Dominique (1978)

A husband (Cliff Robertson) concocts a plot to drive his wife (Jean Simmons) to either insanity or suicide so he can get his hands on her money. His plan succeeds when she hangs herself. However, she gets her revenge from beyond the grave! Based on the short story WHAT BECKONING GHOST? by Harold Lawlor and directed by Michael Anderson (LOGAN'S RUN). Films about husbands trying to make their wives think they're crazy or driving them to suicide have been movie staples for decades. GASLIGHT (1944) perhaps being the most famous example. It's such a "been there, done that" scenario that a movie needs to go outside the box to make it fresh. Alas, DOMINIQUE is fairly predictable and drags out a story that might have made a nice half hour episode of ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS. As a "ghost" story, there's no horror so it ends up being a standard mystery that Agatha Christie might have whipped out effortlessly (think ENDLESS NIGHT). Maybe if it had a first rate score that whips up some tension but David Whitaker's underscore is just noise in the background. There's a lot of big talent involved but they're all done in by the script. In addition to Simmons and Robertson, there's Flora Robson, Jenny Agutter, Judy Geeson, Ron Moody, Simon Ward, Michael Jayston and David Tomlinson.