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Greetings, and welcome to VIEWING THE CLASSICS. Here you'll find capsule reviews of vintage movies from the early days of cinema through the 1970s, with a special emphasis on sci-fi, horror, and mystery movies. Be sure to check out the Pages links, where you can find a Film Index of all my reviews, links to the reviews organized by cast members, directors, and other contributors, and links to my reviews of the films of talented young director Joshua Kennedy.

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Friday, October 11, 2013

The Ghost And The Guest (1943)

Starring James Dunn, Florence Rice, Robert Dudley, Mabel Todd, Sam McDaniel
Directed by William Nigh
(actor & director credits courtesy IMDB.com)

A newlywed couple move into an old farmhouse but discover it belonged to a hanged criminal, whose body is delivered in a coffin, but then soon disappears. 

Despite the title, no ghosts are to be found in this low-budget mystery-comedy from "Poverty Row" studio PRC, which suffers from some pretty bad lighting during nighttime scenes.  It's still watchable and a few jokes are still good ones.  Though African-American actor McDaniel is unfortunately saddled with the stereotypical role of an easily spooked servant, to his credit he doesn't overplay it, and has most of the best lines.  All in all, if you don't go in with too many expectations, it's entertaining enough, and has a brief running time, so the film doesn't overstay its welcome.

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