THE SPIRIT IS WILLING (1967)

 "THE FIRST PICTURE TO FACE THE BIGGEST PROBLEM OF OUR TIME:  THE SEX LIFE OF GHOSTS!"

  Yes, this is the tagline for the movie poster of William Castle's THE SPIRIT IS WILLING.  I was totally unaware of this film amongst William Castle's filmography and I have to say I'm pretty familiar with William Castle's filmography so I was taken by surprise at this relatively unknown William Castle flick when it was released on blu ray by the now-defunct Olive Films. 

This is one of those horror-comedies which were pretty common around this same time in the 1960's a la THE GHOST & MR. CHICKEN, THE COMEDY OF TERRORS and Castle's own THE OLD DARK HOUSE remake.  In fact, THE SPIRIT IS WILLING shares a composer with the Don Knotts film:  the great Vic Mizzy who was responsible for the magnificent score to THE GHOST & MR. CHICKEN as well as THE ADDAMS FAMILY TV show.  The film starts out in late 1800's New England with a sea captain named Ebenezer Twitchell (Robert Donner) being coerced by a rich shipping magnate (played by Nestor Paiva) into marrying his homely daughter Felicity (Cass Daley).  When the old man dies, all his riches and fleet of ships will be Ebenezer's.  The sea captain grits his teeth and marries Felicity but, on their wedding night, he is enticed into the bed of the chambermaid Jenny (Jill Townsend).  Felicity axes both of them with a butcher knife and, before he dies, Ebenezer chops Felicity as well leading to three ghosts haunting the seaside mansion. 

Cut to the present day (1967 anyway) when Mr. & Mr. Ben and Kate Powell (Sid Caesar and Vera Miles ) and their teenaged son Steve (Barry Gordon) rent the house.  When they arrive early and find the door unlocked, they are greeted by an axe-wielding housekeeper Ms. Tritt (the great Mary Wickes) who thinks they are intruders.  Knowing the history of the haunted house, Tritt wishes them good luck and races away on her bicycle (on sped-up film -- a common 'horror-comedy' trope used in pretty much all of these sixties horror-comedies a la the Keystone Kops).  Steve is a typical teenager in that he's constantly grumpy, miserable and mad at the world.  "When he was a baby, he was SO sweet," laments Kate. "He also used to throw up quite a bit!" Ben retorts.  "Let's face it, sweetheart, we spawned a lemon!"  When Steve is alone, a kitchen door constantly opens and a pot flies across the kitchen smashing a window.  Steve's parents, of course, blame the boy and leave to go food shopping. 

While alone in the house, the three ghosts start causing havoc throwing things at each other.  Steve comes into the living room and can actually see the ghosts; they even start hurling breakables at him!  The ghosts, you see, can manifest as physical, corporeal entities.Knowing this is a mid-60's horror comedy, you pretty much get the picture already, I'm sure.  However, there's a little twist here which is somewhat surprising.  You remember that it was Ebenezer & Felicity's wedding night when he jumped in bed with the maid and then all three were killed.  Before any hanky panky was had by any of them.  So the three ghosts are all horny as all get-out!  The ghostly maid, during the throwing fight in the living room, actually makes a pass at soon-to-be 16 year old Steve.  And soon-to-be 16 year old Steve is probably so grumpy because his hormones are obviously going berserk right about then.  So the whole haunted house is fueled by sexual energy.  This is a goofy 1967 horror comedy and that's the basis of it's plot.  Huh.  That's kinda different.  So I'm guessing this is why (besides being murdered) the ghosts are so hostile and violent.  Blue balls.  On top of everything else, Ben & Kate are apparently not having any 'connubial fulfillment' because of Ben's bad back.  So nobody's getting any in this house -- alive OR dead!   

