Hold That Ghost

After watching this film for about the 1 thousandth time, I still find I laugh out loud for a good part of it. Costello and Davis could have been a great movie pairing. They play off each other very well. Their puddle dance is still 1 of my favorite bits. Knowing of Costello's athletic prowess makes watching that dance an even better experience. The story is fast paced, funny and even scary a time or two. I still am wondering if Costello was ever able to fully explain the figures of speech to Abbott (the best straight man Hollywood ever had). Any movie that can make me a Mark Lawrence fan for life must be a good one.

The boys inherit a spooky old house with money hidden somewhere inside. Now if only they can find the money before the bad guys do. I love that spastic dance routine Lou does with Joan Davis. She's a perfect comedic counterpart to Costello, and for me, their bits together are the film's highlights. This is an early A&C effort, and it shows with their spirited performances. It's also one of their better screenplays. Putting them in an old dark house provides all sorts of loony possibilities, like the levitating candles and the fluffy ghost. Carlson and Ankers provide a good normal contrast to the madcap antics, but surprisingly Ankers only gets one lung-bursting scream of the sort she was famous for. Also, catch a more subdued version of the Andrews Sisters, which disappointed me since I was expecting their usual finger-snapping jive. Nonetheless, it's a solid entry for A&C fans.

I loved this film when I saw it as a kid and now, seeing it for the first time in thirty years, I still love it. Along with "Time of Their Lives" and "Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein" it is my favorite A and B film. People have already said how it sparkles throughout. The only thing I have to add is notice how Joan Davis' ghost on the stairs scene echoes Ted Lewis' "Me and My Shadow" number. No female comedienne has ever matched Joan Davis' marvelous physical comedy, including Lucille Ball in my opinion. (However Molly Shannon and Tea Leoni come close occasionally) The closing musical number "Aurora" by the Andrew Sisters is marvelous. Besides "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy," it is my favorite of theirs. Patty Andrews is still alive at age 89. Its great that she's still around.

It's nice to catch a break from the two recent "service films" that Bud and Lou made this time, as they go from army and navy men to playing two domestic, unsuccessful waiters-turned-gas station attendants. They unintentionally cross paths with a dying gangster and then become the heirs to his spooky old inn that just may contain a pile of hidden loot somewhere within it. What they didn't count on, however, is that the deceased had some scheming friends who are also hungry for the dough. HOLD THAT GHOST is often considered close to the best film from Bud and Lou, but I'm not sure I would take it quite that far. It is a good, solid, comedy/spook show that plays on the old tried and true "haunted house" theme; and once more the boys are in top form to deliver the funnies as Abbott keeps trying to calm a very nervous Costello down as he encounters everything from dead bodies to ghosts to revolving rooms to moving candles. What helps boost this one up a notch, aside from the moody setting, is some able assistance from a good supporting cast. There's Richard Carlson as a timid scientist who's oblivious to the longing advances of the pretty Evelyn Ankers (from THE WOLF MAN), and the stand-out antics of Joan Davis, who's really an asset as she plays a "professional radio screamer" who's got some great moments with Lou Costello, including the aforementioned "moving candle" bit, and a charming little dance duet. Oh yes, and the Andrews Sisters are back for a third time, but this time they're only used at the start and finish. Hey, what can we do? They were hugely popular at that time. And I must confess, I don't mind them concluding the show with one of their better tunes, "Aurora". *** out of ****

This is still just as good as the first time I saw it in the 1950's. Just saw it on the big screen at the Loews Jersey City, one of the last of the great movie palaces in the New York/New Jersey area. What a thrill! It was introduced by his daughter Chris Costello, who answered questions about her father and about Bud Abbott (both born in New Jersey, by the way). Fans of A&B should also visit the Lou Costello memorial on Cianci Street in Paterson right near the Great Falls.

