Decent, unpretentious little William Castle knock off from William Conrad, who did three of them for Warner Bros. It gave a leading role for Connie Stevens who was in a few Warner TV series - I didn't know Dean Jones was a Warners contract player... or maybe he wasn't (I think they'd lost a lot of their 77 Sunset Strip Shows by this stage).
Still he and Stevens are quite good as is Caesar Romero. The plot is hardly inspired - Stevens needs to stay in an old haunted house for a few nights to inherit money. The opening establishes Romero as a magician and I was hoping for lots of magic stuff; there's a little but not enough.
It's not very scary - I don't think Conrad was a great director at this stuff. The most effective moment is when Jones and Stevens go to a nightclub and there's groovy 70s music playing then they go quiet and stare at each other and kiss. It's effective because it's visual - I wish there was more of it.
It perks up when Romeo comes back at the end and is crazy but he's only in the film a short bit. It's a shame - I think they should have revealed he was alive earlier. Maybe had the twist at the end be that Stevens' mother was still alive.
Another twist or two would've been great and if you'd had more Romeo there would've been more drama to play out.
Still this isn't bad to watch on TV.
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