Directory
John Irvin
Cast
Fred Astaire - Ricky Hawthorne
Melvyn Douglas - John Jaffry
Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. - Edward Wanderley
John Houseman - Sears James
Craig Wasson - David/ Don Wanderley
Alice Krige - Alma Mobley/ Eva Galli
A ghost story needs to be told by those frosted with age. Ghosts live in history. So, their stories are completely wrapped in history.
The story teller's raspy airy voice, scarred by years of experiences, is the voice of domination, seriousness, and fear. And those in the middle of all the trepidation are the innocent, young, often naive characters. There may be love that led to sorrow, jealousy, and death. And, perhaps, there's the most burdensome secret that's carried for decades screaming for revenge.
For fans of a good ghost story, the 1981 drama horror movie aptly called Ghost Story lives up to its expectations. It comes with dark shadows and old dusty spaces dimly illuminated. Old guys endowed with years of history behind them tell each other stories of phantasms and unusual, unkind circumstances happening to otherwise innocent and considerably younger people. Their glasses of scotch and brandy are all they have to calm their trepidation.
It took me four months to finally grab a copy of Ghost Story. Like most horror movies I watch and review, I put in an interlibrary loan request for this one at my local public library.
It was in transit back in March just as everything went into lockdown thanks to Covid-19. It would have arrived a day after the shut down. But it remained in library limbo the whole time until it finally arrived just a week ago.
Sometime in my distant past, I recall seeing bits and pieces of this movie. I'm pretty sure my dad either rented it from our local video store, California Video, or it was on PBS? That was pretty much the only channel he really watched back in the day as we didn't have cable until awhile later.
Normally, my dad wasn't into drama horror films. The closest he came, as far as I remember, was movies such as 1939's Hound of the Baskervilles with Basil Rathbone, and A Christmas Carol with Alastair Sim. But, I recall him watching Ghost Story.
My guess is his attraction to this movie was its cast of Hollywood legends - Melvyn Douglas, John Houseman, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., and Fred Astaire. In fact, this is Astaire's last movie appearance.
My guess is his attraction to this movie was its cast of Hollywood legends - Melvyn Douglas, John Houseman, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., and Fred Astaire. In fact, this is Astaire's last movie appearance.
It also stars veteran actress Alice Krige who has done some memorable work as the Borg Queen in Star Trek: First Contact, Thor: The Dark World, and as Christabella in the movie adaptation of Silent Hill. I plan to post some comments on that movie at a later date.
Ghost Story is a movie that takes the horror genre to a more dramatic level. But it still has horror!
Ghosts are the embodiment of memories. That's how they're depicted in this movie, with the use of flashbacks - memories.
Based on the novel of the same name by Peter Straub, the film is set in a New England town during the middle of winter. Four wealthy men in their own winter of life have made up a gentlemen's club called "The Chowder Society." Of course, they're the only members.
Dr. John Jaffrey (Melvyn Douglas, The Changeling), Mayor Edward Wanderley (Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.), Ricky Hawthorne (Fred Astaire), and Sears James (John Houseman) meet formally on a regular basis to tell horror stories to each other.
Very strange and severe events start occurring around the Society, starting with the death of Edward's son, David Wanderley (Craig Wasson, A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors).
David falls to his death through the window of his high-rise apartment after finding a nude woman lying face down on his bed.
He questions her as to who she is and where she came from. Her replies are coy and puzzling. When he turns her around, she isn't what he expects her to be. Screaming, he falls through the window several stories down crashing through the glass roof of a natatorium.
His brother, Don Wanderley (also played by Wasson) comes home after the funeral at his dad's wishes to spend some time with him. During supper, he tells his father that he was involved with David's fiancee for a time.
Sometime later, Edward thinks he sees his deceased son outside walking towards the town despite the icy conditions.
He chases David, calling out to him before making his way to a bridge. By then, the figure is gone. He looks out over the frozen river below when he hears a woman's voice gently call out "man?" 
He turns to see the corpse of a woman standing right behind him.
Terrified, he falls over the side of the bridge into the frozen water below.
The accident is ruled a suicide, but Don doesn't think his father killed himself.
