By
Ed Garea
Hold That Ghost (Universal, 1941) – Director:
Arthur Lubin. Writers: Robert Lees, Frederic I. Rinaldo (story &
s/p), John Grant (s/p), Edmund L. Hartman (uncredited). Stars: Bud
Abbott, Lou Costello. Richard Carlson, Joan Davis, Evelyn Ankers,
Mischa Auer, Marc Lawrence, Shemp Howard, Russell Hicks, William B.
Davidson, Milton Parsons, Ted Lewis & The Andrews Sisters. B&W,
86 minutes.
Filmed
right after their breakout hit, Buck Privates, but not
released until after In the Navy, Hold That
Ghost is, in this author’s opinion, their finest film, a
wonderful send-up of The Old Dark House genre, even though the studio
panicked and almost ruined it.
It
was originally titled Don’t Look Now, and later, Oh,
Charlie!, but just before its release, the studio – reacting to
audience fervor for the musical interludes in Buck Privates –
decided to re-tool the film by adding musical interludes and a
new opening. It made the film almost incoherent at times, as
characters came and disappeared and others entered without
introduction to the audience. That it remained as funny as it is was
a tribute to both the writing and the comedy stylings of the boys.
The
movie opens with Chuck Murray (Abbott) and Ferdinand “Ferdie”
Jones (Costello) working as relief waiters at Chez Glamour,
a nightclub where The Andrews Sisters and Ted Lewis and His Orchestra
are appearing. A subplot involves gangster Moose Matson (Davidson),
his lawyer Bannister (Hicks), and torpedo Charlie Smith (Lawrence),
who threatens to rat out Moose to the DA unless he’s given a cut
from Moose’s latest heist. Chuck and Ferdie end up being fired
after head waiter Gregory (Auer) catches them eating a patron’s
food.
The
next day Chuck and Ferdie are back working at the gas station when
none other than Moose Matson pulls in for gasoline. As they service
his car the cops spot Moose and the boys find themselves
inadvertently kidnapped as Moose speeds away. Moose is killed in a
shootout with the pursuing police, and as he dies he pulls a copy of
his Last Will and Testament from his jacket.
During
a meeting with Banister they learn they are the sole beneficiaries of
the will, but Bannister tells them there is no money: “Moose Matson
always said that he kept his money in his head. We never learned what
he meant.” The only tangible asset is an old tavern on the highway
out of town. Bannister buzzes for his associate, Charlie Smith, to
accompany the boys to their inheritance. Charlie makes plans with
Chuck and Ferdie to meet him at the corner the next day, where they
will catch a private bus driven by Harry Hoskins (Parsons) to the
tavern. “It’s going to be a pleasure to take you boys for a
ride,” Smith tells them. As Chuck and Ferdie leave the office
Ferdie has second thoughts about the inheritance. Chuck chides him
for his attitude, but then shots ring out from a passing car, missing
Ferdie, but hitting his hat. As the car speeds away we see Charlie
Smith inside along with other gang members.
Arriving
on the corner at the prescribed time the boys learn that other
passengers have also hired the bus: Norma Lind (Ankers), Dr. Jackson
(Carlson) and radio actress Camille Brewster (Davis). As they drive
to the tavern a thunderstorm breaks out and it’s decided to rest
for the night at the tavern until the weather clears. They unload the
groceries and enter the tavern, hear a backfire and run outside,
only to see Hoskins driving off with their luggage. They’re stuck.
As
the night progresses, strange things happen. Smith disappears while
searching the basement, and later his corpse turns up unexpectedly
several times. The water in the tavern is undrinkable. Ferdie's
bedroom turns out to be rigged with hidden gambling equipment. The
girls are scared by what appears to be a ghost. Two detectives show
up but vanish soon after starting their investigation. Chuck and the
doctor decide to search for the detectives while Ferdie examines a
map to find the quickest route back to town. However, the candles on
the table move mysteriously and scare Ferdie.
Chuck
takes Ferdie to a room they deduce is Moose Matson’s bedroom. A
long cord hangs by the bed. Ferdie asks what it’s for and Chuck
tells him “you pull that when you want your breakfast.” As Ferdie
yanks the cord the curtains separate to reveal a closet door. Chuck
tells him to open it, but Ferdie refuses: “I know what happens in
those mystery pictures. A guy walks up to a perfectly ordinary door,
he opens it up and zowie!Out falls a body right on its kisser.”
