The Ghost Goes West

Murdoch Glourie died in a battle two hundred years ago and has been a ghost in the family castle ever since. The castle now belongs to Donald Glourie, who is in debt. An American millionaire buys it, because his daughter Peggy wants it. The castle is taken apart stone by stone and shipped to Florida, and the ghost travels with the cargo. Rebuilt in America, the place still has Murdoch walking through it. Donald and Peggy grow close. The ghost's business is not finished; before he can rest he has a two-hundred-year-old account to settle. René Clair directs the British film; ninety-five minutes, with Robert Donat as both Murdoch and Donald, produced by Alexander Korda. It was Clair's first English-language film and one of the biggest British earners of its day. The joke rests on the American appetite for buying Europe and taking it away.