Tormented

1960 ThrillerHorror 75 minutes Directed by Bert I. Gordon

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About Tormented

Jazz pianist Tom Stewart, about to marry Meg Hubbard on a Cape Cod island, lets his old lover Vi Mason fall from a broken lighthouse rail when she threatens to break the match. Her body turns to seaweed in his hands, then her ghost returns as a watch, footprints, a hand that steals the wedding ring, and a head in a party photograph. Ferryman Nick Lewis comes for the five dollars Vi owed him, tries blackmail, and Tom kills him while Meg's sister Sandy watches. At the wedding the doors blow open, the flowers wilt, and the candles die before Sandy can speak. That night Tom leads Sandy to the same rail to push her; Vi's ghost knocks him over, and when the bodies are laid together her arm, with the ring, falls across him.

Cast & crew

More about Tormented

Bert I. Gordon directed and produced for Allied Artists. He and George Worthing Yates wrote it. Ernest Laszlo photographed. Albert Glasser and Calvin Jackson wrote the music. Richard Carlson plays Tom. Susan Gordon plays Sandy. Lugene Sanders plays Meg. Juli Reding plays Vi. Joe Turkel plays Nick Lewis. It opened on September 22, 1960.

Themes

  • a man who lets her fall
  • a ghost in the wedding pictures
  • a child who saw the second murder
  • the ring that ends on the dead woman's hand
  • lighthouse
  • jazz pianist
  • ghost
  • wedding
  • Cape Cod
  • Richard Carlson

Making

Gordon stages both deaths on the same broken lighthouse rail. The five-dollar ferry fare is what keeps Nick on the island long enough to be killed.

Look

Ernest Laszlo photographed the lighthouse, the beach footprints, and the wedding.

Music

Albert Glasser and Calvin Jackson wrote the music.

Preservation

Prints circulate, including the Mystery Science Theater 3000 edition.

Notes

  • Harry Fleer is on screen as Frank Hubbard. Paul Frees dubbed the voice and is uncredited.
  • Joe Turkel, the ferryman, also played in Gordon's The Boy and the Pirates and Village of the Giants.
  • Mystery Science Theater 3000 used the film in its fourth season. Rhino Home Video later put that episode in Collection, Volume XI.
  • Something Weird Video offered a download.

Scenes

  • Vi hangs from the broken lighthouse rail and Tom does not pull her up.
  • At the wedding the doors blow open, the flowers wilt, and the candles die.
  • Vi's body is laid beside Tom's, and her arm, with the wedding ring, falls across him.

Also available

  • Internet Archive (tormented)
  • Wikimedia Commons (Tormented.webm)
  • Rhino Home Video, Mystery Science Theater 3000 Collection Volume XI