The Ghost and the Guest (1943)

Simply Perfect

Excellent but underrated film

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Fans of "George Washington Slept Here" and "The Egg and I" can skip this and go right to "Green Acres" for some intelligent humor in its similar tale of a New York couple who move into an abandoned farm house, apparently once a hide-out for criminals. James Dunn and Florence Rice, from the lower ranks of "A" studios, moved just to the lower ranks for this Z-grade groaner. They are joined by the talented but misused Sam McDaniel as Dunn's wise-cracking black chauffeur, an over-the-top Mabel Todd as a typical dumb Dora, and Robert Dudley as the ridiculous former hangman who still walks around with a noose, anxious to try it out on McDaniel in a really extreme bad taste joke. There aren't even any amusing farm clichés to be found, although McDaniel does get a few witty lines, mostly concerning his unseen wife, such as "She could give an aspirin a headache." Poor camera work and slow film editing make this dull, at even just under an hour.

Ghost and the Guest, The (1943) * 1/2 (out of 4) William Nigh directed "old dark house" flick about a newlywed couple who buys a farm house only to discover someone was recently murdered there and now the body has disappeared. I wasn't expecting too much out of this thing but got a lot less than I was hoping for. At 55-minutes you'd think this thing would at least fly by but it's pretty dry and slow. The horror elements are incredibly weak as is the mystery behind the body. The humor is even worse with some racial jokes about a local hangman who keeps threatening the black servant with hanging jokes. James Dunn takes the lead and is more annoying than anything else.

A newlywed couple spend their honeymoon in their "new" house instead of going to California. They are invaded by the police, a retired hangman, an escaped prisoner, a band of crooks and several dead bodies, all looking for something, either the crook or the loot hidden somewhere in the house. a humorous mystery follows.(or not). This is a bad movie.Almost enjoyable it instead misses the mark and falls flat. Written by Morey Amsterdam it plays more as a series of loosely connected sketches rather than as a film as a whole. There are a good number of exchanges that have nothing to do with whats going on in the story (they are funny but belong somewhere else). There is humor but the acting by the two leads is so broad and over the top that the film becomes annoying rather than amusing. I kept wishing that someone would kill the happy couple so that I wouldn't have to do it myself. The whole film looks cheap and the sets appear to wobble as people pass by. The direction is a mess. Even allowing for a cheapness that often allowed for only one camera set up (count how many scenes are essentially done in one take) this film has been put together by someone who seems to know nothing about how people really behave. Look at the scene where the bride to be is yapping away on the phone with her friends; do people really stand around like that in real life as one of their number talks non stop on the phone? Its like the most annoying sitcom you've ever seen, only worse.Bad. Bad. Bad. While not quite one of the worst films of all time, there are some funny bits, this is a film thats sure to induce sleep or pained screams in most people who see it. Avoid.

Although 'The Ghost and the Guest' is mistakenly described as a comedy/ horror movie, this film still has a lot going for it. I would say it is more a comedy/mystery movie. The setting is an old spooky house but there is never anything even remotely resembling terror. It's not hard to remember the date of this film. The terms used in the dialogue are from the 30s and 40s and I'm sure some of it will be lost with today's audience but much of it still brings a laugh. The film quality is not the greatest, and that does detract from the film. This movie does manage to keep your interest though and the comedy still comes through. The acting wasn't bad at all, and the strange assortment of characters was interesting. The plot is not believable but this is forgiven in the interest of comedy. It's a short, fast moving comedy that should be taken lightly and enjoyed for what it is.