Tomorrow night, May 24, at 9:45pm EST, TCM airs a charming romantic comedy with the unfortunate title of The Ghost Goes West. Unfortunate, because the title is misleading. The film is neither a horror tale, nor does it have anything to do with the Wild West. Released in 1936, The Ghost Goes West is a British film set in Scotland and Florida.
Robert Donat plays a dual role as the 20th century Scotsman Donald Glourie and his 18th century ancestor Murdoch Glourie. During a skrimish with British Red Coats, Murdoch is too busy chasing girls to fight for “the glory of Scotland,” a vague reference to the various tensions with Britain in that century. During battle, Murdoch is blown to bits, save for his Scottish tam o’ shanter, which flutters lightly to the ground. While in limbo between heaven and hell, the Scotsman is dubbed a coward by his deceased father for his shameful behavior in battle. Murdoch is returned to earth as a ghost and cursed to wander the halls of the Glourie castle.
AMERICAN GROCERY MAGNET EUGENE PALLETTE BUYS A SCOTTISH CASTLE AND INHERITS ITS GHOST.
A long dissolve and a title card move the narrative forward to the 20th century. American businessman Joe Martin, played by froggy-voiced Eugene Pallette, and perky daughter Peggy, played by Jean Parker, buy the deteriorating castle from the Glourie heir, Donald. Martin, who owns a chain of grocery stores has the castle disassembled stone by stone and loaded onto ships bound for his estate in Sunnymede, Florida. On the ocean voyage to America, the Martins, Donald, and the other passengers—especially the women—are startled to discover that Murdoch is coming with them. As directed by Rene Clair, the film is fanciful but not fantasy, amusing but not hilarious, old-fashioned but not corny. It exhibits the light touch that was the hallmark of Clair’s work. If you have seen I Married a Witch, which Clair directed seven years later, or It Happened Tomorrow, which is my favorite Clair film, you know the tone I am talking about.
MURDOCH SITS AMONG THE PIECES OF HIS CASTLE, WHICH IS ON ITS WAY TO FLORIDA.
The French director began his career in Paris during the 1920s with a group of filmmakers and artists who wanted to explore the medium of cinema, pushing it away from narrative. Their work is now considered an important step in the history of avant-garde or experimental film. I often show Clair’s second film, Entr’acte, which he made with dada artist Francis Picabia, in my film history class, because its surrealist imagery and random plot events do not add up to a coherent story. It is intentionally anti-narrative. So, how does an experimental filmmaker, who was part of the dada-surrealist crowd, end up in Hollywood? How does a director go from Entr’acte to The Ghost Goes West, from Picabia to Palette? Actually, it is not as much of a stretch as it might seem.
THE MAD SCIENTIST IN ‘PARIS QUI DORT’
From the beginning, Clair was opposed to the aesthetic pretentions of his peers, claiming more of an affiliation with turn-of-the-century pioneer Georges Melies than with contemporary surrealists and dadists. His first film, Paris qui dort (1924), was a Melies-inspired fantasy about a scientist who invents an immobilizing invisible-ray machine. Clair revealed, “Trick shots amused me, interested me, a lot during that period.” In addition to “tricks,” that is, simple special effects, it was humor and fantasy that inspired him. His third film, Le Fantome du Moulin Rouge (1925), had both. The story of a disillusioned suitor who asks a medical scientist to separate his spirit from his body via the “Cartesian” machine, Le Fantome du Moulin Rouge features some of the same motifs of Clair’s more commercial films—a ghostly love interest full of mischief, romantic escapades, and a playful tone.
THE LOVERS OF ‘LE MILLION’
Clair continued to explore the narrative and commercial possibilities of French fantasy, a farcical genre that is difficult to define or describe. It is a genre that accepts ghostly characters, whimsical episodes, outrageous inventions, and romantic interludes without being horror, science fiction, or romantic comedy. Often, Clair added a pinch of satire as in Un Chapeau de paille d’Italie (The Italian Straw Hat, 1928), the story of a man about to be married who is obliged to find a rare hat for a woman he accidentally meets in a park. It seems his horse ate the young lady’s hat, and he is blackmailed into finding a replacement on the day of his nuptials. The quest results in social situations in which he meets diverse classes and archetypes, each lightly lampooned via exaggeration and embroidery.
