The Ghost Breakers
The Ghost Breakers is a 1940 American mystery/horror comedy film directed by George Marshall and starring Bob Hope and Paulette Goddard. It was adapted by screenwriter Walter DeLeon as the third film version of the 1909 play The Ghost Breaker by Paul Dickey and Charles W. Goddard.[2]
Not to be confused with The Ghost Breaker (1914 film) or The Ghost Breaker (1922 film).The Ghost Breakers
Along with the Abbott and Costello films Hold That Ghost and Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein and Hope and Goddard's own The Cat and the Canary, it is cited as a prime example of the classic Hollywood horror-comedy.[2][3]
The film is primarily set in an abandoned house in Cuba. A woman has just inherited the house and the associated plantation, and she arrives to inspect her property. Accompanying her is her new love interest,a radio broadcaster from Manhattan. The duo encounters a supposed zombie, and take part in treasure hunting in the abandoned house.
Various versions[edit]
The Dickey and Goddard play The Ghost Breaker was filmed twice previously by Paramount, first in 1914 by Cecil B. DeMille, with stars H. B. Warner and Rita Stanwood. It was filmed again in 1922 by director Alfred E. Green, starring Wallace Reid and Lila Lee.[2] Both these silent film versions are now considered to be lost films.[4]
The film was adapted for radio on Screen Directors Playhouse on April 4, 1949. Bob Hope re-created his film role, and Shirley Mitchell starred as Mary. Hope appeared again on the program for an hour-long version on June 14, 1951.
George Marshall, director of The Ghost Breakers, remade it as Scared Stiff (1953), featuring Martin and Lewis (Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis). The remake featured cameos not only from Hope, but also from Bing Crosby. A year before Scared Stiff, Martin and Lewis appeared in the Crosby/Hope film Road to Bali. Marshall also directed the not-dissimilar Murder, He Says (1945), in which Fred MacMurray compares the situation to "that Bob Hope movie The Ghost Breakers."
Scenes from the film were used in the 1972 pilot episode of The Snoop Sisters (aka The Female Instinct).[5]
The Ghost Breakers was one of the inspirations for the Ghostbusters series of films, whereby Dan Aykroyd wanted to combine the latest research with The Ghost Breakers style of comedy.[6][7]
Reception[edit]
Reviews from critics were positive. Bosley Crowther of The New York Times wrote, "It looks as though Paramount has really discovered something: it has found the fabled formula for making an audience shriek with laughter and fright at one and (as the barkers say) the simultaneous time."[8] Variety declared it "solid comedy entertainment that will generate plenty of laughs and roll up some hefty b.o. figures along the way."[9] Harrison's Reports called it, "One of the finest ghost stories that have been produced for some time."[10] "Corking comedy has laughs and thrills aplenty," Film Daily reported.[11] John Mosher of The New Yorker wrote, "The amalgam of farce and horror is very successful."[12]
Writing in The Zombie Movie Encyclopedia, Peter Dendle said, "This is considered to be among Bob Hope's finest pictures, and the direction is smooth and the lines delivered flawlessly, but black actor Willie Best's jokes about fried chicken are no longer funny, and smarmy Hope isn't funny to begin with."[13] Glenn Kay, who wrote Zombie Movies: The Ultimate Guide, called it "entertaining and hugely successful", though he said some scenes are uncomfortable due to their political incorrectness.[14]