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The Spirit is Willing
USA 1967
produced by William Castle for William Castle Pictures/Paramount
directed by William Castle
starring Sid Caesar, Vera Miles, Barry Gordon, John McGiver, Cass Daley, Ricky Cordell, Mary Wickes, Jesse White, Robert Donner, Nestor Paiva, Doodles Weaver, Jay C.Flippen, Jill Townsend, John Astin, Harvey Lembeck, Mickey Deems, Byron Foulger
screenplay by Ben Starr, based on the novel The Visitors by Nathaniel Benchley, music by Vic Mizzy
review by Dale Pierce
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Based on the novel The Visitors by Nathaniel Benchley, The Spirit Is Willing
starts off thusly. A New England sea captain marries a spinster to inherit a
shipping business, only to have an affair with the maid. The spinster then
kills the maid and attempts to kill the captain, who in his dying breath,
manages to kill her as well, with a meat cleaver still sticking out his back.
While this has the makings of an outright horror movie, it is played for
laughs as a comedy, with many hilarious moments instead.
A man, wife and troubled teen rent this house where the killings took place - many years later and of course only the teenager
(Barry Gordon) sees the spirits. They haunt
the house, wreck things and cause all kinds of trouble, for which he gets the
blame. In desperation he seeks the help of psychic librarian played by Jill
Townsend (who also plays the role of the maid/ghost). Their attempts to
pacify the angry sopirits never truly work and things come to a climax with a
birthday party in which said ghosts all decide to show up.
Too late, the others start to see the ghosts too and in the end, the spinster
drowns a rich/annoying/meddling relative of the rentors, and, with her new man in
the spirit world, is now content. The other two, however, hitch a ride with
the family as they head out from the haunted house, so all may not be as happy
an ending as they might think.
Sid Caesar steals the show with his antics and overacting, while Gordon
provides a sympathetic hero in the form of the misunderstood teen in the
typical "no adults will believe me" role. Townsend is a hot item in
both of her roles in this.
An interesting title song and soundtrack help out too.
Surprisingly, when the movie hit theaters in 1967, it did not do that well,
nor did the critics find it that funny. Goes to show what some of these
silkass bastards know. I for one loved it the first time I saw it and
subsequent times it cropped up over the years on TV. Can't wait to see it
again as there is always something picked up on when watching, that has been
missed before, in past viewings.
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