"Hold That Ghost" (1941)

Continuing to review the movies of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello, we hit "Hold That Ghost" from Universal in 1941!

As I mentioned last time, this movie (with the working title of "Oh, Charlie") was put on, well, hold in order to let "In the Navy" released as quickly as possible.

Despite their ample screen time in "In the Navy" and "Buck Privates," this is really the first film that lets the boys carry the main plot. It's kind of like instead of them being the comedy relief, there's now romance relief in support of the comedy!

(left to right) Joan Davis, Evelyn Ankers, Richard Carlson

The romance is supplied by Richard Carlson, who like Bob Cummings from "One Night in the Tropics," looks about the same here as he did in the mid-1950s and the lovely Evelyn Ankers, who was in a ton of movies for Universal, including "The Wolf Man," also from 1941!

Bud and Lou also get a solid comedy partner in Joan Davis, who has great chemistry with them, but apparently Lou thought she was a little too funny and was threatening to steal the picture!

But "Hold That Ghost" is a really fun movie and there are plenty of laughs to go around!

Joan Davis is definitely in this deleted scene from the original ending!

There's some controversy as to whether Joan Davis appears in the newly filmed ending. You see what would appear to be her character, but only from behind and she doesn't speak, so you'd think it was a stand-in, but some sources say it was her, but she was facing the wrong way. I know Universal was cheap and didn't like retakes, but wouldn't director Arthur Lubin had yelled, "Hey, Joan! Turn around!" or something?

Apparently Universal thought they should add some music to the movie while they were retooling it, so they filmed some bookends with the Andrews Sisters, since they had gone over well in the two service comedies.

Also featured in the musical portions is the very shticky Ted Lewis, a veteran bandleader who even by 1941 standards must have seemed dated. 

Ted does a couple of his old songs, including the so-non-PC-you-can't-believe-it-was-acceptable "Me and My Shadow" routine. Times were different, to be sure.

Anyway, the Andrews Sisters sing the main (only?) new song from the film, "Sleepy Serenade." which they naturally recorded for Decca:

Something of a contrast from the boisterous Don Raye songs from the earlier films!

And note how it says the song is from the New Universal Picture "Oh, Charlie" on the label!

Here's a version by Vaughn Monroe on Bluebird:

I've said before that it's interesting how Vaughn's early, pre-recording ban records are much more like "regular" band records than his later records which were more like vocal records, in keeping with changing musical trends.

"Sleepy Serenade" was also recorded as an instrumental by Claude Thornhill for the Okeh label:

A typically gorgeous arrangement from the Thornhill band. So underrated!

The Andrews Sisters also sing "Aurora" in the movie, although I think they had recorded the song earlier and it was shoehorned into the movie.

Here's their recording on Decca:

Interestingly, Decca had three other versions of the song (none of which mention the movie on the label), so let's hear them too!

Jimmy Dorsey recorded a lot of Latin-tinged songs, usually featuring Bob Eberly and Helen O'Connell, but only Helen appears on this:

Interesting. I have to say that I really don't care for Helen O'Connell's vocals on the whole. She was popular, though!

The Latin flavor continues with Pancho and his Orchestra:

A "Samba March," eh? Love it!

Then there's this off-beat polka version by "Happy" Harry Harden's Musette Orchestra:

That's awesome! I just love the muted trumpet!

Interesting that Pancho and Harry only use limited group vocals!

All in all, a really fun flick with reasonably entertaining tacked-on musical numbers!