Ghost Catchers

I was a youngster when I last saw this film. I remember it as being a little scary. There was a haunted house in New York City. When the scenes changed to the swinging night club, this was the comic relief (for me). I remember the music to be tune-full, swinging. I would love to see this movie again.

While some of the reviews here are raves for this film, I am firmly in the opposite camp. I find comedy duos like Laurel and Hardy and Abbott and Costello very funny even today, but Olsen and Johnson are not. Their shtick may have played better in the 40s, however, I don't think it works in this movie at all. Part of the problem is that the paper thin plot seems to take a back seat to far too many musical and comedy interludes. The songs aren't memorable and neither are the slapstick bits. I found the duo's antics insufferable and I didn't care who the killer was by the end.

As a Universal genre completist, I'm glad I finally got to view this little seen film, but I would never put myself through watching it again. Stick with the far better Hold That Ghost from Abbott and Costello, or Ghost Breakers with Bob Hope. 2 1/2 stars.

This movie, from start to finish, is a complete GAS. I would do almost anything to get this movie. I haven't seen it in about twenty five years or more but I remember it as if I had just seen it.

Olsen and Johnson are as wild as the Marx Brothers here, but too often they play second fiddles in their own movie; there is far, far too much singing which will turn off approximately 19 out of 20 viewers today (keep the FF button handy). There appear to be no decent-quality copies of this film in circulation, so that's another thing that restricts viewing and sounding pleasure. But don't miss the scene where O & J openly discuss Abbott and Costello's "Hold That Ghost"! This whole movie could be a fever dream. ** out of 4.

I'd like to be added to the yea chorus.

I was about eleven when I saw it as part of a "kiddy" show. The haunted house stuff that brought me there, in the first place, was not disappointing. However, what really impressed me was the music. The musical production numbers ranked high on my eleven-year-old rating system. This is very interesting because, at that time, I cared more about the exploits of John Wayne and Roy Rogers than any musical number.

Thinking back, I am still impressed.

Put this one to that list of – I sure would like to see it again!