kapelusznik18 ***SPOILERS*** It's after banker Walter Craig, Gus Glassmire, disappeared from his house his family through his private secretary Billie Hilton, Joan Woodbury, sought out retired ace detective Nick Trayne, James Dunn, to track him down. It wasn't long that at the Craig Mansion Craig showed up in a what looked like a zobified state with no memory at all. What had happened which was explained to Trayne by neurologist Dr. Bruhling, Lawrence Grant, is that someone had through the use of powerful drugs frozen a portion of Craig's brain leaving him totally helpless to think for himself! The person who in fact did that was doing the thinking for him which had Mr. Craig attempt to murder, with little success, those he was directed to murder by the person controlling his brain. As it later turned out Craig was unable to do any of the killing attributed to him. It was in fact those who put him in that vegetated state of mind who did the killings and had him, a totally brainless and helpless person, blamed for it!It was Trayne and Billie Hilton who found out that a Dr. Carson was responsible for Craig's condition but as it later turned out Dr. Carson was just an alias for the person who was really carrying out these killings. And it was now up to them to find expose and have arrested the person responsible for the murder of George Phillips, J. Arthur Young, the only person who can identify him. The late Mr. Phillips almost by accident came upon his soon to be murderer and was murdered by him for finding him out.***SPOILERS*** With only the killer's voice being able to expose him Trayne plans to trick, if you can call it that, him to speak into a 1940's vintage disk recorder and have the person whom he talked to on the phone, to rent this dilapidated house to use as his private sanitarium, who's the only one who can identify him. Feeling he has to murder Trayne to save himself this all backfires on the killer in Trayne having already figured out who he is. He, the killer, should have tried to murder the person who rented him the sanitarium not Trayne who was the only person who could identify his voice! Or in his, the killers, obviously confused state of mind never for once thought of doing it!

mark.waltz When a wealthy man is kidnapped, former private investigator James Dunn steps in to investigate. But he is no ordinary P.I. He is first seen in a swami get-up apparently reading into people's minds and giving them answers to their problems. Huh? He accompanies the kidnapped man's secretary (Joan Woodbury) to the mansion where he meets the man's creepy family which includes the eccentric Aunt Delia (a wasted Minerva Urecal in a very showy cameo) who is into the occult. All of a sudden, the kidnapped millionaire reappears in a trance-like state and all sorts of strange occurrences begin to happen. This leads Woodbury and Dunn to an abandoned house where they find another zombie like human, and to an obvious inclusion that any grade schooler could figure out. Monogram did dozens of these kinds of films in the 30's and 40's, and only the actors and character names changed. Some of them are a bit more entertaining than the others thanks to humorous scripts, but this one is silly and dull. It should be mentioned that the kidnapped man's name is Walter Craig, the name of the husband in George Kelly's play and 1936 movie "Craig's Wife" and its 1950 remake "Harriet Craig".

wes-connors "When a banker turns up missing, former detective Nick Trayne is brought in on the case to find him. When the banker turns up but appears to be in a trance, Trayne must now try to find out what happened to the banker. A household full of suspects makes for a tough case that our crack detective must solve and bring the culprit to justice," according to the DVD sleeve's synopsis.This variation of the "old dark house" plot is more tired than true. "The Living Ghost" angle turns out to be a good idea, but zombie Gus Glassmire (as Walter Craig) doesn't get enough screen time to really frighten. Writers Howard Dimsdale and Joseph Hoffman do well, considering. Detective James Dunn (as Trayne) and adorable Joan Woodbury (as Billie Hilton) are a delightful couple of sleuths. The supporting roles are performed admirably - right down to Harry Depp (as Homer Hawkins). If only the production were kicked up a notch, or two… **** The Living Ghost (11/27/42) William Beaudine ~ James Dunn, Joan Woodbury, Paul McVey

Neil Doyle How anyone can lavish even the faintest praise on this junk is baffling to me, since THE LIVING GHOST is a cliché ridden mystery with some vain attempts at humor. Furthermore, it's ineptly performed by the entire cast and appears to have been filmed on a quickie basis with no close-ups introducing the chief suspects.JAMES DUNN makes an abysmal attempt at playing detective and JOAN WOODBURY is no more successful as the lame-brained secretary of the lobotomized man at the center of the mystery. Question is: Which one in the wealthy man's household tried to do him in? None of the suspects have enough time on screen to become viable characters and it's never quite clear why Dunn takes such an immediate dislike to the poor butler whom he treats with utter contempt, even when he's being helpful.Juvenile at best, it's the kind of film the Monogram factory churned out on a weekly basis in the '40s, barely deserving a spot at the bottom end of a double feature bill.A ridiculous tax on anyone's reason or patience--mercifully, it runs only one hour.