IMDb > Night of the Ghouls (1959) > IMDb user comments

IMDb user comments for
Night of the Ghouls (1959) More at IMDbPro »

Filter: Hide Spoilers:
Page 1 of 4:[1] [2] [3] [4] [Next]
Index 32 comments in total 

8 out of 11 people found the following comment useful :-
'Night Of The Ghouls' is a lesser Wood movie. It's fun but pretty forgettable., 1 June 2004
Author: Infofreak from Perth, Australia

The story goes that 'Night Of The Ghouls' sat in the can for over twenty years because Ed Wood couldn't afford to have it developed. I've sometimes seen it passed off as a sequel to 'Plan 9 From Outer Space', but it's actually a sequel to 'Bride Of The Monster'. The links are slim but the mad scientist played by Bela Lugosi is mentioned once or twice, and his assistant Lobo (Tor Johnson) appears in horribly disfigured form. As well as Johnson a few Wood regulars are involved, notably Criswell and Paul Marco. Criswell is a hoot as always but Marco is tiresome. He's the comic relief but I can't stand his character who is always whining and screwing up. Duke Moore from 'Plan 9' plays the main cop and Kenne Duncan, who trash hounds might remember from 'The Astounding She-Monster', plays "Dr. Acula", a crook posing as a spiritualist. 'Night Of The Ghouls' is a lesser Wood movie. It's neither as crazy as 'Glen Or Glenda' or as effective as 'Bride Of The Monster', and frankly I miss Lugosi. So don't get your hopes up, it's fun but pretty forgettable.

Was the above comment useful to you?

5 out of 6 people found the following comment useful :-
Legendary, for the wrong reasons perhaps but still legendary., 19 June 2003
Author: reptilicus from Vancouver, Canada

How can you not like a picture that opens with a man (Criswell)sitting up in a coffin and warning that the story you are about to see may make you faint. Then the credits come on and you see the director is Edward D. Wood Jr. Yes, you may indeed faint . . .but from laughing too hard. This sequel to BRIDE OF THE MONSTER is fun on many levels. It offers unrelated footage from the unfinished movie HELLBORN (some of which later turned up in THE SINISTER URGE) which narrator Criswell tries to tie into the plot: there is also footage of Duke Moore that was shot for a 1/2 hour TV show that is woven in also. What was called "the old Willows house on Lake Marsh" is now "the house on Willow's Lake" and everyone remembers it used to be lived in by "the mad scientist who made monsters". The giant octopus is long gone but Lobo (Tor Johnson) has somehow survived and is now employed by Dr. Acula (Kenne Duncan) a phony medium. Lobo is supposed to be the "monster" in the plot but one look at him makes you think otherwise. Dressed in rags, badly burned, half blind, groaning like he is in constant pain, Lobo inspires more pity than fear. In one scene Lt. Bradford (Moore) does not even seem to notice Lobo when he is standing right next to him! Well this is still a fun movie. The ineptness of an Ed Wood movie is compensated by the sincerity that he put into every production. Ed really believed he was contributing to the movie genre and making his mark. He sure did! Not quite in the way he expected, but look how many people are still watching his movies to-day!

Was the above comment useful to you?

5 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :-
A Fun Ed Wood Film., 24 May 2004
Author: ANDREWEHUNT (ANDREWEHUNT@aol.com) from Canada

If you like Ed Wood's crazy body of work, you'll like this film. It's not as good as "Plan 9," and it rivals "Glen or Glenda?," but it's better than the rest of Wood's films. It's clearly shot with such a low budget that it's almost like watching a live, closed-circuit video feed from the inside of a spookhouse, circa 1959. The plot is inexplicable, and Wood's ensemble of actors is in top (or should I say bottom?) form, especially Paul Marco as Kelton. For sheer ultra-low budget fun, the film is right up there with "The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies," "Robot Monster" and "The Brain from Planet Arous." See it, if you get a chance.

Was the above comment useful to you?

6 out of 9 people found the following comment useful :-
i... i... i can't go on living without valda hansen..., 25 February 2000
10/10
Author: itburnsitburns from nyc

i just... i just love her so... i... i think that... actually this is a marvelous film - tor johnson makes every movie a winner, stumbling around in his monster-contacts, and valda hansen is radiant in her "ghost"ness. anything that starts with criswell in a casket is bound to be a revelation (though maybe hard to understand) of the nature of existence and the transitory nature of our humanity. i'm not kidding.

Was the above comment useful to you?

