The Ghost Goes West is a 1935 British romantic comedy / fantasy film starring Robert Donat and Jean Parker and directed by Rene Clair. This film was Clair’s first English-language film. The film contrasts an Old World ghost dealing with American vulgarity.
This rather cosmopolitan production combines an Hungarian-born British producer, a French director, and an American writer in a British film. This movie was the biggest grossing movie in 1936 in Great Britain.
The film was referenced in Is There Honey Still for Tea? an episode of Dad's Army, when it is proposed a cottage is moved in a similar style to the castle in the film.
Plot
Peggy Martin (Jean Parker), the daughter of a rich American businessman (Eugene Pallette), persuades him to purchase a Scottish castle from Donald Glourie (Robert Donat), dis-assemble it and move it to Florida. Along with the castle goes its ghost.
Murdoch Glourie (Donat again) haunts the castle after dying a coward’s death in the 18th century. To find rest, he must find a descendent of the enemy Clan MacClaggan and have him admit that one Glourie is worth fifty MacClaggans.
The plot resembles Oscar Wilde’s The Canterville Ghost (1887).
Cast
Awards
Rene Clair was nominated for the Mussolini Cup at the 1936 Venice Film Festival.
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