IT CAME FROM THE BOTTOM SHELF!

Cicily: Don’t big empty houses scare you?

Wally: Not me. I used to be in vaudeville.

— Nydia Westman and Bob Hope in The Cat and the Canary (1939)

Back in September, Kino Lorber Studio Classics released individual Blu-rays of the old dark house comedies The Cat and the Canary (1939) and The Ghost Breakers (1940), both of which star Bob Hope and Paulette Goddard. I didn’t get a chance to check out the discs until now, but I didn’t want to let the year pass by without recommending these very entertaining films. While the Blu-rays were released separately, the films have interesting similarities and differences, so they work well in conversation with each other. Consequently, I decided to review them together.

There are few things that I love quite so much as an “old dark house” movie. It is a film sub-genre that incorporates mystery, comedy, and touches of horror (especially in the overall atmosphere). Kids who grew up with Scooby Doo will recognize the hallmarks of this minor genre…

• A group of people gather together in an old dark house and are forced to stay the night for some reason.
• A series of scares or murders ensue
• The remaining guests play “amateur detective” to try to figure out who or what is behind the strange goings on
• The culprit or culprits are unmasked, usually revealing that there were no supernatural forces at play

The Cat and the Canary and The Ghost Breakers are both above-average entries in the genre, and both team comedian Bob Hope and Paulette Goddard, who were up-and-coming stars at the time. Goddard was the bigger star of the pair, having co-starred with Charlie Chaplin in Modern Times. Still, she was better known for her off-screen romance with Chaplin and for having lost the role of Scarlett O’Hara than for her own film work. Hope was mainly known by the public as a radio comedian that had worked his way up from guest appearances to gaining his own showcase in 1938, as the host of NBC’s The Pepsodent Show. While Hope had appeared in a half dozen films prior to The Cat and the Canary, none had really caught fire with the public. The big box office success of The Cat and the Canary would brand both Hope and Goddard as bankable stars, so much so that they were immediately reteamed for The Ghost Breakers, which was released a mere eight months later.

The Cat and the Canary was based on a 1922 stage play, which had been filmed twice previously, as The Cat and the Canary (1927) and The Cat Creeps (1930, which is a lost film). With the third version, Paramount decided to capitalize on Bob Hope’s popular radio show by tailoring his character as a wisecracking radio actor, named Wally Campbell. Wally and a number of friends and relatives gather in a old house in the swamps of New Orleans for the reading of a will. As it turns out, Joyce Norman (Paulette Goddard) inherits the entire estate. However, there is a condition that should the primary heir die or go insane within 30 days of the reading of the will, the estate will pass to a secret, secondary heir (which, of course, endangers Joyce’s life).  Since no boats are available until morning, everyone is forced to spend the night in the creaky, old house.  Shortly thereafter, one of the guests turns up dead, and the survivors are told that a lunatic who walks one all fours like a cat has escaped from a nearby asylum. It’s up to Wally to figure out who is behind the murder and the other unusual goings-on before Joyce becomes the next victim.

The Cat and the Canary was a huge financial and critical success, and it really set the template for the wisecracking “brave coward” character that Bob Hope would play for the majority of his film career. He seems to have based his subsequent movie persona on this line of dialogue from The Cat and the Canary:

Joyce: Oh, Wally, how can you joke.

Wally: Well, I always joke when I’m scared. I kind of kid myself into being brave. Ain’t that silly?

The wisecracking “brave coward” was a character that struck a chord with audiences and allowed Hope to be both the source of laughs and a credible romantic lead in his films. Even if you find Hope’s wisecracking persona a bit too much to take in later movie and television appearances, you may be surprised how much you like him in The Cat and the Canary. Since Hope was still finding his character, he isn’t quite the joke machine gun that he would become, and the romance with Paulette Goddard comes across as sweeter and more genuine than in later Hope comedies.

Paulette Goddard matches Hope with a performance that is spunky, canny, and capable. While she is often called upon to play the damsel in distress, she always appears perfectly able of taking care of herself. The cast is also peppered with great character actors, including George Zucco and Gale “Spider Woman” Sondergaard.

The whole film is a stunner, from script, to direction, to acting, to set design. All of it adds up to create a wonderfully evocative atmosphere of horror and humor. I’ve seen the movie projected with a live audience, and it goes over like gangbusters. I often rank The Cat and the Canary as my favorite Bob Hope film, although there are a few other top contenders.

As mentioned previously, Hope and Goddard were reteamed for The Ghost Breakers. This time Bob Hope is Larry L. Lawrence (the ‘L’ stands for Lawrence), another radio personality. When Larry offends a gangster during his radio show, he takes it on the lam with his valet, Alex (Willie Best). Along the way, he encounters Mary Carter (Paulette Goddard), who is leaving for Cuba to inherit a mansion, complete with ghosts and a live-in zombie (Noble Johnson). Mary helps Larry hide out from his pursuers; and by accident, Larry and Alex end up tagging along with Mary to Cuba. It turns out that Mary may be in more danger than Larry, so despite their fear, Larry and Alex end up playing white knights.

Everything is a bit bigger in The Ghost Breakers, from production values to story. As a plus, the sets and special effects are on par with the best films of the period. However, the movie is also longer and a lot heavier on plot. As a consequence, it takes a lot more time before the cast reaches the old dark house. While I love both films, I prefer the simplicity of the earlier movie. However, many film lovers prefer The Ghost Breakers, so your mileage may vary.

