The Smiling Ghost

I remember with fond 'scariness' this definitive film of the early 40s. It had the unseen murderer, the witless hero, the beguiling heroine and the bulging eyes of the hero's assistant.

It still remains a film that may be viewed with pleasure. It has all the elements of the 'scary' - darkened night - sliding panels - a gauche hero - humour and wit. It may lack the suspense of the Spiral Staircase, but it still remains a film worthy to be seen.

Among all the Hollywood studios of the '30s and '40s, Warner Bros. excelled at churning out slick, swift, polished 'B' comedy-thrillers (see the 4 Nancy Drew treats for further evidence). "The Smiling Ghost" is a perfect example of this genre. This nifty, nutty 1941 charmer packs more entertainment value into 71 minutes than most of today's films do in 2-hours-plus. The ever-gorgeous Alexis Smith plays a wealthy heiress whose fiances have always met with ghastly fates before the nuptuals. In a plot to unravel the killer's identity, poor Wayne Morris is duped into impersonating her new betrothed. All the standard ingredients are hauled out and refreshened--a gloomy dark mansion, secret passageways, sliding panels, and, as the title promises, the genuinely eerie apparition of a "smiling ghost." Done to a turn by an engaging cast, one wonders why the handsome, appealing and wryly comic Wayne Morris never achieved full-fledged stardom, and why did it take another 30 years for the dazzling Alexis Smith to be duly celebrated (on Broadway in 1971's "Follies")?

A surprisingly snappy little mystery comedy with Wayne Morris in his juvenile days sporting a patented brand of big guy innocence that he was very good with. Shortly afterward he went off to be a Navy flier and war hero, only to return to a Hollywood that had turned cold. Brenda Marshall plays a spunky, sassy reporter and is sexier than Alexis Smith which is no mean achievement. Willie Best shows why the prevailing racial attitudes kept a major talent from blossoming. He was truly a great comedian underneath the necessary character feature of a low I.Q. that all black actors of the day had to assume.Here, he's not quite so dumb and gets to use his formidable physical skills. I would urge to pull the curtain back a bit if you can and realize what a waste of talent it all was. No reason to go into the plot, its a farce with many funny lines and a very eccentric family which is a mainstay of many comedies of the 30s and 40s. Crisp, silly and warming.

A man is hired (for $1000) to be engaged to a beautiful heiress for a month. Unbeknowst to him, she is known as the "Kiss of Death" girl, and every one of her 3 previous suitors has been murdered by "the Smiling Ghost".

An excellent, eerie "old house" film with secret panels, a midnite opening of a family crypt, the great "scared reaction' antics of Willie Best, and (of COURSE!) the creepy-looking "smiling ghost" all make this a top-notch yarn.

DEFINITELY worth seeing!

Norm

Wayne Morris, known from 1950 on for his Westerns, here plays Alex "Lucky" Downing, a man with more than a few odd dilemmas, each one causing the next. First, he is a chemical engineer at the time right before America entered WWII during the biggest industrial build-up of the last century who oddly enough cannot find a job of any kind and therefore is literally under siege by creditors. This causes him to put an ad in the paper making himself available for work - any kind of work. The job he gets is to pretend to be the fiancé of an heiress he has never seen for the sum of one thousand dollars, which is a princely sum in 1941. Fortunately the girl turns out to be very attractive (Alexis Smith as Elinor Bentley). His next dilemma, unknown to him at first, is that he is being used as bait by the Bentley family to try to draw "The Smiling Ghost" out into the open. The Smiling Ghost is a name given to whoever or whatever it is who has killed or maimed each and every one of Elinor's fiancés, three so far. Downing's final dilemma is that he has two girls competing for his affection - first the heiress Elinor is beginning to fall for him. Secondly there is a female reporter interested in the story of the smiling ghost (Brenda Marshall as Lil Barstow) who is also attracted to our hero.

This film has plenty of comedy, with Alan Hale as a detective under cover as a butler who from the first time you see him doesn't act or speak like a butler, not to mention Wayne Morris' likable every-man style. It also has plenty of atmosphere with the spooky dark Bentley mansion, fog in the graveyard at night, and a rather strange member of the Bentley family whose hobby includes collecting shrunken heads.

The only real negative in the film is the use of racial stereotypes as humor in the person of Clarence (Willie Best), Alex' assistant and friend. Clarence is portrayed as being superstitious and cowardly comic relief, and it's sad but not the least bit atypical for movies made at this time to put African Americans into such roles. At any rate, I hope Mr. Best laughed all of the way to the bank.

Besides that one negative, I'd rate it as one of the better B comedy/thrillers made in the 40's, especially when you realize that it was made at Warner Brothers, which wasn't a studio particularly well known for that genre.