Martin Landau stars as Nelson Orion a building developer and part time ghost hunter.
Orion is called in by a woman named Vivia Mandore (Diane Baker) because her blind husband Henry (Tom Simcox) claims he has been receiving phone calls from his long dead mother. She was afraid of being buried alive so she had a phone with a direct line to the house installed in her crypt.
Orion investigates and discovers that the new housekeepers of the Mandores' , a woman named Paulina (Dame Judith Anderson) may have more to do with the haunting than any actual ghost.
As the investigation continues, Orion discovers that Paulina is responsible for the murder of a teacher in a small Mexican town called Sierra de Cobre and that she is being haunted by a ghost.
This is a pretty interesting movie that was originally a TV pilot episode called THE HAUNTED, but was deemed by the network as being too scary so they shot about 30 minutes of extra footage and released in as a feature that disappeared quickly, if it was ever released at all here in the US.
Both versions are presented on the disc from Kino, and both have different endings. I easily prefer the original ending that creator Joseph Stefano came up with. By today's standards this may seem a little tame, but there are a couple of scenes that probably had the execs shaking in their shoes back in 1964.
It's always great when a rare piece of material like this is brought to the DVD market and this one is a must see. I watched it Halloween night and really enjoyed it. All of the performers turn in top rate acting jobs with extra kudos going to Baker and Landau. If you like good ghost stories you simply can;t go wrong with this one.
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