Incorrectly assuming that he shot a man dead, a radio broadcaster flees to Cuba together with a young woman checking out the apparently haunted castle she has inherited in this amiable mix of laughs and chills starring Bob Hope and Paulette Goddard. The set-up does not quite click with Goddard trusting Hope and agreeing to shelter him from the law far too quickly without hesitation for credibility. It also takes around two thirds of the film for the characters to finally arrive in Cuba, but the movie is frequently amusing even if the pacing is often off. Hope does a great job spurting witty one-liners left, right and centre and while his racial slurs towards Willie Best (cast as his manservant) come off poorly, Best's pitch perfect comic timing ensures that his character is still a welcome presence. The Cuban scenes are very well filmed too with appropriately disquieting castle interiors and unsettling light effects; kudos to Oscar winning cinematographer Charles Lang. There are also some very decent special effects (for the time) in the mix, talk of voodoo a la 'The Serpent and the Rainow' and a creepy local man, reported to be a zombie. The film was later remade as 'Scared Stiff' as a Martin/Lewis vehicle in which the characters take even longer to finally reach their ominous destination. It would be interesting to see a version of the story where the majority of the action actually takes place at the castle. That said, without the long and protracted journey, there would be no Hope in a suitcase subplot, which comedy-wise is a clear highlight here.
Review of The Ghost Breakers
