Plot
Chuck Murray (Bud Abbott) and Ferdie Jones (Lou Costello) work at a gas station, but long to move up to waiting tables at Chez Glamour, a high-class nightclub.
Opportunity comes their way and they find themselves working there. But on their very first night, they cause a disturbance and are fired, only to wind up working again at the gas station, when a gangster named "Moose" Matson (William Davidson) brings in his car for servicing. Chuck and Ferdie happen to be inside the vehicle when the gangster speeds off to escape police, who are searching for him. During the chase, the gangster is killed by gunfire, and through a strange clause in his will, Chuck and Ferdie inherit his tavern, Forrester's Club.
The lawyer in charge of the will arranges a private bus (actually just a large car) to take them to the rural tavern, where they arrive during a heavy thunderstorm, but the driver abandons them and the other passengers there and takes off with everyone's luggage, a scheme that is known as the "wildcat bus racket". Unbeknownst to everyone, one of the passengers, Charlie Smith (Marc Lawrence) is a member of Moose's gang, and wants to search the tavern for a hidden money stash. (Moose did give one rather cryptic clue as to the money's location, by stating that he always kept his money "in his head").
As the night progresses, strange things begin to happen, while Charlie is looking for the money in the basement, he disappears. While upstairs, everyone is curious where Charlie went. Chuck, Ferdie, and Doc look for Charlie. While the men look for Charlie the two girls are frightened by a pair of glowing eyes.
When everyone goes to bed, Ferdie finds a hidden door, when he closes it, Charlie's corpse falls to the floor. Everyone begins to panic and two detectives show up. They go back to Charlie's corpse, it is gone. The detectives began to investigate and vanish.
Chuck and Ferdie find a hidden bedroom. When Ferdie puts his pants on a hanger, the room turns into a gambling room. When Chuck comes to see the room and it turns back to the bedroom and Chuck doesn't believe Ferdie and they switch rooms. Once again the bedroom turns into a gambling room and when Ferbie shows Chuck it turns back to a bedroom.
One of the girls goes downstairs for some warm milk. And gets scared from a ghost. The ghost runs to Ferdie's room and hides in the bed. Ferdie runs to the staircase and tells everyone that the ghost is in his room. When everyone gets to Ferbie's room and the ghost disappears, leaving only a sheet. Chuck and Doc decide to go search for the detectives and get out of the tavern. Chuck tells Ferdie to look at a map and find the quickest route back to town. In this especially funny scene, Ferdie stammers and shakes as he nervously describes to his disbelieving friends how a lit candle moves back and forth by itself on a table. Ferdie eventually finds Moose's treasure hidden inside a stuffed moose head.
When everyone counts the money, members of Moose's gang come and demand the money. Everyone denies and the gangsters attack everyone. Ferdie takes the money and gets chased by a few gangsters. When Ferdie gets back downstairs, he tosses the bag to Chuck and Ferdie runs out back. Then everyone hears sirens and the gang flees. Chuck runs to the door, revealing that Ferdie made siren noises to frighten the gangsters.
While Chuck and Ferdie split the money evenly, Doc tells the boys that the water they drank last night can make the ill feel better. Ferdie and Chuck use the money to transform the tavern into a health resort. They hire Ted Lewis and His Orchestra, along with The Andrews Sisters, to headline. Ferdie tries to take some of the money, but is caught by Chuck when he counts the money they made from the opening night.
Read more about this topic: Hold That Ghost
Famous quotes containing the word plot:
“James’s great gift, of course, was his ability to tell a plot in shimmering detail with such delicacy of treatment and such fine aloofness—that is, reluctance to engage in any direct grappling with what, in the play or story, had actually “taken place”Mthat his listeners often did not, in the end, know what had, to put it in another way, “gone on.””
—James Thurber (1894–1961)
“The plot was most interesting. It belonged to no particular age, people, or country, and was perhaps the more delightful on that account, as nobody’s previous information could afford the remotest glimmering of what would ever come of it.”
—Charles Dickens (1812–1870)
“If you need a certain vitality you can only supply it yourself, or there comes a point, anyway, when no one’s actions but your own seem dramatically convincing and justifiable in the plot that the number of your days concocts.”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)