Earthbound (1940)

So much average

Excellent but underrated film

A brilliant film that helped define a genre

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Everything starts off on the right mood for this supernatural romance that switches jarringly between comedy and drama and ultimately hits the wrong notes. Warner Baxter plays a charming scandal who seems happily married to Andrea Leeds but is plagued with a fatal attraction of a mistress (Lynn Bari) who happens to be married to his best friend (Henry Wilcoxin). She arranges for a confrontation which results in shots being fired, and immediately, his spirit leaves his body, a la Patrick Swayze in "Ghost". A farce of a trial follows with Wilcoxin accused and Bari desperately trying to hide her identity from a witness who saw her with the deceased. Baxter looks on, spouting like a fool who keeps forgetting he's a ghost and that nobody can see him or hear him. The whole courtroom scene just gets more and more maddening, going between the farce of a fool of a witness to everybody violently over-acting.Like Clarence, the angel in the not yet made "It's a Wonderful Life", Baxter has his own mystical being, the wise, old Charley Grapewin who guides him in several scenes with the little grace that the film has. Elizabeth Patterson, as Leeds' companion, seems to have no other purpose her than to spout wisecracks about Bari, ready to let her husband take the rap for murder and return to America. Baxter continuously haunts his wife to get her to psychologically hear him so she can find the weapon that killed him and clear the imprisoned Wilcoxin.Sumptuously crafted, this is one of the best looking of the ghost films of this era, dating back to "Topper" and continuing with fantasies like "On Borrowed Time", "Here Comes Mr. Jordan" and "The Devil and Daniel Webster". Yet, as riveting as it is, it doesn't completely satisfy because it all seems to be a bit too much, like an opera overstuffed with chorus but little substance. I can definitely call this well intended, and didn't entirely feel cheated, but I wished that it had all come together in a tighter package than what ended up being released.

Light drama and sentiment mixes reasonably well for this thin story involving an American businessman in Europe who is shot to death by a former flame; he ends up attending his own murder trial in ghostly form, only to see the wrong person convicted for the crime. Why another person should accept blame (and life in prison) for a killing they didn't commit is something the picture never takes the time to iron out, and Warner Baxter is initially a dismaying hero with little personality (he improves however, as does the film after a slow start). Charley Grapewin is terrific as a Bible-reading stranger who can converse with Baxter's ghost, and Elizabeth Patterson is also very good as a busy-body. The film itself is extremely slight, with one special effect which becomes rather tedious, though director Irving Pichel keeps the narrative fairly tight and drives the movie to a satisfying wrap-up. ** from ****

This gooey concoction stars Warner Baxter as a happily married businessman murdered by the woman he previously spurned (Lynn Bari). His ghost, unable to rest because Bari's loyal husband (Henry Wilcoxon) is taking the rap for her, returns from the grave to make sure wife Andrea Leeds somehow determines the truth. He's aided along the way by the one man on Earth who can see him and talk to him: a pontificating bible-thumper played by Charley Grapewin. We don't learn what makes Grapewin so special--he doesn't seem to be a Mr. Jordan like angel or a Cedric Hardwicke style Grim Reaper--but his handy King James Bible apparently supplies him with a communication system to the beyond. Baxter spends the film tagging along behind Leeds, nagging her from beyond the grave until she stumbles across the evidence needed to free Wilcoxon and put Bari away. The deceased hubby can than, apparently rest in peace (whatever THAT may entail), as he bids a platitudinous farewell to the annoying Grapewin, who shuffles off stage as Baxter picks up a dead (?) bird, presumably symbolic of something. If you enjoy seeing death infantilized to the nth degree (or simply enjoy Christian mythology), Earthbound is for you.

Dig those 1940 special effects, Wow! Super-imposed ghost is the star. Lots of funny scenes, especially in courtroom where the murdered man's ghost is trying to help expose the real murderer. Actually this movie is mush for muddled minds, great for late night or lazy afternoon.