(1940)
Dir - George Marshall
Overall: MEH
The third screen version of Paul Dickey and Charles W. Goddard's stage play The Ghost Breaker was done by George Marshall, (who would also remake it yet again thirteen years later as Scared Stiff with Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis), the previous two silent versions now lost. Once again teaming up Bob Hope and Paulette Goddard who were in the similarly goofy The Cat and the Canary the previous year, Ghost Breakers has somewhat of a convoluted and ultimately uninteresting plot, but plenty of quips from Hope and flirty romance between he and Goddard. It is also just a tad racist, but in an eyeball-rolling, amusing way where it was common in the era to have the stereotyped, African American "yas'm boss" servant who is utterly terrified of his own shadow. Hope continually jokes with him and their relationship does mpt appear to be unethical so it gets a pass for just being rather dated and unintentionally offensive. A young Anthony Quinn also shows up for a few scenes for what it is worth, but the movie is not really funny or spooky enough to rank as a horror comedy classic the way others from the era have.
(1945)
Dir - Albert Lewin
Overall: GOOD
Though Oscar Wilde was not particularly known as a horror writer, his most famous novel The Picture of Dorian Gray very suitably fits the genre and certainly so here. It had been adapted multiple times before and multiple times since the 1945 version staring George Sanders with Hurd Hatfield in the title role, but this one stands as perhaps the most still well renowned. Besides his youthful appearance as Gray, Haftield perfectly encapsulates a man whose soul is no longer with him as he walks about the movie almost exclusively cold and emotionless. The story is very sparse on horror and the film does indeed play out more as a period drama than anything. Yet when we do get to see Gray's evil deeds affect the people around him, they are portrayed rather memorably. The use of two color sequences that showcase the actual painting of Gray are rather pleasantly shocking, no doubt more so at the time that the movie was released. Also for anyone in or visiting the Midwest, the original, more grotesque of the two portraits by Ivan Albright is currently on display at the Art Institute of Chicago.
(1949)
Dir - Jack Kinney/Clyde Geronimi/James Algar
Overall: GOOD
Disney's final package film released in the 1940s, The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad was the studio's eleventh feature overall and went through a solid rigamarole to get unleashed in its finished form. Work on "The Wind and the Willows" had begun several years prior, but after the animator strike in 1941, further layoffs, and Walt Disney's original dissatisfaction with the finished product, it was shelved for a number of years, eventually getting paired up with "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" for a joint, anthology release which was common for the studio at the time. While only a few actual minutes of the "Sleep Hollow" segment and absolutely none of the "Willows" one qualify as horror, once the actual Headless Horseman tale gets told, it is simply one of the best bits of animation the horror genre ever got. Just as say The Grinch or Charlie Brown have become standard viewing during the Christmas season, Disney's version of "Sleepy Hollow" is just as legendary for Halloween. Generally whenever the studio decided to tackle anything on the spooky and macabre end of things, (The Haunted Mansion attraction, per example), they knocked it out of the park. Which is certainly proven here.
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