“IS YOU IN THERE, ZOMBIE?”

By Raymond Benson

There are a handful of Hollywood movies out there that successfully combined comedy with the horror genre. Surprisingly, truly good ones are few and far between. Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948) is perhaps the quintessential example of the genre mashup. It provided genuine thrills and some frights mixed in with hilarious comedic bits. A more recent one that comes to mind is of course the 1984 megahit, Ghostbusters. There is no question that this Bill Murray vehicle owes a great deal to the 1940 romp, The Ghost Breakers, considered one of Bob Hope’s most beloved early pictures.

Based on the 1909 stage play, The Ghost Breaker, by Paul Dickey and Charles W. Goddard, the 1940 movie is actually a remake of previous adaptations. Both Cecil B. DeMille and Alfred E. Green made silent films of the play in 1914 and 1922, respectively, and both of these versions are considered lost. In turn, the 1940 The Ghost Breakers was remade by the same director, George Marshall, as Scared Stiff (1953), which starred Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, and it is arguable that Marshall also helmed a very similar picture in 1945 entitled Murder, He Says, which starred Fred MacMurray.

After the success of The Cat and the Canary (1939), yet another good example of a Hollywood horror-comedy that starred Bob Hope and Paulette Goddard, the pair was brought back a year later for The Ghost Breakers. Also starring Richard Carlson, Paul Lukas, a young Anthony Quinn, and African-American comic actor Willie Best, The Ghost Breakers was a popular hit that solidified Hope’s place as one of the coming decade’s great talents.

Mary Carter (Goddard) has inherited a spooky old mansion on an island off of Cuba, and she plans to sail from New York to the island to inspect the place. Other sinister forces—a foreigner named Parada (Lukas), the twin Mederos brothers (Quinn, in both roles), and others not named here for the sake of spoilers, also want the mansion because of a secret hidden within. Apparently it is also full of ghosts, or so the legends say. During a classic situational and comedic mix-up of mistaken identities, radio star Larry Lawrence (Hope) finds himself trapped in Mary’s steamer trunk that has been loaded onto the ship to Cuba. Larry’s loyal valet and friend, Alex (Best) stowaways to keep track of his boss. Once on the island, Larry assumes the role of a “ghost buster,” since he’s obviously fallen for Mary and wants to protect her from the bad guys. Throw in a handsome historian, Geoff (Carlson), and the cinematic stew has enough complications and plot twists to keep one entertained for the film’s brief 83 minutes.

Hope is terrific, and one can easily see the development of his coward-with-bravado character that he adapted for himself in pretty much all screen appearances, including the “Road” pictures with Bing Crosby. Goddard is also winning, a perfect comic and gorgeous foil for the tale. While the rest of the cast is admirable, one must single out the great Willie Best, an actor who unfortunately was misused by Hollywood—very typical in those days—to display a stereotype of the comic black man with bulging eyes and slow dialogue delivery. (“Is you in there, zombie?” he asks, knocking on a door.) That said, it is apparent that Best is brilliant in comic timing, handling the demeaning characterization with utmost professionalism. If The Ghost Breakers has a flaw, it is this. In today’s climate, Best’s Alex is wince-inducing, but one can still appreciate the man’s talent and competence.

Director Marshall keeps the picture moving at a brisk pace, and the creepy aspects—while certainly not scary today—are effective enough. Noble Johnson’s zombie is an interesting take on that relatively rare creature (for the time), three years prior to the Val Lewton masterpiece, I Walked with a Zombie.

Kino Lorber’s new 2K master looks quite good in high definition, despite the age of the material. There is an audio commentary by author and film historian Lee Gambin that fills in listeners on all the trivia behind the movie. The only supplement is a “Trailers from Hell” piece on the title by Larry Karaszewski, and the theatrical trailer for this and other Kino releases.

The Ghost Breakers is for fans of Bob Hope, Paulette Goddard, Hollywood horror-comedy, and those distinctive pre-war pictures that provided solid enjoyment in less than ninety minutes.

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