The Headless Ghost

The Headless Ghost (1959)

Three teenagers encounter a ghost who is in limbo until he retrieves his lost head. They do their parts to help him find it.

Date of release
1959-04-18
TMDB
3.4 / 10 (14)
Runtime
1h 2m
Genres
Fantasy, Horror, Comedy
Director
Peter Graham Scott

Casting

Interesting facts

The Headless Ghost is a 1959 British comedy horror film, produced by Herman Cohen and directed by Peter Graham Scott. It stars Richard Lyon, Liliane Sottane, David Rose, and Clive Revill. It was written by Aben Kandel. The film tells of three young people who spend the night in a haunted English castle. With the help of a friendly ghost, they reunite the head of the Headless Ghost with its body, thus ending its 600 years of wandering about headless.

Production

Producer Herman Cohen was making Horrors of the Black Museum in England for Anglo-Amalgamated Films, with the film slated to be distributed in the US by American International Pictures (AIP). James H. Nicholson, one of the founders of AIP, asked Cohen 'to supply a suitable supporting feature in black-and-white 'Scope' to accompany Black Museum' because a 'large Texas circuit would book the double bill and others would follow suit.

The film was shot on the same sets as Horror of the Black Museum with some additional location work at an actual castle. This may not have been the original intent, however. 'According to The Hollywood Reporter production charts and Daily Variety news items, the film was to be shot entirely on location in London, although an October 1958 Los Angeles Examiner item added that the film was to be shot at Burntisland Castle in the Firth of Foth, Scotl…

Cohen later said in an interview that 'We knocked out that picture very, very fast; that's why the running time is so short, like sixty-five minutes ... In fact, we started Headless Ghost as I was still finishing Black Museum, editing and cutting it. But I honestly don't recall too much else about this picture, it was so bad.' Cohen later admitted that the film was unfunny and that he 'never liked' it.

The film was the final feature film of Richard Lyon who had co-starred in the Life with the Lyons television series and of Liliane Sottane.

The film was mostly shot at the Merton Park Studios.

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