Larry Lawrence (Bob Hope) and Mary Carter (Paulette Goddard) travel to Cuba to the long abandoned mansion she has just inherited. But many agents don’t want them there, including murderers, a zombie, and a ghost.
Quick Review: An interesting mix of horror and comedy, there is a lot to like about The Ghost Breakers. Bob Hope plays his traditional character, and while some of his jokes fall flat, others are quite funny. The zombie is the creepiest I’ve seen, and the scene where it chases Mary is the stuff of horror legend. There are a surprising number of tense moments, some nice atmosphere, and a few really beautiful scenes. In the most famous one, Mary, dressed as her dead ancestor, descends the staircase holding a candle to stand in front of the old portrait of that ancestor. It is striking and has been ripped off by a dozen or more films.
But it’s not all good. To say the ending is anticlimactic would be kind. We don’t find out who several of the characters are or how they are connected, and it feels like there is 20 minutes of needed plot missing. And then there is the bulging eyed, cowardly black servant. Sure, it’s no worse on the racism scale than “I don’t know nothin’ ’bout birthin’ no babies,” but that’s not saying a lot.