The Smiling Ghost is one of those haunted house pictures where the ghost turns out to be an insane killer making use of secret passageways that only he knows about. Nothing wrong with that, but there's a lot wrong with this stale low-budget concoction.
I would have said B-movie, but I don't think Ghost is a true B. It's ten to fifteen minutes longer than the typical B and boasts slightly better production values (check out that cemetery). On the other hand, it's clearly not a top-of-the-line production. I'd call it a "little A," a designation studios reserved for cheaply made features that could get top billing thanks to easily exploitable titles and subject matter.
As a little A, it features a decent cast, including up-and-coming actress Alexis Smith, veteran character actor Alan Hale, and leading man Wayne Morris, who may have been the best available choice given that so many bigger stars had already enlisted. (Morris himself would be drafted shortly after completing this movie.)
Unfortunately it also features Willie Best, known in earlier years as "Sleep 'n Eat," by virtue of a studio marketing ploy that claimed he worked only for room and board. This was, of course, untrue; Best was well compensated for taking roles that most other black actors declined. He was widely despised in the black community for perpetuating the stereotype of a goggle-eyed, knee-knocking simpleton. Even at this relatively late date, he's still doing his shtick, as he also would in High Sierra, providing the low point of that otherwise first-rate melodrama.
Best isn't all that's wrong with this movie, though he is what's most egregiously wrong. There's plenty of just plain bad writing. Example: Morris, our hero, approaches a lady he's mistaken for his faux fiancée and tells her the deal is off because "you're the homeliest woman I've ever seen." Wow, way to establish sympathy for the leading man.
The killer's identity is obvious from the get-go. The Ghost's all-too-corporeal nature is revealed too soon. At the cemetery the Ghost has an ideal opportunity to dispatch Morris, but inexplicably leaves him alive. A subplot involving an eccentric oldster with a passion for shrunken heads is resolved in a way that doesn't make sense.
Still, none of that would be fatal to Ghost if not for Best's painfully unwatchable antics. With Willie Best in such a prominent role, this movie never had a smiling ghost of a chance.
I would have said B-movie, but I don't think Ghost is a true B. It's ten to fifteen minutes longer than the typical B and boasts slightly better production values (check out that cemetery). On the other hand, it's clearly not a top-of-the-line production. I'd call it a "little A," a designation studios reserved for cheaply made features that could get top billing thanks to easily exploitable titles and subject matter.
As a little A, it features a decent cast, including up-and-coming actress Alexis Smith, veteran character actor Alan Hale, and leading man Wayne Morris, who may have been the best available choice given that so many bigger stars had already enlisted. (Morris himself would be drafted shortly after completing this movie.)
Unfortunately it also features Willie Best, known in earlier years as "Sleep 'n Eat," by virtue of a studio marketing ploy that claimed he worked only for room and board. This was, of course, untrue; Best was well compensated for taking roles that most other black actors declined. He was widely despised in the black community for perpetuating the stereotype of a goggle-eyed, knee-knocking simpleton. Even at this relatively late date, he's still doing his shtick, as he also would in High Sierra, providing the low point of that otherwise first-rate melodrama.
Best isn't all that's wrong with this movie, though he is what's most egregiously wrong. There's plenty of just plain bad writing. Example: Morris, our hero, approaches a lady he's mistaken for his faux fiancée and tells her the deal is off because "you're the homeliest woman I've ever seen." Wow, way to establish sympathy for the leading man.
The killer's identity is obvious from the get-go. The Ghost's all-too-corporeal nature is revealed too soon. At the cemetery the Ghost has an ideal opportunity to dispatch Morris, but inexplicably leaves him alive. A subplot involving an eccentric oldster with a passion for shrunken heads is resolved in a way that doesn't make sense.
Still, none of that would be fatal to Ghost if not for Best's painfully unwatchable antics. With Willie Best in such a prominent role, this movie never had a smiling ghost of a chance.