$40 Bounty: I Seriously Doubt Anyone Can Name This Movie, But Here it Goes

Bounties
1

I saw this atmospheric film as a child, sometime in the early-1980s in New York. It might have been aired on either ‘Fright Night’, ‘Chiller’, or some other program that featured scary movies, but I’m not entirely sure.

I think it was a British* ghost story set in the 1800s, with flashbacks to the 1700s. There was a castle, a palace or a mansion involved. There were spirits and apparitions. There was also a beautiful woman, who might have been a witch, or something to that effect.

I remember seeing lots of distinctive period attire featured in this film-- long, ornate hoop skirts, and gentlemanly ruffled shirts. Maybe even knickers and buckle shoes (?).

I remember two very short scenes and that’s all:

1) The first scene shows a gentleman. He’s standing outside of a castle or mansion. He looks up and his eyes suddenly widen. He sees a brief apparition of a woman, with coiled (blonde?) hair, wearing an ornate hoop skirt. She’s walking on the balcony, with her back facing him. She turns the corner of the balcony, disappearing from view.

I think this scene was set in the 1800s, but the ghostly woman was from the 1700s. I remember this clip feeling very eerie to me as a child. It chilled me to the bone. Gave me nightmares.

2) The other scene involved a woman. She was in a room with several other people (I think) and a very bitter-looking, middle-aged man, who was facing her and talking to her. He seemed to be very critical towards her, and had a scowl on his face.

At one point, she said something that displeased him, and he gave her a big slap across her face, causing her head to turn away in pain and her eyes to get teary.

This enraged her, and she retaliated. I don’t know exactly what she did to him, since she made contact with the side of the man’s face that was not facing the camera, but she either dug her nails into his face, or she violently grabbed and twisted his ear. It was hard to tell. Whatever she did, she put all her strength into it, and made a strenuous facial expression while doing it.

This pissed the man off, so he removed her hand from his face and hit her again. This time, she surrendered.

FYI: This movie is NOT “Night of Dark Shadows”.

  • I’m not positive that it was a British film. It might have also been American, Canadian, or Australian, for all I know.

Maybe you could recognize it from one of the covers on this list: https://www.imdb.com/search/title/?release_date=1970-01-01,1990-12-31&keywords=ghost&plot=century&sort=release_date,asc

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Went through all the ones made in the 70s. Unfortunately, they're not the one. Thanks.

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In the early 1980's, my cable provider carried WOR as a superstation. I watched horror movies religiously on WOR every Saturday night. Many were movies I had never seen before. I just searched to see if that show was either Night Fright or Chiller. The search led me to blog review of a book by James Arena: Fright Night on Channel 9. It included a link to a list of every movie shown on Fright Night by air date. I scanned the 1980-84 listings but didn't see any likely candidates. Here's the link if you want to look at the list. http://www.dvddrive-in.com/TV%20Guide/frightnight.htm

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@SceneSeeker - In addition to Jim Arena's list of every episode of Fright Night on WOR, a fan of Creature Features (broadcast on New York's WNEW Channel 5) has also prepared a comprehensive list of every movie that aired on both the afternoon and evening shows. I skimmed his list for 1979-80, and I doubt your movie was shown on Creature Features, but here is the link in case you would like to check for yourself. https://www.dvddrive-in.com/TV%20Guide/creaturefeaturesarticle.htm

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@SceneSeeker - One last comment. Someone also posted all the movies (by air date) that played on Chiller Theater on New York's WPIX Channel 11 from 1971-82. Of course, your movie may not have played on any of these three horror movie shows, but I'll post the link in case you want to check: https://www.dvddrive-in.com/Chiller/chiller.htm P.S. I got a kick out of looking through the Fright Night list. In the 80's, they played so many cool movies that I had read about but had never seen, like Dear Dead Delilah, Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things, Deathdream. What a cool show.

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14 Answers

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8

Thank you much, Stjepan. I will browse through all these and award you the solution, should I find my movie. I browsed through some of them today, but no luck yet.

No problem. I forgot to mention, You can also add "haunted house" or "ghost film" or even "vampire film" or some other genre label to genre search, since they sometimes don't add all relevant labels to the film :(

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Will try it. Thanks.

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Just wondering, did YOu have any luck with the search in the past two weeks?

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No, not at all. From all the searching for old haunted house videos on YouTube, I've been getting a lot of recommended movies, which are similar in atmosphere to the one I'm seeking. Been going through all of them, but no luck so far.

