As fond as I
am of the 1939 version of
The Cat & The Canary,
the words of that great philosopher Daffy Duck leap to mind: “If they like
that mess, they’re starvin’ for some real hoofin’!” Well, if Paramount’s
1940 tweaking of
The Ghost Breakers (TGB) isn’t the real hoofin’,
I don’t know what is! It’s a premium blend of snappy comedy, playful romance,
and genuine spooky suspense. Producer Arthur Hornblow, Jr.
(Witness for the Prosecution; The Asphalt Jungle; Oklahoma!) reunites
The Cat & The Canary co-stars
Bob Hope and Paulette Goddard, as well as director George Marshall
(The Gazebo; It Started with a Kiss). Their funny, sparkling chemistry
together is better than ever, blending warmth, romance, and comedy as
deliciously as a daiquiri. Hope and Goddard are so darling together, I want to
hug them and bring them home for the holidays! (But a DVD will do!) I like the
cheeky references to Paulette Goddard’s Cecil B. DeMille movies, too
(Unconquered; Reap the Wild Wind, etc.).
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| Be very, very quiet; we're hunting ghosts! |
Based on the
work of Walter DeLeon and based on the play by John Willard and Paul Dickey and
Charles W. Goddard (any relation to co-star Paulette Goddard?), the film gets
off to an exciting start in New York City during a violent thunderstorm that’s
almost worthy of Hurricane Sandy. “Nice night for a murder,” says our heroine
Mary Carter (Goddard) as she packs for her voyage to pre-Castro Cuba. She only
thinks she’s kidding, with all the mystery and intrigue afoot! You see,
Mary’s off to Cuba to claim her family inheritance, Castillo Maldito, or “Black
Island.” Sounds cozy already, huh? Mary’s mom had told her about Black Island
and its sinister legends, but Mary’s a good-natured yet skeptical New Yorker
who doesn’t scare easily: “(My mother) also told me about Santa Claus, Snow
White, and the Seven Dwarves.” Of course, her Cuban advisor, Senor Havez (Pedro
de Cordoba of
Anthony Adverse; The Corsican Brothers; Hitchcock’s
Saboteur) gives Mary a last friendly warning: “We must admit there is a
dividing line somewhere between superstition and the supernatural. All I know
is that during the last twenty years, no human being who has tried to spend the
night in Castillo Maldito ever lived to see a sunrise.” You never know; I can
imagine the eager developers eventually showing up waving contracts for chain
restaurants and hotels anytime now! But Mary gets an urgent phone call from
Ramon Medeiros (Anthony Quinn of
Road to Singapore and
Road to
Morocco, as
well as winning
Best Supporting Actor Oscars for
Lust for Life and
Viva Zapata!) about her upcoming trip.
Alas, whatever it was he wanted to say gets lost in a hail of gunfire, and poor
Medeiros is no more. What was Medeiros trying to tell Mary before everyone got
trigger-happy?
"Johnny Ola told me about her! They call her 'Superman'!"
Meanwhile,
meet our hero, radio star Larry Lawrence (Hope) and his valet Alex (Willie Best
of
High Sierra; Cabin in the Sky; and Hope and Goddard’s third film
together,
Nothing But the Truth). Larry’s full name is in fact Lawrence
Lawrence Lawrence, a name so nice they named him thrice! “My parents had no
imagination,” Larry explains. He and Alex are packing for a fishing trip, but
will they end up sleeping with the fishes instead? You see, as if the storm and
the hotel’s resulting blackout weren’t already agita-inducing, Larry’s radio
show focuses on dishing the dirt on notorious criminal underworld types.
Wouldn’t you know Larry has run afoul of gangster Frenchy Duvall (Paul Fix of
After the Thin Man; Dr. Cyclops; and
ironically, TV’s
The Rifleman, as Marshal Micah Torrence!)? Now Duvall
is out for blood.
Sheesh, underworld types can be so sensitive! As more gunplay ensues, Larry fears he’s the one who accidentally
killed Medeiros, and he and Alex end up unwittingly joining Mary on a slow boat
to Cuba!
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| Young Richard Carlson as The Man in the White Suit! |
Romance
blooms for Mary and Larry, though that doesn’t stop others from trying to keep
our heroes from reaching Black Island, including Dr. Parada (Paul Lukas of
Alfred Hitchcock’s
The Lady Vanishes; 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea; Watch on the
Rhine, the film that won Lukas his Best Actor Oscar), Anthony Quinn again,
this time as Ramon Medeiros’ brother Francisco. Look sharp during the scene at
the Las Palmas nightclub with Lloyd Corrigan (
Whistling in the Dark; The Big
Clock; The Manchurian Candidate; the
Boston Blackie movies)
for a brief appearance by lovely Dolores Moran
(To Have and Have Not; The
Horn Blows at Midnight; Old Acquaintance) and a dapper young Richard Carlson
(The Little Foxes; The Creature from the Black Lagoon; It Came from Outer
Space; and the fact-based 1953 to 1956 TV series
I Led Three Lives)
as Mary’s old friend Geoff Montgomery. Carlson is in one of my favorite scenes:
Geoff:
“A zombie has no will of his own. You see them sometimes walking around blindly
with dead eyes, following orders, not knowing what they do, not caring.”
Larry:
“You mean like Democrats?”
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They won't hear nothin' more
from The Mighty Quinn.... |
|
TGB’s comedy and horror elements blend
superbly, with character actor Noble Johnson
(King Kong; Jungle Book; The Most Dangerous Game) playing a truly haunting, memorable zombie. John M. Miller from the TCM Web site notes
that
TGB pre-dates Val Lewton’s
I Walked With A Zombie by
three years. For better or worse, like any actors who were even remotely
swarthy, both Anthony Quinn and Noble Johnson were frequently cast in supporting
roles at Universal Studios and RKO as Native Americans, Latinos, Arabs, and other so-called “exotic” types.
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| ...Or will they? He resurrects real good! |
TGB’s
production values are top notch, from Edith Head’s gorgeous wardrobe for Paulette Goddard, to Hans Dreier and Robert Usher’s Art Direction, to the
cinematography of Charles Lang (Charade;
Some Like It Hot; How to Steal a Million). Farciot Edouart’s special
effects photography with the ghosts emerging is eerily captivating.
Willie Best was
highly praised by none other than his co-star Bob Hope, who said Best was one of
the best actors he ever knew—and yet so many people have criticized him, or more
specifically, the African-American stereotypes he was called upon to portray. I
say you can’t fault a performer (or anyone else) for
NOT being ahead of his time! My dear
friend and fellow blogger Becky Barnes of
ClassicBecky’s Brain Food renown agrees: “Willie Best was one of the
best comedians of the era. It's such a shame things were the way they were then.
I think he just about carried
The Ghost Breakers, and he deserves acclaim
for his work.” Amen to that, sister!
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| Bob Hope and Willie Best agree: no comedy-thriller holds a candle to The Ghost Breakers! |
Just as
zombies never die, neither do remakes: The Ghost Breakers was
successfully remade in 1953 for Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis as Scared Stiff,
with Lizabeth Scott as the heiress-in-distress, including voiceover cameos by
Bob Hope and Bing Crosby!
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| I think Mary would prefer a free drink or a mint on her pillow! |
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| Ooh, The Zombies! I loved that band! | | | | | | | |
|
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| Laura, er, Mary is the face in the misty light.... |
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| Aha, we've solved the mystery! Mary's ancestor was Dr. Phibes! |
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| Don't you just love a happy ending on the high seas? |
