Review of The Ghost Walks

If you're a fan of murder mystery films of the 1930's and 40's, you'll recognize all these staples of the genre - the revolving bookcase, the peep hole behind the picture on the wall, a lowering canopy bed, the mystery hand behind the door, the moving eyes in the portrait, and last but not least, the old lights out trick. What's unique about this picture is that it employs ALL of them! Despite the movie's relatively low but fitting viewer rating, I had a pretty good time with it, as it turns the table on the viewer when it's revealed at a critical juncture that the players in the story are actually performing a script written by Prescott Ames (John Miljan), hoping to impress movie producer Herman Wood (Richard Carle). That includes the 'murder' of Beatrice Gray (Eve Southern), sister of Terry Gray (Donald Kirke), who in turn pines for the pretty Gloria Shaw (June Collyer). I should mention that the story takes place in an old mansion on a dark and stormy night, just a couple more of those standard elements to be found in murder mystery pictures of the era. Topping things off is the arrival of a security guard (Spencer Charters) investigating the escape of a patient from the Greystone Sanitarium, but if you've seen enough of these old-time programmers, you'll probably figure out his real identity just before the story does it for you. With it's mix of humor and off beat characters, I found this to be an entertaining little flick with only one question before signing off. Given all those standard formula clichés of the era mentioned earlier, and considering the title of the picture, the only thing missing here - no ghosts!