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Sad to hear it. I am thinking of three possibilities for further search: 1.) It was an episode of an anthology show (maybe a list like this could help: https://www.imdb.com/list/ls008572458/?ref_=rltls_26&sort=release_date,asc&st_dt=&mode=detail&page=1 , plus it also lists some hosted and non.hosted movie shows) 2.) Talking about movie series, I did the search with "horror" and "New York" and came with these: https://www.imdb.com/search/title/?title_type=tv_series&genres=horror&plot=new%20york&sort=year,asc 3.) The film was a thriller with someone pretending to be a ghost, Scooby Doo.like

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2

I wonder if it could be the 1974 British horror film Ghost Story (also known as Madhouse Mansion). That movie takes place in a large mansion in the 1920’s, but has many flash backs to an earlier era. There are women dancing in fancy hoop skirts. There is a scene where a man looks up at a second story window and sees a woman ghost who then turns and walks away. And there is a fight scene in a bedroom, though not exactly as you describe. I picked this title up on VHS at least 30 years ago because I saw Penelope Keith’s name listed in the credits; I knew her from British TV comedies like Good Neighbors and To the Manor Born. Though set in England, the film was actually shot in India.

The full movie is on youtube, should you want to check it out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tb-Y5mSg1OA

Excellent guess, Tim. Unfortunately, this cannot be the film I'm looking for. At first, I thought you had nailed it, particularly when I saw the man gazing at the woman's apparition in the window. This wasn't exactly how I described the scene in my question, but I thought that perhaps I had just misremembered it, since I saw it as a child so long ago. What really convinced me that this isn't the movie is the absence of the second scene that I described. Also, Ghost Story has a tongue-in-cheek, avant-garde flavor to it, whereas the movie I'm looking for was serious, if I remember it right.

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10

Although I am not actively searching for this film anymore, there is an anthology film Twice-Told Tales (film) - Wikipedia I saw recently (namely the third story in the anthology)

It has middle-aged man beating a young blond woman (near the end), there is a mansion with ghosts involved. However, the scene about a man looking and seeing a ghostly woman is inverted: the woman looks from the window and sees a mysterious man in the distance.

Probably not the film, but I thought it won’t hurt to mention it.

Thanks for the follow up, Stjepan. I just checked it out, and you're right. It's not the movie. I actually scanned through this film several months ago.

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11

Hi, not sure if you found it but have you tried, “The Awakening” (1980) It’s a British horror film by Mike Newell?

Nope, not even close. The Awakening takes place in early-1980s Egypt, for the most part, while the movie I'm looking for is set in either New England, or Europe, sometime between the 1600s to the 1800s.

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12

Few more films were suggested:

1.) La Frusta E Il Corpo - few gents suggested this film. I am not convinced, as it has scenes of aggression towards women, but I can’t remember the scene with the ghostly woman.
2.) One Minute Before Death (1972) - the scene of agression is milder than You have described, and a ghostly woman is not seen from the outside, but from the inside (the woman appears around 1 hour mark and later)

And two that I think are in the category of brainstorming, but maybe worth a look:
3.) The Spectre of Edgar Allan Poe (1974)
4.) Nella stretta morsa del ragno (1971)

I went through all 4 movies on YouTube. None of them were the one, sadly, but the atmosphere and time period of these films you're suggesting is getting very close. Thanks.

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14

Few more were suggested in the topic I opened half a year or so ago. Frankly, I don’t expect much from these, but here they are just in case.

  1. Dr. Terror’s Gallery of Horror (1967)
  2. The Undead (1957)
  3. Tormented (1960)
  4. Horror / The Blancheville Monster (1963)
  5. Dungeon of Harrow (1962 or 1964)
  6. Terror in the Crypt / Crypt of the Vampire (1964)

Thanks for your continued determination to find my film, Stjepan, and you're right. None of those are the one.

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No need to thank me, some guy discovered the topic and provided few suggestions :) I simply unpdate the list of films that were eliminated haha

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4

I feel like it might be High Spirits maybe? From 1988. It seems silly but it has real ghosts too. There is some drama with one man falling for a spirit behind his wives back.

It’s kind of silly and seems like it is fake ghosts/spirits there are actual ghosts and spirits involved. There is a beautiful woman- Daryl Hannah who is a spirit and is in older clothing.

It presents as maybe Scottish/Irish (location/Characters) like, has a castle. Some of what you say reminds me of it.

No, "High Spirits" is definitely not the film, since it came out in 1988. The one I'm looking for was probably made in the 1970s, because I saw it sometime between 1980 and 1984, at the very latest (the film quality and general "feel" of the movie and the actors also suggested a 1970s, or even earlier, release). Also, the movie I'm looking for was a serious ghost story, not a comedy. I wish I had access to all the TV Guides (NY Metro editions), from 1980 to 1984. With some diligent hard work, I would surely dig up this movie.

