Harry (Ted Wass), an American, his daughter Jennifer (Alyssa Milano), and his new wife Lucy (Andrea Marcovicci), move to his ancestral castle in Briton, which is haunted by a ghost (John Gielgud) who doesn’t like visitors. But they aren’t leaving until they can sell it, and Jennifer finds she likes the ghost.
OK, this doesn’t belong on a page of horror ghost films, but it needs to go somewhere, so here it is.
For one of the most famous ghost stories in English literature, Oscar Wilde’s “The Canterville Ghost” hasn’t been treated well on film. In this case, little is kept beyond the title, the existence of a ghost (no longer a murderer), and some Americans (though quite different ones from the story). So it’s different; does that mean it’s without merit? Yup. I’m perfectly happy to have stories altered when adapted for the screen, but one messes with Wilde’s words at one’s peril, and the multiple screenwriters here don’t have the skill for such meddling. They couldn’t even manage mindless family entertainment (something the massively altered 1944 version pulled off).
John Gielgud may have been one of the great actors of the stage, but his film choices were not always sterling. In The Canterville Ghost, he does not play Sir Simon, but rather John Gielgud. There is no sign of a long dead nobleman, just an English actor on break. That puts him worlds above Ted Wass, who uses the same skills he brought to sitcoms (that’s not a complement). A pre-sexpot Alyssa Milano is only asked to be cute as the sympathetic daughter, and that’s something she manages without difficulty.
Instead of a hint of social commentary and the abuse of the ghost, the focus here is on Jennifer missing her mother and wanting to be rid of her stepmother. However, we learn nothing of the mother (besides she’s dead) and little more of the stepmother. We do get some chit-chat and a few ghostly gags before the inevitable climax.