First Rate Elements But Not Without A Few Flaws 
"I will take you places you've never been. I will show you things you have never seen and I will see the life run out of you." What a great, unsettling line of dialogue. It's from Ghost Story, a movie some people like quite a bit and which, probably, more people can take or leave. Despite the film's flaws, and there are several, I like the movie a lot. It's about four men, now quite old, and a woman named Eva Galli.
"Eva Galli...there, I've said it," says Sears James, one of the old men. "Well, what happened to her?" asks Don Wanderley, the son of one of the other old men. "We killed her," says Ricky Hawthorne, another of the old men. "The two of you?" "All of us," says James. "The Chowder Society," Hawthorne explains, "in the Spring of 50 years ago."
The Chowder Society is made up of four successful men who have been friends since childhood. There's Sears James (John Houseman at 79), Ricky Hawthorne (Fred Astaire at 82), John Jaffrey (Melvin Douglas at 80) and Edward Wanderley (Douglas Fairbanks, Jr, the youngest of the four actors, at 72). They meet regularly in the evening to sip brandy and tell ghost stories to each other. When they were young men they met a woman named Eva Galli (Alice Krige) who fascinated them. She lived alone in a mansion. She was beautiful, free spirited, intelligent. They all in their own way fell in love with her. And one night something terrible happened. They covered it up and tried to forget her. Now, it seems their own ghost story is coming back for them.
What are the movie's drawbacks? The film seems too long, mostly because much of the background is told in flashbacks with younger actors portraying the four old men. Another part of the story is told in flashback dealing with a contemporary element. The flashbacks, for me, just take far too much time to establish the base of the story. Second, there are too many skin shots of Craig Wasson as the son of one of the men and Alice Krige rolling around in bed or staring out of windows. The skin isn't essential to the story and seems to be nothing more than pandering to the audience.
What makes the movie work for me? A number of things. Astaire, Houseman, Douglas and Fairbanks bring a lot of history and nostalgia to the movie. They also bring a good deal of skill. It's pleasing to see these actors given a chance to do their stuff one more time. This was the last film Astaire and Douglas made. Second, the whole idea of old men sitting around a fire, sipping brandy, and scaring the bejeesus out of each other while something from their past slowly circles nearer to them makes for a fine setup. Third, the look of the film is first rate. The story largely takes place in a small, picture-perfect New England town with two-story brick mansions which have mullioned windows and pocket doors, and the white church with a steeple is next to the town square. There's snow on the ground, snow falling, trees stark with bare branches and a full moon at night. Eva Galli's old, boarded up mansion, empty since she disappeared, is a decrepit, decaying horror for anyone brave enough to rip down the boards and enter. Fourth, Craig Wasson does a fine job as the puzzled, worried son who gradually realizes that a woman he thought he loved a few months before his father died looks an awful lot like Eva Galli in the one faded photograph of her that remains. Fifth, Alice Krige is terrific. She plays two parts but the same essential character. She gives off waves of sexual challenge. When she turns quiet and simply looks, there are moments when you really don't want to know what she's seeing.
The DVD picture looks fine. There are no extras.
Slow and long story but worthy of your time
Ghost Story feels, at times, like it was designed to be a mini series. It's too long and there are several false starts and too much expositional material as the director attempts to include far too much of the information laid out in the novel.
The premise is that in this New England township there is a group of very well heeled old codgers who regularly get together to share ghost stories with each other. Their continued friendship through the years seems to have been cemented in a singular deed that they committed in their youth - a deed that none of them dares to mention and none of them wishes to revisit.
However, the old boys' past comes roaring into the present when one of them loses a son in a freak accident. After the accident his twin brother begins a relationship with a woman whose past, present, and future are very weird. Through this relationship, he feels compelled to investigate his brother's death and what connection it has with his father and the other members of the Chowder Society (the storytelling group of the old men).
It is these flashback/present day/recent past recollections made by Craig Wasson's character that bogs down the film. It would seem that this material could have been much more effectively told in the film by simply a short spat of dialogue.
Where this film excels is in the very real horrors of the ghost who is seeking revenge against the members of the Chowder Society. This is due, in no small part, to the remarkable and stellar cast that Ghost Story boasts: the historically far too little used John Houseman, Fred Astaire, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Melvyn Douglas, Patricia Neal, Alice Krige (in one of her first and best performances), and Craig Wasson.
This is a ghost story. As with The Changeling and The Haunting (1960), it depends not on gore or tricks to deliver its horror. It builds based on characters and actions of the characters.
When the "reveal" occurs and the resolution begins, you can actually feel the dampness, and the oppressive atmosphere. You can sense the urgency of the characters - their need to complete their tasks before all is lost. But can they? Should they? After all, it was these old mens' actions that brought about the reality of this Ghost Story.
Worthy of your time. Check it out.
A Good Story
Ghost Story is about a group of elderly men who are haunted by a woman that they were associated with long ago. Slowly, members of the group and their families begin to die, assumedly by their own hand. But they know better.
A lot of this movie's appeal for me was the amazing cast. Fred Astaire, Melvyn Douglas, and Douglas Fairbanks Jr. are all featured in the parts of the elderly men. It is exciting to see that these men could still get acting jobs well into their old age. Their experience also helps them. Fred Astaire especially does a remarkable job. Alice Krige does a good job with her role, being delicately pretty and somewhat chilling.
The effects are dated. The scene in which a man falls to his death has a horrendously fake background. Also, the few glimpses of a rotting corpse are reminiscient of Tales from the Crypt.
