BACK FROM THE DEAD {1957}

 "THE DEVIL IS A PROUD SPIRIT AND DOESN'T LIKE TO BE MOCKED!"

  Dick Anthony and his pregnant wife Mandy go to their vacation home along the California coastline accompanied by Mandy's sister Kate.  Things are going fine until Dick insists on playing the wackiest LP ever heard; full of brash orchestration and blaring theremin.  Mandy screams, has an epileptic fit and passes out.  The doctor is called and informs Dick and Kate that Mandy has had a miscarriage.  Mandy wakes up acting strangely; calling herself Felicia.  Who's Felicia?!?!?!  Dick tells Kate that Felicia was his first wife who drowned 6 years ago.  Mandy had no idea Felicia ever existed and knows nothing of Dick's first marriage.  However, she now insists she is Felicia and knows things only Felicia would know.  Mandy has even taken to calling Dick by a nickname Felicia had for him:  Dickon.  Perhaps she read THE SECRET GARDEN???  Anywho, Mandy's faithful dog Copper growls seemingly knowing that Mandy is not Mandy anymore.  The trio go to the home of Felicia's parents the Bradleys and begins playing her favourite tune (the one on the record); Mandy doesn't know how to play the piano.  After telling Mrs. Bradley what only Felicia could know, the old woman is convinced.  So is her father Mr. Bradley; and he's quite afraid.  Felicia's mother turns out to be a member of a satanic cult who purposely brought her daughter Felicia's spirit back to inhabit Mandy's body.  The cult is led by a Maitre Renault who is planning to organize the cult into an occult ceremony to bring Felicia back permanently.  Meanwhile, after Mandy/Felicia turns the gas on in Kate's room in an attempt to asphyxiate her (she fails) and takes a scythe to faithful, fluffy Copper (she apparently succeeds), Kate is determined to thwart Felicia's evil spirit as well as the Satanic cult and bring Mandy back.

Really a low-rent version of Val Lewton's production of THE SEVENTH VICTIM (not an idea original to me), BACK FROM THE DEAD is based on a novel entitled 'THE OTHER ONE' by Catherine Turney; who also writes the screenplay.  By all accounts, the novel is much spookier than this rather thin screen adaptation on a shoestring.  Cinematography by veteran DP Ernest Haller is quite good; wringing every bit of atmosphere from the gloomy, rock-strewn California coast.  One can almost feel the clammy fog creeping in.  Being a 1950's film, the soundtrack is chock full of theremin which also helps to give BACK FROM THE DEAD an eerie, woo-woo feeling.  Charles Marquis Warren directs the outrageous goings-on in a straight-forward manner which manages to almost make things seem reasonable.  Almost.  Warren mostly directed westerns but he also helmed THE UNKNOWN TERROR (which I've talked about on last year's Countdown to Halloween) which formed a double bill with BACK FROM THE DEAD.  Arthur Franz as Dickon is rather more subdued than I'm used to seeing him (particularly in MONSTER ON THE CAMPUS) so I rather like him more here than I usually do.  Peggy Castle as Mandy spends most of the movie possessed by the evil spirit of Felicia and she gives it a steely edge which is quite effective.  Marsha Hunt as Kate gives a performance that is much better than the film deserves and it definitely the heart of the whole movie.  All in all a diverting 79 minutes which manages to zip by without really dragging.  No great shakes but there are just enough positives to make BACK FROM THE DEAD not entirely a waste of time.

Alas poor Copper . . . .