Scared Stiff Summary
Director: George Marshall
Genres: Comedy, Mystery
Rating:
Scared Stiff is the 1953 remake of the 1940 Bob_Hope-Paulette_Goddard vehicle The_Ghost_Breakers, reupholstered for the talents of Dean_Martin and Jerry_Lewis. While Martin handles the straight plot scenes, just as Hope did in the earlier film, the Hope-like wisecracks are fairly evenly divided between Martin and Lewis. Lewis is for the most part relegated to the secondary role played by black comedian Willie_Best in Ghost_Breakers, with a few opportunities for his manic specialties: his personal highlight is an imitation of Carmen_Miranda (who also appears in the flesh). The plot is the same as before: an American heiress (Lizabeth_Scott) is warned to stay away from the forbidding Cuban mansion that she's inherited. Disregarding these threats, the girl heads to Cuba, along with Martin and Lewis, who are on the lam from various antagonists (Dean has been falsely accused of murder, while Lewis has run afoul of gangsters). Once they've reached Scott's mansion, Martin and Lewis are confronted by all manner of terrors: a ghost, a zombie, a mysterious assailant (who turns out to be the least likely suspect). It turns out that the mansion is built over a huge cache of hidden gold, which is why the bad guy is so anxious to make Scott and the boys skedaddle. Bob_Hope and Bing_Crosby make gag appearances toward the end of Scared Stiff; returning the favor, Martin and Lewis would show up unbilled in the Hope-Crosby opus Road to Bali (1953). Hal Erickson, Rovi
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