Director: Arthur Lubin
Seven years before Bud Abbott and Lou Costello would dive headfirst into the horror lexicon with their classic Bud Abbott Lou Costello Meet Frankenstein, the team spoofed the old, dark house genre with Hold That Ghost. Much of the formula predicts their later, more popular pictures–namely, Abbott keeps just missing the supernatural occurrences that Costello is frightened by–however the craft is not quite on par. Director Arthur Lubin is responsible for one of the duos most famous gags (the candle scene), but much of the film is sloppily handled, with a number of continuity errors. Worsening matters, to lengthen the runtime and give the film more marquee value, bookending sequences involving Ted Lewis and the Andrews Sisters are shoehorned in with flimsy narrative reasoning. The only real treat is the supporting role by Joan Davis as a radio show screamer, who matches Costello’s brand of physical comedy when she joins him with a hilarious dance number.
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