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Carnival of Souls (1962)

   
Produced & Directed by: Hark Harvey

Written by: John Clifford

Starring:

Candace Hilligoss ... Mary Henry
Frances Feist ... Mrs. Thomas
Sidney Burger ... John Linden
Art Ellison ... Minister
Stan Levitt ... Dr. Samuels

Release Date: Theatrical: September 26, 1962

Rating:

 

An organ player named Mary Henry (Candace Hillgoss) is enjoying a day car cruise with her two friends but suddenly there's a challenged drag race and the women accept but when they do their car suddenly loses control and falls off a bridge.
After trying to retrieve the vehicle by some inspectors and encounter Mary rising from the river while her friends supposedly drowned.

After Mary recovers she accepts a new job in town by being a church organist but sees an image of a mysterious phantom that seems to reside in an old closed down carnival nearby where she rents a suite.

Also she goes through hallucinations when she thinks that people don't notice her presence and Mary must confront the personal demons of her spiritual insouciance.
Is she really alive from the accident or just a wandering spirit?

 

A truly chilling tale in the same taste as a Hitchcock movie.
Some scenes are weak though and lacks inspiration but it does pick up too and the picture is one of the clearest B&W films of the early 60's too as it almost even gives you a radio play type of feel when you listen to the creepy music throughout it as well as the dialogues in it and the sound effects but the writing is a little bad.

The acting is excellent for it's time. Candace Hillgoss does a marvellous job in her role as a troubled survivor who is an organ player and knows how to behave paranoid. She really knew how to put charisma to her part in the movie.
F
rances Feist seems to do well with her role as the nice landlady and knowing how to prove her point by being a character actress
Sidney Burger
was terrific as the sleazy and flirtatious drunken womaniser in the film as he knows what he's doing for his part.

The directing by Hark Harvey is in tip top terrific shape making the stroy very clear.
He shows a nice beginning with two cars racing together and a nice shot on one of them falling off a bridge into the muddy river.
There's good camera takes around the muddy river showing the opening credits.
The shot on Candace Hillgoss looked very impressive when she rises from the waters onto a sand dune reacting as if the wind was knocked right out of her.
There's a good shot on Hillgoss playing the organ in a church practising her music and has a nice dialogue between small actor Tom McGinnis as he was well directed with his wods towards Hillgoss making him sound like a realistic generous boss at his organ factory and Hillgoss has good reactions by making it clear she's not returning as she really seemed troubled.
There's a good shot on Hillgoss driving in the night and trying to change the radio station and suddenly an uncredited Herk Harvey appears by her window which looks very ghostly as well as showing him appearing during other moments too which looked equally creepy.
We spot a shot on supporting actor Sidney Burger looking in the doorway of a room acting smart as well as a good shot on his eye.
We have a great shot on the camera panning in on both Hillgoss looking frightened at the top of a stairway at a house as well as Harvey with the camera panning in on him at the bottom of the stairway with an evil grin on his face about to walk up the stairs and Hillgoss really shows her stuff behaving frightened running into her room. All together it looked very frightening.
A perfect camera shot on Hillgoss with her eyes wide open staring at the window and then walking over to it.
There's a nice dialogue starting off with Burger acting flirtatious while having coffee with Hillgoss and she isn't impressed. It is funny and amusing
There is a great setting in a clothes store when we see a wavy picture and then Hillgoss hears nothing but silence and the people around her doesn't even thinks that she exists and does well by behaving paranoid running around the the area of the town.
There's nice shots on her at the abandoned carnival looking around and some of the stuff seems to move by itself. The shot on the whole front of the carnival entrance looked impressive too.
There's a perfect setting on Hillgoss playing the organ in a church and has great blocking as if something is taking over her body along with some paranoid expressions on her face. During this moment we see a nice cast of extras as zombie's rising from the water and entering the carnival doing some fast paced dancing routines which works well.
Supporting actor Art Ellison shows great anger towards Hillgoss when he tells her that she's fired from playing at her church as it looks very believeable at someone being fired.
Hillgoss
trips out terrifically when she spots a reflection of Harvey in her bedroom mirror and freaks out towards Burger's character as he even does well by going ballistic against her actions.
She shows good non expressions when she walks down to the bottom of the stairs with a suitcase in her hand when Frances Feist tries to talk to her and she says nothing as if she were a zombie herself.
Hillgoss is at it again behaving paranoid running around the town and not hearing anything while trying to take a bus. There's nice shots on the extra's in a bus getting up and chasing after her.
We see a great camera shot on Harvey with his cold grin while dancing around at the carnival ballroom plus a nice shot on Hillgoss outside near the sand crawling to the ground with the zombies grabbing at her.
However during the end when it shows her in the car that the people pulled up from the muddy river and she was supposed to look dead it looked very fake as if she was pretending to.

The music was composed by Gene Moore and did a good creepy job at it too with the icy organ music as it sounded extremely original and necessary for a film during this time era.


Mary Henry: I don't belong in the world.

Mrs. Thomas: You just let your imagination run away with you.

Mrs. Thomas: You can take all the baths you want.

Mary Henry: In the dark, your fantasies get so far out of hand.

Minister: You cannot live in isolation from the human race, you know.

John Linden: You're gonna need me in the evening, you just don't know it yet.

John Linden: [pours whiskey in his morning coffee] What do you think, I'm an alcoholic? I just like to start the day off in a good mood.
Mary Henry: You must be hilarious by noon.

Zombies: Come with us. Come and dance.