Watch The Ghost Goes West For Free

Best movie of this year hands down!

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

Blistering performances.

With a title like this, one might expect "The Ghost Goes West" to be an Abbott and Costello film or perhaps a Bob Hope movie. So, it's a pleasant surprise to have it set mostly in the United Kingdom and starring one of the great English actors of stage and screen. This surely isn't one of Robert Donat's better movies, yet it is quite good in its simplicity. It has nice, mostly mild comedy and romance just on the fringes. Donat plays the double role of Murdoch Glourie, the ghost, and Donald Glourie, the 20th century heir of Glourie Castle in Scotland. He is joined in the cast by a small but talented group of performers, most notably Jean Parker, Elsa Lanchester and Eugene Pallette. Pallette plays Joe Martin, a wealthy American, who will purchase Glourie castle for his daughter, Peggy (Jean Parker). I don't see how this can be labeled a horror film because the closest thing to anything scary about this film is the music on an early occasion when the spectre is first brought up. London Film does a superb job with this 1935 movie in the technical end with special effects. The appearance and fading out of the ghost, is excellent. The plot isn't very complex, but it's interesting that the "West" in this case, is across the Pond from Scotland, to Florida in the U.S. So, Glourie Castle goes from the countryside with heather to the beach with sand and seashells. The plot is light but the film is fun and interesting, and well-acted by all. I can't think of any film that Donat was in that wasn't very good, and most of his stories and roles were or exceptional. A couple of other reviews hit on the best word to describe this film. It's charming.

I've been a Robert Donat fan for many years but only recently saw this wonderful film for the first time. The internerd cunningly delivered the French dubbed version to my computer, which was less of a challenge than I had feared. All the voice-over artists are unusually -and deservedly - credited, and they obviously had a load of fun doing it. Robert Donat is even more debonair and insouciant in French, if that's possible.An absolute sense of fun pervades the script, which kept me grinning all the way through. Reading through the full credits here on IMDb I can now see the reason for the fine cinematography - the amazing Jack Cardiff was behind the lens. I'll have to watch it again to see if I can spot Terry-Thomas. The riddle about the thistle in the heather makes even less sense in French, by the way, and no, I don't get it either.

In this very delightful fantasy, a joint Anglo-American production with Alexander Korda doing it in the United Kingdom and it being partnered by Samuel Goldwyn over on this side of the pond, Robert Donat gets to do two of his best characterizations. Donat plays a 20th century Scot's Laird, forced to sell the family ancestral castle to pay some bills. Along with the castle a ghost goes with it, also played by Donat.A brief prologue gives us the reason why Donat is haunting the place. He showed up late for a battle with the invading redcoats and his father Morton Selten puts a curse on him. He's to be earth bound until he makes some guy from the rival clan do a little crawling to him in response to the ragging Selten has taken from this other crowd.So Donat the ghost has been haunting the family digs for about 200 years plus and his descendant is looking to sell the place. American food tycoon Eugene Palette wants to buy it and Mr. Palette has a lovely daughter in Jean Parker who Donat finds attractive. The castle is taken apart, stone by stone, to be reassembled in Florida and of course The Ghost Goes West with it.If there's a Lubitsch touch for comedy, there's certainly a Rene Clair touch for fantasy. The Ghost Goes West is really a delightful film with Donat's dual performance stealing the show. It's as light and airy as other Clair English language masterpieces as I Married A Witch and It Happened Tomorrow. Do not miss it if it is ever broadcast and it's an indisputable part of any projected Robert Donat film festival.

Robert Donat and Jean Parker...and Eugene Pallett (whose voice was once described like a semi hauling logs driving down a gravel road). Hey, isn't that enough to get you to see it? Add an amusing story of a young Scottish Laird fending off a businessman who wants to buy his castle and a ghost cursed to salvage his family name, romantic intrigues and you have fun, fun, fun. I remember seeing this film as a kid (hey, it was old even then!) and going back to the old Crystal theater to see it again and again. I've heard rumors that a video exists obtainable through a buyer in Canada but if it crosses your screen on the late show, DON'T MISS IT!