The Third Man (1949) immediately lept to mind as an "almost ghost". On a more humorous note, and outside of the 40s, is Alan Rudolph's The Moderns. The faux death of the gossip writer Oiseau [bird in french], who stages his own demise as a way to escape the ex-pat scene in its own death throes. He hides in the trees watching his funeral at Père Lachaise. More in the category of plain old "phony ghost". Susanna on 4/20/03 9:06 AM, [log in to unmask] at [log in to unmask] wrote: > "Miller, James Andrew (UMC-Student)" wrote: > >> I'm looking at a lot of ghost movies from the 1940s (Ghost and Mrs Muir, >> Portrait of Jennie, A Guy Named Joe) and began to notice that there seem to >> be quite a few of what I might call "almost ghost" or "pseudo ghost" films in >> the period. >> >> Examples: >> The Ghost Breakers (1941): the ghost turns out to be a scam... >> Laura >> The Lost Moment (1947): adaptation of James' "The Aspern Papers"-- Miss Tina >> isn't literally a ghost but has almost made herself one by sheer force of >> will... > > That last entry interests me. The notion of 'sheer force of will' informs > Poe's 'Ligeia' which thrice quotes a passage from Joseph Glanvill (1636-80) in > support. (Schopenhauer and Nietzsche were later comers!) It may also be > found in the > novel by Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac, 'D'entre les morts' (c. 1955), > the basis of Hitchcock's VERTIGO (1958). > > Hitchcock's REBECCA (1940) may just about meet your description of 'almost > ghost' films, inasmuch that the dead Rebecca 'haunts' the mansion called > Manderlay and exerts her pernicious influence through the living, notably the > sinister Mrs > Danvers. > > REBECCA was of course an influence on that fine ghost film, Lewis Allen's THE > UNINVITED (1944). > > Re the foregoing, you may want to look at the entries on REBECCA, LIFEBOAT, > and VERTIGO in my 'The Alfred Hitchcock Story' (1999) - the uncut, > non-simplified UK edition. > > - Ken Mogg (Ed., 'The MacGuffin'). > Website: http://www.labhyrinth.net.au/~muffin > > ---- > To sign off Screen-L, e-mail [log in to unmask] and put SIGNOFF Screen-L > in the message. Problems? Contact [log in to unmask] ---- To sign off Screen-L, e-mail [log in to unmask] and put SIGNOFF Screen-L in the message. Problems? Contact [log in to unmask]