One of my favorite movies when I was younger was The Ghost Breakers starring Bob Hope and Paulette Goddard. Released in 1940, The Ghost Breakers perfectly blends comedy and fright with some gothic elements on the side.
Mary Carter (Paulette Goddard) is about to travel to Cuba because she inherited her great-great grandfather’s castle (appropriately named Castillo Maldito, located on Black Island) that is said to be haunted. She is already receiving offers from unnamed others to buy the castle from her. Carter crosses paths with Larry Lawrence (Bob Hope), a radio personality who thinks he accidently killed a man in the hotel corridor, and Lawrence’s valet Alex (Willie Best). They travel with Carter to Cuba after finding out that she might be in danger because of a note (“Death Awaits You on Black Island”) and a death ou-anga, an voodoo amulet of death, posted to the door of her room in the ship. The trio along with Carter’s old friend Geoff Montgomery (Richard Carlson), Cuban Advisor Parada (Paul Lukas), and mysterious Francisco Mederes (Anthony Quinn) meet up at Black Island where they encounter a ghost, a zombie, and a dangerous murderer within their own ranks.
The Ghost Breakers has all the elements of the gothic starting with an enchanted castle that Carter inherits. We learn about Carter’s family history as Senior Santiago was a slaveowner and owned a silver mine. Carter also has a peculiar resemblance to her great-great grandmother as she finds out in the giant portrait at the bottom of the main stairs in the castle. Adorning the castle is a murky, misty swamp with trees all around and a small shack nearby housing the only inhabitants of Black Island, a witch doctor (Virginia Brissac) and her zombie son (Noble Johnson). The moon permeates the entire island. Inside the castle, we see chandeliers, candles, spider webs, coffins with mummified remains, coffins with bones, suits of armor, and a creepy old organ whose music opens a secret passageway. One of the characters is misunderstood to be a dangerous, shady person, but in the end this assumption is revealed to be false. And finally who can forget the zombie and the ghost?
Anyone who hasn’t watched this film, you can watch it on YouTube. The film is only 85 minutes and it’s in black and white. The music in the movie compliments the comedic and dark elements very well and I think you will enjoy The Ghost Breakers.
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{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
I remember seeing the movie – a long time ago. Seeing it described this way, sounds like the makers identified and included many of the classic elements of a gothic suspense story.
BTW, I love Bob Hope. Seeing his name on the credits was always a guarantee of a certain kind of entertainment: you knew the movie wouldn’t take itself too seriously, but it would still try to stick to the ostensible plot.
Sounds like a lot of fun, revgeorge. I agree with RR in re Bob Hope. I’m planning to watch and listen to this short film later this afternoon.
Except it was Johnny who posted this.
Oops, you are right! Sorry, Johnny! Forgive me.
Just finished watching the film. As Behold a Phoenix has written, the film has some definite gothic elements, such as the haunted castle, and of course the fact that it is in black-and-white makes it much more atmospheric. Bob Hope adds a interesting romantic/comedic element which keeps the film from taking itself too seriously. I did find that the proliferation of mysterious men was a bit much– one or two would have been enough. They all seemed to look similar, too, –they were all mustachioed and sinister looking–and the fact that the film was in black-and-white, as I mentioned earlier, made it more difficult to tell the players apart. Then on top of that, Anthony Quinn played twins, one of whom was murdered in a hotel corridor.(Incidentally leading to one of the films funniest lines, when Bob Hope, thinking he shot the man, asks, ” Is it murder to kill a perfect stranger?”)
I’ve had some additional thoughts since my last post on this film.. The character of the black side-kick was clearly stereotypical; he reminds me of the character that used to pop up in some of the old Abbot and Costello and Charlie Chan films–the scardey-cat negro servant or employee. There’s even a line spoken by Bob Hope that was probably innocent enough at the time, but which would be constructed as racist today: the one ending with something like,
“. . .keep this up, and I’ll have to paint you white.”
Also, the role of the Cuban male is very stereotyped in this. I got to thinking about this after I noted that it was hard to tell some of the males apart, as they all had mustaches, dressed well, seemed charming, and had similar facial features. I think several of the Cuban males ended up being friends rather than foe, but with the black and white filming, plus the casting of similar looking males, it was hard to tell who was which. The saying “They all look alike” must have been something that applied to characters in minority ethinic groups besides the negro or black, in Hollywood back then.
Fricka, I often get confused with revgeorge, being that we’re depressed that our baseball teams didn’t make the playoffs. It’s okay.
You raise a good point about the stereotypes. The line about Lawrence painting Alex’s face white was probably the only line that could be construed as racist. You certainly can look at that period in Hollywood history where black actors had parts that made them look silly. I’m kind of in the middle as far as whether it happened in this film. Willie Best had a great deal of screentime and lines, which was a lot for an African-American actor then. Best and Hope’s characters are equally afraid of ghosts and yet it is Hope (and Goddard) that faints in the end. Best is a comedian and has worked with Hope once or twice since that movie. Your comment on Cuban stereotypes (you can extend it to Hispanics in general) is very interesting. It certainly raised red herrings as none of the Cuban characters in the film were actually the villain. A white guy was.
Red Rocker, I agree. I love Bob Hope.