Rich Uncle George (veteran character actor John McGiver) arrives and has Steve look out the window at his yacht anchored in the ocean outside.  The yacht is an actual photograph cutout pasted on a backdrop of the sea like something out of BIRDEMIC!!!  Absolutely priceless!!!  Uncle George asks Steve "Whatcha gonna be when your brains straighten out?".  I gotta say, there's a lot of pretty good one liners in this movie.  There are also a TON of great character actors you've seen a million times including the aforementioned Barry Gordon (who by law I think was required to appear in every TV show during the 1970s), Robert Donner (everything from CHISUM, HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER and RIO BRAVO to VANISHING POINT), Cass Daley (STAR SPANGLED RHYTHM, CRAZY HOUSE and DUFFY'S TAVERN), John McGiver (THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE), JESSE WHITE (the long-time Maytag Repairman), Doodles Weaver (of Spike Jones & His City Slickers as well as IT'S A MAD MAD MAD MAD WORLD), Mary Wickes (SIGMUND & THE SEA MONSTERS, SISTER ACT and THE MAN WHO CAME TO DINNER), Jay C. Flippen (Kubrick's THE KILLING, WINCHESTER '73 and THE WILD ONE), Harvey Lembeck (as beatnik biker Eric Von Zipper in the Annette Funicello/Frankie Avalon BEACH PARTY movies), John Astin (Gomez Addams himself) and Byron Foulger (from countless poverty row horror movies like THE BLACK RAVEN, THE MAN THEY COULD NOT HANG, MAN MADE MONSTER, HOUSE OF HORRORS and the aforementioned-in-this-Halloween-Countdown THE DEVIL'S PARTNER).  

So these three ghosts aren't confined to the haunted house, either.  When Steve go to spend the night on Uncle George's yacht (captained by Harvey Lembeck), the ghosts follow them aboard and cause havoc on the boat; so much that they actually sink it!  In town, Steve meets a young lady named Priscilla Weems (also played by Jill Townsend) who is a relation of the ghostly chambermaid and something of a seance-practitioner.  She takes Steve to the graves of the three ghosts and communicates with them.  The ghost of Felicity tells her that, if he wants her to 'lay off', Steve will have to get her some little things she wants:  silk panty hose, a new nightgown, lipstick, perfume, nail polish and a "high gloss lacquer deodorant spray with a five day guarantee".  Steve asks his parents to throw him a 16th birthday party that's nautical-themed and to invite their bachelor friends from New York; this hopefully will appease the ghost of Felicity enough to stop the ghostly violence.  This and the feminine items Steve agrees to buy for the ghost.  Of course, Steve's purchase of all these items makes Uncle George think he's gay so he calls in a psychiatrist (played by John Astin) to check him out at the party.  Ben goes to the library to research ghosts and meets librarian Carol Weems (AGAIN played by Jill Townsend) who tells him "There will never be peace in that house until Felicity finds a man; thus freeing Jenny and Ebenezer".  After being attacked by Felicity in the basement, Kate is knocked out and Uncle George drives her to town to see a doctor.  On the way, Kate sees Ben coming out of the library with Carol and assumes he's having an affair. 

So yeah, the solution to all the haunted house troubles is that everybody needs to get laid!  The psychiatrist comes to the party and comes on to Steve to see if he gets a reaction. Uncle George asks the psychiatrist is the boy is going to grow up to be a marine of a WAC.  Then the ghost of Jenny comes to the party pretending to be Priscilla and hops into bed with him; so Steve starts his 16th birthday with a bang.   This is a puff of fluff of a 'horror/comedy' that is just interesting and entertaining enough to be worth a watch.  The sex angle is something new and the mountain of great character actors carry the movie.  Barry Gordon is really the star of the film with Sid Caesar and Vera Miles really supporting cast and Jill Townsend is spectacularly good in her three roles bringing a sexiness and wit to the parts.  This was her first movie role before appearing in such films as the terrific Oliver Reed actioner SITTING TARGET and the Sherlock Holmes vehicle THE SEVEN PER-CENT SOLUTION before making her final film in 1980:  the Bram Stoker adaptation THE AWAKENING with Charlton Heston.  Townsend had a great screen presence and it's surprising she didn't do more movies.  So yes, THE SPIRIT IS WILLING is worth a watch if you're in a good mood for a light horror/comedy with sexy overtones.