The Spirit Is Willing (1967)
Review by: Corin Wentworth
WHAT IT’S ABOUT: Three playful ghosts decide to have a little fun when a family moves into their seaside home. Unfortunately for the family’s teenage son, everything is getting blamed on him!
REVIEW: Our film begins in 1898. A young sea captain is propositioned on the edge of a cliff by an elder sea captain: marry my hag of a daughter, and I’ll make it worth your while! The older man insists that a luxurious home and wealth are simply there for the taking, hinting that a wise man would seize such an opportunity. Despite their precarious cliffside location and the elder captain’s urging, young Ebenezer immediately declines the offer. Have you seen that witch? Woof! However, when the older captain promises him a fleet of ships to command, Ebenezer buckles like a pilgrim’s hat.
Every man has his price!
Ebenezer moves into the grand seaside house, while his new wife Felicity busies herself primping and beautifying, trying to create the illusion that she isn’t, in fact, old enough to be his mother. As poor Ebenezer trudges upstairs to perform his dreaded bedroom duties, his attention is caught by the pretty blonde housemaid, Jenny. After giving the idea of breaking his newly-minted vows about a second’s thought, Ebenezer quickly abandons his chivalry and chases the frisky young blonde downstairs to her bedroom. Of course, Felicity isn’t a total idiot. When her husband doesn’t come to bed, she knows exactly where he is. As the plucky Scooby-Doo-esque music plays, Felicity merrily enters the kitchen and selects a murder weapon. Why confront your philandering husband of one day when you can just hack him to death with a meat cleaver, no questions asked?
Makes perfect sense to me!
As Felicity hews the pair of lovers in twain with said cleaver, blood-curdling screams and corpse-chopping sound effects are played over the cheerful sitcom soundtrack. Felicity drags Jenny’s corpse away, pleased with a job well done. But even a severed spine isn’t enough to stop Ebenezer! As he dies, he staggers into the kitchen – bloody cleaver embedded in his back – and grabs another handy meat cleaver, finishing off his murderous hag-wife in the same way she finished him. This entire scene is underscored by bouncy, lighthearted music, screams, and more corpse-chopping noises.
It’s weirdly unsettling to expect a laugh track to break in at any second
while watching a triple murder.
Cut to the 1960s, and a brand new family is moving in – Ben, Kate, and their teenage son Steve. In the car ride to their new home, Steve bitches and moans about absolutely everything as his father (Sid Caesar) almost blows a blood vessel trying not to pull over and slap the ungrateful shit out of him, insisting that the house will be perfect and that they’ll all love it. One has to wonder if it is always common practice to lease a home in a far-off town, sight-unseen, without consulting one’s family, or if that kind of real estate agreement only applies to haunted houses.
The old “It’s Cheap Because Nobody Seems to Stay Long” clause!
Regardless, the Powell family moves in and are immediately attacked by an ax-wielding handywoman – again, while the wacky sitcom music plays. The twitchy woman apologizes, then takes off like a bat out of hell, and the disturbing incident is played off as nothing more than local color. Oh those wacky locals, always trying to ax-murder people!
Steve, bored with everything, immediately begins skulking from room to room, loudly complaining about the décor and wailing about how much he hates his life and how he never asked to be born, while simultaneously begging his parents for a new car.
Ah, teenagers!
As he wanders through the house, ghostly mayhem follows. First, Steve is pushed from a window. His parents rescue him, dangling and screaming, from the window’s ledge, but refuse to believe he was actually pushed. It’s just some weird teenage thing, a ploy for attention! Steve whines and hollers about how much his life sucks, then storms off. As he passes through the kitchen, dishes start to fly, crashing into the counters and breaking a window. His parents rush in and reprimand Steve, lamenting the fact that they have such a lemon for a kid, all the while Steve goes apeshit, insisting that he didn’t do it. Of course, nobody believes him.
Poor Steve! He should complain more.
And this is basically what you can expect for the entire hour and a half: Steve is witness to paranormal shenanigans, everyone blames Steve, and Steve bitches about how unfair his life is. Things get a little more interesting when the ghost of Jenny develops a crush on Steve – and more interesting still when a cute girl in town (who bears a striking resemblance to Jenny) convinces Steve to hold a graveyard séance and invite the ghosts to a matchmaking masquerade party!
However, most of the movie is just ghosts throwing vases at walls.
Barry Gordon brings the movie’s most amusing comedic moments as the endlessly shit-upon Steve, and Sid Caesar is perfectly cast as a loving father at his wits’ end. Jill Townsend is charming in a triple-role as ghost Jenny, kooky mod Priscilla, and sexy librarian Carol. Enjoyable as a family film (if you can ignore the whole meat-cleaver massacre thing), but the silly soundtrack and Steve’s constant kvetching ensure that The Spirit Is Willing never once gets too spooky. Perfect for kids who aren’t traumatized by a little multiple homicide and adults who are nostalgic for cornball ’60s TV shows.
ON A SCALE OF 1-10: A goofy, mildly-entertaining ghostly comedy. 5.