Chuck opens the door and there is nothing there. Ferdie feels ashamed
and slams the door. As he does so Charlie Smith’s body, bound and
gagged, falls out from behind some curtains. Ferdie faints and Chuck
drags him out, calling for the doctor. The doctor examines Smith and
tells the others that he’s been strangled. “Is that Serious?”
asks Ferdie. “The man is dead,” Chuck replies. “Oh, that’s
serious.”
Later,
Chuck tries to find Ferdie another room, but the problem is that, in
each room, as Ferdie tries to go to bed, he finds his room has
changed into a gambling parlor, thanks to a trick coat tree; but when
he goes to get Chuck he takes the article of clothing off the tree,
which causes the room to change back when Chuck enters. Downstairs,
Norma finds Jackson testing the tavern's water, and the two begin to
feel a mutual attraction. Unable to find the police, and convinced
that someone is trying to scare them out, the group decides to leave
the tavern. Chuck seats Ferdie at a table and gives him a map of the
area to find a way out. Later, Camille joins him and we are treated
to one of Abbott and Costello’s classic bits – the moving candle
routine – before they are jumped by a “ghost,” a thug with a
sheet over him.
As
Chuck and Camille are trying to figure out what Moose meant when he
said he kept his money in his head, Ferdie arrives to join the
discussion. This leads to a funny bit on “figures of speech,”
with Ferdie hitting on the solution about Moose’s money when he
points to a moose’s head on the wall, and says, “You mean he kept
his money in that thing?” Chuck and Camille think he’s crazy and
Ferdie begins reaching into the head to prove himself wrong when
bills suddenly begin coming out, followed by what Ferdie thinks is a
tonsil (roll of bills).
Members
of the gang appear and demand the money, leading to a chase through
the building with Ferdie knocking them out one by one with the bag of
money. Alerted by the sound of a police siren, the gangsters scamper
out of the tavern, unaware that the "siren" was actually
Ferdie.
With
the gangsters gone, Chuck and Ferdie count the money, but the doctor
tells them that the water they drank last night has therapeutic
properties, and Ferdie and Chuck are inspired to transform the club
into an nightclub. The boys hire Ted Lewis and The Andrews Sisters to
headline, and even Gregory, the maitre d' who fired them from Chez
Glamour, turns up as a waiter. Jackson and Norma arrive
fresh from their honeymoon, and when they ask Ferdie about Camille,
he tells them that he and Camille had a “runaway wedding,” she
got the license and he ran away. Ferdie works the cash register, but
when Chuck checks it, he finds it nearly empty, then discovers all
the money hidden in Ferdie's tuxedo.
Afterwords
The
problem with Hold That Ghost is, though it is
hilarious at times, it has a choppy plot. Characters enter and
disappear with no explanation and plot threads are suddenly dropped
with no explanation.
Robert
Lees and Frederic Rinaldo completed the screenplay on January 14,
1941, a week or two after Buck Privates wrapped.
Their vision for the film was to move Bud and Lou from supporting
players in a romantic plot with music to the focus of the film –
real characters who do much more than simply come in to supply a
routine or two to liven the pace.
As
written, it’s a funny, though incoherent, film. The problem is that
the cuts that were made in order to fit in the musical sequences, led
to the loss of several plot lines. Characters come and go without
sufficient explanation. A prime example are the detectives who arrive
after Smith’s body is found. We see them looking about, but they
suddenly disappear and no more is said. Several supporting
characters, members of Smith’s gang (such as Paul Fix), also have
had important scenes cut.
Perfectly
paced by director Lubin, the film is filled with funny gags and
classic routines. The idea of Matson as a gangster who doesn’t
trust anyone adds to the fun as the boys discover that due to their
kidnapping, they are his only heirs. (“Whereas anybody who would
associate with me in the first place must be a rat; and Whereas I
can’t tell my friends from stoolies, leeches or chiselers; and
Whereas it’s impossible to foresee who will turn yellow when the
going gets tough; therefore I hereby bequeath all my worldly
possessions to those with me at the final moment when the coppers dim
my lights.”) But as mentioned before, the only asset is the
roadhouse, where it’s suspected to be the hiding place for the
Moose’s dough.
While
waiting for Charlie at the corner we meet the other passengers, the
most memorable of which is Camille Brewster (Davis), who introduces
herself as “Camille Brewster the radio actress.” In spite of
Camille’s self-introduction, the only thing she’s known for is
the opening scream from a radio show called Tales of Terror.
