The Ghost

A wife and her lover murder her wealthy, wheelchair-bound husband for his fortune—only to discover that death may not have finished with him. Riccardo Freda’s 1963 Italian Gothic horror (released as Lo Spettro, and under the pseudonym “Robert Hampton”) reunites the director with Barbara Steele after The Horrible Dr. Hichcock. Steele plays Margaret Hichcock, the discontented wife of the ailing Scottish doctor John Hichcock (Elio Jotta), who is carrying on an affair with the younger physician Livingstone (Peter Baldwin). After they engineer the husband’s death, the safe is empty, the house fills with poltergeist activity, and Margaret becomes convinced the dead man is returning to claim his revenge. Set in 1910 Scotland and steeped in séances, buried keys, and crumbling estates, the film is pure Italian Gothic: atmospheric, twisty, and driven by Steele’s iconic presence. Not a true sequel to The Horrible Dr. Hichcock, but a companion piece that recycles the surname and the same star-director pairing for another tale of murder, greed, and spectral payback.