While the plot is sprawling, it appears that it was even more complex at the script and filming stage and that some details were lost during the editing process. For example. Lloyd Corrigan plays a character that pops up briefly at three points in the film. Each time, he acts a bit sinister, which promises to lead up to a revelation for his character at the story’s end.  Then, with a half-hour left to go, his character completely disappears. It’s odd that his character wasn’t edited out of the film entirely, since the resolution for his character was trimmed.

Hope and Goddard are just as charming in The Ghost Breakers as they were in their prior pairing; and they are supported by another group of capable characters, including Paul Lukas, Richard Carlson, Anthony Quinn, and best of all, African-American comic actor, Willie Best. Willie Best will likely be the most divisive element of The Ghost Breakers for modern viewers, as some may see his bug-eyed scared shtick to be an offensive stereotype. While that is certainly understandable, the way Best acts in The Ghost Breakers is not much different than how Lou Costello reacts in Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein. In many ways, The Ghost Breakers was progressive for its time. While Alex is Larry’s valet, it is also obvious that Larry considers Alex to be his best friend. Willie Best also gets to act heroic in several scenes, as Alex is always racing to the rescue of Larry, despite his fear. In real life, Bob Hope highly respected Best’s talents, calling him one of the finest actors he ever worked with.

If you are looking for an alternative to holiday movies, you can’t do much better than these two tremendously entertaining scare comedies. The best news for fans of these films (and for newbies checking them out for the first time) is that Kino Lorber’s Blu-rays also present the movies in their most immaculate form since their original release (details below). Both discs are highly recommended.

The Cat and the Canary (1939): USA/B&W-75m./Dir: Elliott Nugent/Wr: Walter DeLeon & Lynn Starling (based on a stage play by John Willard)/Cast: Bob Hope, Paulette Goddard, John Beal, Douglass Montgomery, Gale Sondergaard, Elizabeth Patterson, Nydia Westman, George Zucco, John Wray, George Regas

The Ghost Breakers (1940): USA/B&W-85m./Dir: George Marshall/Wr: Walter DeLeon (based on a stage play by Paul Dickey)/Cast: Bob Hope, Paulette Goddard, Willie Best, Paul Lukas, Richard Carlson, Anthony Quinn, Pedro de Cordoba, Virginia Brissac, Noble Johnson, Tom Dugan, Paul Fix, Lloyd Corrigan

For Fans of: Fans of horror comedies, such as Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, would likely enjoy “old dark house” movies in general and these two Hope/Goddard pairings in particular.

Video: Kino Lorber released The Cat and the Canary and The Ghost Breakers on Blu-ray in September under their Kino Lorber Studio Classics imprint. The image quality is a marked improvement over prior home video releases. The films benefit from the upgrade in pixels from DVD to Blu-ray, and while there is no mention of a new scan or digital clean-up, scratches and speckles are minimal. While the picture quality of The Ghost Breakers is above average for an 80 year-old film, the look of The Cat and the Canary far surpasses it, with a sharper look. The image quality of the 1939 film is frankly remarkable. It is incredibly sharp, with rich blacks, perfect contrast, and appropriate film grain.  Overall, it looks like a near-pristine film print being projected for the first time.

The original mono DTS sound is solid for both films, presenting dialogue, sound effects, and music with clarity. I detected no age-related hiss or distortion. These films will likely never look or sound better, and both discs are highly recommended. Each disc also includes a few nice special features to put the films in historical context:

The special features for The Cat and the Canary are:

• A full-length audio commentary by film historian and author Lee Gambin
• The original theatrical trailer for The Cat and the Canary
• Bonus trailers for The Ghost Breakers, Road to Singapore, Road to Zanzibar, Road to Morocco, and Road to Utopia
• Optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature

The special features for The Ghost Breakers are:

• A full-length audio commentary by film historian and author Lee Gambin
• The original theatrical trailer for The Ghost Breakers
• The “Trailers From Hell” commentary on the trailer by Larry Karaszewski
• Bonus trailers for The Cat and the Canary, The Paleface, The Young in Heart, and Murder, He Says
• Optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature

Streaming: At the time of this review, The Cat and the Canary and The Ghost Breakers were not streaming as part of any of the major subscription services.  The films were also not available for digital rental or purchase.

More to Explore: Bob Hope and Paulette Goddard reteamed one last time in Nothing But the Truth (1941), which Kino Lorber is scheduled to release on Blu-ray on March 2nd. If you want to check out more “old dark house” movies, I would recommend starting with the 6-movie DVD set, Warner Bros. Horror/Mystery Double Features, which includes The Smiling Ghost (1941), another one of my favorites of the genre.

Trivia: The Ghost Breakers (1940) was remade as Scared Stiff (1953) with Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis in retooled versions of the Bob Hope and Willie Best roles. The remake was helmed by the director of the original, George Marshall. (Scared Stiff can be found in the Martin & Lewis 8-Movie Collection DVD set linked below).

For More Info: There have been many film references and biographies written on “Old Ski Nose,” but the definitive tome on the comedian is Hope: Entertainer of the Century by Richard Zoglin. For a biography of Paulette Goddard, I suggest Paulette: The Adventurous Life of Paulette Goddard by Joe Morella and Edward Z. Epstein.