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Greetings, and welcome to VIEWING THE CLASSICS. Here you'll find capsule reviews of vintage movies from the early days of cinema through the 1970s, with a special emphasis on sci-fi, horror, and mystery movies. Be sure to check out the Pages links, where you can find a Film Index of all my reviews, links to the reviews organized by cast members, directors, and other contributors, and links to my reviews of the films of talented young director Joshua Kennedy.

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Sunday, November 5, 2017

Tormented (1960)

Starring Richard Carlson, Susan Gordon, Lugene Sanders, Juli Reding, Joe Turkel
Directed by Bert I. Gordon
(actor & director credits courtesy IMDB.com)

After failing to save the life of an old flame threatening his pending marriage, a jazz pianist is haunted by the woman's vengeful ghost.

Bert I. Gordon's venture into ghostly horror has been ridiculed by some, with a number of scenes that have inspired campy humor, but the film benefits from Carlson's straight forward performance and a capable turn by Gordon's daughter Susan, as well as its memorable special effects.  Composers Albert Glasser and Calvin Jackson use jazzy themes in their score in a good pairing with the film's eerie moments, and George Worthing Yates' screenplay does a good job of advancing trouble for Carlson's character, while trying to cover up Reding's death.  I probably would have preferred for Gordon to employ a little more subtlety and atmosphere, and at times the film is slow-moving, but it's still one of the director's signature works, with the same quality of charm as we've seen in the rest of his filmography.

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