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April 2003, Week 3

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From:
"Larsson, Donald F" <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Film and TV Studies Discussion List <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Sun, 20 Apr 2003 00:07:05 -0500
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Lots of low-budget series films have at least a couple of possibilities in them: Abbot & Costello, Charlie Chan (DEAD MEN TELL, among others), the Three Stooges (THE GHOST TALKS, for instance), Dead End Kids, a bunch of cartoons (mostly Warner Bros.), etc--even some low-budget Westerns.  Many of these set the basic motif for SCOOBY-DOO and the like, although Washington Irving's THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW might qualify as a literary origin.  Some of Melies's shorts play with the concept in early film.

Some others that sort of qualify:
THE AMAZING MR. X (1948) with Turhan Bey
THE GHOST GOES WILD (1947)
THE SMILING GHOST (1941)

Other, better films that sort of qualify might include the Val Lewton productions I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE and THE LEOPARD MAN.

Don Larsson
"Only connect" --E.M. Forster
Donald F. Larsson
English Dept., AH 230
Minnesota State University
Mankato, MN  56001


        -----Original Message-----
        From: Miller, James Andrew (UMC-Student) [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
        Sent: Sat 4/19/2003 12:27 PM
        To: [log in to unmask]
        Cc:
        Subject: "Almost ghost" or pseudo-ghost films?



        Screenlisters:

        I'm looking at a lot of ghost movies from the 1940s (Ghost and Mrs Muir, Portrait of Jennie, A Guy Named Joe) and began to notice that there seem to be quite a few of what I might call "almost ghost" or "pseudo ghost" films in the period.

        Examples:
        The Ghost Breakers (1941): the ghost turns out to be a scam...
        Laura
        The Lost Moment (1947): adaptation of James' "The Aspern Papers"-- Miss Tina
        isn't literally a ghost but has almost made herself one by sheer force of will...

        Can you think of any more films of the 40s that are like these? Either the viewer is temporarily led to believe there is a ghost at work, or else one or more characters behave in a ghostly manner while the viewer is let in on the truth.

        Andy Miller
        University of Missouri-Columbia

        ----
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        http://bama.ua.edu/archives/screen-l.html


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