7 out of 11 people found the following comment useful :-
Slow, creaky and VERY stupid, 7 March 2002
Author: Russell Dodd from Essex, UK

Old couple driving past the house where Old Lugosi experimented years before with Lobo (from "Bride of the Atom"). They see a woman dressed in white and are so alarmed they go report it to the police then have to go to hospital for a sedative. In the urgency, the cops call for their off-duty Luitenant, Bradford, to call off his night at the opera with his wife to go investigate. Un-offically, he's the resident ghost chaser you know (though the department can not and will not admit it!!). Anyway, he chooses idiot Cop Paul marco to go join him instead of any of the other guys. Marco somehow doesn't actually go with him, but goes alone about an hour or so later after finally managing to get a patrol car. He spends 1/2 the film in his car outside the mansion fainting from seeing this woman in white and taking potshots at her (as well as a woman in black who has now turned up) Bradford meanwhile, has broken entry to the house and is greeted by a *cough* Dr.Acula. This Acula guy holds seances. he spends ages on one seance with Bradford watching. The viewer is treated to a trumpet that plays by itself, a black man pulling faces as well as a few indescribable objects that look like parts of a car. Anyway, after a (long) while We learn Dr. Ac is a FAKE!!! The woman in white is infact...a woman in white who has to scare the cops away!!! Bradford, in Ac's absence goes off to explore the old mansion and spends some time reminiscing about the bannister (luckily(!) for the viewer, we can hear his thoughts). He bumps into Lobo (who is more hilarious + wooden than ever). Ac finds Bradford with Lobo who lock him up in a room.

Meanwhile Marco has called for help and by now actually gets out the car and enters the place. There are a few confrontations between cops (Bradford escapes from the room with no problems at all) and Ac and the white lady + upon receiving $10K from the seance decide to make a run for it. He sends one of his "actors" to shoot at the cops!! (for a fake seance??). Lobo is finally shot dead, but the real twist has just started...

This is grade Z rubbish. REALLY bad. In an attempt to escape right at the end, Dr. Ac actually RUNS TOWARDS his nemesis'!!

Not as "good" as plan 9 (unfortuntely) but worth seeing for Wood-Fans

Was the above comment useful to you?

6 out of 10 people found the following comment useful :-
Night of the Ghouls, 30 January 2006
10/10
Author: paul vincent zecchino from Manasota Key, Florida

'Night' meets the high standards Edward D. Wood, Jr. It's a minor classic, albeit a crucial one, commensurate with the 1953 psychodrama, "Glen or Glenda", termed by scurrilous wags 'Bargain Basement Equus'.

Previously unaware of 'Night's' existence, I enjoyed it on Elvira's L.A. TV show. I was living in Palm Springs pursuing film work. I therefore appreciated those who bravely film the unfilmable. 'Night' is just that - unfilmable.

'Dr. Acula' is a pun so moronic it would shame a five year old. It defines the film. Clueless starlets wander groggily. A bumbling - and badly overacting cop - quakes before them. Dr. Acula scams the rich.

Sound familiar? You bet. Sham-psychics scamming wealthy swells were featured in Raymond Chandler's Phillip Marlowe novels. Albeit with one trifling distinction. Chandler could write. Ed Wood, well....

'Night' is not without merit. Paul Marco's overblown 'Kelton' could be sold as 'Do This on Your First Audition & It Will be Your Last'. There are good performances. There are bad. There are a precious few which embarrass viewers. Thespian Marco strives for that mark - and hits it.

Cheesy sets used with shameless repetition abound. Watch for the pine-panel door. It's in the police station. It's in 'Dr. Acula's' home. It's all over. Like dog doot. And, please, would some kind soul explain why in all Wood films, walls are hung with heavy drapes? Spaceships, police stations, doctor's offices, the drapes..the drapes... What is the hidden meaning?

As with audition techniques, never do what Wood's cops and robbers do. Why do they flick a gun when pulling its trigger? Cryptic symbolism? Artifice, a cinematic trick to direct your eyes to it? Underscore emotionality behind the shot? One thing it's not is good shooting. Flicking guns won't make bullets go faster. It simply makes them go where they shouldn't.

The camera always tells the truth. Watch the eyes and faces of those gathered round Dr. Acula. Curiosity and awe in a twinkling turn to 'what on earth am I doing here?' You may ask yourself as much as the film slogs to its boring conclusion. Still, you'll appreciate why it takes more than being Tor Johnson to play Calliban. You'll know why Criswell's narration is no substitute for that of Orson Welles. Then again, Orson Welles couldn't produce Night of the Ghouls.

Paul Vincent Zecchino

Manasoviet Key, FL

30 January, 2006

Was the above comment useful to you?

2 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :-
Not as much fun as "Plan 9", 20 October 2008
1/10
Author: Wayne Malin (wwaayynnee51@hotmail.com) from United States

Ed Wood's followup to "Plan 9 from Outer Space". Lt. Bradford (Duke Moore) and patrolman Paul Kelton (Paul Marco) go investigate a deserted house where strange things are happening. There they find Dr. Acula (sigh) (Keene Dunacn) who's a phony spiritualist trying to bilk wealthy people by "contacting" their dead spouses.

