Tormented

Tormented (1960)

Tom has got it all. He is a successful Jazz musician who is engaged to a beautiful young woman named Meg. Hell Meg is even from a wealthy family so Tom will be on easy street. Everything is wonderful for Tom until an old girlfriend named Vi shows up and threatens to ruin everything. See Vi still has the hots for Tom and tells him that he will always belong to her, but while they are arguing (in an abandoned Lighthouse) she slips. Tom ignores her calls for help and lets her fall to her death, but that still won’t get rid of her. Vi’s ghost haunts Tom, tormenting (see it makes sense now right?) him and sabotaging his wedding. Things go from bad to worse when Tom kills a local hoodlum that has figured out that something must of happened to Vi and starts blackmailing him. Oh yeah Meg’s little sister Sandy actually saw Tom kill the blackmailer and tells him so. Everything comes to a head and Tom must decide between doing away with Sandy or turning himself in, but of course Vi’s ghost wants her say as well!

This is an interesting movie from genre veteran Bert I. Gordon. It has moments where it works pretty effectively as a ghost story. The scene in the wedding where the doors burst open and the candles dim as something unseen moves up the aisle is creepy as hell. But those scenes are balanced out by some pretty silly effects works with Vi’s ghostly head following Tom around and yelling at him. I really wish that the movie had stuck with the more effective scares and ignored the gimmicky stuff that really dates the movie. The cast is solid, if unspectacular without a weak performance in the group. Gordon’s daughter, Susan, is unexpectedly good in the role of Sandy. Normally when you see that a director has cast one of his children in a movie it is obvious that they only got the job because of their father. This isn’t the case here as she does a decent job, and I’m surprised she didn’t work more.

So not only is this a “gimmicky” movie from the 60s, but Bert I. Gordon (Empire of Ants) is the director so you have to expect an effects heavy movie. As I stated previously this movie contains a few really dated and silly looking effects like Vi’s head. But there are also a few more subtle wonderful gags in this movie that are great. Also the movie makes excellent use of sound to help create atmosphere. There is one scene where a blind women is chasing Vi’s voice in the Lighthouse, which is particularly effective and is dependent completely on sound.

Tormented had the potential to be as good as some of the classic ghost movies of the past like the Uninvited with Ray Milland. But every time I thought it would turn the corner to greatness the gimmicks reared their ugly heads and the movie when back to being cheesy. Still the movie has its moments and is worth checking out at least once.

2 ½ out of 4

reviewed by John Shatzer