Hold That Ghost opens with ten minutes of nightclub cabaret from popular acts of the day Ted Lewis and The Andrews Sisters. Lewis, sporting a stupid crumpled top hat at a jaunty angle, is absolutely awful, with an irritating drawling singing style and a routine that is just a tad racist, his theme song, 'Me and My Shadow', seeing his every move mimicked by a black man (his shadow, so to speak). The Andrews Sisters are slightly less intolerable, but neither act adds anything to the plot.
Also working at the nightclub are relief waiters Chuck (Bud Abbott) and Ferdie (Lou Costello), who are quickly fired for unprofessional behaviour but who soon find jobs at a service station (that, for some strange reason, seems to be named after it's newest employees). After gangster Moose Matson (William B. Davidson) pulls into the station for some gas, the pair find themselves unwittingly involved in a police chase that ends with Matson being shot and killed. As he dies, the gangster drops his last will and testament that stipulates that those who are with him when he croaks will be his beneficiaries, which leaves Chuck and Ferdie the proud new owners of a dilapidated inn.
Travelling to inspect their inheritence on a stormy night, the inn's proud new owners find themselves providing shelter for several other travellers (played by Richard Carlson, Marc Lawrence, Joan Davis and Evelyn Ankers), unaware that Moose Matson's thugs are also in the building searching for their boss's hidden fortune.
This set up allows for lots of routine haunted house shenanigans, complete with creepy cobwebby corridors, secret rooms and hidden dangers, and for its stars to run through their comedic routines, both slapstick and verbal, Abbot the stoic straight man and Costello the nervous bumbling fool. Fans of Abbot and Costello's vaudeville style will have a blast, but I found it all rather stale and creakier than the shutters on the old inn's windows. Costello's repeated whistling between his teeth becomes extremely irritating and certain scenes are very laboured (the room changing gag is played out again and again, and the candle scene goes on far too long). Even Costello's much touted dance scene with Joan Davis left me distinctly unimpressed.
The lovely Evelyn Ankers is the film's one shining light amidst all of the gloomy old dark house nonsense: extremely easy on the eye, her radiance makes up somewhat for the weak humour and predictability of the script.
The film closes with the good guys finding the hidden fortune. What do they do with the money? Why, hire Ted Lewis and The Andrew Sisters to perform at their new health retreat, of course. Pah!
Also working at the nightclub are relief waiters Chuck (Bud Abbott) and Ferdie (Lou Costello), who are quickly fired for unprofessional behaviour but who soon find jobs at a service station (that, for some strange reason, seems to be named after it's newest employees). After gangster Moose Matson (William B. Davidson) pulls into the station for some gas, the pair find themselves unwittingly involved in a police chase that ends with Matson being shot and killed. As he dies, the gangster drops his last will and testament that stipulates that those who are with him when he croaks will be his beneficiaries, which leaves Chuck and Ferdie the proud new owners of a dilapidated inn.
Travelling to inspect their inheritence on a stormy night, the inn's proud new owners find themselves providing shelter for several other travellers (played by Richard Carlson, Marc Lawrence, Joan Davis and Evelyn Ankers), unaware that Moose Matson's thugs are also in the building searching for their boss's hidden fortune.
This set up allows for lots of routine haunted house shenanigans, complete with creepy cobwebby corridors, secret rooms and hidden dangers, and for its stars to run through their comedic routines, both slapstick and verbal, Abbot the stoic straight man and Costello the nervous bumbling fool. Fans of Abbot and Costello's vaudeville style will have a blast, but I found it all rather stale and creakier than the shutters on the old inn's windows. Costello's repeated whistling between his teeth becomes extremely irritating and certain scenes are very laboured (the room changing gag is played out again and again, and the candle scene goes on far too long). Even Costello's much touted dance scene with Joan Davis left me distinctly unimpressed.
The lovely Evelyn Ankers is the film's one shining light amidst all of the gloomy old dark house nonsense: extremely easy on the eye, her radiance makes up somewhat for the weak humour and predictability of the script.
The film closes with the good guys finding the hidden fortune. What do they do with the money? Why, hire Ted Lewis and The Andrew Sisters to perform at their new health retreat, of course. Pah!