"The Headless Ghost" is a harmless, very minor but fairly likable little comedy filmed on the cheap in Britian. Three foreign exchange students - Americans Bill (Richard Lyon) and Ronnie (David Rose) and Danish gal Ingrid (Liliane Sottane) - take in the locations of the Ambrose Estate. Ronnie wants to investigate the stories of the place being haunted for his college newspaper and the three certainly do find plenty to write about. The ghosts are real, starting with amiable, helpful Fourth Earl of Ambrose (the great character actor Clive Revill, in his first credited screen role). One of the ghosts, Malcolm, needs his body and his severed head to be reunited so he can properly rest in peace. Bill, Ingrid, and Ronnie are reluctant at first but are eventually persuaded to see this "mission" through to its end. As written by Aben Kandel and producer Herman Cohen, and directed by Peter Graham Scott, there are no real comedy fireworks here. At best, the movie does elicit some modest chuckles, but at least it's all easy enough to take. The trio of protagonists have the potential to annoy some viewers, especially Bill, but the enthusiasm of the actors' performances is effective, and that accent of Sottanes' is hard to resist. Revill scores as the easygoing ghost, and Alexander Archdale is a hoot as the fun loving spirit of Sir Randolph. One debit is that even at a mere one hour and three minutes, this definitely feels padded: better pacing and this could have run even shorter. Still, one can't completely dislike the padding, as it features some incredible dance moves by a sexy performer named Josephine Blake. The special effects aren't bad, the music by Gerard Schurmann is good, and the movie isn't totally without decent black & white atmosphere. Originally released as the second movie in a double feature with Roger Cormans' "A Bucket of Blood", this is indeed lightweight stuff, and pretty damn silly, but it's also impossible to hate. After all, it's not as if we don't know what we're in for judging by the opening credits. Six out of 10.

Three foreign exchange students -- excitable Americans Bill (likable Richard Lymon) and Ronnie (the equally engaging David Rose) and smart Danish gal Ingrid (a charming performance by lovely buxom blonde Liliane Sottane) -- go on a day trip to the allegedly haunted Ambrose Castle in England. They spend the night and discover that the place is haunted for real by various ghosts that include one particular hapless headless fellow who the trio have to help regain his severed noggin. Director Peter Graham Scott, working from a lightweight script by Herman Cohen and Aben Kandel, relates the frothy story at a steady pace and maintains a perfectly amiable tongue-in-cheek tone throughout. The silly and inoffensive humor doesn't get many big laughs, but it does provide a sizable number of smiles. The ghosts are a colorful and entertaining bunch, with stand-out work by Clive Revill as the friendly, helpful Fourth Earl of Ambrose and Alexander Archdale as the jolly, mischievous Sir Randolph. Josephine Blake has a memorably sexy bit as a gorgeous slave girl who performs a sultry dance. John Wiles' crisp black and white cinematography boasts plenty of nifty fades and dissolves. Gerard Schurmann's dynamic score does the trick. A pleasant 62 minute diversion.

If you remember seeing this film on local TV -- as I do -- then you know it's a short, cheap, shot-in-England black-and-white comedy with a few random ghosts thrown in. But it's still fun! Not only does the film feature the first credited film appearances of Josephine Blake (who would later be a British musical star) and Clive Revill (a great British character actor), but it's got a guy named David Rose who is about as close to a 1950s teen comedy Regis Philbin as you'll ever find. I don't know where they dug up guys like this one (and Bobby Van, and all the other horror/SF/fantasy "comedy relief" guys), but they're a cliché -- uh, staple of the time that you just have to look back and chuckle about. If you find the pacing slow (it is) and the plot thin (it is) and the comedy weak (it is), at least you know it's not very long...

I saw this many times on a local TV station back in the late 1970s. Every Saturday afternoon they showed two old horror films back to back. With a few exceptions they were BAD horror films. This is one of the worst.Stupid ghost story of three annoying teenagers (two American guys, one Danish woman) visiting a haunted castle in England. There they meet a ghost who has (literally) lost his head. They help him find it.Honestly...that's the entire plot! There's nothing else. The sets are real cheap looking (looks like they were made of cardboard), the special effects are atrocious (the headless ghost especially), the dialogue and plot are lame and the acting is really BAD! There isn't one remotely scary (or interesting or intelligent) moment in the entire film--it just drags on and on. The only reason I watched it was to avoid doing homework! Not even bad enough to be funny--just bad enough to be bad! A real must miss. I give it the lowest rating--1.