The acting of the overall cast is good; nothing real bad, but nothing really outstanding.  It's not meant to be a serious thinker.  Richard Carlson, the lead, gives a pretty good performance as a haunted man whose perfect life is falling apart.  The lovely female ghost is played by Juli Reding and man has she got a figure!  At this point in her career her measurements were 40-23-35.  Holy moley!  She's also gives a pretty good performance as the obsessed one-time lover and ghost.  I also liked Susan Gordon who played the little girl Sandy Hubbard.  She was cute.  Joe Turkel as Nick the blackmailer was good because his character was such a jive-talking creep.

    Tom Stewart (Richard Carlson) is a successful jazz pianist staying on an island community off of New England, preparing to marry the woman he loves, Meg Hubbard.  Meg happens to be the socialite daughter of wealthy parents.  That's not why Tom's marrying her, but it makes the story colorful.  In other words, his life is going to be perfect.  That is, until, singer Vi Mason (Juli Reding) comes to the island in secret and meets with Tom in a rundown lighthouse.  At one time Tom and Vi were lovers.  Tom dumped Vi for Meg.  Vi is jealous.  She threatens Tom that if he doesn't choose her over Meg, she will make his life a living hell.  How?  Vi kept a letter that Tom wrote.  She also threatens to use legal action against him. 

    Quite by accident, Vi leans up against the lighthouse railing which breaks.  She's hanging off the railing, reaching for Tom who is about to save her, but pulls back his hand at the last moment.  Vi falls to her death on the rocks below and drifts out to sea.  That ISN'T the last we see of her, however.  Tom feels guilty, but he thinks it's the perfect secret.  No one knew she was coming out there or that she had arrived except Tom.  But strange things happen after Vi's death that drives Tom closer to insanity with each passing day.  At first he finds her body, brings it to shore, only for it to turn into seaweed.  Then he finds her watch with name on it.  He later throws the watch back into the ocean, only for it to reappear in his room once again.  Vi Mason's record plays itself when he's playing piano.  He takes the record off the player, sets it on a table, and only a few seconds later it's on the player...playing again!  Vi's ghost does everything possible to ruin Tom's wedding.  She steals Meg's ring, ruins Meg's wedding gown with seaweed, and much more.  Throughout the movie you'll see visions of Vi's hand moving around, dismembered head, transparent visions, all sorts of weird stuff.

    We feel sorry for Tom for a long time.  His fiance feels distant from him, his fiance's sister (who has a crush on him) can't hold his attention, his soon-to-be in-laws think he's nuts, and just about everybody in the community can tell he's acting screwy.  Vi was an evil person and she deserved to die, but Tom DID pretty much send her to her death when he didn't try to save her.  Then a young guy by the name of Nick shows up to the island.  He's the boat captain who brought Vi to this island.  At first he comes for the money she owed him.  Then Nick stays on the island long enough to learn that Tom Stewart is marrying a wealthy man's daughter.  He figures that Tom probably killed Vi, and blackmails Tom for $5,000.  Either he gets his money or he spills the beans to Meg and her family.  Tom, being pushed even more toward insanity by Vi's ghost, takes Nick to the lighthouse where he kills the blackmailer with a piece of pipe to the skull.  Unfortunately for Tom, his fiance's little sister Sandy (who HAD a crush on him) witnessed the whole thing from a hiding spot.  Sandy's upset and tries to keep everything secret from her family and Tom.  Eventually, Sandy follows Tom to the lighthouse where she confesses.  Tom confesses too, and although he doesn't want to is strongly incensed to kill the little girl for knowing his secret.  This was his friend throughout the movie, and he's going to kill her?  What a freak!  Fortunately for Sandy, Vi's ghost rushes toward Tom.  Tom falls off the lighthouse to the rocks below. 

    Later, the townspeople retrieve Tom's body along with Vi's.  Vi had been in the ocean a week and was brought out first.  Sandy (Tom's little friend) and her big sister Meg look over his dead body.  What's even more disturbing to them is the fact that Meg's wedding ring is on Vi's finger (How did that get there?) and as soon as Tom's body was laid down, Vi's arm somehow wrapped around his chest with a smile on her face.  She got him in the end!  Weird!

    For being made in 1960, one of America's "innocent" years, this movie can be incredibly disturbing sometimes.  Tom is basically a good guy.  He just gets continually punished.  Everything in his life falls apart.  Vi was a b-word when she was alive, and still is after she's dead!  What really bothered me is when the little girl lost her respect for Tom and later sees him dead.  I wish that didn't have to be, but it did make for one scary movie!  Interesting enough, singer Margie Rayburn who had a popular hit song of her own with "I'm Available" in 1957, sang the song "Tormented" which was supposed to be Vi Mason's record.  The song sounds good enough, but we never get to hear the whole thing in the movie.  I'm a Margie Rayburn fan so I thought that tidbit of information was neat to put in here.  All in all, this is an exciting ghost story that could be remade and done even better today with advanced special effects.