Generally speaking, I love this type of film: slow, Gothic, ghosts, mystery and horror but this one is just OK - not nearly as good as I thought it would be. I'm extra shocked because Barbara Steele is in the film - and I like her a lot.Dr. John Hichcock is in a wheelchair is married to the lovely Margaret. Margaret and Dr. Charles Livingstone are having an affair and Dr. Hichcock knows it. Dr. Hichcock also knows he's being poisoned and even asks his personal doctor, Dr. Charles Livingstone, to give him the antidote. One day Dr. Livingstone and Margaret decides they want John dead so Charles refuses to give John the antidote after his daily poisoning. Margaret and Charles are now happy until they see the "ghost" of John. Is it John's ghost or is John still alive? It's s-l-o-w-l-y paced until the ending. As I said earlier, I like slow films but this one is just OK - and extremely slow.4/10

Unlike many of Steele's other horror films, this one is in color--and the copy is in generally nice condition. As for the language, it's all dubbed into English and there were no captions. I assume it's been dubbed into other languages as well."The Ghost" is another Italian-made horror film starring Barbara Steele--everyone's favorite 1960s horror queen. The film begins with a rich doctor in intense pain and living out his final days through the use of two poisons which somehow work together to keep him alive. However, his wife (Steele) and her boyfriend (the guy's doctor) can't wait for him to die...so they help the process! However, after the husband's demise, they start to wonder if he's dead or if his spirit has somehow returned. They also discover that much of his fortune is hidden. And, considering that the dead man did experiments concerning the netherworld, you assume he has indeed come back to his 'loving wife'.So is it worth seeing? Well, the film manages to have a nice spooky Gothic look. The story idea also is pretty good and has many creepy moments. I didn't particularly get some of Steele's actions near the end of the film but the overall film is pretty good--and it ended with some nice twists.

The Ghost finds Barbara Steele and Peter Baldwin as the lady of the house and the live in physician doing a whole lot of kanoodling right under the nose of husband Elio Jotte. The husband has been lingering on death's door for some time and Steele and Baldwin would just like it if were to go just do it quickly so they can start spending the fortune Jotte's alleged to have left.There does come a point when the two decide to hurry things a long and even raise a few eyebrows among the neighborhood when Baldwin continues to live at the estate. But when all kinds of things start to go bump in the night the relationship starts to come apart at the seams. Housekeeper Harriet Medin who is the only other person living in the estate is loyal to her late master and makes no attempt to conceal her disgust with Steele and Baldwin.The Ghost is an Italian production with foreign players from the USA and UK and is not too bad in the thrill department. It won't give any competition to Alfred Hitchcock. Might however for William Caste.

I'd read that THE GHOST (English title for Lo Spettro) was a sequel to THE HORRIBLE DR. HICHCOCK. It has the same character names - in some cases but in almost every case, the character from HICHCOCK is either played by someone different from the first movie or has a slightly different name than they had in the first movie. I honestly don't see how you can call it a sequel because it seems to have no direct connection to HORRIBLE DR. HICHCOCK other than a couple of actors returning from the first movie. However, I am getting away from the point, which is that you do not have to see the first movie to enjoy THE GHOST. I've now seen both and they can stand alone as films. I am only speculating but I suspect it may have originated as a sequel to HICHCOCK (both were filmed back to back over a span of 12 days if I am not mistaken) or maybe someone tried to make it a sequel to HICHCOCK during the dubbing. Who knows? Having seen both films, I personally like THE GHOST much better than HICHCOCK. Both are very pretty to look at with great cinematography and awesome sets. I think THE GHOST is a better told story and moves at a swifter pace I think. I'd not really tried very hard to track down THE GHOST after seeing HORRIBLE DR. HICHCOCK. HICHCOCK suffers from the fact that director Riccardo Freda got behind schedule and removed 10 pages from the script in order to stay on schedule. The American distributor removed another 10 minutes from the finished film and that kind of renders the final film very difficult to understand. In fact, I didn't really understand it until I read a long analysis of HORRIBLE DR. HICHCOCK on a fan site which basically explained what the film did not. In contrast to HICHCOCK, THE GHOST was apparently filmed as written. I was lucky enough to be able to see what appears to be an intact copy of the film complete with a murder sequence that must have seemed pretty graphic to viewers in 1963. It seemed graphic to me in 2010. One review of this film called it "almost bloodless" so I assume the film was heavily cut, for theatres as well as television. The copy I saw had a scene so bloody, I was shocked to find it in a film released in 1963, but then again, maybe people then didn't see the same film I saw recently. With Freda and probably most of the crew long dead, I guess we may never know if these cuts were only for the English releases or if they were inflicted on the Italian copy as well. If you are wondering why I praise the film so much, here are a few reasons. For starters, the story is excellent. The actors are dubbed so it's hard to judge their performances but the characters are pretty well drawn for a dubbed foreign film and all the production credits like music score, make-up, special effects, sets, cinematography are all top drawer. Like most Italian horror films from the 1960s, it starts off a little slow but give it a chance. If you manage to see an uncut print like I did, you will be very satisfied with the twists and turns that come fast and furious. I honestly got caught off guard by this movie. I may be dense but I didn't see some of the things in this film coming ahead of time, and I've watched horror movies all my life. Director Riccardo Freda proves he was definitely a better than average talent when he had the schedule, the script and the right actors. All the stars aligned for this one. I think it's Freda's masterpiece...easily his best horror film (I've seen this, HICHCOCK and TRAGIC CEREMONY). It's a shame that the credits call him "Robert Hampton." He should have had his real name on this since I think it's a movie he would be proud of. Now, here is the only thing I do not understand about THE GHOST and that is why this film is not commercially available in it's uncut form. There are budget DVDs of it out there usually featuring a transfer from some old battered 16mm TV print and most of those are cut. THE GHOST is now one of my all-time favourite examples of the golden age of Italian horror films and ranks right up there with the best works from Mario Bava and Antonio Margheriti. I can only conclude this is another sad case of being unable to locate the original negative or not being able to find a usable and uncut copy of the film. THE GHOST is one of the most entertaining and satisfying examples of Gothic Italian motion picture horror and does not deserve it's relative obscurity. I'm just glad I waited until I could see an uncut print of it. It's not in the best condition but at least it is complete. Don't miss this one. THE GHOST is well worth whatever trouble you have to go to in order to see it. Hopefully someone will give it a pristine and restored release to DVD or Blu-Ray. Someday it will be recognized for the fine film that it is.