He turns to the members of the Chowder Society for help, telling them a ghost story which the audience sees in flashback.
In his story, Don is teaching at a college in Florida where he meets a secretary named Alma Mobley.
He asks her out, and they quickly spark an intense sexual affair afterwards.
This quickly turns into an engagement.
During their engagement, Don starts coming to the conclusion that Alma isn't quite right. After touching her hand one particular evening, she feels as cold as a dead body.
This is weird seeing as how passionate and physical they were before. Anyways, Don decides to break off the engagement. Of course Alma is furious, and disappears from his life.
This puts Don into a deep depression, but Alma returns one month later by way of dating his brother, David.
He learns that the two have been seeing each other since shortly after Don broke off the engagement. And now, his brother is engaged to Alma.
He tries to warn David about her, but he doesn't listen.
Soon after, David is killed and Don blames it on Alma.
This story makes the Chowders uncomfortable. Don shows them an old photograph he found among his father's possessions. It shows an unknown woman pictured with a few men, one of whom being Edward in his younger years.
Don tells the Society members the woman is a spot-on resemblance of Alma.
It turns out the young woman in the photo is Eva Galli, and this really makes the Chowder members frightened. Jaffrey starts pleading with the other guys to admit the dark secret that ties these men together, but are afraid to say. But they immediately dismiss his request.
Slowly, the men continue dying off one by one as a dark secret they equally share comes back to haunt them.
After several days of letting this movie sink in, and allowing my thoughts to work with it, Ghost Story has started to grow on me. Its gruesome imagery still stands out. The vintage model of the always classic "ghost story" with the classic elements is entertaining.
One scene in particular, which doesn't show horror and decay like the other horror scenes, shows Alma taking a bath with Don. In a playful manner, she submerges herself under water as her long brown hair floats. Don smiles for a moment and then grows concerned as she doesn't resurface.
She quickly comes back up and starts screaming. Her appearance - hair wet against her face and the way her mouth is as wide as she can open it, and muscles tense - is unnerving. Thanks to makeup artist Dick Smith, the horrific visuals are very memorable and well done. And the horror reveals are reminiscent of old style horror films in the way the camera pans over to the grotesques faces that will scare the characters and the audience. They're not meant as mere jump scares. These scares actually serve a purpose to the story.
The soundtrack is supposed to be sinister but sounds more like carousel tunes. It doesn't fit at all with the tone of the movie. It's goofy, distracting, and laughable.
Guilt, shame, and sexual aggression are heavy themes in this film. The effects of sin can be just as hideous as the sin itself.
I haven't read Straub's book, but there was a lot of negative remarks made about Ghost Story from audiences who read the book and compare the film to the source material.
It does drag a bit, and confuses me a little. For instance, if Don's story about Alma is true, that would mean *spoiler* she's a ghost. And being a ghost, she somehow managed to get a job as a secretary at the college Don teaches at. And, as a ghost she had a very intimate relationship with Don that led to an engagement. It didn't work because he broke it off. Still, that is one crazy afterlife.
It does drag a bit, and confuses me a little. For instance, if Don's story about Alma is true, that would mean *spoiler* she's a ghost. And being a ghost, she somehow managed to get a job as a secretary at the college Don teaches at. And, as a ghost she had a very intimate relationship with Don that led to an engagement. It didn't work because he broke it off. Still, that is one crazy afterlife.
It seems that we're meant to believe Don's story. He does tell his father earlier that he slept with his brother's fiancé. He also shows the Chowder Society that photo and says the girl in the picture looks like Alma. Maybe I need to read the book.
Regardless, there's less talking (exposition) and a whole lot of showing. That's an element of cinematic story telling I love. Show! Don't tell. The movie knows what it's doing in that regard. I'd welcome a remake for this movie so long as the writing is great. Not because the original is bad. Ghost stories are meant to be told again and again. Each time, a change can be welcomed.
It's a classic ghost story. Sometimes it takes just the basic, yet perfect, elements to tell a satisfyingly unsettling ghost tale.With its old, dark atmosphere, its grotesque make-up affects, its antique charm, and its cloud of mystery wafting from the beginning to the end, Ghost Story has an urban legend, home-spun feel about it.
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