Le Spectre maudit

source: The Black Torment

The Black Torment

Sometimes dismissed as a poor man's "Rebecca" ,"the black torment " is generally underrated ;actually,only the beginning recalls Daphné Du Maurier's book : the master's second wife who enters a desirable mansion, where the soul of the first one, who died in mysterious circumstances ,is still lingering. But the central character is not the new wife but the husband :he sees things,vision of a lady in white who could be the ghost of his departed lady , he may be a murderer for young girls were found dead in the vicinity of the castle ; most amazing thing,he seems to be ubiquitous ; it's him,not his wife,who is losing his mind. The cinematography is splendid ,the screenplay very melodramatic but the directing avoids gore, monsters and the horror paraphernalia ;one can regret that the sign language should not be really exploited .

It is indicative of the problems of the writers,that in the last couple of minutes they have to include explanatory dialogue to explain the rather surprise denouement. Thoigh in fact it is not that surprisong when you think the plot through.

Sir Richard Fordyce returns to his home after staying in London with his newly married wife. Upon his arrival the people of his estate greet him rather strangely. As it turns out while Fordyce has been away people have sworn that they have seen him at his home, there have also been several young women who have been killed. Fordyce also sees ghostly figures on the grounds of his estate. Is Fordyce slowly going mad or is there something more sinister at play.

Robert Hartford-Davis interrupted his schedule of very contemporary exploitation pictures to make this rip-roaring hybrid of a modern Hammer psycho-drama and the sort of thing Bava and Freda were making on the continent, handsomely mounted in Eastmancolor with an interesting cast of familiar faces, old and new.