But let’s skip all the mumbo-jumbo and overblown digital effects and go back to the early 1940s. This was a time before people got their thrills from watching teenagers get their throats slashed by a guy wearing a mask or their faces chewed off by marauding zombies. The early ‘40s was a comparatively innocent time, when movie-makers had a flair for coupling fright with fun and cleverly using camera tricks to imply ghostly doings.
Many of the comic spookfests made in the ‘40s were low-budget affairs featuring lowbrow comedy. But there were a few that successfully joined a simple old-dark-house formula with the comic style of their respective stars. Add to that the playful sleight-of-hand effects typical of the time, and you get creepily comic fun that makes your skin crawl without relying on blood and guts.
Here are five black-and-white comic scarefests that are emblematic of the ghost story of the early 1940s: Full of hapless heroes, cute co-stars, slamming doors, spooky apparitions, objects moving on their own, weird housekeepers, witless gangsters, and comical cops.
When Bob Hope and Paulette Goddard made a hit comic murder mystery with “The Cat and the Canary” in 1939, it was inevitable that they would be paired again. This time, Hope is Larry Lawrence, a radio broadcaster who thinks he has accidently killed a gangster. Believing he’s a marked man, he pairs up with Mary Carter (Goddard), a young lady who recently inherited her family's ancestral home on a remote island off of Cuba. Not only is the old mansion reputedly haunted, but there is supposedly buried treasure on the property as well. So Larry and Mary take off from New York City and head for the island.
As Larry and Mary hunt for the treasure, they have to contend with ghosts, zombies, and gangsters. This is a very 1940 movie: You get a Hollywood view of a pre-Castro Cuba, Hope’s brand of self-effacing comedy, funny support from Willie Best as his valet Alex, and a cute romantic foil in Goddard, who gets to wear some snappy fashions. As with any Hope comedy of the 1940s, the tongue is firmly in cheek, the energy level is high, and the laughs plenty. It’s fun to see him turn the haunted house clichés on their head.
The cinematography is atmospheric and makes the most of the haunted house plotline, using shadows to underscore the frightening situations that Larry finds himself in, yet giving Hope a chance to play his comically cowardly character to the hilt. The supporting cast includes stalwart character actors like Paul Lukas, Richard Carlson, and a very young Anthony Quinn in two roles. (And there’s even a character called “Mother Zombie.”)
Hold That Ghost (1941)
The comedy of Abbott and Costello is probably a matter of taste, but for my money they are a timeless comic duo. Although their shtick is rooted in their time, I think it transcends the decade because it’s so basic (and funny). In this, one of their best, gas station attendants Chuck (Bud Abbott) and Ferdie (Lou Costello) inherit a haunted tavern from a gangster named Moose Matsen. Little do the boys know that Moose has hidden money in the tavern.
Chuck and Ferdie take a bus to see their property, but when the bus arrives and everyone gets off, the driver takes off and leaves them there. Furthermore, one of the bus passengers, Charlie Smith, (Marc Lawrence) is a gangster out to get Moose’s dough.
As Chuck, Ferdie, and the other passengers investigate the creepy old tavern, it soon becomes apparent that it’s haunted. When the corpse of Charlie turns up, everyone knows things are getting strange. Pretty soon ghosts start appearing and things begin moving on their own. There is a particularly hilarious bit with poor Ferdie being scared witless by a moving candle.
To add to the fun of the classic routines of Abbot and Costello, you get the loud, brassy Joan Davis as Camille Brewster, a professional radio “screamer” who gets to ply her talent on more than one occasion. (She’s hilarious.) For love interest, you get Evelyn Ankers as Norma. Universal Studios billed Ankers as “The Scream Queen” in many a straight horror film of the era, so between her and Davis, you get a lot of screaming in this movie. Proving it’s 1941, there’s an appearance by The Andrews Sisters, while fans of The Three Stooges will enjoy seeing Shemp Howard as a soda jerk.
This is the third installment of the famous “Topper” series, which started in 1937 with Cary Grant and Constance Bennett as a ghostly couple who help their fuddy-duddy friend Cosmo Topper (Roland Young) enjoy life. That hit film was followed, sans Grant, in 1939’s “Topper Takes a Trip.”
While both are clever movies that boast fun special effects and smooth performances from their stars, the surprise is that the last installment is, in my opinion, the most entertaining and funny. In this story, friends Gail Richards (Joan Blondell) and Ann Carrington (Carole Landis) arrive at Landis’s father’s old mansion, which Cosmo and his wife are also visiting.
