Tormented (1960)

Tormented... by the She-Ghost of Haunted Island!

Cast:

Richard "Fighting the Creature From the Black Lagoon" Carlson is Tom Stewart
Susan "Didn't get this job just because my daddy is the director..." Gordon is Sandy Hubbard
Lugene Sanders is Meg Hubbard
Juli Reding is Vi Mason
Joe Turkel is Nick, The Blackmailer
Lillian Adams is Mrs. Ellis

What the box says:

When Jazz pianist Tom Stewart (Richard Carlson) decides he must drop his lover Vi (Julie Reding) and settle down to his planned marriage, Vi threatens to expose him. The ensuing argument leads to an accident in which Vi is hanging for her life, and Tom makes a conscious decison not to save her life. Trying to ignore his guilt, he is not allowed to move on as Vi's restless spirit makes his life a never-ending string of misery he cannot escape.

Plot:

On an island lighthouse, Tom meets his girlfriend, Vi, and refuses to drop his fiancee to marry Vi. She still has a number of letters he wrote her. Vi falls off the lighthouse railing.

Raise your hand if you're sure! Tom is a bit too slow to save her which happens to end his problem. The next day, he mistakes some seaweed for Vi's body. He spends a lot of time trying to console that Vi's death isn't his fault, etc.

Tom meets with his intended, Meg.

Shouldn't some giant grasshoppers be climbing that lighthouse behind us? On the beach, Tom keeps seeing footprints no one else does while spectral music plays. Tom is starting to act awfully strange and even tries to talk Meg into getting enloped a few days earlier than the their upcoming wedding.

Mrs. Ellis, the blind real estate agent, tells Tom about the haunted island house. Later, spectral Vi calls for Tom. Let the nightmares ensue. Tom sees that the lighthouse is lit. Heading out to it he proclaims he won't be haunted by Vi, etc...

Tom keeps continually seeing a spectral Vi who haunts him. He calms down for Meg. However, he isn't the only one haunted. Meg discoveres her wedding dress was slashed and doused in seaweed.

Tom tells Mrs. Ellis about Vi as the crazy ex-girlfriend stalking him. She heads out to the lighthouse, at the top, she almost falls through the railing and is starting to think there must be some sort of ghost on the island.

Sandy, Meg's little sister (but not in the Little Sister song version) has a big crush on Tom.

Harry Houdini's secret childhood is finally revealed... This scrufffy guy is looking for Tom. Apparently, he piloted Vi to the island but she never paid him. Tom pays the guy. Lter, the guy learns that Tom is marrying the wealthy Meg.

At the wedding rehearsal, guy wants more money from Tom or else he mentions about Vi.

Why do you keep thinking a giant superimposed floating head would be chasing you?

Vi is claiming that he belongs to her and accuses that he murdered her. Guy wants Tom to pay him more because he knows Vi came to the island but never left. Tom offers to meet him at the lighthouse later. Ghostly Vi tells Tom he'll have to get rid of the boat captain. Tom clubs the guy to death. Sandy is hiding in the top of the lighthouse.

Right before the wedding, Sandy keeps from telling Meg about Tom murdering the guy. During the ceremony part of the "speak now or forever hold your peace" the church doors fly open and the flowers wilt. Tom runs off.

At the lighthouse, Tom tells Vi that is running away from Meg. Sandy followed him. He's worried what she can say after he learns she knows about the dead boat captain.

Meg and her parents head to the lighthouse.

Tom takes Sandy to the top of the lighthouse and is slowly edging her close to the rickety railing. However, Vi scasres him off.

A couple of days later, people find Tom and Vi's bodies in the ocean. Somehow, Vi is wearing the wedding ring Tom lost before the wedding.

Who knew a corpse floating out in the ocean for several days would be so preserved?

What I say:

One of the most famous b-movie directors of the late 1950s and early 1960 was William Castle. The man made more than just movies but also theater gimmicks. Most of his famous movies House on Haunted Hill and 13 Ghosts circled around ghosts. He wasn't the only b-movie director. Another of the more well-known b-movie directors is Mr. B.I.G., Bert I. Gordon. He's more known for monster movies like the Beginning of the End with the power of forced perspective, or grasshoppers on a postcard of the Chicago skyline which aren't commonly appreciated necessarily as special effects greatness. By the way, Susan Gordon just happens to be the director's daughter.

Tom, the protagonist, is about to get married but still has a girlfriend, too. That's just asking for problems. Well, when the girlfriend falls to her death with a bit of too slow help from Tom. Why does this seem so reminiscient of political scandals? Of course, blackmailling and some murder ensues. Now, it really seems like political scandalizing.

Typical ghost movies aren't going to be known for having monstrous ghosts. Ghost effects aren't going to fantastic but tend to be more like those in the Invisible Ghost. If the ghost is more than just a white sheet, be thankful. However, the ghost is just a floating head taunting Tom. There has to be a ghost haunting the characters.

Tormented wants to use the "is the guy hallucinating or not?" vibe. Fairly soon into the movie, the audience knows that there actually is a ghost. Unfortunately, we have to put up with Tom acting half-crazy as everyone around him think he's a couple of bricks shy of a load. Unlike Gaslight, the fact that the main character (sorry, can't call Tom the hero when he's running around on his fiancee) is acting crazier and crazier because someone has an evil plan on them. A movie like this wouldn't be smart enough to keep the "is it really happening or not" vibe going for the audience. Thankfully, it had the sense not for the "did it happen or not?" ending. Too many horror movies from the last 20 years have tossed the "did it happen or not?" ending around with a dream sequence or something totally out of left field that has been divorced from reality. Tormented ends flat out saying there was a ghost. Most of the characers may not have had any idea of it but that's isn't necessary.

Quotable Dialogue
"You're the best jazz pianist in the world."
"So cold and gloomy up here."
"Nobody believes in ghosts."
"What did you do with that thing, Vi?"
"Are you trying to spoil me?"
"I'm a real square, Dad."
"5 THOU!"
Morals of the Story
Don't lean on ramshackle lighthouse railings.
Seaweed resembles dead bodies.
Little girls have small mustaches.
Newly married couples need multiple candlesticks for wedding gifts.
Ghosts cause flower boquets to wilt.