The Haunted Castle (1960) User Reviews

"The essential is the effect! "

[morrison-dylan-fan · 7/10 · 19 August 2017]

Looking for Musicals to see for an ICM challenge,I found a review for a quirky-sounding German flick, but was sadly unable to find it anywhere. Gathering up Musicals to view in the oncoming week, I got very lucky and stumbled on the movie (with Eng Subs!) Which led to me visiting the haunted castle.

The plot:

Bricked into a castle, a group of thieves die and turn into ghosts. Whilst building work is done on the property 100's of years later, the wall is knocked down,and the ghost are freed. Believing they need to make up for their misdeeds,the ghosts start helping heiress Charlotte to keep the place neat and tidy. Trying to deal with the debt that her dad has left it with, Charlotte soon becomes spooked of losing all she owns.

View on the film:

Done as a sequel to Das Wirtshaus im Spessart, the screenplay by Günter Neumann & Heinz Pauck gives a few nods to the first movie, but smartly decide to make this a film that can stand on its own. Going for some dark satirical songs from the ghosts about the last remaining Nazis, the writers' strike a fine "Family Friendly" atmosphere, via satirical jokes and raunchy asides for the adults, and wacky ghost action for the kids.

Although some of the wires are visible, director Kurt Hoffmann & cinematographer Günther Anders mask the limitations with a cheerful atmosphere, where the towering Gothic castle allowing Hoffmann to send the camera gliding round the corridors, which shake with "ghostly" wire work causing funny slap-stick scenes of everything being pushed around. Showing an eye for style in the Musical numbers, Hoffmann makes the appearances of the ghosts impressive, with neon outlines to their headless state giving the wise-cracking ghosts a spooky edge. Trying to keep the family castle, the pretty Liselotte Pulver gives a very good performance as Charlotte,thanks to Pulver making her a damsel who needs no ones help,and also giving Charlotte a comedic grin, in welcoming ghosts to the haunted castle.

Harmless, enjoyable "Spookical" for the young (and those who retained their young spirit)

[t_atzmueller · 7/10 · 16 November 2014]

Perhaps one needed to have grown up with this type of film and, yes, "Spukschloss im Spessart" (Simplified English title: "The Haunted Castle") will appear very dated to a contemporary audience, but for many Germans the mere mention of the "Spessart"-movies will trigger soothing childhood-memories.

During the 1950s, 60s and 70s German cinema has produced countless "family-friendly" comedies and musical, which did more than just a little borrowing from contemporary American films. Like the US-versions, these films were squeaky-clean, made the viewers forget the still fresh horrors of the second World War for an hour and a half, and where the "Ozzie and Harriet"-cinema of the US had their Bob Hopes, Doris Days and Rock Hudsons, the German variations had their Liselotte Pulvers and Heinz Baumanns.

The story is as simple as it is clean-cut: A group of ghosts that have been walled up in the cellar of the Spessart-Inn during the middle-ages retain their freedom, when the Inn is replaced by the Autobahn. However, they can only find peace if they do one good deed. So they try to help out the beautiful but broke Countess Charlotte (Pulver), whose castle is in danger of being turned into a modern hotel. Needless to say, that the bumbling ghosts at first fail and have to deal with corrupt politicians (Hubert von Meyerinck) and a crazed prince from the middle-east (Hans Clarin). Needless to say: It all ends good & well (and the Americans are 'borrowing' the spirits in order to beat the Russians at the space-race).

And since the entire film interludes with numerous song- & dance-numbers, the producers have seen it fit to call "Spukschloss im Spessart" a "spookical" (German: "Grusical"), making it one of the commercially successful German films of this season. The only major difference to the general US-American variation might be, that the German comedies were a tidbit more critical, for example parodying then-capital-city of Bonn, politics and German bureaucracy.

Of course, the special-effects are dated (to put it mildly; today most digital student-projects would have more convincing effect), but one cannot deny that the individual songs – despite being kitschy, occasionally put a hook to the ear. Baumann as the countess' love-interest is a little bland, Pulver cute as ever (having the same tom-boyish air of a young Doris Day and Hans Clarin steals every scene he's in with his over-the-top, manic performance.

I'm not going to write about all the goodness of the film – from me it gets a solid 7.5 and I never give 10 – but rather focus on what I view as little weaknesses.

More enjoyable than I initially thought it would be.

[BA_Harrison · 6/10 · 6 July 2023]

After the musical prologue and the opening credits, all of which are sung, I was certain that German supernatural musical comedy The Haunted Castle was going to be insufferable; however, the film's frivolous nature, general quirkiness and jaunty tunes eventually worked their magic on me and I found myself having a good time, even though I wasn't quite sure what they were singing about a lot of the time and much of the humour left me perplexed (the subtitles might be to blame for my lack of understanding).

The lovely Liselotte Pulver (another reason I enjoyed the film) plays Comtesse Charlotte von Sandau, who is in financial dire straits and about to lose her ancestral castle to greedy developers, who want to turn her home into a hotel. Help comes in the unlikely incorporeal form of several ghosts - thieves who were executed for their crimes and who now seek to atone for their misdeeds. Things get really crazy when the Comtesse plays host to a foreign prince (Hans Clarin), but is arrested when her royal guest's jewels go missing.

