Charming fantasy comedy which George MacDonald Fraser once praised as one of the few films which depicted Scottish history well on screen. He was referring to the opening sequence where Robert Donat is a horny Scottish noble who is killed fleeing some fellow Scots who are trying to kill him – I think Fraser appreciated the bawdiness of this, as well as the (all too believable) notion of Scots arguing and feuding amongst themselves when they’re meant to be taking on the British. Donat is very winning in the dual roles as the modern day Scot and his ghostly ancestor - there's a strong support cast too including Eugene Pallette and Jean Parker (a lovely female lead).
Alex Korda productions never cared what nationality their filmmakers were - this has a French director (Rene Clair) and American writer (Robert Sherwood). Maybe that's why the depiction of Scotland was so engaging. I know this was a hit in Britain but would be interested to find out how it did in the US - presumably well since the satire of Americans (materialistic but basically nice) is gentle and affectionate.
The script is quite cleverly worked out - the second act comes from hearing about the ghost and wanting to use it for commercial purposes, but the ghost won't come out because he's afraid of crime. But it loses points by having the deux ex machina of the rival tycoon turning out to be a descendant of Donat's rival family. It gets by more on charm than laugh-out-loud comedy.
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