Whispering Ghosts

Whispering Ghosts (1942)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Radio host H.H. Van Buren (Milton Berle) does a weekly show where he introduces a cold case and then the following week gives away the real murderer. With the latest mystery expected to bring him a ton a new listeners he realizes that he really doesn't know who the killer is so he heads out to a creepy boat where he comes under attack from a man with a hatchet.

WHISPERING GHOSTS is a comedy that has several of the "old dark house" elements thrown in for fun. Of course, the biggest difference is that they involve a ship instead of a house but for the most part this Fox comedy is entertaining enough if you enjoy these old time mysteries. It certainly helps that you've got a pretty good cast of characters and plenty of horror elements.

We should be honest that the entire story isn't anything too great but at just 75 minutes the director and cast get enough out of it to make for an entertaining movie. Berle appears to be having fun playing this wannabe detective and he and Willie Best actually have a very good chemistry together. Their work certainly brings a few laughs from the screenplay. Also on hand is Brenda Joyce as the new owner of the ship of John Carradine gets to play a weird man who ends up on the ship.

The horror elements are a plenty as there's a lot of fog, mysterious figures walking around, scary glowing eyes and other items. WHISPERING GHOSTS certainly isn't a masterpiece but it's a solid entertaining.

Watching Whispering Ghosts and Milton Berle's scenes with Willie Best I was put in mind of Bob Hope with Willie Best in The Ghostbreakers. It was obvious that 20th Century Fox was trying to turn Berle into their version of Bob Hope with films like these. But super stardom would have wait until television for Milton Berle.

That being said Whispering Ghosts isn't a bad comedy. Berle plays a criminologist who solves mysteries on his radio show. But he's advancing theories of crimes where the principals are long dead. When he offers to solve the mystery of Brenda Joyce's uncle who was murdered and left a buried treasure there a few folks still alive who want said treasure.

Joyce's uncle was a sea captain and he was killed aboard his ship. His will contains the usual cryptic clues as to the whereabouts of the treasure. As is usual a few cast members die before the mystery is solved.

Uncle Miltie has his usual wisecracks, but the funniest is John Carradine all made up in pirate costume telling Berle and Best he was first mate to Joyce's uncle. Carradine looked like he was having a great old time shivering everyone's timbers as a pirate, Rene Riano comes in a close second as Carradine loony sister.

Whispering Ghosts while done on the cheap is still a fun film and a must for Uncle Miltie's fans.

Whispering Ghosts boasts some interesting credits, among them screenwriter Lou Breslow, who had a flair for offbeat comedy, journeyman director Alfred Werker, who made some decent films, B producer Sol Wurtzel, and star Milton Berle. Miltie was still a few years away from his his great television success, and here plays a radio actor out to solve a murder mystery aboard a pirate ship. The supporting cast, as is so often the case in this kind of lighthearted borderline horror fare, is first rate: Brenda Joyce, John Carradine, Edmund McDonald, and another Milton, Parsons, without whom this kind of movie wouldn't seem complete. This is an agreeable comedy, not so much hilarious as pleasingly familiar in nearly every respect, as everything about it feels recycled, including the sets, and this is not in itself a bad thing, as Hollywood excelled at this kind of formula in the forties, and handled it better in this sort of cramped, intimate second feature than in bigger budgeted films. This one's done just right, not too big, not too small.

Light comedy flavors this mystery by way of exaggerated characters, with a few sight gags and small touches of situational humor adjoining. Those characters are rather the key, though, because the story introduces so many that the film starts to feel overstuffed. At the same time, while the cast performs admirably in the roles they're given, the scenario is overdone to the point that with more lively jocularity the picture would fit neatly among the works of more famous comedians - say, Laurel and Hardy, or Abbott and Costello. For as suitably well as this is made, however, it feels distinctly lacking and hollow. I said "light comedy," but the truth is that the levity is so gentle that it doesn't really leave an impression. Plot development comes across as meager - and given how many characters are involved, also scattered - so any vibes of tension or suspense mostly wallow in the conglomeration of light and sound. Why, murder is committed, and the occurrence comes and goes with such passivity that one could easily miss that it had happened at all! 'Whispering ghosts' isn't abjectly terrible, but mark this as an older film that doesn't particularly stand very tall 80 years later.

I do rather like the ensemble, including not least of all Willie Best; Euclid is written as so over the top that the role is almost a stereotype, but Best does a fine job and kind of steals the show. The production design is solid; the sets look outstanding, and are the single best part of the picture. Kudos to those who worked behind the scenes on this one - only, would that the contributions of writers Lou Breslow and Philip MacDonald, or director Alfred L. Werker, were as noteworthy. Even the climax arrives with an abruptness that feels contrived, emphasizing how scenes and dialogue are written with such nonchalance, and executed with even more, that robs them of any import. I think there are good ideas here, but "think" is the key word, because the movie communicates narrative beats so lackadaisically that I'm not sure I could retell the story. The last thing any film should do is allow a viewer's attention to wander, but here we are.

I've watched many features hailing all the way back to the silent era and absolutely loved them. A preponderance of the best movies that have ever been made, or will be made, come from the first half of the twentieth century. 'Whispering ghosts,' sadly, does not join that honored company, nor does it ever come close. The generosity of acknowledging "simpler entertainment for a simpler time" doesn't even really apply here, as no matter the era, what a movie above all requires is to capably convey its tale, and this falls short. It's fleetingly adequate for a diversion on a lazy day, but unfortunately I think 'Whispering ghosts' is a title that's best reserved for when you really have nothing else to watch in the moment.

Milton Berle is the star and writer of a radio true-crime show. A police inspector tells him that his "murderer" of a ship's captain thirteen years ago was an alias of that captain. He's announced that he'll provide the murderer's name on the next broadcast, so he heads out to the grounded ship to look for a fresh solution for his audience.

It's a B movie from Twentieth-Century Fox, based on recent thrill comedies that had been successful: THE GHOST BREAKERS and WHISTLING IN THE DARK, with Sol Wurtzel trying to promote his comedian as an answer to Bob Hope and Red Skelton. The script is decent and Berle's delivery of wisecracks is fine, but the aren't that funny. Some sound like someone who had looked at the scenes he wasn't in, and "the Thief of Bad Gags" is a decent enough actor. Credit Fox's under-rated director Alfred Werker. Management would slot him into any project, even ones that were partially shot, and he would deliver a seamless movie without much fuss. It was that very faculty that kept him in the Bs. In this one, he balances the ghostly atmosphere and gags very well.