The Ghost Comes Home (1940)

[4]

Frank Morgan (The Wizard of Oz) stars in this goofy comedy about a pet shop owner who gets mistaken for dead. His family cashes in his insurance policy, so when he surprises them all by being alive, they work with a clever but reluctant band leader (John Shelton) to hoodwink the bank and keep their money.

The Ghost Comes Home is best when Morgan carries the picture during the first half, and when his family reacts to his return. It takes a peculiarly mean-spirited turn when Morgan treats the family as his own personal servants, however, threatening to walk down the street and blow their cover if they don’t cook him his favorite meals and move the piano to his new attic hideaway. The last half of the movie gets increasingly joyless, with a romantic subplot involving Shelton’s character and Morgan’s daughter (Ann Rutherford), and a whole lot of plotting about how to get away with bank fraud.

The film has a few good early moments, and Frank Morgan is certainly fun to watch at times. Billie Burke (another Wizard of Oz alum) overacts her heart out as Morgan’s wife, but John Shelton shows plenty of natural talent and even a bit of comic timing. Reginald Owen and Donald Meek costar, but the most memorable supporting player is Nat Pendleton as a beefy, somewhat slow friend of the family who is coerced into marriage with a rough and tumble farm girl.