{"id":18832,"date":"2011-07-22T16:27:21","date_gmt":"2011-07-22T23:27:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=18832"},"modified":"2020-12-25T00:03:36","modified_gmt":"2020-12-25T07:03:36","slug":"night-of-the-ghouls-revenge-of-the-dead-1959","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=18832","title":{"rendered":"Night of the Ghouls \/ Revenge of the Dead (1959)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>&#8220;Monsters! Space people! Mad doctors! They didn&#8217;t teach me about such things in the police academy!&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/Night-of-the-Ghouls-Poster.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/Night-of-the-Ghouls-Poster-179x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"179\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-18833\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/Night-of-the-Ghouls-Poster-179x300.jpg 179w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/Night-of-the-Ghouls-Poster-76x128.jpg 76w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/Night-of-the-Ghouls-Poster.jpg 239w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 179px) 100vw, 179px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong><br \/>\nA pair of detectives (Duke Moore and Paul Marco) are sent to investigate a suspicious spiritualist named Dr. Acula (Kenne Duncan), who works in cahoots with a fake ghost (Valda Hansen) to convince wealthy clients that they are in communication with departed loved ones.\n<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>\n<strong>Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Con-Artists<\/li>\n<li>Detectives and Private Eyes<\/li>\n<li>Ed Wood Films<\/li>\n<li>Horror<\/li>\n<li>Zombies<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Response to Peary\u2019s Review: <\/strong><br \/>\nPeary accurately notes that while Ed Wood&#8217;s &#8220;follow-up to <a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=16611\"><em>Plan 9 From Outer Space<\/em><\/a> features god-awful acting, direction, music, dialogue, costumes, sets, props, lighting, pacing, and camera work&#8221;, this likely &#8220;won&#8217;t be enough to satisfy hardcore Wood fanatics&#8221; (or all purpose bad-movie lovers for that matter) &#8220;who have the right to expect much worse&#8221;. Often afforded the dubious label of being Wood&#8217;s most competent film (for better or for worse), <em>Night of the Ghouls<\/em> actually possesses an interesting history, not mentioned in Peary&#8217;s book: Wood couldn&#8217;t afford the lab fees to print the film, so it wasn&#8217;t viewed until years later (in 1983), when an aficionado named Wade Williams paid the overdue lab fees and released the film, much to the delight of Wood&#8217;s growing cult of fans. At any rate, as Peary notes, the film is full of &#8220;typically ludicrous Wood touches&#8221;, such as the infamously giggle-worthy scene when one of the detectives &#8220;sneaks through a dark house (the film&#8217;s prime set) [and] both [the film&#8217;s narrator] Criswell and our hero, through voiceovers, discuss in great detail the railing his hand happens to touch&#8221; &#8212; which is &#8220;completely irrelevant to the story&#8221;. Unfortunately, however, as Peary notes, &#8220;the picture hasn&#8217;t the inspired madness of Wood&#8217;s classics&#8221;, and really isn&#8217;t must-see except for his die-hardest fans. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Note:<\/strong> I disagree with Peary that &#8220;Jennie Stevens as the Black Ghost can&#8217;t hold a candle to <em>Plan 9<\/em>&#8216;s Vampira&#8221;. While Vampira may have been more strikingly dramatic (and unearthly), Stevens is both gorgeous and haunting in her own way. (Besides, it&#8217;s not like these &#8220;roles&#8221; were really meant to offer anything more than ghoulish eye-candy anyway!). <\/p>\n<p><strong>Redeeming Qualities and Moments: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A few humorously campy moments<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/Night-of-the-Ghouls-Still.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/Night-of-the-Ghouls-Still.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"399\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-18836\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/Night-of-the-Ghouls-Still.jpg 399w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/Night-of-the-Ghouls-Still-128x96.jpg 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/Night-of-the-Ghouls-Still-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 399px) 100vw, 399px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Must See? <\/strong><br \/>\nNo; this one is only for Ed Wood completists. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Links: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0156843\/\">IMDb entry<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/classic-horror.com\/reviews\/night_of_the_ghouls_1959\">Classic Horror Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/moria.co.nz\/horror\/night-of-the-ghouls-1960.htm\">Moria Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/fantasticmoviemusings.com\/2014\/10\/19\/night-of-the-ghouls-1959\/\">SciFilm Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.dvdtalk.com\/dvdsavant\/s511ghouls.html\">DVD Savant Review<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Monsters! Space people! Mad doctors! They didn&#8217;t teach me about such things in the police academy!&#8221; Synopsis: A pair of detectives (Duke Moore and Paul Marco) are sent to investigate a suspicious spiritualist named Dr. Acula (Kenne Duncan), who works in cahoots with a fake ghost (Valda Hansen) to convince wealthy clients that they are in communication with departed loved ones. Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors: Con-Artists Detectives and Private Eyes Ed Wood Films Horror Zombies Response to Peary\u2019s Review:&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=18832\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18832","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-responses-to-peary"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18832","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18832"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18832\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59359,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18832\/revisions\/59359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}