The Ghost Breakers

Bob Hope made some wonderful, fun movies in the '40s, and "The Ghost Breakers" costarring Paulette Goddard, Paul Lukas, Willie Best, and Richard Carlson is a prime example. Anthony Quinn has two small double roles in an early appearance for him.

Hope is a radio gossip who talks about the mob and sometimes upsets them; Goddard is a woman who has just inherited a castle in Cuba. The two intersect at a hotel after a shooting which Hope thinks he committed. He ends up in her trunk and therefore, in Cuba with her, along with Lukas, Best, and Carlson, an old friend of Goddard's. The castle is supposedly haunted, and some mighty strange things occur while Hope and Best investigate.

This is a great haunted house mystery with Hope letting the zingers fly at a rapid pace. There was something about the younger Hope that is terribly appealing. He brings a boyishness and an energy to these '40s roles that was lost later on. Goddard is beautiful and lively, Lukas excellent as the mysterious Parada. Though there is some political incorrectness, Willie Best and Hope spar as equals. The film keeps a strong atmosphere, with the scenes of thunder and lightning in the beginning especially effective. And that haunted castle - yikes. Call a ghost breaker!

The old studio system had at least one advantage over the methods used for movies today. No matter how wacky the premise of the movie, they worked from a script. From the opening crash and thunder of the storm that is pummeling New York City to the closing credits, you can tell this story was carefully crafted from beginning to end. Paulette is a delight to watch as she brings her sparkling and happy personality to an environment which would scare the crap out of most people. Bob Hope always thinks he is bigger than he is, and we are terrified along with him as he jokes and pans his way through this classic and original haunted house film. His valet delivers a delightful performance which is now not considered to be politically correct, but in the context of comedy, which is the way it was meant to be, is right on target. A movie which knows where it is going, because of the well-written and well-directed script, will take you on a beautiful journey of light entertainment.

The Ghost Breakers is a sort of sequel to Paramount's 1939 hit "The Cat and the Canary", also starring Bob Hope and Paulette Goddard. Directed by George Marshall (who would direct the Dean Martin/Jerry Lewis 1958 remake, "Scared Stiff", as well) it's adapted by Walter DeLeon from the play "The Ghost Breaker" by Paul Dickey and Charles W. Goddard. The premise is simple, after mistakenly thinking he has shot a hoodlum type, Larry Lawrence (Hope) flees into another hotel room, that of Mary Carter (Goddard), who is packing for a trip to Cuba. Befriending her, it's not before long that Larry is on his way to Cuba as well, but Mary is under threat from shifty characters and to make matters worse, their destination castle is rumoured to be haunted and tales of zombies seem to carry some weight.

Hope and Goddard really do have a rich chemistry here and the results are excellent to say the least. They would work again for a third time a year later in "Nothing But the Truth". But really it's with the writing that most credit is due here. Hope of course was an excellent deliverer of a line, but first you have to have quality lines to work from, and here with DeLeon's screenplay we get some delightful stuff for Hope to work with. From Basil Rathbone to sly political leg pulling, the gags come quick and fast and compliment the visual fun as Hope, Goddard and Willie Best are all aboard the fun creeper express. Charles Lang is on photography duties and captures the eerie atmosphere of the island perfectly, while a nod of approval should go to Edith Head for her costumes.

Ultimately it's fun we want and fun we get, with a cowardly hero and a sexy leggy lady as our protagonists, one can only hope that the zombies don't get in the way too much. As either a stand alone movie or as a double bill with "The Cat And The Canary", "The Ghost Breakers" showcases a fine double act from a fine time in cinema history. Enjoy 7.5/10

When Bob Hope first signed with Paramount what they had in mind for him were some B picture comedies playing the bottom half of double bills. Mr. Hope proved he was considerably more than that and his two films with Paulette Goddard and the film Never Say Die with Martha Raye proved he was a box office attraction.

The Ghost Breakers is the second of two Hope did with Paulette Goddard, the first being The Cat and the Canary. In this one Hope is Lawrence Lawrence Lawrence from parents as he said with a lack of imagination. He's a Walter Winchell type radio broadcaster and columnists and he spills some gangster information as Winchell was wont to do many times. Of course Winchell had the best source of information going in J. Edgar Hoover whereas Hope has raspy voiced stoolie Tom Dugan as his source.

