Movie Diary 3/31/2021

Invisible Ghost (Joseph H. Lewis, 1941). The ghost is not actually invisible. Bela Lugosi plays a man haunted by a missing wife, who (this is not a spoiler) is alive and being hidden away nearby. An incredible number of murders are happening in the vicinity, the cause of which is revealed fairly early in the 66-minute running time. Some pretty bad actors in the cast, and the plot is nonsensical, but Lewis consistently finds a useful or evocative way of looking at and animating the action. Lugosi hangs in there, and Clarence Muse has a pretty good-sized part, mostly dignified, except for one throwaway “Do I look pale?” joke.