Movie Review: The Ghost of Sierra de Cobre (1964)

Synopsis: When her blind husband begins receiving phone calls from his dead mother and she herself begins to see apparitions, Vivia Mandore enlists help from architect and paranormal investigator Nelson Orion. At first, Orion is skeptical and thinks it's a hoax, possibly to scare Henry Mandore into selling his estate. However, after witnessing supernatural events and realizing they are centered around Vivia, he begins to believe they are connected to an unsolved murder.

Who's in it? The movie stars Martin Landau, Diane Baker, Judith Anderson, Tom Simcox and Priscilla Morrill.

Review: I came across The Ghost of Sierra de Cobre a couple weeks ago and thought it looked interesting enough to add to my library. I decided to watch it this morning, and it turned out to be both entertaining and surprising.

My first expectation of this movie is the ghost would turn out to be nothing more than an elaborate and cruel hoax. The phone calls from the tomb could have been placed by anyone. The apparitions could have been the result of a hallucinate drug. 

However, as the movie progressed and there were various other things that couldn't be explained, I, like Nelson Orion (Landau), had my doubts. It was either a really good hoax, a real ghost or a combination of the two. All those options left questions about who and why.

One thing that helped this movie was the great acting. Vivia (Baker) especially looked genuinely scared whenever something would happen, selling the ghost scenes perfectly. And to be fair, that apparition was legitimately creepy, even with the special effects limitations of the 1960s.

The twist at the end involving Vivia's past and its connections to both the phone calls her husband (Simcox) was receiving and the ghost everyone kept seeing was an intriguing one. Since she was a likable character, it raised a lot of questions about how she'd be able to get out of it in a way that wouldn't end in tragedy or prison. This did, in turn, lead to an unexpected ending that left me with a mix of sadness and anger.

Final Opinion: This is a solid and entertaining classic thriller with a good mystery and some chilling twists. It's worth taking the time to watch it.

My Grade: A

__________________________________________________________________

Here are some reviews of other ghost movies:

Movie Review: 1408 (2007)

Movie Review: Death Ship (1980)

Movie Review: The Deep House (2021)

Movie Review: The Night House (2020)