When a story gets a little too close to home, Hope gets a summons from one of the gangland lords for a conference. But in the same hotel is Paulette Goddard who has just been warned by Anthony Quinn not to close a deal on a castle in an island off Cuba. When Quinn gets murdered Hope thinks he did it and Goddard and he are soon involved in every which way possible.

On my VHS copy is the trailer for The Ghost Breakers in which it's advertised that this new Bob Hope film will feature his 'boy' Syracuse played by Willie Best. Of course this is a play on Jack Benny's valet Rochester. Would that Willie Best was as fast on the uptake in putting down Hope as Eddie Anderson was as Rochester. Instead Best had to endure the indignity of being referred to as 'boy' in the trailer. He played the part as servile as the norm. Funny thing was his name in the film was Alex, he was never referred to as Syracuse.

Still the film does have its funny moments, especially when Hope and Goddard arrive at the haunted mansion. It's obvious there is more than ghosts haunting this place and Director George Marshall has a nice group of suspects to throw at us with Anthony Quinn, Paul Lukas, Richard Carlson, and Lloyd Corrigan. Yes, I did say Anthony Quinn who plays his own twin brother.

At the end it's actually Willie Best who saves them all. But what a surprise ending it would have been if Best had been the real villain of the piece.

Many movie fans who were raised seeing Bob Hope strictly in the slightly depressing films he made during the 1960s and his periodic TV specials may be surprised to learn that in the 1940s he was one of the best "fast patter' comedians working on the radio and in films. Generally playing a coward who still managed to come up on top in circumstances over which he had no control, the comic starred in a number of successful films.

I admittedly have a preference for "old dark house" mysteries, and I spent years trying to catch up on this one. The only version of the script which had been readily available through the 1970s was the Dean Martin/Jerry Lewis remake, SCARED STIFF, which used the basic premise but altered some of the gags and inserted musical numbers.

The action opens in New York City where Lawrence "Larry" Lawrence (Hope) is preparing for a radio broadcast as the city is hit by a storm-created blackout. Larry broadcasts gossip which includes, with tacit approval from the mob, news on some of the local crime kingpins. Unfortunately, his latest broadcast annoys Frenchy Duval (Paul Fix), and Larry is invited over for a few straight facts.

In the meantime, one of Larry's listeners is conferring with a lawyer who informs her she's inherited an island off the Cuban Coast. Mary Carter (Paulette Goddard) is thrilled at the news and makes plans to sail at once, in spite of the island's grim reputation as a hotspot for ghosts and worse. Fending off an offer from an unnamed third party to buy the island, she starts packing.

Larry arrives at Duval's hotel, which happens to also be the one where the heiress is staying. Suspecting he's in for more trouble than he can handle (i.e., any at all), Larry borrows a gun from his servant Alex (Willie Best). When a mysterious stranger is shot at the hotel, Lawrence panics --- assuming he killed the man -- and ends up in Mary's room. The police arrive and she offers him refuge.

Picking her trunk as his hiding place, Larry winds up aboard her cruise ship. Spotting a death threat that had been delivered to her stateroom, he decides that he and Alex will stay and protect her.

En route to Cuba, they encounter Geoff Montgomery (Richard Carlson, starting his move away from playing college-aged characters), with whom Mary's tokenly acquainted. He offers to play guide once they arrive in Havana.

Mary vanishes from a nightclub, heading out to heck out the island by night. Larry and a reluctant Alex hire a rowboat and also make for the isle. Arriving, they briefly examine the hut of a local woman with a "zombie son" (Noble Johnson in a fairly creepy, deadpan performance) and proceed on to the bay haunted castle.

It quickly becomes obvious that there's someone else on the island. Alex and Larry have a run-in with a real ghost and the zombie son. Mary arrives and, her clothing torn, puts on a dress once owned by an ancestor for which she's a deal not so dead ringer. This confuses the zombie long enough for them to lock him away.

Investigating the cellars, Larry and Mary find her lawyer in one of the coffins. He'd been attacked by the mysterious individual who had wanted to purchase the island. He dies before he can reveal the killer -- only giving a cryptic clue. This turns out to be a hint at a fabulous treasure hidden underneath the castle.

The killer makes himself known, but is dispatched before he can eliminate the witnesses.

A fun little outing, and a decent example of one of the fairly early sound "old house" mysteries. These films were popular in the silent era, generally pitting one or more characters against an unknown killer in a rambling, storm-tossed mansion. Hope and Goddard had also starred in a sound remake of one of the better known of these creakers, THE CAT AND THE CANARY.

GHOST BREAKERS is well worth renting.