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5

And Now the Screaming Starts (1973)?

EDIT: I don’t remember the particular scenes, but i remember there is rape (maybe the scene You remember) and it is set in approximately the same ages You have mentioned.

The time period and atmosphere of this movie is spot on, but unfortunately, it's not the one, as it contains neither of the scenes I'm looking for.

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Sad to hear. I watched in long ago, so I couldn't remember if the scenes are in. However, I thought it is better to reccomend it, just in case :)

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P.S. Was the film certainly in colour? And is it possible that it was Italian (or Spanish) film dubbed in English?

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Thanks, Stjepan. And, yes, I think the film was in color, but I'm not 100% sure. It was a long time ago when I saw it. Also, I think this film could definitely have been Italian or Spanish (Spaniard) dubbed in English. In fact, now that you mention it, it probably was. The movie seemed too stylish and eerie for it to have been American. Which Italian or Spanish films did you have in mind?

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None in particular, but I know several Italian films that use flashback device: Un tranquillo posto di campagna (1968), Lisa e il Diavolo (1973), La lunga notte di Veronique (1966); so I thought Your film might also be Italian or Spanish or French

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I have asked on another forum and somebody suggested tis answer:
“Could be Dark Shadows. Like the tv show. They colorized some of it but some are black and white. Later on when they go back in time to Collinwood and whatsherface is a witch. Angelique. She was a witch in the 17’s and you see her again in the 18’s. That guy could be Barnabas”

I checked out a few scenes of Dark Shadows on YouTube, and I doubt that it's what I'm looking for. It just feels too much like a soap opera, filmed mostly indoors. Mine was actually a movie, and it felt like it. I also scanned through 'House of Dark Shadows' (which is a spin-off movie from the 'Dark Shadows' series) and it's definitely not the one either. By any chance, would you have a link to the Dark Shadows scenes you referenced? I'd like to check it out, just in case I'm wrong. Thanks.

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Frankly, I think he wasn't refering to a specific episode, but to that particular storyline (200-300 episodes :( ) in general. I have taken a look at about 15-20 episodes, and I don't think any of them has outside shots of any type of building. P.S. Quite a few guys reccomended looking at Barbara Steele films, particularly The Ghost of Catle of Blood. I am familiar with both and don't think they are the one in question, but You can take a look if You want, as they are available online.

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I just checked out "Castle of Blood (1964), and you're right. It's not the movie. Thanks.

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I thought so :( The Ghost (1963) is not it either, I guess?

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Nope, not at all. Wrong time period.

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7

Few more films were reccomended on other sites:
La cripta e l’incubo (1964)
The Black Torment (1964)
Moonchild (1972/1974)

Just finished going through all 3 movies. I was optimistic at first that one of them could be what I'm looking for, but unfortunately, they were not. The thing is, for someone to identify this movie, he would have to be familiar with at least one of the specific scenes I described. He can't just brainstorm any movie involving ghosts and haunted mansions, made in the 60s or 70s, because there are countless movies like that.

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I know :( That's why I reccomended only And Now the Screaming Starts (1973), since I remembered the rape scene, which involves physical aggression. As You have said, there are at least about 50, maybe even close to 100, films from the era involving a ghost and a castle that have 19th century setting, and that's excluding the really famous ones

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Yes, and that's counting only one country. If my film happens to be foreign, who knows how many there are.

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Some have also suggested The Oval Portrait (1972). It has flashback and I have skimmed through it - it has several scenes of violence towards women, but I couldn't find the scene with the ghost (nor I think it would fit the film), so it is likely not the film in question :(

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Yeah, I also just skimmed through it, just in case you missed the scenes :) but you were right again-- it's not the movie, but it does have a similar atmosphere. I still can't help but wonder if, somewhere on the internet, there is an archive of all the programming aired in New York on all the major networks by year. That would probably be the easiest way to find this film.

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Sorry, but no. This is a comedy. My movie is horror/supernatural.

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15

Your talk reminds me of Wuthering Heights (1970)

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Or the Dark Shadows (1971) or the BBC (1978) adaptions

I actually finally found what I was looking for. I conflated the 2 scenes I described, thinking they were from one movie, when they actually came from 2 movies. The scenes were from the movies 'Warlock Moon' (ghostly apparition) and 'The Bloody Judge' (woman getting slapped). These movies were both shown on WOR channel 9's 'Fright Night', aired in the early-1980s.

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That's great you figured it out and a big thanks for letting us all know

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Titles were: Warlock Moon and The Bloody Judge.

I have just now seen this. It is great that the films were found :D

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