She tells the boys, “I told them I was an actress, not just a sound
effect, so I quit. Guess I’ll have to go back to the movies.”
Chuck asks, “Movie actress?” “No,” she says, “usherette.”
Once
they reach the tavern, Chuck and Ferdie help Camille and Norma with
dinner while Charlie Smith goes down to the basement to “rustle up
some heat.” As he searches for Moose’s bankroll a pair of hands
emerge from the furnace, grabbing Smith around the neck and pulling
him in.
Upstairs
the evening meal is punctuated with classic bits of Abbott and
Costello dialogue as soup is prepared and everyone minus Charlie sits
down to eat. Ferdie reaches out with his hand and is given an
etiquette lesson by Chuck: “Don’t reach! You want something, ask
for it. You have a tongue, haven’t you?”
“Yeah,
but I can reach further with my hand,” replies Ferdie.
Ferdie
and Camille then perform one of the best routines ever seen in an
Abbott and Costello film as they take part in a “water ballet” on
the dining room floor where there is a large puddle from a leaking
roof. Though the scene itself was scripted, the improvisation from
both Costello and Davis raises the dance to hilarity. Running through
the puddle Ferdie slips and falls down, which leads to the two
splashing each other like a pair of kids before Camille, attempting
to rise, falls backwards into a bucket, which Ferdie plays like a
bongo to a Latin beat as they depart the room. In Joan Davis,
Costello has met his match, a comic who can perform pratfalls and
rattle off witty lines as well as he. Almost stealing its from
Costello, it’s a shame they never worked together again.
Afterward,
when the group decides to look for Charlie Smith, Chuck, Ferdie and
the doctor search the basement. Ferdie opens the furnace only to find
a pair of glowing eyes that blows out his candle. “Ah, it’s only
the wind,” Chuck says. “Since when does the wind eat garlic?”
Ferdie asks.
Watch
for the next scene where Norma and Camille decide to look upstairs
and are scared by an owl. Their screams bring up the men from the
basement, but Ferdie wants no part of going upstairs. As he shouts,
“Did you see the puss she (Camille) made?” we see Joan Davis
trying to keep from cracking up. When we realize that this scene must
have been rehearsed and gone through earlier blown takes, it’s a
testament to the comic ability of Lou Costello.
As
the group continues to search for Smith, they discover hidden rooms
and come to the realization that Moose used the tavern as a speakeasy
during Prohibition. Meanwhile, Ferdie becomes convinced that the
tavern is haunted, as strange things continually happen to him when
he is left alone.
After
Ferdie chases off the gangsters by imitating a police siren, everyone
watches while the boys count the money. However, in the original
version the money turns turns out to be counterfeit. That’s when
Dr. Jackson tells Chuck and Ferdie that could mask more money right
here. The water that tasted so bad turns out to have therapeutic
qualities. “It’ll make sick people feel like dancing,” he says.
In
the original ending, the boys have turned the roadhouse into a health
spa with Camille as the dietician. In the last scene a rich woman is
in Moose Matson’s old bed and asks Camille what the long cord is
for. Camille says its purpose is to ring the staff. The woman pulls
the cord and out falls Charlie Smith. The movie ends with a close-up
of Camille screaming.
The
new scenes required a rewriting and reworking of the existing
footage. Joan Davis was not available for all the retakes, which
explains her absence at the end of the edited film. having by that
time reported to 20th Century-Fox for a role in Sun Valley
Serenade (1941). As she was unavailable for the re-shoots,
Davis had to be written out of the new scenes (including the new
nightclub finale). In one scene, the tavern money counting scene, her
back is to the camera and it was assumed that this was not Davis but
a double. According to studio records, Davis was on hand for retakes
during that sequence. However, in the rush to complete the retakes
she just happened to be facing the wrong way.
Universal
said it changed the movie at the behest of patrons at test screenings
who “missed the music.” However, the studio would have been
better served by releasing the musicals first, as they did with In
the Navy, and held Hold That Ghost over until
the next year when the musical fad ran its course. Despite the
butchery, though, the film holds up better today than do their
service comedies.
Trivia
Co-writers
Robert Lees and Fred Rinaldo would later work together and
write Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein. They both
ended up being blacklisted for supposed Red connections during the
Hollywood witch hunt.
The
animated opening was done by studio animator Walter Lantz’s crew.
