High Spirits

A fantastic comedy ghost film

A down on his luck Irish nobleman named Peter Plunkett ( Peter O'Toole ) faced with the repossession on his ancestral ancient home, declares the place haunted, then promptly invites a bus load of American tourists over to witness the " hauntings " themselves.The tourists soon realise that any supposed hauntings on show are actually the result of Plunkett's staff in various costumes & guises and declare that they will publicly denounce his claims and that is when things start to get spooky, from bloody hands in mounted fish-heads to eerie ghoulish nuns all making an appearance to the tourists.It soon becomes apparent to all that Castle Plunkett is actually home to real ghosts .Two of these ghosts, Martin (Liam Neeson) and Mary (Daryl Hannah) have been doomed to re-enact the same argument every evening for the past 200 years, in which Martin, convinced that his new bride was being unfaithful, stabbed her to death on their wedding night.This reenactment is one night witnessed by mild mannered and neglected husband Jack ( Steve Guttenberg ) who complicates matters further when both he and Mary generate a mutual attraction.She see's him as the man who has broke the curse that had her being murdered every night and he, is, well, a Tourist.As he says to her at one point " you're a ghost, I'm an American, it would never work "It then escalates into a series of events featuring ghostly goings on, Martin falling for Jack's arrogant wife ( Beverly D'Angelo ) and a night of hilarity culminating in a night of " scalping " between Jack & Mary.Be interesting to see if the original film Director Neil Jordan set out to make is in any way represented on screen, as in it's finished form it is full of inconsistencies in the way it flows.It goes from romantic comedy with witty one liners and subtle humour, to noisy silly sight gags ( in which the cast run noisily around the castle or grounds screaming at each other ) and back again, which suggests a great deal of editing went on during post production?Despite these personal gripes, I am very very fond of this film. I rented this a lot from our local video shop back in the 80's, and it passed away many a rainy sunday afternoon.Silly? yes, but ghoulishly entertaining.

Set in Ireland, Peter O'Toole decides to turn his dilapidated hotel into a haunted hotel to stave off his hotel being repossessed. When a bunch of American tourists turn up, the make believe ghosts are quickly debunked. Then the real ghosts take over. Lots of fun! Co-starring Daryl Hannah and Liam Neeson

Some great actors and witty dialogue and Liam Neeson is superb

Not Neil Jordan's best film, but a bit of harmless fun all the same. The kind of thing the kids (young-ish ones) might enjoy at Halloween time.The story is simple enough: an impoverished Irish landlord (Peter O'Toole) decides to open a ghost themed resort hotel for American toursits in his tumbledown castle to save himself from bankruptcy. With the help of some locals he "invents" the ghosts. But he hasn't reckoned with his ancestral ghosts who start putting in an appearance just as soon as the first paying guests arrive.The cast is rather more exciting than the story, besides the ever enjoyable Peter O'Toole, there is also a young Liam Neeson as one of the ghosts. The entire supporting cast is made up of many well known faces from the 80s from both sides of the Atlantic, among them Darryl Hannah, Steve Guttenberg, Donal McCann, and Peter Gallagher as hunky novice priest. One has to commend them all for going along with what doesn't really amount to more than a bit of very silly fun. A bit of unintentionnal humour is added by the then state of the art special effects in the ghost scenes which by now seem truly antiquated. Don't expect too much, just sit down and enjoy, and this should keep you nicely entertained on a rainy Sunday afternoon.The quality of the DVD is fine, both picture and sound are quite good for a film from the 80s. There are no subtitles. No special features included.

Old school Friday night film , easy viewing.

There was a time when Halloween meant films. I this used to be on terrestrial television. Okay it is in set it Ireland but Hollywood Ireland which means everyone is Orish. And some of the actors are actually Irish which makes you wonder. Nice story line and location looks like Ireland which is always lovely.Story line is not scary - unless you have never seen the concept of ghosts before and then yes it is quite scary. A bit of a love story a bit of rights wronged and then righted. A bit of Peter O'Toole doing a master class in being drunk (no one plays drunk better). So it is a bit of a them and us film. Greedy hotelier and the put up on owners. The Sceptics and the believers. The Ghosts and the peopel who are alive.So not a modern classic that changes you life. But definetly a film that brings back Halloween movies. Bit of mind candy not your favourite chocolate bar but definetly the one you eat before natures candy in your halloween trick and treating bucket.

Great to have this available from Amazon Video in quite good quality, which is probably better than standard DVD. The film is wonderfully daft, with enjoyable overacting from an eclectic cast. Some of the special effects are so bad they are good fun and no more, but most of the ghostly apparitions are quite acceptable.Peter O'Toole holds the whole film together with a great presence and consummate delivery of his every line.If you watch it once, it won't be your last.....enjoy!