The story of The Italian Straw Hat foreshadows that of Le Million (1931), one of Clair’s two films included in text books because of their experimental use of early sound. Instead of a hat, characters pursue a missing lottery ticket through various situations in different parts of Paris. The romanticized French characters burst into song unexpectedly, while an array of sound effects add richness to the overall sound design. The sound is not realistic, like Hollywood directors worked so hard (too hard) to achieve at the time, but instead is impressionistic. It is used as an immersive technique to pull the viewers into Clair’s world.
CLAIR AND CREW DIRECT DONAT AS MURDOCH GLOURIE
In 1934, Clair accepted an offer from British producer-director Alexander Korda to write and direct for Korda’s London Films. The Ghost Goes West became Clair’s first production for Korda, who paired the director with American s playwright Robert E. Sherwood because of the Frenchman’s limited English. Though other-worldly characters who invade the lives of the earthbound was more Clair than Sherwood, the latter would later pen The Bishop’s Wife, in which angel Cary Grant fixes mortal Loretta Young’s troubled marriage in time for Christmas.
PEGGY (JEAN PARKER) IS CHARMED BY THE OLD CASTLE.
Fans of Clair’s I Married a Witch (1942) will recognize the same narrative structure in The Ghost Goes West. An opening sequence set in the distant past explains the predicament of other-worldly characters who are then tossed into the 20th century. Truth be told, I Married a Witch is likely a better crafted film. As the title character, star Veronica Lake makes a far more charismatic and alluring leading lady than Jean Parker, and the story gets down to the central premise more quickly and efficiently. I can’t honestly say that the The Ghost Goes West is a lost gem, an unheralded classic, or even a must-see movie. I can only say I recommend it for several reasons.
DONALD GLOURIE COMES FACE TO FACE WITH HIS ANCESTOR, MURDOCH.
In addition to Clair’s whimsical balance of fantasy and romance, The Ghost Goes West has a touch of satire. Eugene Pallette’s wealthy Florida businessman is the epitome of the American nouveau riche. He buys the castle as a gift for his daughter with little regard for its identity as an ancestral home to the Glouries. He then sells it because his wife tells him to but re-buys it at an inflated rate when he believes the castle’s ghost will help him sell his wares. That’s right, he wants to use Murdoch as a novelty spokesperson to sell groceries. Pallette is perfect as the fast-talking American businessman, who has little interest in history, tradition, ghost stories, or curses. I also liked Donat in the dual roles of Murdoch and Donald Glourie. I don’t know much about Donat, save for Hitchcock’s 39 Steps and the sentimental Goodbye Mr. Chips, but I liked his feistiness as the skirt-chasing Murdoch. The set designs by Korda’s brother, Vincent, are simple but memorable. The castle looks like it was pulled from the pages of a fairy tale, while the dark, sinister bowels of the ship provided an appropriate backdrop for the reawakening of Murdoch. Clair made the most of the production design of his film, moving his camera about the sets to simulate Murdoch’s creeping about the hull of the ship. He was adept at camera movement, often tracking into a medium shot rather than cutting to one, or tilting up a character to reveal his/her facial expression rather than cutting to a close up. It is subtle compared to contemporary camera movement, but it was atypical in 1936.
THE GLOURIE CASTLE IS MOVED TO FLORIDA. THE MATTE WORK IS BY W. PERCY DAY AND PETER ELLENSHAW.
Clair made only one more film in England before landing in Hollywood in 1940, where he directed I Married a Witch, It Happened Tomorrow (1944), and And Then There Were None (1945). He returned to France after WWII, where the tone of his work darkened to accommodate the postwar mood. Clair’s work in England and Hollywood is generally ignored and sometimes disparaged, but I think it is overdue for a reevaluation.