The Ghost Breakers is a 1940 comedy horror film directed by George Marshall and starring Bob Hope and Paulette Goddard. It's the third film adaptation of the 1909 stage farce The Ghost Breaker.
Larry Lawrence (Hope) is a Walter Winchell-type radio broadcaster in New York, who goes on the run after supposedly murdering the crime boss (Anthony Quinn) he's been exposing on the air. He gets mixed up with Mary Carter (Goddard), an heiress who has just inherited a plantation in Cuba with a supposedly haunted mansion. Traveling there together, they find themselves confronted by zombies, a ghost, and the twin brother (Quinn) of the dead gangster.
The story would be remade yet again in 1953 as Scared Stiff.
Tropes used in this film:
- Always Identical Twins: Ramon Mederos, the man Larry thought he had murdered (he was murdered, but not by Larry) has an identical twin brother named Francisco. Both are portrayed by Anthony Quinn.
- Bookcase Passage: Mary's castle has one of these.
- False Friend: Geoff Montgomery, who wants Mary's castle for the huge vein of silver that runs beneath it.
- Haunted Castle: Mary's inheriting one of these is what kicks off her part of the plot.
- Hollywood Voodoo: Zombies factor into the story, and somebody nails a "voodoo-ouanga" (of the "death" variety) to the door of Mary's cabin on the cruise ship. The characters treat all this voodoo stuff like it's new to them.
- Identical Grandson: When Larry explores the castle, he comes across a life-size portrait of Maria Ysobel Sebastian, Mary's ancestor, who looks exactly like her. Mary uses this to good effect when helping Larry and Alex deal with a zombie.
- Mistaken for Murderer: Larry flees New York after mistakenly believing he's shot Ramon Mederos to death.
- Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Castillo Maldito, which stands on Black Island.
- Ominous Pipe Organ: Of course Castillo Maldito has one of these. Playing a certain tune on it opens the Bookcase Passage.
- Stripping Snag: This happens to Mary, though it only shows a bit more leg.
- Trap Door: Unsurprisingly, Castillo Maldito has one of these. It is used (albeit accidentally) to get rid of the bad guy.
- Repetitive Name: Larry's full name is Lawrence Lawrence Lawrence. As he explains to Mary, "My folks had no imagination."
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Multiple times throughout the film, Mary bumps into a portly gentleman who is ostensibly bumbling and friendly. When Mary isn't looking, this character gives the impression that he's keeping an eye on her. But once Mary arrives at her Haunted Castle, this character disappears from the narrative, and his plot line is never brought up again.