The supernatural silliness sees the ghosts helping Charlotte with chores around the castle (these scenes employing plenty of fun old-school special effects), cooking up a recipe to become corporeal again, and in the amusing final act, trying to convince the Comtesse's love interest, Martin Hartog (Heinz Baumann), that they exist, to no avail (he's too drunk to appreciate their spooky shenanigans). For me, though, the film's most memorable moment comes when Hartog assumes the role of the castle's tour guide and proceeds to lead the visitors through the rooms at speed, everyone wearing roller skates hidden by oversized shoes (having said that, the 'race to the moon' final scene is also extremely wacky!).

6/10.

sequel to Wirtshaus im Spessart

[PlanecrazyIkarus · 5 May 2002]

This sequel takes place several hundred years after the original movie "Wirthaus im Spessart". The robbers have long been caught and sentenced to death and killed, now their ghosts have returned to the castle of the contessa who once befriended their leader. There, they find her grand-grand-grand..... daughter, and decide to help her out to pay for their sins in their lives.

Once again it is a romantic comedy, this time with a few ghost sidekicks thrown in, and lots of slapstick humour that kids like. My favourite part has to be the musical number "Woll'n wir doch mal sehn ob's nicht Gespenster gibt in Bonn" - hillarious!

However, I'm not sure how much it would appeal to adults.

West German SPESSART Franchise (Part 2) with Liselotte PULVER

[ZeddaZogenau · 7/10 · 10 March 2024]

Just two years after the phenomenal success of THE WIRTSHAUS IM SPESSART, the West German film director Kurt HOFFMANN, who had won two GOLDEN GLOBES with FELIX KRULL and WIR WUNDERKINDER, followed up with this "Grusical".

This time the story takes place in the immediate present. The robbers of yesteryear are only active as ghosts. During the construction of a motorway service station called Spessart, which is supposed to stand exactly where the inn from the first part once was, the ghosts end up in a nearby castle that has already seen its best days behind it. The young Comtesse Charlotte (GOLDEN GLOBE nominee Liselotte PULVER, nominated for A GLOBAL AFFAIR in 1964) is struggling with the high costs and doesn't really know what to do anymore. Then the ghosts come just in time!

At the same time, a hotel heir (Heinz BAUMANN) and a senior government councilor (Hubert von MEYERINCK) are involved. The latter provides the Comtesse with a state guest from the young Federal Republic as an overnight guest. But this extravagant Prince Kalaka (Hans CLARIN) really makes the castle shake...

Successful continuation of the Spessart spectacle! Enchanting musical interludes by Friedrich HOLLAENDER, really funny ghosts (Hanne WIEDER, Paul ESSER, Hans RICHTER, Curt BOIS and Georg THOMALLA) and surprisingly sharp-tongued quips against the political charades of the still young Federal Republic make the film a very special pleasure.

Filming took place in Mittenberg, Aschaffenburg and Bonn. Oelber Castle in Lower Saxony functioned as a haunted castle. The studio recordings took place at BAVARIA FILM near Munich. More than 9 million visitors were attracted to West German cinemas, with an estimated box office of the equivalent of 6.8 million euros. One of the great successes of the West German film industry!

An even weaker second film

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 30 June 2016]

"Das Spukschloß im Spessart" or "The Haunted Castle" is a West German film from 1960, so this one had its 55th anniversary last year and it is the second film from the Spessart series. Lilo Pulver returns and there are more familiar faces in here, for example director Kurt Hoffmann. I watched this one right after having seen the original first film from a couple years earlier and while I already felt the first wasn't memorable at all, I must say that this sequel is even weaker, clearly inferior on many occasions. It runs for roughly 100 minutes too and focuses mostly on the areas comedy, romance and music. There is more music than in the first. And there is also a slight ounce of horror in here. But it's not really intended to be scary and it also isn't scary, especially by today's standards. There are many scenes with dancing ghosts and it felt a bit embarrassing to me, maybe when the film was at its weakest. In addition, I must say the story was very forgettable too. In my opinion, one film would have been (more than) enough already and this second movie adds extremely little. This is especially disappointing as I was curious about the young Heinz Baumann, but he is in line with all the other mediocrity we are served here. Watch something else instead and it's embarrassing to see how highly some people rate this film (4 stars is already generous) and that the franchise still was not over at this point.

not only just a funny movie...

[flocgn · 10/10 · 11 April 2006]

basically a sequel to "Das Wirtshaus I'm Spessart" based on the popular German fairy tale/legend, which came to the big screen 2 years earlier, this movie stars nearly all of Germany's comedians of that time. At first a mixture of comedy and musical, it is also pretty political and aims mostly for post-war short-comings after the German "Wirtschaftswunder", like pensions still paid to former "Wehrmacht"-Officers, but makes fun also of celebrities of that time like the liaison of Onassis and Maria Callas, just to name one.

The story is about the ghosts of the robbers from "Wirtshaus I'm Spessart" and how they redeem themselves. As a punishment for their crimes they were locked up in the basement of the "Wirtshaus" (pub) to starve to death, accompanied by a curse that they should rot there as long the walls would be standing.

The wall falls when the old pub has to make room for a gas-station and a new motel next to the brand new freeway and the souls of the robbers are freed. Now ghosts they come to the conclusion that they have to do something good, so be released. So they decide to search for the Castle of the Comte, they blackmailed in the first Movie and who resided over the Woods they were thieving in.

They find it to be inherited by the last Comtess, played by Lieselotte Pulver, who has no money at all, because her late father lost all the family fortune.

(to be continued)