The Ghost Talks (1949)

Director:

Jules White

Writer:

Felix Adler (story)

Release Date:

3 February 1949 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Short

Plot:

The stooges are movers for an express company and on a rainy night are sent to move some junk, including a suit of armor...

Plot Keywords:

The Three Stooges | Animate Suit Of Armor | Occult | Crossbow | Slapstick

Cast

Shemp Howard	...	Shemp (as Shemp)
Larry Fine	...	Larry (as Larry)
Moe Howard	...	Moe (as Moe)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Phil Arnold	...	Ghost of Peeping Tom (voice)
Kenneth MacDonald	...	Skeleton (voice) (uncredited)
Nancy Saunders	...	Lady Godiva (uncredited)

Directed by
Jules White

Writing credits
Felix Adler		(story & screenplay)

Produced by
Jules White	....	producer

Cinematography by
M.A. Anderson

Film Editing by
Edwin H. Bryant		(as Edwin Bryant)

Art Direction by
Charles Clague

Production Companies

• Columbia Pictures Corporation

Distributors

• Columbia Pictures (1949) (USA) (theatrical)
• Screen Gems (1958) (USA) (TV)
• Columbia TriStar Home Video (2001) (USA) (DVD)
• Columbia TriStar Home Video (2003) (USA) (DVD)

Also Known As:

Runtime:

16 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Company:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Trivia:

In order to make Moe Howard's hair stand on end when terrified by the ghosts, a high-powered air compressor was used.

Goofs:

Anachronisms: When Shemp offers the ghost in the armor "a smoke", the specter says he hasn't had a smoke "in a thousand years." Even though the spirit is from the time of Lady Godiva (11th century), smoking did not come to Europe until the 17th century. So the longest that the spirit would have done without a smoke was about 300 years.

Movie Connections:

Spoofs The Ghost Walks (1934)

The Last Five Minutes Bail Out Those 'Peeping Toms'

The Stooges are in spooky Smorgasbord Castle, given the task, as employees of the A To Z Express Company, to move some of items out of the place. Included is a medieval suit of armor.....that talks!

After freaking out each of the Stooges separately, the armor tells him, "Have to fear, gentlemen. I am a friendly spirit."

It turns out he used to be sweethearts with Lady Godiva. Then he was accused of being a "Peeping Tom." He also had pies in his face every time he opened his shutters. Yes, this episode is as stupid as it sounds, at least until the last five minutes where we do get some "spooky" stuff, as advertised, when a frog jumps in Shemp's hat and runs down the inside of his pants; a skeleton comes alive and an owl flies into the skeleton's head and flies off in it. Some of those scenes are hilarious.

I also appreciated a lot of the puns spoken in here, some of them pretty funny.