The Ghost Goes Gear (UK, 1966) 79 min color DIR: Directed by Hugh Gladwish. SCR: Roger Dunton, Lionel Hoare. PROD: Lionel Hoare, Harry Field. MUSIC: John Shakespeare. DOP: Peter Hendry, George Stevens. CAST: Spencer Davis Group (Spencer Davis, Steve Winwood, Muff Winwood, Pete York), Sheila White, Nicholas Parsons. (Warner-Pathé Distributors)
The Spencer Davis Group also got into the Hard Day’s Night Sweepstakes, with their own British Invasion movie, in which the gang visits a haunted mansion owned by their manager. The ghost by the way makes an appearance and does a song! Everyone tries to be hip in swinging London! Then the house becomes a tourist attraction.
If this review seems rather vague, well so is the movie, with desperate attempts to fill the scant 79 minutes. Instead the filmmakers saw fit to populate the running time with acts like Acker Bilk and the Lorne Gibson Trio, completely ignoring the exciting band that everyone paid to see in the first place. The group’s musical highlight is “When I Get Home”, on a boat in the film’s opening. Before long, the movie degenerates into tired slapstick, and the overuse of everyone running in fast motion. Even The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini had more depth. The director of this lackluster only has one other movie credit: Cucumber Castle, featuring two of the Brothers Gibb (I’m curious about that one, actually).
Apparently, The Ghost Goes Gear was never released theatrically in North America. However, back in the 1980s it did play on CFTO’s late night movie package (usually at the 4:30 AM slot). For the curious, Anchor Bay Entertainment released it on this side of the pond to letterboxed VHS and to DVD.