The Canterville Ghost

Safe and inoffensive fun.

Sir Simon of Canterville gets roped into fighting a duel for his cousin, realising he faces certain death he flees the field awash with cowardice. His father is so enraged as to this stain on the family honour he walls Simon up in the castle without food and water until death does strike him down. He is doomed to haunt the Canterville castle until a fellow member of the family can commit an act of bravery and thus lift the cowardly stain that has besmirched the Canterville name.

Doesn't sound much like a comedy does it? But it is, and a very amiable one at that. Loosely based on Oscar Wilde's story of the same name, The Canterville Ghost benefits from a couple of charming performances from Charles Laughton as...

An engaging story about a 17th Century cowardly spirit (Charles Laughton) who is condemned to haunt his family's castle until he does something worthy and brave that will release him from his curse. When a group of American soldiers are billeted there during WWII it transpires that one of their number is a distant relative and that maybe he, "Cuffy" (Robert Young), can help him escape his purgatory. It's a fairly swift-paced ghost story with, aside from a rather annoying Margaret O'Brien as the young "Lady Jessica", plenty of comedic charm that raises a smile now and again. Laughton, Young and Una O'Connor are on fine form and though maybe not laugh-out-loud, it's still a fine family adventure.