Movie review – “The Ghost Breakers” (1940) ***1/2

Following their success with The Cat and the Canary, Bob Hope and Paulette Goddard were reunited for another spooky comedy where Paulette inherits an old dark house and has people try to kill her. The confidence of both players had increased markedly even in the short gap between the two films and they team even better this time around. Whereas Cat was more of an ensemble piece, this film is more geared to their individual talents (Goddard has two gratuitous scenes where she takes off her dress and is in a slip, plus spends some time in a swimsuit). It’s quite spooky too with an effective opening scene in a black out and a terrific haunted castle in Cuba. (Around the two thirds mark there is a bit too much poking around the castle – it goes on for a bit.) The supporting cast is strong: Paul Lukas, Anthony Quinn, Willie Best (also known as Sleep’n’Eat – a talented performer who specialised in “dopey Negro” comedy NB many examples of which are around today but I guess it’s considered okay today because we have positive black characters to counter balance it). There’s also Richard Carlson who is memory serves featured in similar films starring Abbott and Costello.