Amos Wilder (Terence de Marney), a man who has dabbled in the occult,
has just died, taken his own life, but not without leaving everything to
his nephew Ellis (John Newland) under a set of quite unusual conditions
which even involve Ellis guarding his vault - and guarding is exactly what
the vault needs, because it seems a stranger (Reggie Nalder) tries to get
in ... Ellis does some research and finds out the stranger was black
magician Andrew Bentley, or rather his spectre, because the actual Andrew
Bentley was killed by uncle Amos 3 years ago - and now he wants to have
Amos's dead body as a revenge, and use it to wreak havoc on the living.
The only way to destroy Bentley now is to find and burn his corpse, so
Ellis gathers his wife (Antoinette Bower), the local doctor (Philip
Bourneuf) and the priest (Oscar Beregi jr), and together they chase
Bentley's spectre through uncle Amos's mansion until they find a secret
room, where the body is resting in a sarcophag. They burn it on the spot
and Bentley is no more ... Quite a charming piece of
old-fashioned horror, that might be cheaply made, but is atmospheric and
thus effective nevertheless. Only the ending is a bit of a let-down as it
fails to keep the tension and suspense built up throughout the episode.
Other than that, The Return of Andrew Bentley is highly enjoyable
though.
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