Word: ghosts
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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HOME-GROWN, low-budget filmmakers rarely create seamless art--work which reveals talent within the limits of a small budget. Anna Thomas, the producer-director-writer of The Haunting of M sets out to prove that a stylish ghost story can be produced inexpensively. Although her attempt does not really succeed, Thomas displays considerable promise within the limits of her failure...
...Haunting of M is a Victorian ghost story. Even on a low budget, the movie successfully presents a lush and mysterious atmosphere. The cinematography by Gregory Nava imbues light with a sinister and unearthly aura. People quiver before the firelight and become disembodied; eerily-lit heads swathed in darkness. The carefully sculptured garden becomes a foreboding place, a jungle, at dawn. The shadows don't disappear in the sunlight, for much of the intrigue occurs in the silver blue of early morning. Such mysteriousness gives The Haunting of M the patina of a well-made gothic movie. And like many...
...movie, alas, lacks sustained ability to haunt. Thomas provides the necessary disembodied footsteps and floor creaks, but the rest is silence. The featured ghost--not just an amorphous white cloud, but a nattily dressed gentleman named Marion--offers nothing more threatening than a few cross glares. Overabundant in tension, The Haunting of M lacks genuine fright. In the most important scenes, Marion reveals himself to be a lovesick and slightly wrathful admirer of Marianna, played with calculated flirtatiousness by Sheelagh Gilby. Indeed, in his last scenes, Marion becomes truly tender as he reaches out to Marianna, scowling jealously at those...
...ghost haunts Marianna in a rather benign way; he loves her, even haunts her with a purer, more romantic love than the one offered by her living (and drippy) beau who totes a camera and nasally announces his affection. Indeed, Marianna's sister, played by Nini Pitts, seems more frightened of the spectre than does Marianna. Rather, Marianna is victimized by her visions of romance which cling to her and draw her from her sleep. How such notions could possibly threaten her, we do not know; nor are we shown why she is so enamoured of Marion. For Marianna seems...
After an unsuccessful attempt to pay the students $1,000 to drop Daley Planet from the masthead, Warner Communications sued, claiming trademark infringement, injury to business reputation and engagement in deceptive practices. "Great Caesar's ghost," the Daley Planet declaimed in consternation. "If we'd known there would be so much trouble, we'd have changed our name to the Gotham Globe, or the Daily Bugle. Then we'd only have to worry about bats and spiders knocking at our office, and not the Man of Steel...