Hope-ful haunting in “Ghost Breakers”- Tonight!

If you’re reading this blog early enough- I hope you’ll come out and see me at Bill Jacobs Auto- 2011 Jefferson Street in Joliet, IL today! I’m there from noon to 2 pm- along with plenty of family fun, including a petting zoo, food, and more! Come join me under the big tent for autographs, pictures, and, of course, great car deals! Meanwhile, tonight- it’s a truly creepy comedy, as Bob “That’s not an EVP detector, that’s my nose” Hope takes on voodoo, a zombie, and a haunted mansion in “Ghost Breakers”! This 1940 scare comedy features Rapid Robert as radio star Larry Lawrence, who likes to spill information about organized crime on his broadcasts. He gets a call from one of the mobsters whose exploits he’s just been talking about, asking him to come to his hotel room for an explanation of said actions. Coincidentally, a young heiress lives in the hotel- she has just received the deed to a plantation on a small island off Cuba, followed by a phone call from a shady fellow, warning her not to sell her property to anyone! Larry has his valet Alex run him over to the hotel- where he mistakenly ends up thinks he’s killed a man, and ends up in the heiress Mary’s apartment- where he hides in her trunk to avoid detection from the mob. Mary doesn’t know he’s in the trunk- and sends it to the dock for her cruise to her new island home. So- the trunk, Mary, and even Larry’s valet end up on the ship- and she is surprised to see Larry in her trunk! Larry and Alex decide to stay on board and act as bodyguards to the young beauty- but, as they head for the island, they hear strange tales of voodoo and hauntings that occur there. Once on the island, it seems the supernatural lurks everywhere- whether it’s zombies lurking around the plantation, or ghosts in the foreboding mansion…where they discover a painting of a woman who looks exactly like Mary! Will they survive encounters with a variety of the undead? I know some of you are saying “oh, no- another comedy movie?!”- and, yes, of course, there’s comedy with Hope as the star- but- this is often a truly frightening movie, with genuine scares and suspense, so don’t discount it. We get Hope back when he was the quintessential young smart aleck, playing perfectly off the lovely Paulette Goddard as Mary. His valet is black comic actor Willie Best, who plays the typical (for that era) role of bumbling man-servant that Eddie “Rochester” Anderson and Mantan Moreland portrayed(in fact, his character in this film was nicknamed “Syracuse”- a take-off on Rochester- but it didn’t appear to be used in the film). Some have a tendency to site Best as someone who furthered the stereotypical portrayal of blacks in the movies- but he was an actor, taking whatever parts he could get to maintain his career. He was a very prominent bit player, appeared in many movies and TV shows, and was proclaimed by Hope himself as “the best actor I know”. Also present is a very young Anthony Quinn as that shady phone caller, who gets more involved as the film progresses. Some trivia-this movie was remade in the 50s with Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, and re-titled “Scared Stiff”. Supposedly the mansion in the film was one of the inspirations for Walt Disney’s “Haunted Mansion” attractions. It was originally a Broadway play, and, when this movie came out, Hope did an hour-long radio version of the story! This show includes some memorable Sven bits, including –ahem- “somebody” portraying Bob Hope, and all-star visit to a jail cell! You can catch “Ghost Breakers” at 10 pm eastern, 9 pm central time , and 10 pm west coast time(check local listings elsewhere around North America) on our Me-TV network. Let me also inform you that, from now on in San Francisco, the plan is that the Me-TV movie WILL be the main feature we promote on KOFY 20.2 at 10 pm- with an older vintage Sven show on at 1 am on the main KOFY channel. There’s more Saturday Sven locally in Chicago: at 11 am on WCIU, the U, you can catch our final Mummy film of the year-Boris Karloff in “The Mummy”! At 3 pm on the U Too channel, you’ll see “Dr. Blood’s Coffin”. See you either in Joliet- or on the TV!!!