Whispering Ghosts (1942)

So much average

Absolutely the worst movie.

A lot of fun.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Producer: Sol M. Wurtzel. Copyright 22 May 1942 by 20th Century-Fox Film Corp. New York release at the Rialto: 17 May 1942. U.S. release: 22 May 1942. Sydney release at the Civic: 7 August 1942. Australian release: 13 August 1942. U.S. length: 6,745 feet (75 minutes). Australian length: 6,948 feet (77 minutes).SYNOPSIS: Radio comic solves mystery of haunted treasure ship.COMMENT: A most enjoyable B-picture with an amusing, intriguing script, a top-flight cast and excellent production values. Milton Berle is at the top of his form and delivers the script's many wisecracks with the same brilliant timing and dexterity as he manually disarms Abner Biberman (whom he mistakenly supposes to be an actor).Speaking of actors, there are two deliciously hammy performances from John Carradine and Renie Riano which are spot on in character and reveal a range of subtlety unmarked elsewhere in their careers. Grady Sutton too for one brief flash shows an unexpected capacity to be a menacing heavy. Frank Faylen has a nice cameo as a replacement announcer (the script device that works Faylen into the plot has us puzzling for a while but it turns out to be a typically brilliant piece of Philip N. MacDonald plot construction). Milton Parsons has another of his sinister sepulchral roles which Arthur Hohl gives a typical portrayal as the harassing detective — and Harry Hayden as the harassed sponsor. We like Charles Halton's scared lawyer and Abner Biberman scuttling about in the shadows.Brenda Joyce gives an attractive performance and whilst her Herschel costumes are now somewhat dated, she still looks pretty good to us. Many of Berle's jokes are made at the expense of Willie Best who provides plenty of chuckles with his deft portrait of a cowardly valet.Alfred Werker's direction is considerably above his usual standard — the close-up on Halton as he waits nervously for the lift and glances over his shoulder will knock audiences to the back of their seats, while the tracking and panning shots with torch beams over the rotting hulk keep suspense high.The art direction is masterly and is arguably the most lavishly atmospheric ever achieved in a "B" picture and is ably abetted by Lucien Ballard's superbly calculated-for-thrills cinematography. Other production credits are A-1 and production values, even by Fox's high B-feature standards, are exceptional.

Watching Whispering Ghosts and Milton Berle's scenes with Willie Best I was put in mind of Bob Hope with Willie Best in The Ghostbreakers. It was obvious that 20th Century Fox was trying to turn Berle into their version of Bob Hope with films like these. But super stardom would have wait until television for Milton Berle.That being said Whispering Ghosts isn't a bad comedy. Berle plays a criminologist who solves mysteries on his radio show. But he's advancing theories of crimes where the principals are long dead. When he offers to solve the mystery of Brenda Joyce's uncle who was murdered and left a buried treasure there a few folks still alive who want said treasure.Joyce's uncle was a sea captain and he was killed aboard his ship. His will contains the usual cryptic clues as to the whereabouts of the treasure. As is usual a few cast members die before the mystery is solved.Uncle Miltie has his usual wisecracks, but the funniest is John Carradine all made up in pirate costume telling Berle and Best he was first mate to Joyce's uncle. Carradine looked like he was having a great old time shivering everyone's timbers as a pirate, Rene Riano comes in a close second as Carradine loony sister. Whispering Ghosts while done on the cheap is still a fun film and a must for Uncle Miltie's fans.

Obviously made as an attempt to cash in on similar themes (comical radio show host solves mystery), this enjoyable comedy replaces Bob Hope (who made similar themed movies with "The Cat and the Canary" and "The Ghost Breakers") and Red Skelton (the "Whistling" series) with Milton Berle whose early film career was a brief blip in his over-all list of works. He's trying to solve an old murder on a seemingly haunted ship, left to pretty Brenda Joyce by her late great-uncle whose mysterious death remains unsolved. Most of the action takes place on this ghost ship, filled with all sorts of creepy people, including two eccentric characters (John Carradine and Renie Riano) who are almost ghost-like in their creepy demeanors.Berle gets in a few good wisecracks at Riano's expense (refering to her as "Moronica Lake"), but his slurs towards valet Willie Best (obviously spoofing Eddie "Rochester" Anderson's relationship with Berle's "friendly" rival Jack Benny) are quite racist, even if on occasion quite funny. One gag between Berle and Best is obviously lifted straight from the Humphrey Bogart comedy thriller "All Through the Night", taken from a scene where Bogart's valet (Sam McDaniel) is amusingly confronted for wearing Bogart's clothes. Best takes each stereotype tossed at him in stride, making his cowardice hysterically funny even if it tears away at his dignity. While I wish these actors had been treated better in playing less dignified parts, I have to give them credit for their personal integrity in adding a soul underneath the writers' interpretations of these parts, sometimes adding in a silent look or attitude that makes their obvious intelligence come through even in spite of the deliberate slurs tossed their way.As for who the guilty party is in the gruesome murder (involving a hatchet), there are so many red herrings that it is surprising that the water surrounding the ship doesn't look like blood. One funny theory is thought of with the suicide of the victim (how does one stab themselves in the back with a hatchet? Toss it up in the air and bend over so their back will catch it?) John Shelton is wasted as Joyce's love interest who seems to be the obvious killer, while funny man Grady Sutton has some amusing lines as a milquetoast visitor on the boat who seems to really have no reason for being there. The rapport between Berle and the detective (Arthur Hohl) investigating the case is also amusing. While this is certainly an overall enjoyable comedy thriller, it is the chilling photography and eerie atmosphere which makes it work and makes it more than just another rip-off of a plot line you've seen many, many times.

Whispering Ghosts boasts some interesting credits, among them screenwriter Lou Breslow, who had a flair for offbeat comedy, journeyman director Alfred Werker, who made some decent films, B producer Sol Wurtzel, and star Milton Berle. Miltie was still a few years away from his his great television success, and here plays a radio actor out to solve a murder mystery aboard a pirate ship. The supporting cast, as is so often the case in this kind of lighthearted borderline horror fare, is first rate: Brenda Joyce, John Carradine, Edmund McDonald, and another Milton, Parsons, without whom this kind of movie wouldn't seem complete. This is an agreeable comedy, not so much hilarious as pleasingly familiar in nearly every respect, as everything about it feels recycled, including the sets, and this is not in itself a bad thing, as Hollywood excelled at this kind of formula in the forties, and handled it better in this sort of cramped, intimate second feature than in bigger budgeted films. This one's done just right, not too big, not too small.