The Ghost Breaker is a 1922 American silent horror comedy film about haunted houses and ghosts. It was produced by Famous Players–Lasky and distributed through Paramount Pictures.[1] It was directed by Alfred E. Green and starred Wallace Reid in one of his last screen roles. The story, based on the 1909 play The Ghost Breaker by Paul Dickey and Charles W. Goddard, had been released on film in 1914 (bearing the same name), directed by Cecil B. DeMille and Oscar Apfel.
| The Ghost Breaker | |
|---|---|
 Film poster | |
| Directed by | Alfred E. Green |
| Written by | Jack Cunningham (adaptation) Walter De Leon (scenario) |
| Based on | The Ghost Breaker by Paul Dickey and Charles W. Goddard (play) |
| Produced by | Adolph Zukor Jesse L. Lasky |
| Starring | Wallace Reid Lila Lee Arthur Edmund Carewe Snitz Edwards |
| Cinematography | William Marshall |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 57 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | Silent (English intertitles) |
The 1922 version is now considered lost.[2][3] Two of the actors in this film, Snitz Edwards and Arthur Edmund Carewe, later appeared together in the 1925 Lon Chaney silent classic The Phantom of the Opera. Two uncredited "ghosts" in the cast, Mervyn LeRoy and Richard Arlen, later went on to successful film careers.[4]
The Ghost Breaker would be remade in the sound era as The Ghost Breakers (1940) with Bob Hope and Paulette Goddard, and later as Scared Stiff (1953) starring Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin.[5]
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Plot
editWarren Jarvis and his manservant Rusty Snow help a beautiful young heiress named Maria Theresa to rid her father's mansion of ghosts. The spooks turn out to be fakes however, fabricated by the Duke D'Alba to scare the young lady away, thus allowing him to steal her father's hidden gold.
No prints survive of the film. It was possibly a comedy classic especially being helmed by Alfred E. Green and took advantage of the increasing vogue and interest in haunted house melodramas.
Cast
edit- Wallace Reid as Warren (Walter) Jarvis, ghost breaker
- Lila Lee as Maria Theresa, a Spanish heiress
- Walter Hiers (in blackface) as Rusty Snow, a Negro servant
- Arthur Edmund Carewe as Duke D'Alba, leader of the ghosts
- J. Farrell MacDonald as Sam Marcum, a Kentucky feudist
- Frances Raymond as Aunt Mary Jarvis
- Snitz Edwards as Maurice
- Richard Arlen as A Ghost (uncredited)
- Mervyn LeRoy as A Ghost (uncredited)
- George O'Brien as A Ghost (uncredited)
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ The AFI Catalog of Feature Films:The Ghost Breaker(Wayback)
- ^ Soister, John T. (2012). American Silent Horror, Science Fiction and Fantasy Feature Films, 1913-1929. McFarland. p. 222. ISBN 978-0-786-48790-5.
- ^ Reid, Wallace (May 5, 1922). "The Ghost Breaker" – via memory.loc.gov.
- ^ Workman, Christopher; Howarth, Troy (2016). "Tome of Terror: Horror Films of the Silent Era". Midnight Marquee Press. p. 250.ISBN 978-1936168-68-2.
- ^ Kabatchnik, Amnon (2011). Blood On the Stage, 1950-1975: Milestone Plays of Crime, Mystery and Detection. Scarecrow Press. p. 306. ISBN 978-0-810-87784-9.
External links
edit
Media related to The Ghost Breaker (1922 film) at Wikimedia Commons
- The Ghost Breaker at IMDb
- The Ghost Breaker at AllMovie
- The Ghost Breaker at silentera.com
- Surviving image card
- Surviving Wallace Reid image from lost film "The Ghost Breaker"(Wayback Machine)
- lantern slide
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