Picture this scene (mild spoilers): Shapely Paulette Goddard, `working girl, honest but tough', is swimming ashore from the hired boat that ferried her from mainland Cuba to the island she has inherited from a Cuban relative. The ferryman will not land on the island after nightfall because it is supposedly haunted by ghosts and zombies. It is midnight, there is fog on the water and the moon is out. Paulette carries afloat a minuscule pyramid-shaped celluloid tote bag, which contains a dressing gown and a pair of sandals, which is the sum total of her wardrobe in the remainder of the film. Her swimming cap, Hollywood-style, has left her long brown curls miraculously dry, fluffy and manageable. She makes her way through the ferns of the parrot-infested jungle and into the haunted castle's moonlit cathedral-like main hall. She calls for Larry (Bob Hope), who is supposed to meet her there. No one answers but the echo of her own voice. Suddenly overcome by the strangeness, loneliness and eeriness of her situation and surroundings, she starts hearing her own inner voice, whispering at first and then shouting more and more urgently: `Get out
Get out
before it's too late!' She goes to exit the castle hall when she is confronted by the vision of a moonlit Black zombie stumbling towards her with murder in his eyes. She lets out a piercing scream and runs to the castle's monumental staircase. Her white bathrobe gets caught on a splinter of the balustrade. For interminable moments, she tries to free herself, immobile as in a nightmare where the dreamer runs to no avail. Finally the bathrobe tears apart, revealing one half of her swimsuit-clad body and her beautiful, long legs. She rushes upstairs and disappears behind the first door she sees.
What is remarkable about this scene is that every one of its elements is now a cinematic cliché that didn't exist before `Ghost Breakers' was shot. Everything from the script, the atmospheric lighting and photography, to the wardrobe, the sets and the music is a precedent-setting tour de force that would inspire all the Universal Studio horrors to come without ever being equalled for suspense and immediacy. And this is a Bob Hope comedy
I love this film because it is really before its time. It's a successful blend of mystery, horror, chills and fine comedy. Bob Hope's manservant Alex (Willie Best) has all the best lines, which come in very handy to defuse some of the tension created by the most atmospheric package to ever grace an American movie screen until that time. The film never stops being intriguing from the opening scene of a thunderstorm above Manhattan to the hilarious epilogue. The night photography of the moonlit castle is especially gripping.
The theatrical trailer for this film (which comes with both the VHS and the DVD version) is probably the first known instance of the use of the theremin in a film soundtrack. How cool is that!
This is also one of Bob Hope's funniest performances and a great way to remember him.
P.S.: Like many commentators, I first saw this film on the late show as a kid and remembered it as the most chilling horror picture I had ever seen and only got to understand the jokes later. It's really that good.
What is remarkable about this scene is that every one of its elements is now a cinematic cliché that didn't exist before `Ghost Breakers' was shot. Everything from the script, the atmospheric lighting and photography, to the wardrobe, the sets and the music is a precedent-setting tour de force that would inspire all the Universal Studio horrors to come without ever being equalled for suspense and immediacy. And this is a Bob Hope comedy
I love this film because it is really before its time. It's a successful blend of mystery, horror, chills and fine comedy. Bob Hope's manservant Alex (Willie Best) has all the best lines, which come in very handy to defuse some of the tension created by the most atmospheric package to ever grace an American movie screen until that time. The film never stops being intriguing from the opening scene of a thunderstorm above Manhattan to the hilarious epilogue. The night photography of the moonlit castle is especially gripping.
The theatrical trailer for this film (which comes with both the VHS and the DVD version) is probably the first known instance of the use of the theremin in a film soundtrack. How cool is that!
This is also one of Bob Hope's funniest performances and a great way to remember him.
P.S.: Like many commentators, I first saw this film on the late show as a kid and remembered it as the most chilling horror picture I had ever seen and only got to understand the jokes later. It's really that good.