The Ghost Breaker (1922 film)

The Ghost Breaker
The Ghost Breaker
	Film poster
Directed by	Alfred E. Green
Written by	Jack Cunningham (adaptation); Walter De Leon (scenario)
Based on	The Ghost Breaker; by Paul Dickey and Charles W. Goddard (play)
Produced by	Adolph Zukor; Jesse L. Lasky
Starring	Wallace Reid; Lila Lee; Arthur Edmund Carewe; Snitz Edwards
Cinematography	William Marshall
Production; company	Famous Players–Lasky
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release dates	September 10, 1922 (New York City); October 15, 1922 (United States);
Running time	57 minutes
Country	United States
Language	Silent (English intertitles)

The Ghost Breaker is a 1922 American silent horror comedy film about haunted houses and ghosts. It was produced by Famous Players–Lasky and distributed through Paramount Pictures.^[1] It was directed by Alfred E. Green and starred Wallace Reid in one of his last screen roles. The story, based on the 1909 play The Ghost Breaker by Paul Dickey and Charles W. Goddard, had been released on film in 1914 (bearing the same name), directed by Cecil B. DeMille and Oscar Apfel.

The 1922 version is now considered lost.^[2]^[3] Two of the actors in this film, Snitz Edwards and Arthur Edmund Carewe, later appeared together in the 1925 Lon Chaney silent classic The Phantom of the Opera. Two uncredited "ghosts" in the cast, Mervyn LeRoy and Richard Arlen, later went on to successful film careers.^[4]

The Ghost Breaker would be remade in the sound era as The Ghost Breakers (1940) with Bob Hope and Paulette Goddard, and later as Scared Stiff (1953) starring Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin.^[5]

Plot edit

Warren Jarvis and his manservant Rusty Snow help a beautiful young heiress named Maria Theresa to rid her father's mansion of ghosts. The spooks turn out to be fakes however, fabricated by the Duke D'Alba to scare the young lady away, thus allowing him to steal her father's hidden gold.

Cast edit

Wallace Reid as Warren (Walter) Jarvis, ghost breaker
Lila Lee as Maria Theresa, a Spanish heiress
Walter Hiers (in blackface) as Rusty Snow, a Negro servant
Arthur Edmund Carewe as Duke D'Alba, leader of the ghosts
J. Farrell MacDonald as Sam Marcum, a Kentucky feudist
Frances Raymond as Aunt Mary Jarvis
Snitz Edwards as Maurice
Richard Arlen as A Ghost (uncredited)
Mervyn LeRoy as A Ghost (uncredited)
George O'Brien as A Ghost (uncredited)

References edit

^ The AFI Catalog of Feature Films:The Ghost Breaker(Wayback)
^ Soister, John T. (2012). American Silent Horror, Science Fiction and Fantasy Feature Films, 1913-1929. McFarland. p. 222. ISBN 978-0-786-48790-5.
^ Reid, Wallace (May 5, 1922). "The Ghost Breaker" – via memory.loc.gov.
^ Workman, Christopher; Howarth, Troy (2016). "Tome of Terror: Horror Films of the Silent Era". Midnight Marquee Press. p. 250.ISBN 978-1936168-68-2.
^ Kabatchnik, Amnon (2011). Blood On the Stage, 1950-1975: Milestone Plays of Crime, Mystery and Detection. Scarecrow Press. p. 306. ISBN 978-0-810-87784-9.