This is a ghost story that was originally a pilot for a Twilight Zone type series about the supernatural. The creator/writer/director was a man called Joseph Stefano who mostly worked in television and when given the chance made some very interesting offbeat films. On the television side of the entertainment business he was the creator of the original Outer Limits TV series and wrote a very strange pilot for an anthology series The Unknown called The Forms of Things Unknown. If you can find a copy of it it's worth a look. Stevens also wrote for series like Star Trek the Next Generation and Marcus Welby M.D.
On the feature film side Stefano's outstanding film credit was for Alfred Hitchcock's
Psycho. He wrote the screenplay for Gary Cooper's final film the psycho killer on the loose
The Naked Edge, (spoiler Cooper is not the razor slicing madman). Stefano also has a writing credit on the weird
Eye of the Cat a kitty-cat horror film.
The Ghost of Sierra De Cobre TV pilot was not picked up by any television network so Stefano being a clever fellow took the pilot rewrote some of it and turned it into an actual film. The film looks very good for what was originally a television show. The photography was by Conrad Hall one of the absolute best cinematographers who could work in black and white and color with great skill. The cast was interesting to say the least. Martin Landau is the psychic investigator, Diane Baker is a woman apparently haunted by the ghost and "Mrs Danvers" herself Judith Anderson is a woman who knows the secret of the ghost.
As befits a film originally made for television this is a modest but effective ghost story. No question the photography really contributes to the eerie mood of the film and the on location filming on the beaches of Malibu make for a striking location.
The Ghost of Sierra De Cobre is available for rent on YouTube. Worth a look for horror fans.
The film runs 80 minutes.
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