The Ghost of Sierra de Cobra started as the pilot to a TV series called Haunted, about an architect (Martin Landau) who does paranormal investigation on the side. The pilot wasn't picked up, rumor has it for being "too scary," so its running time was padded by about 20 minutes, and it was released as a feature film.
It's a notable movie for a few reasons. The writer and director, Joseph Stefano, wrote the screenplay for Hitchcock's Psycho. The cast also features several Hitchcock alums; along with Landau (North by Northwest) we have Diane Baker (Marnie), and Judith Anderson (Rebecca). Lastly, the cinematographer is Oscar winner Conrad Hall.
It's kind of a shame it didn't make it to series; it predated the similarly-premised Kolchak by about 10 years. The story, about a millionaire, his wife, and possible phone calls from his dead mother (this is the second "calls from the dead" movie in the countdown) isn't particularly scary, and you can guess what's really going on pretty quickly. But I will say, the "ghost" in the movie is actually very creepy!
I watched the movie version on Prime. The pilot version is available in YouTube and embedded below. I think it's probably the better version of the two. The movie version has so many moments where the camera just sits on a shot a few seconds too long, to the point of it being awkward, which is clearly just because the running time had to be padded.
2 comments:
Watched tonight after seeing you had posted about it. Had no clue this existed until then. I enjoyed it. I think it would have been a cool series, since Landau is so great, as always. And yeah, the ghost was scary - especially for 1964! Thanks for the recommendation.
Love the hear that!
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