Product Details

• Actors: Robert Donat, Jean Parker, Eugene Pallette, Elsa Lanchester, Ralph Bunker
• Directors: René Clair
• Writers: René Clair, Eric Keown, Geoffrey Kerr, Robert E. Sherwood
• Producers: Alexander Korda
• Format: NTSC
• Studio: Nelson Entertainment
• Run Time: 95 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6300148696
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #252,823 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A marvelous, enchanting fantasy-comedy, October 5, 2002

By 

Robert Moore (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Ghost Goes West [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Of all the great European directors who came to Hollywood in the thirties and forties, René Clair may have enjoyed the most successful exile, directing the classics I MARRIED A WITCH and AND THEN THERE WERE NONE. But, before traveling from Paris over the Atlantic to the New World, Clair enjoyed a brief sojourn in Great Britain, where he made this marvelous and unjustly neglected comedy.

The plot is simple: a land rich/cash poor Scotsman sells the family castle to a rich American millionaire, who has the castle moved to the US stone by stone. The difficulty is that the castle is haunted, and the ghost moves with the castle to its new locale. We therefore get a ghost fantasy with a different twist: a ghost has to deal with culture shock.

For me, three things make this film stand out. First, Robert Donat is marvelous as the ghost/impoverished seller. Had Donat lived later in the 20th century, he would have been far, far more successful as an actor, and infinitely more active. Donat suffered from nearly debilitating asthma condition that severely limited his screen appearances (as well as some serious stage fright, or, in this case, screen fright). This performance is one of his finest. Second, Eugene Pallette enjoys one of his greatest roles. Pallette is perhaps best known as Friar Tuck in the Errol Flynn THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD, and almost as well known in THE LADY EVE and MY MAN GODFREY. He actually appeared in a vast number of films from the beginning of the silent era all the way to his death in 1946. Yet, his major roles were relatively few. I find his stern scowl, rotund physique, and softhearted core to be enchanting. The third reason the film succeeds is the deft and light-hearted direction of René Clair. Partly because he suffered a sharp post-WW II decline, Clair is not as fondly remembered as he ought to be. He directed the two Hollywood classic I mentioned above, but was even better in the early 1930s, directing in France such masterpieces as SOUS LES TOITS DE PARIS and À NOUS LA LIBERTE, as well as one of my all time favorite films, the utterly delightful musical LE MILLION.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Charming and Delightful, November 21, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: The Ghost Goes West [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This film ranks as one of my favorites. Whenever I want to forget the world and lapse into total relaxation this is one of my first choices. It's short and charming, and the Ghost is one of the most irrestible gentlemen that I have ever seen on film.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars GLORIOUS GHOST COMEDY., July 13, 2002

By 

"scotsladdie" - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Ghost Goes West [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This somewhat crude, frolicsome satire on America was written by the the great playwright Robert E. Sherwood and was directed by the esteemed Rene Clair: A rich American, played by basso-voiced Eugene Pallette, buys Glourie Castle in Scotland (complete with it's miserable ghostly inhabitant) and has it dismantled and shipped across the Atlantic to Sunnymeade, Florida where it's reconstructed complete with plumbing and electricity...The movie is very lucky in its star: Robert Donat brings elegance and his melancholy face and voice to the dual role of Donald Glourie and Murdoch Glourie, his phantom ancestor - and, intermittently, he redeems the action. Elsa Lanchester and Jean Parker are amusing in this mid-thirties frolic in which Americans were poked fun at. They took the barbs good-naturedly and loved the film; it was a very popular picture at the box-office.