The Ghost Breakers [DVD]

The plot of this 85-minute black & white comedy has Bob Hope as Larry Lawrence, a radio star who has made his reputation as a muckraker. Fleeing from a murder in a hotel he ends up in the trunk of Mary Carter (Paulette Goddard) who is on her way to Cuba, where she has inherited the haunted Black Island and its haunted Castillo Maldito. Once on the island, Mary runs into the charming Parada (Paul Lukas), her old friend Geoff Montgomery (Richard Carlson), and the scheming Mederos twins (Anthony Quinn and Anthony Quinn). Meanwhile, at the castle awaiting Larry and Mary are the Mother Zombie (Virginia Brissac) and her giant zombie son (Noble Johnson, who you might remember as the native chief in the original "King Kong"). Larry and his trusted valet Alex (Willie Best) go ahead to the castle to make sure everything is safe for Mary, at which point wackiness ensues.

In contrast to the Road pictures Hope stays in character throughout the film and his romancing of Mary rings true. There is an earnestness to Hope's character that is missing from most of his comedies. Hope's wisecracks work even better because of this restraint. Meanwhile, Goddard reminds us that she knew how to compliment a first rate comedian and she certainly gets more laughs at Hope's expense than she ever got at Charlie Chaplin's (no surprise there).

The biggest downside of this film is that it embraced black stereotypes throughout, mainly with Alex and the Cuban natives. Allowances can be made, more because despite Alex embodying the racist notion of blacks as slow (i.e., lazy) he usually is the one solving Larry's problems, than because the times constitutes any sort of an excuse. But even if I see some subversive elements challenge racial prejudice in this film, when Hope quips that he is going to have to paint Alex white to see him in the dark, it is hard not to cringe. That might be enough to stop you from wanting to watch "The Ghost Breakers," but I hope that it does not.

The DVD has an okay featurette on Hope entertaining the troops during World War II, an excerpt from a command performance in 1944, and a short subject "Hollywood Victory Caravan." You also get the trailer and a collection of gallery stills from the production, which is enough to round the rating on this DVD up instead of down. The result is not a great film, but still a good one that I would put in the middle of a Bob Hope Top 10 film list. In fact, I just did.