Whispering Ghosts
                                
Director: Alfred Werker
Year: 1942
Rating: 4.5
Milton Berle or Uncle Miltie or Mr. Televison as he was known, stars in this comedy murder film in which the mystery is much better than the comedy. This was still fairly early in Berle's adult film career - though he began as a child actor in silent film and then vaudeville before becoming a radio star in the 1930s. It was in the 1950s though that he became a household name in The Milton Berle Show or Texaco Star Show which was a huge hit for years. On Tuesday nights, everyone tuned into Milton Berle for his comedy variety show. He never became a film star though and his TV show has all but disappeared and I think he has vanished to a large degree from the public memory. Some of the shows are up on YouTube.



This is surprisingly unfunny. It is basically one-liners from Berle and most of them fly by so quickly that it was hard to hold on to them. Or they crash and burn. The other humor is from Willie Best who plays Berle's valet. Just seeing his name in the opening credits is like a warning bell to many. He was a top black comedian in his time and the comedy can only be called racist and totally stereotyped. Back then this was very typical but it is hard to watch now. Usually in the films he is in, he gets a few minutes and is gone but he gets the second amount of screen time in this one. And nearly all of it is his being terrified of ghosts, dead bodies, shadows, sounds and everything. It's racist but even worse it gets tiresome fairly quickly. He quivers, shakes, rolls his eyes and stutters. And audiences thought it was hilarious.



Van Buren (Berle) is a host of a radio show in which he solves crimes that the police could not. Each crime runs on for weeks until he announces the guilty party. He is currently investigating a murder that took place ten years ago. A ship owner was murdered on his boat and no killer was ever discovered. The dead man's heir is his niece Elizabeth (Brenda Joyce - played Jane in a few Tarzan films). There is a rumor that there are hidden diamonds on the boat. One night Van Buren, Elizabeth, Willie and a group of other individuals all show looking for the diamonds or evidence of the killer. It feels like a Charlie Chan script that they added a few jokes to. Willie takes the place of Mantan Moreland. Both the Chan films and this one were produced by 20th Century Fox at this time.  Everyone is rummaging around the boat, one gets murdered, a couple get knocked out before the crime is solved - or not really solved but the killer reveals himself. In the film are a few good character actors - John Carradine and the always ghoulish Milton Parsons among them.