But someone is out to knock off Ann. When the girls switch rooms before hitting the hay on their first night, the killer offs Gail by mistake. Of course, only Topper can see her ghost, so he has to help her solve the mystery of who killed her and to protect Ann, the killer’s real target.
The thin plot is aided by a very fast pace, impressive special effects (like a dress walking without a body), funny dialogue and situations, and a breezy performance by Joan Blondell, who always seemed like she was having a grand time. She’s aided by a supporting cast that includes Dennis O'Keefe as a reporter with eyes on Ann; Patsy Kelly as the smart-mouthed maid; Billie Burke as dizzy Mrs. Topper; and Donald MacBride as the befuddled police sergeant trying to find out what the heck is going on in this madcap household. They all have their moments.
But it’s Eddie 'Rochester' Anderson as Ann’s chauffeur who steals every single scene he’s in; he has some of the best lines, and his watery fight with a slippery seal is a side-splitting scream.
Ghost Catchers (1944)
Where Abbot and Costello are still a familiar comedy team, Ole Olsen and Chic Johnson are not well known today. Starting as a top vaudeville team, their success continued in the 1930s and ‘40s on the radio and, occasionally, in movies. Their brand of comedy was manic, chaotic, interactive and seemingly unrehearsed, a precursor to today’s improvisational comedy style. In the less than a dozen movies they made together, we see how vaudevillian humor shaped American comedy.
In this farcical film, old-style Southern Colonel Breckinridge Martshall and his daughters have taken up residence in—you guess it—a haunted house. When the ghosts start doing scary stuff, the girls enlist the help of nightclub owners Olsen and Johnson, who agree to help rid the house of the pesky spirits.
That’s pretty much the plot, and it’s just an excuse for the zany antics of the guys. The goings-on are raw, loud, and funny in a way that you just don’t see nowadays. It’s a bit of a mystery to me why this comic team fell off the radar, especially when their output is so self-contained in just a handful of movies.
Character actors who round out the cast include the gravel-voiced Andy Devine, Lon Chaney Jr. (who spoofs his own reputation in many fright films of the ‘40s), and the hilariously befuddled Walter Catlett as the Colonel.
This is probably the biggest-budgeted title in this list, starring a true A-list actor of the time, Charles Laughton. Known for heavy dramatic roles, this film gives him a chance to have a little fun as Sir Simon de Canterville.
The film opens with Sir Simon in 17th century England. Faced with a duel, he cowardly runs away and hides. His ashamed father holes him up in his room in the Canterville Castle and condemns Sir Simon to die alone and remain a ghost only until one of his descendants proves his bravery.
Fast forward to 1944, and there’s a war on; Cuffy Williams (Robert Young) is an American soldier stationed with his troop in the old castle, which is now owned by cute six-year-old Lady Jessica de Canterville (Margaret O'Brien). She discovers that Cuffy is a Canterville by his birthmark.
Cuffy can see and interact with Sir Simon. When Simon explains his situation, he claims that it is the Canterville way to be cowardly, but Cuffy scoffs. However, when the time comes to prove his mettle during a raid in France, Cuffy chokes. It appears that he indeed takes after Sir Simon.
To add insult to injury, when an unexploded parachute mine threatens his platoon, Cuffy is crippled with fear yet again; but when Lady Jessica accidentally activates the mine, Cuffy seizes his moment and explodes the mine away from his brothers in arms.
Having broken the Canterville curse of cowardice, Cuffy has set Sir Simon free.
Based loosely on an Oscar Wilde short story, “The Canterville Ghost” is more subtle (less slapsticky) than the other titles in this list, and therefore more charmingly amusing than chaotically comical. Being a brilliant actor, Laughton manages to imbue his larger-than-life character with pathos, most touchingly realized when Sir Simon learns his curse has been lifted.
This blog post comes just in time for Halloween. So if you’re used to blood-and-guts scares, try something different and get a few laughs along with your chills. These five films are a gentler incarnation of fright, but they probably won’t give you nightmares.
Other recommended titles in this genre:
- “The Smiling Ghost” (1941, which co-starred Willie Best, again as the hero’s valet)
- “The Boogie Man Will Get You” (1942, which gave Boris Karloff, the original Frankenstein’s monster, a chance to poke fun at his creepy image)
- “One Body Too Many” (1944, starring Jack Haley, the Tin Man in “The Wizard of Oz,” as a hapless salesman)
- Abbott and Costello’s “The Time of Their Lives” (1946, in which it’s Lou who’s the ghost)
