Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 9786300148697
Format: NTSC
ISBN: 6300148696
Label: Nelson Entertainment
Manufacturer: Nelson Entertainment
Publisher: Nelson Entertainment
Running Time: 95
Studio: Nelson Entertainment
Theatrical Release Date: 1936-02-07

Customer Rating:
Summary: There IS NO 95 minute version of this film, IMDB has it wrong.
Comment: I uploaded the correct back of the Nelson/Embassy release on the other VHS listing for this film, where you can see it's 82 minutes (about halfway between the bottom photo and the FBI logo). THERE IS NO 95 minute version of this film, IMDB has that wrong. Leonard Maltin's Guide correctly states 82 minutes as the theatrical release time.

Do not be dissuaded from buying the Embassy or HBO releases on VHS, they are both the correct 82 minutes regardless of what their product page says (95 minutes). Hopefully Amazon will correct both listings, I sent them the info for the HBO release at:

http://www.troynovant.com/Franson-3/Clair/Ghost-Goes-West.html

Great movie. Enjoy!

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable, despite technical inadequacies.
Comment: Alas! If this old charmer has been on your "once seen never forgotten' list, and you hope that remastering will bring it to you in improved quality, then you'll be disappointed. I didn't expect anything could be done to improve the stagey, static camera work, but I had hoped for improvement in the sound track. Ah, well, If you can get past these inadequacies, there is much to enjoy. It has an engaging story-line with similarities to Oscar Wilde's "The Canterville Ghost". René Clair, Alexander Korda and Mischa Spoliansky contribute in various ways, and Robert Donat in kilts, sporrans, ghillies, cloaks and broached berets makes a credible Scot and an endearing, re-locating ghost.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Deja Vue
Comment: This old movie is most appropriate as it parallels the scenario of my nephew who has built two castles just north of Merritt at Nicola Lake. It is adjacent to the 'Gang Ranch' and is the site of the annual Merritt Music Festival.
Coincidently, his name is Donald and his grandfather was Murdoch. He has outfitted the castles with armour and antiquities and has also acquired the title of Baron of Rothy. A Scottish revival is in full swing with gatherings of the McLeods at intervals. I enjoyed the film in 1936 and still appreciate its spoof of the Scots.
George McLeod

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Customer Rating:
Summary: A marvelous, enchanting fantasy-comedy
Comment: Of all the great European directors who came to Hollywood in the thirties and forties, René Clair may have enjoyed the most successful exile, directing the classics I MARRIED A WITCH and AND THEN THERE WERE NONE. But, before traveling from Paris over the Atlantic to the New World, Clair enjoyed a brief sojourn in Great Britain, where he made this marvelous and unjustly neglected comedy.

The plot is simple: a land rich/cash poor Scotsman sells the family castle to a rich American millionaire, who has the castle moved to the US stone by stone. The difficulty is that the castle is haunted, and the ghost moves with the castle to its new locale. We therefore get a ghost fantasy with a different twist: a ghost has to deal with culture shock.

For me, three things make this film stand out. First, Robert Donat is marvelous as the ghost/impoverished seller. Had Donat lived later in the 20th century, he would have been far, far more successful as an actor, and infinitely more active. Donat suffered from nearly debilitating asthma condition that severely limited his screen appearances (as well as some serious stage fright, or, in this case, screen fright). This performance is one of his finest. Second, Eugene Pallette enjoys one of his greatest roles. Pallette is perhaps best known as Friar Tuck in the Errol Flynn THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD, and almost as well known in THE LADY EVE and MY MAN GODFREY. He actually appeared in a vast number of films from the beginning of the silent era all the way to his death in 1946. Yet, his major roles were relatively few. I find his stern scowl, rotund physique, and softhearted core to be enchanting. The third reason the film succeeds is the deft and light-hearted direction of René Clair. Partly because he suffered a sharp post-WW II decline, Clair is not as fondly remembered as he ought to be. He directed the two Hollywood classic I mentioned above, but was even better in the early 1930s, directing in France such masterpieces as SOUS LES TOITS DE PARIS and À NOUS LA LIBERTE, as well as one of my all time favorite films, the utterly delightful musical LE MILLION.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: GLORIOUS GHOST COMEDY.
Comment: This somewhat crude, frolicsome satire on America was written by the the great playwright Robert E. Sherwood and was directed by the esteemed Rene Clair: A rich American, played by basso-voiced Eugene Pallette, buys Glourie Castle in Scotland (complete with it's miserable ghostly inhabitant) and has it dismantled and shipped across the Atlantic to Sunnymeade, Florida where it's reconstructed complete with plumbing and electricity...The movie is very lucky in its star: Robert Donat brings elegance and his melancholy face and voice to the dual role of Donald Glourie and Murdoch Glourie, his phantom ancestor - and, intermittently, he redeems the action. Elsa Lanchester and Jean Parker are amusing in this mid-thirties frolic in which Americans were poked fun at. They took the barbs good-naturedly and loved the film; it was a very popular picture at the box-office.

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