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.