GHOSTS WITH THE MOST
Don’t miss a trick... or treat. Marion McMullen finds some friendly screen spooks for your Halloween movie night
1 REX HARRISON played a newly-wed haunted by the ghost of his first wife Elvira in director David Lean’s lively 1945 film comedy Blithe Spirit, left. It was adapted from Noel Coward’s stage hit and saw Kay Hammond as the mischievous ghost who returns from the grave following a séance.
2 TWO years later it was Rex Harrison playing the spirit of an old sea captain in the 1947 movie The Ghost And Mrs Muir. The supernatural romance saw a young widow moving into a seaside cottage with her young daughter (played by an eight-year-old Natalie Wood) only to discover the property has its own resident ghost.
3 OF course, if you have a problem with ghosts who you gonna call?
Supernatural comedy Ghostbusters saw Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, pictured, and Harold Ramis dealing with all manner of spooks in New York in 1984.
Ray Parker Jr won a Bafta for his famous theme tune.
4 OSCAR Wilde’s delightful and haunting tale The Canterville Ghost has been filmed several times over the years.
Charles Laughton played Sir Simon de Canterville, a cowardly spirit doomed to haunt the family castle until a brave deed can set him free, in the 1944 movie. “I have roamed these halls for three centuries and I am so tired,” he declares.
5 HIGH Spirits in 1988 saw Peter O’Toole as the owner of a whole hotel filled with ghosts.
He tries to attract visitors by claiming his failing property is the most haunted in Ireland... but then a few real ghosts check in.
Neil Jordan, who wrote and directed the comedy fantasy, once said: “I’m fascinated by monsters and monstrous people.”
6 ALAN Rickman was the ghost who came back to console his distraught partner Nina (Juliet Stevenson) in the emotional 1990 film Truly, Madly, Deeply, right.
However, sharing a home comes with drawbacks – when undead friends turn up to visit. Nina wails: “I can’t believe I have a bunch of dead people watching videos in my living room.”
7 GHOST also came out in 1990 and saw Patrick Swayze play murdered husband Sam who remains on Earth to stay close to his grieving widow Molly (Demi Moore).
Swayze later called the movie’s famous pottery scene the sexiest thing he had ever done on film.
8 EDDIE Murphy played an estate agent who pops along to check out the wrong property in 2003 comedy The Haunted Mansion, inspired by the Disney attraction of the same name.
He diverts his family from a weekend away to stop by the mansion only to discover it is home to a host of ghosts.
9 CARY GRANT and Constance Bennett played a fun-loving ghostly couple in 1937 comedy Topper.
They are stuck in limbo until they can do a good deed and decide stuffy hen-pecked banker Cosmo Topper, played by Roland Young, can do with a helping hand. The movie proved so popular it was followed by two sequels.
10 CASPER is one ghost who wouldn’t say boo to anyone. The friendly ghost appeared in the 1995 family movie alongside Bill Pullman and Christina Ricci.
“All I want is a friend,” the lonely spirit tells the new residents of the ramshackle Whipstaff Manor.
Ghostbusters actor Dan Aykroyd is seen running from the manor at one point shouting “Who you gonna call? Someone else”.