One of my favorite movie themes here, the evil husband attempting to drive his wife insane to the point of suicide. The classics in that regard are the original 1940 "Gaslight" and it's remake in 1944 with a better known cast. The twist here is that the evil husband (Cliff Robertson) gets the same treatment in return by characters revealed at the end of the story. Generally I like Robertson's portrayals but he was pretty stoic in this one, to the point of lifelessness. He spent a lot of time brooding and walking around after his wife's suicide, intent on finding out if her spirit really came back from the dead to serve him justice from the beyond. Some of the ruses here worked pretty well on the surface, like the hangman's noose that appears in the Ballard home, and the prediction of David Ballard's (Robertson) death eerily carved into a gravestone placed next to his wife's. Personally, I was pretty sure chauffeur Tony (Simon ward) would figure in the resolution of the story, but having Jenny Agutter's character involved so prominently in the payoff should have had her set up more realistically before the denouement. Which didn't really click for me considering she inherited the entire estate and Tony only got some cash from the title character. Sure she got jilted, but why throw it all away over one of the help? Yeah, love is blind, but gee, if she was so smart, she could have driven Tony crazy too.

I think Cliff Robertson certainly was one of our finest actors. He has a half dozen classics to his credit. He does fine here as the heavy, but the direction is so bad and the pacing so tiresome, it never gets off the mark. The story starts off well although it makes me wonder how he could count on his wife hanging herself. Still he mugs well and carries things along. The death knell is twofold. First of all, if we were to take the amount of time characters spend walking from one room to another or one part of the house to another, it would eat up about a third of the movie. Add to that, Robertson's character sitting up in bed in the blue light, looking confused, that might add another chunk. I agree with those that said a half hour shorter would have made it a pretty decent, though insignificant film. The biggest weakness is just a convoluted plot that, when all is said and done, leaves incredible questions. I'm not putting in spoilers, but when it ends, don't think too much. I can come up with ten what-ifs without raising a sweat. It would have been better if it had remained a ghost story.

It begins with a well to do couple (Robertson and Simmons) at their home in Britain. Through the first portion of the film, you see that the wife seems to be having some memory lapses and might be headed for a nervous breakdown. However, you are unsure if what is really happening or if, perhaps, the husband is orchestrating it—like in the movie "Gaslight". In fact, for quite a while, I thought the film was a remake of this story. However, unlike "Gaslight", the wife kills herself and you realize this cannot be that classic film's plot. From here on, the husband suddenly begins experiencing many of the same manifestations that the wife experienced—and he, too, might slowly be going mad. What's next?

This film is a great example of a movie that is simply over-written. In other words, there are too many plot elements and twists. Because of this, the plot to drive the couple mad is overly complicated and presents MANY opportunities to establish that an outside person or persons are manipulating them. The plot depended too many times on the people reacting one way and if they'd reacted another (which was very plausible) the plan would have quickly come unraveled. As a result, there were several obvious plot holes that kept me second-guessing the writer. Additionally, at the end, there is a murder that simply made little sense. Add to that the amazingly over-restrained performances by everyone (especially Robertson) and you get a movie that should have been excellent but in actuality was only a time-passer. Not terrible but simplicity would have made this one so much better.