Tormented (1960)
Director - Bert Gordon
The Plot
Tom Stewart (Richard Carlson) is the world's greatest jazz pianist. On a small island off the coast of New England, he is about to get married to a sweet young woman named Meg. Vi, An ex-girlfriend nightclub singer, however, has other ideas. She follows him to the island and confronts him. Wanting privacy, Tom takes her up to an abandoned lighthouse. They argue and struggle. She "accidentally" falls from the tower to the sea below. But dying will not get in the way of her obscession for the gifted musician. Her ghost, in various disembodied forms, haunts the hell out of the jazz man. And if that wasn't enough, a beatnik sailor shows up to blackmail him!
Film Notes
Don't Haunt the Piano Player
Francois Truffaut had nothing on "B" Movie director Bert I. Gordon. He provides jazz, crime and sci-fi horror with Tormented.
Yes, calling some of the special effects "cheap" would be giving them a compliment, and the cast is not steller, but the character of the hero - Tom Stewart - is somewhat novel in that he is a heel with a heart and soul of leather. We don't so much as root for him to succeed as watch with helpless fascination his pilgrim's progress toward a fate that will not end well.
A Ghost-Woman Owned Him Body and Soul!
There are times when Tormented plays like a lost episode of The Twilght Zone. But when Tom wanders the harsh New England shoreline, muttering inner monologues of psychological distintegration, it's calls to mind Norman Mailer's An American Dream with not half-bad jazz underscoring the personal horror of a struggling artist.
Family Ties
Bert Gordon liked staying close to his family. On Tormented, his wife Flora was responsible for the special effects, while his young daughter Susan played Sandy, the little sister of his bride-to-be.
-- Ed Schneider
Ingmar Ozu-Bresson on Tormented
"Le film est la vue. Le film est le bruit. Le cinéma = Le jazz. M. Gordon me chasse au bord de la mer de mon âme; il me hante les yeux et les oreilles avec une composition qui ne cesse jamais de "Bop horreur". Et maintenant les fantômes = Cool."
("Film is sight. Film is sound. Cinema = Jazz. Monsieur Gordon hunts me down to the seashore of my soul, haunting my eyes and ears with a never ending composition of Bop Horror. And now Ghosts = Cool.")
Cast & Production Credits
| Richard Carlson | Tom Stewart |
| Julie Reding | Vi Mason |
| Lugene Sanders | Meg |
| Joe Turkel | Nick |
| Merritt Stone | Clergyman |
| Harry Fleer | Father |
| Susan Gordon | Sandy |
| Gene Roth | Lunch Stand Guy |
| Lillian Adams | Real Estate Broker |
| Produced by American International Pictures | |
| Bert I. Gordon | Director / Producer |
| Joe Steinberg | Producer |
| George Worthing Yates | Screenwriter |
| Ernest Laszlo | Cinematographer |
| Albert Glasser | Composer |
| Calvin Jackson | Composer |
| Lewis Meltzer | Songwriter |
| Flora Gordon | Special Effects |
| John Bushelman | Editor |
| Gabriel Scognamillo | Art Director |
