Hold That Ghost

Another nice early film from A&C, with a good supporting cast and the usual thickly laid on Universal atmosphere included. I've seen it maybe 10 times now over the decades with no loss of pleasure.

It has Ted Lewis and the Andrews Sisters as pleasant musical bookends to what has previously been described as a Ghosts & Gangsters tale. Add comedy and murder and that's what this is all about, the lid is firmly kept on the romance between Carlson and Ankers - and may I add, she seldom looked lovelier than in here. Favourite routines: Ferdie's bedrooms changing into gaming rooms behind his back, to Chuck's harsh disbelief; The candles moving to the spluttered "Oh Chuck! What Kept You"; the figure of speech gag finished by the gangsters arrival. Abbott got in more face slapping Costello than in other films, and although it's something that never really appealed to me it's not too bad. Joan Davis has some good lines too but wasn't fully exploited. Not in A&C's Top 5, but still a nice b&w inconsequential entertaining spooky old house comedy.

All told, good stuff for A&C fans like me - masochists who already know that they don't like 'em should really try to save themselves the 81 minutes running time + their IMDb commenting time and do the rest of us a favour.