Runtime: 85 minutes
Directed by: George Marshall
Starring: Bob Hope,
Paulette Goddard, Willie Best, Paul Lukas, Anthony Quinn
From: Paramount
It was time for a horror-comedy during Spooky Season; it was recorded off of TCM awhile ago but just last night did I get around to the film. A few old Bob Hope pictures I've seen before and enjoyed them all—this includes 1939's The Cat and the Canary last year, a similar horror-comedy where the laughs are paramount instead of the scares.
This time around, Hope plays Lawrence Lawrence Lawrence (really), a radio host who begrudgingly reads ads for crap he doesn't care for as if he's a podcast host... due to absurd circumstances, he and his Black servant end up on a boat headed to Cuba w/ Paulette Goddard. She just inherited an island off the coast of Cuba; lest you wish for such fortune, it is purportedly haunted AND someone sinister wishes for her not to have it. Does it have anything to do with Anthony Quinn, who is the one other name in the cast that many would know?
It isn't until the second half that they reach Cuba and the spooky mansion isn't until the final hour hour. That doesn't mean that the time building the plot was wasted, or that I wasn't entertained by the one-liners throughout. Some terms have fallen out of favor since 1940 but otherwise I was entertained by this film which did provide the spooky ambiance at the house. There's voodoo lore, a ghost, and someone believed to be a zombie; the film will work for those that don't like the gruesome or terrifying horror films. Hope, Goddard, and Willie Best-Alex, the Black servant-all have nice comedic timing w/ each other and thank heavens Best's character wasn't portrayed awfully & actually played a big role in the film.
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