Invisible Ghost [PG]

On the surface, Charles Kessler lives a very contented life with his daughter. But all is not as it appears. Kessler waits forlornly for the return of his wife who ran off with another man and several mysterious murders have happened at the house. On the night of their wedding anniversary, Kessler sees his wife peeking through a window and falls into a trance that leads him to kill the maid. When the maid’s former lover (now Kessler’s daughter’s boyfriend) is convicted and executed for the crime, his twin brother comes to the house and teams up with Kessler’s daughter to solve the murders before everyone in the house becomes a corpse. 

This was a good little thriller, playing with the horrors of psychological fragility. Whilst some further exposition could really have heightened the suspense just that little bit more, Invisible Ghost sits as a competent little flick that delivers the chills, surprises, and suspense of a solid thriller. 

On the surface, Charles Kessler lives a very contented life with his daughter. But all is not as it appears. Kessler waits forlornly for the return of his wife who ran off with another man and several mysterious murders have happened at the house. On the night of their wedding anniversary, Kessler sees his wife peeking through a window and falls into a trance that leads him to kill the maid. When the maid’s former lover (now Kessler’s daughter’s boyfriend) is convicted and executed for the crime, his twin brother comes to the house and teams up with Kessler’s daughter to solve the murders before everyone in the house becomes a corpse. 

Bela Lugosi can really pull off the slow, suspenseful trance-walk well! Whilst there is something a bit grandiose about his walks about the house, namely the Frankenstein-esque way his hands enter a room before he does, he still manages to raise the level of suspense and his facial expressions help with this greatly. There’s a manic glint that comes across his eyes when he’s hot on the tail of a new victim, which then gets replaced with one of tenderness and care when he’s sane during the hours of the day. 

Considering how early this movie is, released during a time when psychoanalysis was a relatively new phenomenon methinks, the insanity aspect comes across quite well. In the hands of Hitchcock, this movie could have been awesome! 

Starring Polly Ann Young, John McGuire, Clarence Muse, Terry Walker, Betty Compson, Enie Adams, George Pembroke, Ottola Nesmith, Fred Kelsey, and Jack Mulhall, Invisible Ghost is an engaging little thriller filled with action, romance, mystery, suspense, and murder. There’s nothing really overtly amazing about it, but it’s a definitely a competent little film that fascinates and delivers appropriate surprises to the senses.