The Ghost Talks

The Stooges are movers hired to clean out an old house and get mixed up with the ghosts of Peeping Tom and Lady Godiva. This is definitely one of the team's lesser--VERY lesser--efforts. Much of the "script" doesn't particularly make sense, and the comedy is lame and forced. The Stooges just seem to be going through the numbers, as if they've done this a thousand times before, which they pretty much had. The only saving grace occurs at the end when the "ghost" of Lady Godiva rides in on a white horse to take away the ghost of Peeping Tom, who had been trapped inside a suit of armor. Godiva is played by Columbia starlet Nancy Saunders, a tall, long-legged blonde in a skimpy, attention-getting outfit. She's a sight to see, but it's not really worth sitting through this tired, by-the-numbers "comedy" to see it. Skip it.

This is on of the spookiest and funniest Three Stooges shorts! It begins rather well with thunders storms and the howling wind! When the Stooges discover that the armor talks and they have a conversation about who he is its gets really good after that! I think I was funny when the Stooges opened that chest and the skeleton came out and he says that he's Red and Shemp says Red Skeleton! I thought that was very funny! There is a lot of other type of spooky stuff in this one and also another funny part in it is when Larry talks to the suit of armor he say to "well maybe he doesn't talk English" and then he say things in other languages and the suit of armor replies to it and Larry's hat spins around and he is very frightened! I thought it was funny! The owl scene was very funny! Like some other spooky type Three Stooges shorts this is a great Three Stooges short to watch over again around Halloween time!

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.

I've always felt that when it comes to haunted houses, it's a setting that worked better for "Abbott and Costello." Not to say that this short is horrible, it's just a "middle of the pack" effort & most of the performers seem to be in "low gear" for this one.

Although I will say about Lady Godiva--whatever she may lack in acting ability--she certainly is a winner in the looks department.

I also find it funny how Jules White voices the various talking skeletons. Me, I'm red. Red Skeleton. It certainly is a short that has some vaudeville groaners in it.

The sets look authentic enough & Phil Arnold is great as the voice of Peeping Tom. That confounded shudder....

When I was a kid and first saw this, it stymied me. What would a woman riding a horse be doing in a haunted house ? After several years of knowing who Lady Godiva is and the legend of Peeping Tom it now makes sense.Even then, the slapstick humor of the boys doesn't work well in a haunted house. If it was Curly, definitely, Stan Laurel or Lou Costello, absolutely, but the Stooges to me was always about three guys who were friends who fought with each other; otherwise, they would have killed each other a long time ago. The short does win points on the creepy atmosphere level. A skull flies through the air on wings flapping a sheet behind it and skeletons roam the house on their bony legs. Good images for a haunted house ! One note though, the Red Skeleton gag is a funny one, but the Southern black man accent isn't politically correct for the changing of the times.