!