Page 69 - Encyclopedia of the Unusual and Unexplained Vol. 3

Ghosts and Phantoms 49

mate of the Whaley children; and “Dolly Var- the only one who could see George and Mari-
den,” the family’s favorite dog. And then an Kirby, the ghostly couple who harassed him
there are the screams, the giggles, the rattling and tried to get him to enjoy a more relaxed
doorknobs, the cooking odors, the smell of lifestyle. The fact that the ghostly couple were
Thomas Whaley’s Havana cigars, Anna’s played with wit and style by Cary Grant and
sweet-scented perfume, the sound of footsteps Constance Bennett, two popular and attrac-
throughout the house, and the music box and tive actors, no doubt boosted the appeal of the
piano that play by themselves. film and its two sequels.

M Delving Deeper The Uninvited (1943)—This motion picture
Lamb, John. San Diego Specters. San Diego: Sunbelt presents an eerie and compelling story, as well
Productions, 1999. as delivering a serious study of haunting phe-
May, Antoinette. Haunted Houses and Wandering nomena. Roderick Fitzgerald (Ray Milland)
Ghosts of California. San Francisco: San Francisco and his sister Pamela (Ruth Hussey) move into
Examiner Division, 1977. a home on the Cornish coast of England that
Norman, Michael, and Beth Scott. Historic Haunted has been abandoned for many years. Soon, they
America. New York: Tor Books, 1996. discover that the house is haunted.
Smith, Susy. Prominent American Ghosts. New York: Milland and Hussey portray two ordinary,
Dell, 1969. but intelligent and rational, people who must
deal with a place occupied by an evil entity.
The film is extremely subtle in presenting the
Ghosts in the Movies spirits, and therein lies much of its power to
seize the imagination and to provoke genuine
rom the very beginnings of photography chills. Director Lewis Allen never forces his
and cinema, spiritualists and psychical hand, but focuses instead on allowing the
F researchers have hoped to be able to audience to feel the emanations from the spir-
capture evidence of ghosts on film and there- it world along with the actors.
by offer proof of the survival of the human
spirit. While there are thousands of alleged The Innocents (1961)—This adaptation of
spirit photographs that psychics claim to be Henry James’s The Turn of the Screw (1898) is
authentic; reel upon reel of ghostly phenome- made particularly effective by director Jack
na caught on film that investigators purport to Clayton’s decision to allow the audience to
be genuine; and, more recently, an increasing see the ghosts only through the eyes of the
number of videocassettes of glowing lights in protagonist, the governess Miss Gliddens
haunted houses that the amateur photogra- (Deborah Kerr). The film is a psychological
phers insist are real, the great majority of such masterpiece, dealing with ghosts that may or
photographic evidence has only garnered may not be truly there.
charges of trickery or gullibility from the skep- The Haunting (1963)—This film has
tics. However, even the skeptics like a spine- become a classic with horror film buffs and
tingling ghost story now and then. Among the serious psychical researchers, both of whom
best are the following films: laud director Robert Wise for choosing to use
Topper (1937)—A comedy with decidedly subtlety in the manner in which he presents
nonthreatening ghosts, this film delighted the ghosts in this adaptation of Shirley Jack-
theater audiences and removed tales of haunt- son’s The Haunting of Hill House (1959).
ings from the familiar creepy castles and the Although the motion picture contains a num-
wild-eyed people with psychotic impulses that ber of chilling scenes, the spirits themselves
had become overly familiar in the horror films are ambiguous, as well as frightening. The pre-
of the 1920s and 1930s. Directed by Norman sentation of the haunting phenomena in this
Z. McLeod, the script was adapted from the motion picture is extremely effective, and
Thorne Smith novel about Cosmo Topper, a Wise uses camera angles and lighting tech-
meek and mild banking executive, who was niques that emphasize a sense of a terrible

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