Cult-TV Blogging: Ghost Story/Circle of Fear: "Touch of Madness," (December 8, 1972)

This week’s episode of the 1972 horror anthology Ghost Story is called “Touch of Madness” and it involves a very personal crisis for its protagonist, Janet (Lynn Loring).  Specifically, the young woman comes to fear that she is just as insane as her mother (Jan Clayton), who died in an insane asylum. 

On her death bed, her mother tells Janet: “you’re just like me…”

But before we get into the specifics of “Touch of Madness,” host Winston Essex (Sebastian Cabot) introduces the idea of each of us possessing a “golden memory” of the past.  When we are sentimental about something, we see that object or person through the “eyes of the past,” not the “eyes of the present.” 

In other words, we see that thing for what we remember, not for what it truly is, in the actual moment.  Essex applies this lesson to a lamp of sentimental value he keeps on his desk, which he admires, but which his staff dislikes.

This idea gets some play in the episode, written by Halsted Welles and directed by Robert Day because Janet inherits her mother’s house, and absolutely views it through that “golden memory” of the past. If she could see the estate as it really is, she would be terrified and repulsed.

The house is actually dilapidated, wrecked, teeming with rats, and populated by frightening ghosts.  Yet Janet can only discern this contemporary “reality” at times (mostly when she awakens from slumber), and those brief visions make her fear that she is just like her mother…losing her mind.

The house that Janet inherits is populated not merely by ghosts, but a weird aunt and uncle, Hattie (Geraldine Page) and Jonathan (Rip Torn).  They are pretty clearly keeping secrets from Janet, and the worst of it is what they did to Hattie’s abusive husband.  When Janet heads down into the basement, she discovers the truth for herself…

The last few episodes of Ghost Story (“Cry of the Cat” and “Elegy for a Vampire”) have been downright dreadful, and “Touch of Madness” is a mild tick upwards in quality.  While not a great installment by any measure, the episode works for two reasons. 

First, I enjoyed the visual aspect of the story, which features side-by-side jump-cuts to ping pong the audience back and forth between the house in haunted form and the house in pristine form.  These jarring and powerful moments made me nostalgic for similar moments in Asylum of Satan (1972), a William Girdler horror film I inexplicably cherish.  I got a kick out of the moment, in particular, in which Janet believes she is stroking the family cat, but it’s actually a rat. 

Secondly, there’s a relatively straight character arc and through-line here in terms of Janet and her emotional “crisis.”  She believes she is going mad, and the events inside the house with the ghosts encourage that belief.  She battles against the idea that she is just like her mother, but the haunted nature of the house only seems to confirm it, until the valedictory ending.

The details of the ghost story are -- as appears typical for the series at this point -- somewhat muddled.  It’s never clear why exactly Janet is seeing things, or who the individuals are that she is actually seeing.  

Because of the show’s padded length (at an hour), we are faced again and again with the idea that Janet just needs to leave the premises and be done with the house. 

Instead, we witness her going to bed, waking up in the middle of the night frightened, and going downstairs to confront ghosts probably once too often.  

I have said it before, and I’ll no doubt say it again: Ghost Story could have been substantially better if it had run a half-hour instead of an hour.  Yet even with this reckoning, I can’t help but admire the series’ ability to draw and make use of talented big-name stars like Geraldine Page. 

Although objectively, “Touch of Madness” is probably pretty mediocre, it’s still better than the last two shows, and that, at least, is good news.

Next week: “Creature of the Canyon” with Angie Dickinson.