Not Your Average Ghost Story

Steven and I continued our Sunday Horror Classic viewing (hey, that’s what the box calls them!) with The Amazing Mr. X (1948). We selected this movie using the most stringent criteria: it was the other movie on the disc with the first one we watched.

I am hesitant to write this review, because I really really don’t want to give anything away. As twists and turns go, this is the twistiest one yet. So I guess this is your Spoiler Alert. I’ll do my best not to, but…

The movie does not start out twisted. It starts out like a common or garden ghost story. A widow of two years’ standing is getting ready to go out on a date with a man who is certain to propose. Her spunky kid sister, who has a date herself, is all in favor of Widow getting on with her life. Sis picks out a sexy white dress for Widow to wear instead of the black one she had intended.

Good for you, Sis! Let’s be a little more obvious, shall we, Widow? Come on! A black dress — and not an LBD, mind you — on a date where a guy is going to propose? Shame on you!

Ah, but she remembers her husband fondly. How he loved to swim! He would run down to the ocean yelling, “Last one in’s a chicken!” Hmmm, that’s not foreshadowing, is it?

Widow decides to walk along the beach to meet her date. It will be quicker and she will enjoy the walk. Through the sand in high-heeled dress shoes. Good idea. As she walks, she seems to hear her dead husband calling her name (which I don’t remember. I think I mentioned yesterday that I watch these movies casually). I thought he sounded hoarse, even for a ghost.

Then Widow meets a stranger — handsome, of course — who tells her all about herself. He gives her his card. The card does not identify him as, nor does anybody ever call him Mr. X. I suppose that’s mere quibble, though, because he is kind of amazing.

That night the Widow is visited by a ghost — or is it only a dream? Cue spooky music. It is after this point that the plot begins to thicken. Widow visits the mysterious Mr. X (which may have been a better name for the movie, but nobody asked me), determined to contact her dead husband.

But is Mr. X a charlatan? New Fiance and Spunky Kid Sister are convinced he is. What do to? Kid Sister sets out to prove it by visiting Mr. X as a new client. Now how dumb is that? You think the guy is a charlatan, that he cleverly found out all this stuff about Widow, not that he knew it psychically. Don’t you suppose in his research he might have come across the fact that Widow has a Kid Sister?

Kid Sister quickly falls for Mr. X herself and the plot continues to thicken. And then come the plot twists that I intend to keep to myself. It gets exciting. I especially liked the dramatic climax when… Hah! Thought I was going to let something slip, didn’t you? I recommend this movie for fun, casual viewing. Steven is sorry he slept through it.