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The Ghost BreakersRating:
Release Date: 01 April, 2003 Retail Price: $14.98 OUR Price: $13.48 You SAVE: $1.50! Cast: Complete Cast (13 total) |
The Ghost Breakers Reviews
Easily one of Bob Hope's finest films
Bob Hope was never truly a film comedian like Cary Grant or even Joel McCrea. He was primarily a radio personality who also appeared in a few films. For the most part, his later career was progressively weaker and weaker, and his celebrated series of Road Pictures with Bing Crosby were more notable for their spirit and energy than for much in the way of genuine humor. Indeed, of the famous comedians of the 20th century, Hope was one of the least funny. But for those who, like myself, do not count themselves among Hope's fans, there are two films that he made, both with Paulette Goddard, that are both remarkably entertaining and fun: THE CAT AND THE CANARY, released in 1939, and THE GHOST BREAKERS, released in 1940.
What made these two films so much more successful than those that followed? First and foremost, there is a balance between the rest of the film elements and Hope's strong screen personality. For many of us, a little Bob Hope goes a long way, and in small amounts can even be entertaining. Although shockingly few of his one liners are actually funny, he does possess a nice physical timing, a great energy level, and a pleasant persona. He was never more pleasant or well presented as in these two films. The balance was achieved partly by not focusing as much on Hope as in his later films, and partly by including a very strong supporting cast. The very beautiful Paulette Goddard adorned both THE CAT AND THE CANARY and THE GHOST BREAKERS (her marriage to Charlie Chaplain ending in between efforts), and this film included as well Paul Lukas, Richard Carlson, and a very young Anthony Quinn (and for once the Mexican Quinn--born Antonio Rudolfo Oaxaca Quinn in Mexico--gets to play an Hispanic). The sets are fun, the direction fast-paced and never dull, and while the one liners don't elicit many out and out laughs, they at least engender a spirit of enjoyment. I can imagine only the most curmudgeonly viewer not having fun with one.
One of the most fascinating aspects of the film is the role of Alex the manservant played by Willie Best, who along with other black actors such as Fred 'Snowflake' Toones played a host of frightened, illiterate, stupid, and lazy colored servants, red caps, and porters during the thirties and forties. In this film as well he is often fearful, frequently mangles his sentences, and is definitely subservient. Nonetheless, this is one of the most interesting of this kind of performance in any film I know from the era. Partly this is because you get the feeling that his character is far more intelligent than he at first lets on, and although he is often fearful, he always manages to get the better of his fear, and in fact intervenes physically more than once to help Hope when he is in danger. He and Hope seem more like companions the pure master and servant, and almost approximate Don Quixote and Sancho Panza. Best does reinforce the stereotype in his role, but he comes very close to making something more of it. Sadly, it would remain one of the better roles for an African-American actor in a film mainly featuring white actors for some time (excepting several roles by the very talented and immensely dignified Rex Ingram, who is arguably the lone African American male who managed to completely shatter the stereotype in the 1940s, with several superb roles from THE THIEF OF BAGHDAD as the Genie, to Jim in HUCKLEBERRY FINN, to Da Lawd in GREEN PASTURES, to Lucifer in CABIN IN THE SKY, to Sgt. Tambul in SAHARA).
The DVD has a number of excellent features, including excerpts from some of Hope's USO tours (Hope was, of course, one of the foremost entertainers of U.S. troops in WW II, perhaps surpassed only by Marlene Dietrich, whose efforts were truly heroic, with her actually living with and entertaining troops in the front lines while the invasion of Germany pushed forward)
All in all, this was a very enjoyable film that will show Bob Hope at his very best.
GHOSTS IN CUBA
This is a fun movie to watch, especially if you like Bob Hope and Paulette Goddard. Paulette inherits an old castle in Cuba which just happens to be haunted.("Isn't it exciting?") Paulette says as she watches lightning during a thunderstorm. In 1940, Paramount really hit on something: the fabled formula for making the audience shriek and laugh simultaneously. Spurred on by the Hope-Goddard teams box-office returns - (they did the unavailable-on-video CAT AND THE CANARY in 1939) - the duo was reunited for a third and final screen time in the comedy NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH the next year. This film's success would lead other studios to play around with the "haunted house comedy" formula, for instance, in 1945, Paramount dusted off this old chestnut of a story and made SCARED STIFF with Jack Haley and Ann (DETOUR) Savage. Eight years later, the studio squeezed more mileage from the property by remaking it yet again, this time as a Martin and Lewis feature (SCARED STIFF - AGAIN?) Bob Hope and Bing Crosby made cameo appearances in the 1953 feature with Lizabeth Scott and Carmen Miranda (!). As for this original version, the special effects are sensational - for a 1940 flick - and there are some GENUINE chills in this classic comedy.
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