There is lots of nudity in this movie, both male and female. It depends on how one looks at it to see whether or not it is excessive. The first nude scene was certainly not necessary and could have been done differently. However, in terms of being realistic, some of it was needed. For example, the sex scene probably could have been done with less or no nudity, but it was more realistic in the way it was filmed. Also, when the characters are walking around naked after having sex, the camera does not shy away from showing anything. Instead of panning upward to show just faces and bare shoulders which would suggest nudity, it stays planted and when a woman's breasts or a man's butt come into the shot.
The film is only somewhat suspenseful, especially compared to more modern horror movies. There are scenes that seem to be set up simply so a ghost or something strange can appear. However, these things never happen. The movie also leaves enough clues for the audience to begin to piece together the mystery themselves; when the story is finally told, it seems appropriate and the audience might have already figured it out.
This movie resembles a film made more recently starring Harrison Ford called What Lies Beneath. I believe that that film is better in terms of suspense and the stories are quite similar.
Geriatric ghoulishness 
I'll never, ever forget how "Ghost Story" begins. What a scary scene! We see veteran actor John Houseman, with all the gravitas he can muster, sitting around a campfire on a beach. He's surrounded by a bunch of kids as he recounts a tale of the supernatural that chills the blood. Houseman tells the story of a ship trying to make land in a dense fog only to sink on the rocks along the coast. Every hand onboard went down with the ship, called the Elizabeth Dane by the way, but the spirits of these angry sailors return from time to time to wreak havoc on the descendants of the townspeople who erroneously guided them to their doom. Isn't that a great story! Well, you sort of need to hear it come from Houseman to get the full effect. Wow! OH, WAIT A MINUTE! Sorry, wrong movie! The film in which Houseman told this story is John Carpenter's "The Fog." The movie I'm reviewing is "Ghost Story," an entirely different film made a few years later that deals with a supernatural spirit seeking vengeance from the grave! Well, "Ghost Story" begins in much the same way, with Houseman telling a ghost story in front of a fire.
There isn't a ghostly sailor to be found here, though. "Ghost Story" is a movie about four octogenarians who share a dreadful secret, a secret that has suddenly come back to haunt them years after the event took place. The four gents--Dr. John Jaffrey (Melvyn Douglas), Edward Wanderley (Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.), Ricky Hawthorne (Fred Astaire), and Sears James (Houseman)--have all lived a wonderful life. They form the upper class of their small New England village, they married good women, and their retirement consists of weekly sessions of their "Chowder Society," which means they sit around telling ghost stories. Fun stuff, except there is one story that never receives a telling. It's a story about something that happened back when they were young men with gleams in their eyes, a story involving a young woman named Alma (Alice Krige). This young lass was rich, see, and all the men in town were just itching to land her as a wife. But Alma was a bit fickle, at least for a time, and when she finally did make her choice it led to nothing but juvenile jealousy. As we learn in the movie, it's only a short jump from jealousy to something far more sinister.
But all of that happened decades ago. Certainly, such an event couldn't cause problems in the present, right? Wrong. Problem is, Alma's hostile spirit has decided to not only target the members of the Chowder Society, but some of their offspring as well, in this case Don and David Wanderley (Craig Wasson). These boys are the twin sons of the aforementioned Edward Wanderley, and the two men couldn't be more different in their outlook on life. One of the sons is a high-powered financial type with a plush office and big penthouse apartment. The other son is a dreamer, an educated book lover who can't seem to find steady employment except for the occasional stint as a part-time professor at various colleges. Both Don and David share something in common, however, and that is a visit from an attractive young woman who takes a keen interest in them. We learn exactly what this interest is, of course, in plodding detail thanks to the recollections of one of the brothers later on during a Chowder Society meeting. Let's just say that said woman, once one gets to know her, exhibits certain suspicious characteristics that hint at something otherworldly. In short, she's freaky weird in a real bad way. So bad, in fact, that one could very well find oneself soaring out of a window in one's birthday suit to get away from her. Ooooh!
I'm giving away a few details here, but you'll still need to watch the film to understand exactly what the Chowder Society members did as youngsters to merit such attention from a spiteful spirit. You'll also need to watch to see what the spirit does in the present day. "Ghost Story" does manage to convey a few chilly shocks over the course of its two hour runtime, some real unsettling dialogue from Krige's character too, but the movie isn't as good as it could be. The main problem with this Peter Straub adaptation is its length. This flick feels like a television miniseries. We're in the present day listening to the members of the Chowder Society, then we're off to follow the misadventures of Don and David Wanderley, then it's fifty or sixty years into the past in order to understand the tragedy leading to numerous deaths in the preceding material. Whew! That's a lot of ground to cover! And unfortunately, the movie doesn't feel the need to maintain a consistent pace throughout. For example, the story related by Wanderley's kid about his run-in with Krige's character moves like molasses on a January day, and that's in spite of these scenes containing some of the creepiest stuff in the movie. The rest of the film moves at about the same pace.
"Ghost Story" still has its moments, though. It's nice to see these old actors onscreen one more time, especially Houseman and Astaire. It's also nice to see that young whippersnapper Alice Krige stealing every scene she's in. The DVD version of the film is a bit of a disappointment. The only extra is a theatrical trailer, but I guess we couldn't expect a commentary track from Douglas, Houseman, Astaire, or Fairbanks considering they all passed on ages ago. I recommend the film to horror fans, but others would probably do well to look elsewhere if they want a good ghost story.
reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, page 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16
ghost story, ghost, story
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based on 84 reviews
