Thirteen Ghosts (of Celluloid)

Halloween is gone and Christmas is still a number of weeks away. I like to think of the time between October 31 and December 25 as the Ghost Season. In North America, we do the ghouls and ghosts in October, but traditionally in England, ghosts were for Christmas. Those fifty six days are a great time to enjoy some creepy stories, even in cartoon form. Here’s my thirteen picks for ghostly cartoons from decades past with some commentary. Even these funny, frivolous fillers, used in theaters to extend the experience (how I miss them!) when watching a film, can contain elements from the days of the Victorians. For me as a kid, this started with “Lonesome Ghosts”, the Disney cartoon. This was probably my first exposure to the idea of ghost hunters too.

Now there are some great cartoons with monsters like Tweety Bird  turning into Mr. Hyde or Witch Hazel or Gossamer chasing Bugs along with several others with “monsters” like dancing skeletons (Not to mention the “Night on Bald Mountain” sequence in Fantasia (1940) but these selections are all about ghosts and ghost stories. The playful and transparent tricksters may resemble people or sheets or whatever they want to turn into. From cartoons such as Casper the Friendly Ghost we get the generic ghost that will one day be featured on The Ghostbusters logo. (There was a legal case over that image. Harvey Comics felt their character Fatso had been infringed upon but the case was dropped.)

The 1920s

“The Haunted House” (December 2, 1929) from Disney.  Mickey is stuck in a storm so he seeks shelter in a house that looks like a face. The place is haunted with a self-locking door, bats, and finally, a ghost. The ghost looks like a hooded figure with black face and hands until it reveals its skeletal head. The ghost forces Mickey to play so skeletons can dance about. He eventually escapes. (It borrows animation from “Skeleton Dance” from August of the same year.) This one is interesting because the ghost is so different from what will come later.

The 1930s

“Scrappy’s Ghost Story” (May 24, 1935) from Columbia. The story begins with Scrappy teasing his little brother with a scary story. The story becomes real and the ghost sings, “I’m a ghost!” The little brother comes into the dream and the boys are surrounded by more ghosts. Here we have the first sheet ghost that will eventually become Casper.

“Lonesome Ghosts” (December 24, 1937) from Disney. Mickey, Donald and Goofy are ghostbreakers. They are called by the ghosts to come to their haunted house to be tricked and fooled. In the end, the three are covered in flour and syrup and look like ghosts. They scare the real ghosts away. The ghost designer for this cartoon made the ghosts more human-looking though they retain a sense of sheet in their clothing. The ghostbreaker element may have been inspired by the play, The Ghostbreaker (1909).

“A Haunting We Will Go” (1939)  from Columbia.We get the first case of Casper style frightening for fun with the little ghost scaring an owl. Lil Eightball doesn’t believe in ghosts so he isn’t scared. The little ghost takes him to meet the others, again something like what Casper does living with the Ghostly Trio. These ghosts look like Disney’s ghosts from “Lonesome Ghosts” with derby hats. The racist elements in this cartoon are pretty obvious.

“Jeepers Creepers” (September 23, 1939) from Warner Bros. Porky Pig is the first WB character to be featured. Porky is a cop sent to investigate a haunted house. We hear terrible screams but these are coming from a Radio show. (First use of a Radio in these cartoons. Radio had The Shadow, Lights Out and other programs with scary moments.) It is a ghost listening. He is of the sheet variety. He sings a version of “Jeepers Creepers” (from the 1938 movie, Going Places.) The rest is the ghost chasing Porky around the house and in the road. The cartoon ends with its own racist joke, Porky’s exhaust turns the ghost black.

The 1940s

“The Haunted Mouse” (February 14, 1941) from Warner Bros. A cat wanders into a ghost town. The town is haunted by a vengeful mouse ghost. The mouse drives the starving cat to suicide. Mouse thinks he is rid of his victim but the ghost cat chases him out of town. This cartoon may have borrowed from Tom & Jerry, who were created a year earlier.

“Fraidy Cat” (January 17, 1942) from MGM. But Tom & Jerry get their own ghost story, one of 114 cartoons together. Tom the cat is listening to a Horror program on the Radio. Jerry the Mouse takes advantage of Tom’s taut nerves to prank him. Much the same as “The Haunted Mouse” but appeared almost a year later.

“Duck Pimples” (August 10, 1945) from Disney. Donald Duck is listening to a scary Radio Mystery shows and reading novels with plenty of murder in them. He gets worked up like the cats before him. Characters from his imagination torture him. All the characters that haunt him get scared and leap back into their books.

“The Friendly Ghost” (November 16, 1945) from Famous Studios. This was Casper’s first appearance of fifty-five cartoons. Casper desperately wants friends so he leaves his haunted house. Everyone runs away saying “A g-g-g-ghost!” when they realize his nature. He finds a family that accepts him in the end (at least until the next cartoon) The other ghosts are sheet ghosts and not the Ghostly Trio yet. Casper’s body would change over time, much as Elmer Fudd did. His dumpy body would become more childlike with a larger head.

The 1950s

“Claws For Alarm” (May 22, 1954) from Warner Bros. Classic Porky and Sylvester in a house haunted by malicious mice. Critics have singled this one for its Horror movie ending where the evil is not vanquished only escaped.

“Spooky Swabs” (August 9, 1957) from Paramount. Popeye and Olive Oyl are shipwreck survivors on a raft. They come across a ghost ship, The Sea Witch. The ghostly swabs torture the two living people until Popeye finds some of Ye King’s Spinach and teaches them a lesson. Olive sews the ghosts into a sail and they head home. The ghosts have that generic look that The Ghost Busters will use in 1984.

The 1960s

“Spook-a-Nanny” (1964) from Walter Lantz. This cartoon was from a Halloween special that had Woody trick-or-treating as a ghost. Later real ghosts show up and they resemble the Beatles with mop-top hair. Woody steals a sheet from one and joins the band. Other Lantz character appear too.

“Pink Panic” (January 11, 1967) from Mirish Films Inc. Pink wanders into a ghost town called Dead Dog during a storm. His ghostly enemy is formed from a sheet over a chair. He is also chased by a skeleton. Later Pink and the ghost have a Western style gun battle. They make so much noise the sheriff comes and arrests them. With daylight, the phantoms disappear and Pink is alone.

Conclusion

The filmmakers who produced these cartoons were always focused on the possibilities for comedy. Disappearing and appearing forms make great props and allow for much slapstick. The things that might have frightened Victorian ghost story and Gothic readers, such as ghostly forms or skeletons, are things to laugh at here. There is no blood and only occasionally death. But even those, like the cat in “The Haunted Mouse”, who die will return as ghosts themselves. The humor is good-natured. In my collection Ghoultide Greetings, there is humor, like the alien that assumes the form of Santa Claus projected from a young boy’s mind. But the end is never good. Unlike Walt Disney, Chuck Jones and Friz Freling, I’m not all that interested in the laugh. I want the cold chill that runs down your spine.