Producer: Sol M. Wurtzel. Copyright 22 May 1942 by 20th Century-Fox Film Corp. New York release at the Rialto: 17 May 1942. U.S. release: 22 May 1942. Sydney release at the Civic: 7 August 1942. Australian release: 13 August 1942. U.S. length: 6,745 feet (75 minutes). Australian length: 6,948 feet (77 minutes).SYNOPSIS: Radio comic solves mystery of haunted treasure ship.COMMENT: A most enjoyable B-picture with an amusing, intriguing script, a top-flight cast and excellent production values. Milton Berle is at the top of his form and delivers the script's many wisecracks with the same brilliant timing and dexterity as he manually disarms Abner Biberman (whom he mistakenly supposes to be an actor).Speaking of actors, there are two deliciously hammy performances from John Carradine and Renie Riano which are spot on in character and reveal a range of subtlety unmarked elsewhere in their careers. Grady Sutton too for one brief flash shows an unexpected capacity to be a menacing heavy. Frank Faylen has a nice cameo as a replacement announcer (the script device that works Faylen into the plot has us puzzling for a while but it turns out to be a typically brilliant piece of Philip N. MacDonald plot construction). Milton Parsons has another of his sinister sepulchral roles which Arthur Hohl gives a typical portrayal as the harassing detective — and Harry Hayden as the harassed sponsor. We like Charles Halton's scared lawyer and Abner Biberman scuttling about in the shadows.Brenda Joyce gives an attractive performance and whilst her Herschel costumes are now somewhat dated, she still looks pretty good to us. Many of Berle's jokes are made at the expense of Willie Best who provides plenty of chuckles with his deft portrait of a cowardly valet.Alfred Werker's direction is considerably above his usual standard — the close-up on Halton as he waits nervously for the lift and glances over his shoulder will knock audiences to the back of their seats, while the tracking and panning shots with torch beams over the rotting hulk keep suspense high.The art direction is masterly and is arguably the most lavishly atmospheric ever achieved in a "B" picture and is ably abetted by Lucien Ballard's superbly calculated-for-thrills cinematography. Other production credits are A-1 and production values, even by Fox's high B-feature standards, are exceptional.

Whispering Ghosts (1942) ** 1/2 (out of 4) Radio host H.H. Van Buren (Milton Berle) does a weekly show where he introduces a cold case and then the following week gives away the real murderer. With the latest mystery expected to bring him a ton a new listeners he realizes that he really doesn't know who the killer is so he heads out to a creepy boat where he comes under attack from a man with a hatchet.WHISPERING GHOSTS is a comedy that has several of the "old dark house" elements thrown in for fun. Of course, the biggest difference is that they involve a ship instead of a house but for the most part this Fox comedy is entertaining enough if you enjoy these old time mysteries. It certainly helps that you've got a pretty good cast of characters and plenty of horror elements.We should be honest that the entire story isn't anything too great but at just 75 minutes the director and cast get enough out of it to make for an entertaining movie. Berle appears to be having fun playing this wannabe detective and he and Willie Best actually have a very good chemistry together. Their work certainly brings a few laughs from the screenplay. Also on hand is Brenda Joyce as the new owner of the ship of John Carradine gets to play a weird man who ends up on the ship.The horror elements are a plenty as there's a lot of fog, mysterious figures walking around, scary glowing eyes and other items. WHISPERING GHOSTS certainly isn't a masterpiece but it's a solid entertaining.

This is a good film and a fine example of the scare comedies popular in the 1940's. Bob Hope specialized in this type of comedy and he would have been much better in this. Milton Berle is OK but his jokes aren't as good and his acting is too broad. Of course Berle always did broad comedy and deliberately overacted and it usually worked. Look at "Mad, Mad World" for example. Here his bad acting weakens the film. On the plus side the blond is nice to look at and Willie Best steals the film with his brilliant comedy reactions. Willie Best was always the best thing in every movie he was in. I don't know what they paid this guy but it wasn't enough.

Whispering Ghosts boasts some interesting credits, among them screenwriter Lou Breslow, who had a flair for offbeat comedy, journeyman director Alfred Werker, who made some decent films, B producer Sol Wurtzel, and star Milton Berle. Miltie was still a few years away from his his great television success, and here plays a radio actor out to solve a murder mystery aboard a pirate ship. The supporting cast, as is so often the case in this kind of lighthearted borderline horror fare, is first rate: Brenda Joyce, John Carradine, Edmund McDonald, and another Milton, Parsons, without whom this kind of movie wouldn't seem complete. This is an agreeable comedy, not so much hilarious as pleasingly familiar in nearly every respect, as everything about it feels recycled, including the sets, and this is not in itself a bad thing, as Hollywood excelled at this kind of formula in the forties, and handled it better in this sort of cramped, intimate second feature than in bigger budgeted films. This one's done just right, not too big, not too small.