The Ghost Breakers

Mary Carter, a young American woman, inherits an old mansion on an island off the coast of Cuba. A stranger telephones to warn her to stay away, and the locals believe the place is haunted, but she sails for Cuba anyway. Hidden in her luggage is Larry Lawrence, a wisecracking radio announcer who becomes her companion as she investigates the stories of ghosts, zombies and voodoo surrounding the estate.

George Marshall directed the film, the first of thirteen features he would make, followed the next year by Texas. Walter DeLeon wrote the screenplay and Arthur Hornblow Jr. produced it for Paramount. Bob Hope plays Larry opposite Paulette Goddard as Mary, with Richard Carlson, Paul Lukas, Anthony Quinn and Willie Best among the thirty-four credited cast members. The film runs eighty-five minutes and mixes comedy with horror and mystery.

Critical response was positive, with a critics' rating of 7.7/10 from eight reviews. On IMDb it holds 7/10 from around 4,500 votes, while on TMDB it has 6.5/10 from 84 votes, so audiences are generally favorable though less enthusiastic than critics. The much larger IMDb sample suggests the film retains a steady following decades after its 1940 release.