The Ghost and the Guest (1943)

Most undeservingly overhyped movie of all time??

Excellent, a Must See

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

About the only unusual and interesting thing about "The Ghost and the Guest" is that it was written by the comedian Morey Amsterdam. Apart from that, it's all a very standard film--with the usual cliches and a typical performance by James Dunn. In other words, it has B-movie written all over it...albeit a pleasant enough one to watch.A couple (James Dunn and Florence Rice) just got married and arrived at a house they inherited. Unfortunately, it comes with a problem...a body. However, when the police arrive, the body has disappeared! They know who the dead man probably was...he was a man who recently was executed. But where is the body and why would it move?!The film is very typical of the era, when many B haunted house and mystery movies were being made. Nothing offensive or awful here...just a typical higher quality PRC production.

Fans of "George Washington Slept Here" and "The Egg and I" can skip this and go right to "Green Acres" for some intelligent humor in its similar tale of a New York couple who move into an abandoned farm house, apparently once a hide-out for criminals. James Dunn and Florence Rice, from the lower ranks of "A" studios, moved just to the lower ranks for this Z-grade groaner. They are joined by the talented but misused Sam McDaniel as Dunn's wise-cracking black chauffeur, an over-the-top Mabel Todd as a typical dumb Dora, and Robert Dudley as the ridiculous former hangman who still walks around with a noose, anxious to try it out on McDaniel in a really extreme bad taste joke. There aren't even any amusing farm clichés to be found, although McDaniel does get a few witty lines, mostly concerning his unseen wife, such as "She could give an aspirin a headache." Poor camera work and slow film editing make this dull, at even just under an hour.

It's possible that a better studio could have done something more with The Ghost And The Guest, but I think had this been done by someone with the comedic touch of Hal Roach the results might have been better.James Dunn and Florence Rice are a pair of newlyweds heading for their honeymoon dream house to spend the night. What they got was the hideout of an old gangster recently deceased courtesy of the state. Not only that, the late owner's corpse arrives by delivery for burial on the grounds of the estate.And then after that all kinds of friends and relatives and henchmen of the deceased arrive and the law and the body then disappears. You don't even have to wait an hour for it to be explained to you.This was a PRC release and that usually meant they vied with Monogram for cheapness of production. This one was a PRC product through and through. This film was the farewell performance of Florence Rice who found life and love outside the cinema on her third try and left the screen. She started with MGM, but now was reduced to PRC films. I guess she figured she wasn't leaving much. As for Dunn he was two years away from a comeback of sorts with A Tree Grows In Brooklyn.This also featured a really sickening performance from Sam McDaniel as Dunn's old family retainer.Still someone like Hal Roach could have made this work.

Although 'The Ghost and the Guest' is mistakenly described as a comedy/ horror movie, this film still has a lot going for it. I would say it is more a comedy/mystery movie. The setting is an old spooky house but there is never anything even remotely resembling terror. It's not hard to remember the date of this film. The terms used in the dialogue are from the 30s and 40s and I'm sure some of it will be lost with today's audience but much of it still brings a laugh. The film quality is not the greatest, and that does detract from the film. This movie does manage to keep your interest though and the comedy still comes through. The acting wasn't bad at all, and the strange assortment of characters was interesting. The plot is not believable but this is forgiven in the interest of comedy. It's a short, fast moving comedy that should be taken lightly and enjoyed for what it is.