Don't you hate when you are trying to recollect a movie, but you just can’t quite bring yourself to think of the name or any of the actors? I had been having that for a while with a movie I watched with my father when I was very young. The movie always stuck with me. I never found it scary (I was a strange child); quite frankly, the exact opposite feeling struck me, and I was fascinated with the wonderfully strange and dark premise. I honestly do think that this film, when I saw it at the age of 7, is what lead me to getting bit by the bizarre bug. After watching that, I spent many a recess in my school library reading all kinds of books on ghosts and the paranormal.

Anyway, after way too many attempts of typing in the entire plot of the film on Google, I finally found not only the name of the movie, but the entire masterpiece uploaded to YouTube. It is about a professor of cybernetics that is devastated by the loss of his ten-year-old daughter Mary in a car accident that he holds himself responsible for, and he begins to see her ghost constantly pop up, telling him to “stop making the bombs for the bad people.” One of her first lines in the film is just so chilling when you think about it, “I have to go now Daddy, they’re calling me back!” She pauses, and her face contorts into this emotionally pained visage of sadness, and she says to him, “Oh Daddy, I hate being dead!”

An amazing film filled with all kinds of bizarre inspiration. My fellow crafters of the strange and unusual, I give unto you, The Daughter of the Mind.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFZZ6-UqK5U

Bravo !
A great find, I remember watching this as you youngster in NYC.
Plot twists are also great.
Ray Milland of Dial M for Murder fame.

What great opening lines for a sweet dead girl.....



Ray

"Don't worry. Debbie always makes that sound when she's going into a trance."

Very interesting seance sequence. Includes a couple of twists on conventions I have never seen before! Thanks for sharing, Dorian Faust.

I had never seen this before either. Slow going at first but, after the seance scene, I had to keep watching until the end. Thanks for the link.

I'll have to check this one out.

Where can I buy the arm in a bowl ? It would look good holding one of my props !

Good movie, but the book is even better. It's what got me really interested in Houdini and his work when I was a kid. In it, the character Tina Cryder is a magician's assistant and her father owns a magic shop in NYC. I even bought a surgeon's glove and some paraffin and made up a wax hand (it was awful and never held its shape). My parents just took it in stride.

The book is "The Hand of Mary Constable," by Paul Gallico, and he did another book on the same theme, "Too Many Ghosts." Fun reading.

I'll have to watch this later ,thanks for sharing it with us.

Thanks for sharing, really interesting !

Thanks for sharing! I will check this out when I get a chance...this reminds me of a somewhat similar movie from my childhood which I watch about once a year...scared the crap outta me as a kid...'The Abominable Dr. Phibes' with Vinny Price, who else?

Very good story here, at times funny...love the 'Clockwork Musicians' he built in is mansion...I do not have a link but check it out, it is alos on dvd...there is also a sequel - Dr. Phibes Rises Again.

Chuck

There's a box-set re-issue of the Dr Phibes films with extras featuring our very own papalazarou: http://diaboliquemagazine.com/complete-d......-review/

Wow, George,...I have not heard anyone mention the "Hand of Mary..." book since I read it many decades ago and it was a fave of mine!
I actually thought about it a few weeks agoand now I am thinking I will have to find tnat in my closet box of books. don't remember reading Gallico's ghost book, but will check on if also.
Thanks formfhe shade and the great reminder!