This is the legendary Wood film that sat unreleased for 25 YEARS because Wood couldn't pay the lab bill! It has the typical Wood ingredients--a bad script, lousy acting (although Moore wasn't bad), a stubborn refusal to make sense and dreadful direction and editing. However it's not as bad (or as funny) as "Plan 9" or "Bride of the Monster" were. This is just pretty boring stuff. It has some fun moments--Tor Johnson's truly laughable makeup job and a bewildering séance (where someone is shot at multiple times and someone is knocked out cold--and no one bats an eyelash) but it's mostly just dull. Even Criswell (narrating from a coffin this time) seems to just be going through the motions. And good luck explaining what the Black Ghost is doing in this! Pretty bad...even for Wood. I give it a 1.

Was the above comment useful to you?

2 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :-
Worse than Plan 9, better than Glen or Glenda, 18 August 2004
2/10
Author: John Sharling (lowdowndeeper) from Jelling, DenmarK

Another "Wooden" Classic. Almost a comedy - we've got Paul "Kelton the cop" Marco, a disfigured Tor "Lobo" Johnson and the legendary Bela Lugosi stand-in Dr. Tom Mason in place. Add hovering musical instruments and scary, scary sheets!

Strangely enough Tor Johnson is the real star of this movie. But if Ed had casted a horse it would steal the show.

I only paid 70 kroner (10 dollars if you must) to buy this. And if you like cheap trash like I do - it's worth it!

Although I really like Ed Wood I hope that my vote of 2 will help this awful film where it belongs - bottom 100!

Was the above comment useful to you?

3 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :-
Dr. Acula is a mentalist; we know this because he wears a turban., 15 October 2007
5/10
Author: yetanotherharris from Satan's Colon

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Those who have seen and enjoyed Ed Wood's PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE and BRIDE OF THE MONSTER owe it to themselves to check out this lesser-known work of Wood's, NIGHT OF THE GHOULS. Featuring some of Wood's regular actors, including Paul Marco as Officer Kelton and Tor Johnson as a badly disfigured Lobo, along with Criswell as...well, Criswell's ghost, this movie is so strange that even David Lynch might have trouble trying to figure out what Wood was doing here.

The plot revolves around bizarre happenings at the old Willows Place, where Dr. Acula, a mentalist, has set up shop to bilk elderly believers out of their money. His assistant, Sheila (Valda Hansen), pretends to be a ghost, and between the two of them, they've managed to rig up a goofy-sounding trumpet, a ghostly figure under a white sheet that makes slide whistle noises, and some sort of mumbling, grinning head that speaks to Dr. Acula's clients in a silly voice. All the while, the two are assisted by the now-mangled Lobo and chased by Captain Robbins (played by John Carpenter--not the famous director--in this one, as opposed to Harvey Dunn--not the famous painter--who played him in BRIDE OF THE MONSTER) and Officer Paul Kelton, who makes a number of tongue-in-cheek references to two of Wood's other movies. Dr. Acula's schemes come unraveled in the end, when a real ghost in black (Jeannie Stevens, without the use of makeup or special effects) stalks them down and sees that justice is served with the assistance of Criswell and some other ghosts.

Mind-altering substances may help with this one. Given Ed Wood's notoriety thanks to Tim Burton's 1994 movie, most people who watch this should have a pretty good idea beforehand what they are getting themselves into. Fans of Wood's work might enjoy the use of Criswell as the constant (and often unnecessary) narrator and recognize a number of stock footage shots. Those who are not fans of Ed Wood will hate this, so don't even bother; this is easily one of the weirdest things Wood created, second only to GLEN OR GLENDA?.

Evidently this movie sat unreleased for many years before it was finally purchased. I got this movie from The Ed Wood Box, a DVD set available which includes all of Ed Wood's major pictures.

Was the above comment useful to you?

Yikes!, 4 April 2006
1/10
Author: xredgarnetx from Connecticut

I got about as far as I could into this Ed Wood "home movie," and finally gave up. Wood recycles footage and sets and characters and situations from his other "home movies" to tell us a story about a decrepit house where a mad doctor once made monsters. All I know is there's a cute gal in white who scares people and is in turn scared, and a Vampira-looking woman in black who kills people by covering them with her veil. Tor Johnson shows up as a badly scarred and injured Lobo from a previous film, BRIDE OF THE MONSTER. It's a tossup for worst performance. I will give it to the guy playing phony medium Dr. Acula (how's that for a clever name?). But there is plenty of bad acting to go around. And check out some of the sets! One of the scenes inside a "police station" shows a cop sitting at a desk, with a bunch of plain paneled curtains hanging on the wall behind him.

Was the above comment useful to you?
Page 1 of 4:[1] [2] [3] [4] [Next]

Add another comment

Related Links

Plot summary Amazon.com summary Ratings
External reviews Plot keywords Main details
Your user comments Your vote history