Wilde thing

The Canterville Ghost

(1944)

Golly, what hokum: Margaret O'Brien is unbearably cute, Charles Laughton is the titular phantasm, condemned in the 17th century for the cowardice that is the family heritage, and Robert Young as the Yank soldier who must redeem the line. The suspense over whether he will get the job done is as intense as that over whether O'Brien will get an adorable fadeout. Based on a short story by Oscar Wilde, and pushing it to 95 minutes leaves in flabbier than Laughton, especially in the opening, where a backstory that could have been handled sufficiently in 90 seconds is stretched to an excruciating 12 minutes or so.