Product Details

• Actors: Peter O'Toole, Donal McCann, Mary Coughlan, Liz Smith, Tom Hickey
• Directors: Neil Jordan
• Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Full Screen, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo)
• Subtitles: English, Spanish, French
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
• DVD Release Date: June 4, 2002
• Run Time: 98 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (43 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000063JDK
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #4,874 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

  Popular in this category: (What's this?)

  #9 in

  Movies & TV > Art House & International > European Cinema > Ireland

• For more information about "High Spirits" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
Peter O'Toole (Lawrence of Arabia, My Favorite Year) gives an exuberant performance in High Spirits. Peter Plunkett (O'Toole) hopes to save his mortgaged castle by turning it into a tourist attraction--the most haunted castle in Ireland. When American tourists arrive--among them Jack (Steve Guttenberg) and Sharon (Beverly D'Angelo), a couple whose marriage is rapidly disintegrating--Plunkett's tomfoolery arouses the real ghosts, who decide to give these interlopers everything they're asking for. But when Jack accidentally helps a beautiful ghost named Mary (Daryl Hannah), she decides he's the man to help her break the curse she's been suffering for 200 years. High Spirits is an odd foray into comedy by director Neil Jordan (The Crying Game, Interview with the Vampire). The special effects are clumsy, but the strong supporting cast includes Jennifer Tilly, Peter Gallagher, and Liam Neeson as Mary's murderous 200-year-old husband. --Bret Fetzer

Product Description
Daryl Hannah, Peter O'Toole and Steve Guttenberg star in this gleefully ghoulish comedy sparkling with romance and rollicking with supernatural special effects. Written and directed by Neil Jordan (Interview With the Vampire) and co-starring Beverly D'Angelo, Jennifer Tilly, Peter Gallagher and Liam Neeson, High Spirits is the most fun you'll have in this world or the next!Impoverished Peter Plunkett (O'Toole) hatches the perfect plan to save his debt-ridden Irish castle: lure American tourists by advertising the place as haunted. But when Peter and his staff don sheets and chains to go a-haunting, they scare up more than paying guests'they arouse the real ghosts of Castle Plunkett! And when American tourist Jack (Guttenberg) spies a gorgeous ghost named Mary (Hannah), it's love at first sighting. Now all Jack has to worry about is Mary's murderous spook of a husband and their 200-year age difference!

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a wonderful film, December 4, 2002

By	Byron Kolln (the corner where Broadway meets Hollywood) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)

I have loved this film since I was 9! HIGH SPIRITS is a whimsical comedy-fantasy from the visionary director Neil Jordan starring a superb cast.

Peter Plunkett (Peter O'Toole) is the owner of Castle Plunkett, a gloomy castle set in the Irish countryside. In order to get the money-hungry Brogan family off his back, he decides to advertise the castle as the most-haunted place on the Emerald Isle (with the hotel staff doubling as the spirits)!.

Among the cynical tourists that arrive are Jack (Steve Guttenberg) and his valium-guzzling wife Sharon (Beverly D'Angelo); a scientist of the paranormal (Martin Ferrero), his wife (Connie Booth) and their children; the chaste Brother Tony (Peter Gallagher) and the sexy Miranda (Jennifer Tilly).

The "ghosts" are soon discovered to be fake, thus enraging the REAL ghosts of the castle who decide to make a little mischief for themselves! Jack finds himself falling in love with the elusive Mary Plunkett (Daryl Hannah), while Sharon is unwittingly courted by Mary's husband, the dead Martin Brogan (Liam Neeson).

Director Neil Jordan envisioned a "Midsummer Night's Dream"-type atmosphere for this film with partner-swapping and people being seduced by other-worldly beings. However, producers soon had other things in mind and significantly re-edited the movie to their own vision. Cast members came from the set complaining that the producers had enfuriated Jordan with their antics, forcing him to walk off the project.

However, the film is a constant delight, and this long-awaited DVD release will surely be relished by fans of the film.

The DVD includes both the widescreen and full-frame versions of the film as well as the trailer.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fabulous Phantoms!, November 22, 1999

By	Lucia Katerina "de la Luna" (Montrose, CO United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: High Spirits [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Despite the critics views, I love this movie.... Peter O'Toole is wonderful as a titled Irishman trying to keep his family castle by infesting it with home-made ghosts (the castle staff) to attract an international, phantom-following clietele. A bickering couple from America (Steve Guttenberg and Beverly D'Angelo) discover that there really are authentic ghostly denizens of the castle (Liam Neeson and Daryl Hannah--- he murdered her 200 years before in a fit of jealous passion, and they are doomed repeatedly to reenact the event)-- Steve Guttenberg falls for Daryl, and Liam is randy for Beverly D'Angelo. Peter O'Toole's relationship with his dear old deceased Dad-- wonderful... Entertaining(at times hilarious!), engaging and original; A Might-Have-Been-Great, but still WAY Entertaining movie--- and one I was lucky enough to find on video!

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Modern Midsummer Night's Dream!, February 26, 2000

By	Allen R. Young - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: High Spirits [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Neil Jordon has recreated the aura of Shakespeare's classic and set it within a beautifully haunting castle (whose exterior is the exquisitely picturesque Dromore Castle in Ireland's County Limerick). Here, the clash of cultures, Irish and American, and mortality, alive and Undead, are intricately woven with the comedy of conflicting personal interests -- and all set amidst the castle's dusty-and-dilapidated, labyrinthine passageways; passageways which inevitably lead to fulfillment and renewal. How could the professional film critics not see the enchantment! For those who are, at heart, a youth again, looking expectantly on a new day's adventure, or an adult, who knows the excitement of true love conquering limitless boundaries, this movie is for you. It is equal to any comedy written by the English Bard!