If you're an A & C fan this is considered one of their best, so enjoy. Little kids laugh at the antics of Lou Costello so they will be entertained. If you're an adult looking for something clever you should look elsewhere. A & C are pure nostalgia at this point---something pleasant from grandpa's childhood. Watching their films now can be painful (for some they were painful when they first came out!) 'Hold That Ghost' is the team's first effort in the comedy-thriller genre that they're most famous for today. It has that atmospheric Universal horror scoring from Hans J. Salter helping it throughout, and the truly talented Joan Davis providing expert comic support. Otherwise it is a stale stew of jokes, puns and patter more horrifying than the ghosts. Hold the jokes and free the ghosts! The funniest material in the film involves Joan Davis, while equally capable performers like Mischa Auer and Shemp Howard are given almost nothing to do (Howard having a thankless bit as a soda jerk). Costello's babyish act as 'The World's Stupidest Man' gets old fast, especially considering he's given the world's oldest lines to deliver (Davis: "Post Office is a kid's game." Costello: "Not the way I play it." wheeeeeze.) Oh, the gut-busting that will commence when Abbott asks for some duck on a plate and Costello drops to the ground thinking Abbott meant duck from something coming at him... or Abbott telling Costello "Give him the slip" and Costello thinks he means underwear... or Costello asking gangster Moose if he wants oil for his car's engine, not once, not twice, but seven times for no apparent reason. The gags don't build, they just get repeated over and over, like the 'floating candle' or the 'changing room' scenes. Fun once, but having Abbott rush back in the room to see things back to normal, to Costello's exasperation, isn't funny if it keeps being repeated... and the viewer already knows it's only going to happen again. And the film is sloppily directed: Not only featuring the goofs recounted on the IMDb page for this film, but other unaccountable idiocies strewn throughout. For instance, Costello finds a stash of guns in Moose's car... and the first thing he thinks to do is put one of the revolvers to his own head and pull the trigger? Huh? And soon after he is shot at by the cops and a bullet loosens his bow tie. Fine, except that Costello is facing forward toward the camera, thus the bullet should've gone right through his neck! Sloppy. And at the climax, Costello pulls cash out of a moose head, and I mean he's pulling and tossing the stuff out in mounds... but just after, he steps down from the moose head and sees the pile of cash on the ground and reacts with shock at the sight, seemingly unaware at what he's been pulling out of the moose head for the past five minutes! Say what? Of course, it's a film directed by that hack Arthur Lubin, so you can't expect much, but this is really pushing the stupidity level. Poor Costello shouts, blusters, falls, huffs and puffs and practically herniates himself to put across this stale material, but except for kids, he doesn't come across well. Abbott seems more engaged and pleasant at first, but the overriding need to have him slap and bark commands at Costello takes over and he becomes unpleasant to watch for the remainder. But childhood memories of A & C are sacrosanct, so there is no getting past the old glow for the team's old fans. Newcomers beware.

Way back when I was a lad in the Fifties and Sixties, I used to see what I thought was a complete film of Hold That Ghost. It began with Abbott and Costello as gas station attendants who get themselves innocently involved in a car chase with police, fleeing with fatally wounded gangster William B. Davidson. WPIX Channel 11 in New York cut out the whole beginning sequence of the film with Mischa Auer as a stuck up maitre'd who gets stuck with the boys as relief waiters. As Auer is briefly on in the final scenes his role made more sense to me. I guess Universal decided the boys needed a break from the Armed Forces so they put them in an alleged haunted house on the trail of Davidson's hidden loot. The terms of the gangster's will are that anyone who is with him when he departs this world becomes his heir. Abbott and Costello inherit a roadside tavern which was a speakeasy back during Prohibition. And it's filled with ghosts from that violent era. Or are they really ghosts? Lot's of good sight gags in this one. In addition Costello is aided and abetted in his comedy by Joan Davis who with Richard Carlson and Evelyn Ankers. Their waltz to the strains of Strauss's Blue Danube is pretty funny. Hold That Ghost also has Ted Lewis and the Andrews Sisters in the tradition of Buck Privates and In the Navy as musical entertainment. Ted Lewis sings his theme song of When My Baby Smiles At Me and the Andrews Sisters do Aurora another song identified with them back in the day. Hold That Ghost is not as funny as the two previous service comedy films but it's still pretty good and hopefully the viewer will get to see the whole thing and not have to wait to get the VHS version of it to do so.

I was fortunate enough to see this movie on the big screen at a film festival, in the dark as intended. It is a fun romp for 86 minutes. I think the spooky atmosphere doesn't translates as well to the small screen.. but it's still a treat. Joan Davis (I Married Joan) steals the show! She was a physical comedy genius. It's too bad her heart problem prevented her from making more for us to enjoy. I agree that this is not the BEST of the Abbott & Costello movies, but it is still one of their great ones. Made in the days before television, I like to think of these more as a TV series for the theater. This movie would have been part of an entertainment package presented at a movie palace. A very different experience than the typical movie theater you will find at the mall now.

Hold That Ghost is by far the duo's best film. Unlike the service comedies, it doesn't date easily, but rather highlights what it was like to be around during the Forties. A strong supporting cast, led by the able Joan Davis keeps the laughs coming almost non-stop. Her chemistry with Lou Costello does not go unnoticed, either, by the sharp-eyed film fan. All in all, if I am showing only one A & C comedy to a group of students who have never viewed their work, this is the one I'd show.

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!