I saw this movie recently and found it so shadowy in black and white.   But that was ok because it and the music added to the mysterious atmosphere of the movie.    A rich widow Christine Faber (Lynn Bari) is haunted by the apparition, voice, and piano-playing of her husband Paul (Donald Curtis) who died two years before.  

Then Alexis, a fake medium (Turhan Bey) comes along to suggest that her husband is trying to contact her, so of course, right away I think that the fake medium is behind the so-called haunting.  You know what opportunists they were.   That’s how they made their livings.  As a matter of fact, Alexis showed the viewing audience every trick he used.   

But, no, her “poor” husband is actually poor, alive, and trying to drive his wife crazy (or kill her) so he can get her money.    Her new fiancé Martin Abbott (Richard Carlson) tries to dissuade her from using a medium.   But her sister Janet (Cathy O’Donnell) falls for the charm of the medium, who is cool—no doubt.

Then, there’s the not-obvious twist that her bum husband is alive and trying to get her money.   He even threatens the medium to get the medium to work with him in his plan.   But the medium finds out that the husband means to start murdering the people in his way and tries to figure a way out for everyone.

The acting is superb.    I remember Turhan Bey playing Asian or other exotic parts but I am surprised to learn that he was Austrian-born Turkish-Czech Jewish and couldn’t marry Lana Turner because his mom disapproved and he never married.    I remember Cathy O’Donnell as the girlfriend of the sailor who lost his arms below the elbows in the after-war movie, The Best Years of Our Lives.   She was great in this movie, too. 

I wasn’t as familiar with Lynn Bari, but her face is familiar to me.   And it seems like Richard Carlson was in everybody’s movie.  I remember him in It Came from Outer Space and Creature from the Black Lagoon (from romance/comedy to horror/scifi later in his life).

Directed by Bernard Vorhaus.   Labeled as a thriller/indie film.

Sources:  Wikipedia, IMDb, etc.

Written by Rosa L. Griffin