The Live Ghost is a 1934 American short film starring Laurel and Hardy

Laurel and Hardy

Laurel and Hardy were one of the most popular and critically acclaimed comedy double acts of the early Classical Hollywood era of American cinema...

, directed by Charles Rogers

Charley Rogers

Charley Rogers was an English film actor, director and screenwriter, best known for his association with Laurel and Hardy. He appeared in 37 films between 1912 and 1954...

 and produced by Hal Roach

Hal Roach

Harold Eugene "Hal" Roach, Sr. was an American film and television producer and director, and from the 1910s to the 1990s.- Early life and career :Hal Roach was born in Elmira, New York...

.

Plot

A tough sea captain (Walter Long) is unable to hire on any new crew because his ship is reputed to be haunted, so he persuades fish-market workers Laurel and Hardy to shanghai a crew for him at the local bar, offering the pair a dollar a head to do so. There is initial success, but Stan and Ollie themselves get shanghaied, and the other kidnapped sailors vow revenge on the pair. The captain sternly tells his new crew that Stan and Ollie are never to be harmed while they're on the boat, and further warns no one to ever say the word "ghost" to him again, or he'll twist their head around, so that when they're walking north, they'll actually be looking south (an obvious re-emerging of a grisly "body-part rearranging" trait for Long's "tough-guy" character; in his previous film, Going Bye-Bye!, he threatens to "break off their legs and wrap 'em around their necks"). Stan and Ollie never go ashore, and so while the members of the crew are at another bar, they secretly plan to sneak back aboard the ship to "fix" Stan and Ollie, while the captain is away at a different bar and picks up Maisie, a dockside floozy (Mae Busch). An alcoholic sailor (Arthur Housman) who is a member of the captain's original crew (and who is later revealed to be Maisie's wayward husband who had left her and run off to sea sometime earlier) sneaks ashore to go to a bar, and while drunkenly staggering back to the ship, trips and falls into a tub of whitewash, completely coating himself in white. After various complications, Stan and Ollie mistakenly think that they've accidentally shot and killed the drunken sailor, and so they stuff him into a weighted sack and throw him overboard; however, the sailor escapes unharmed from the bag and makes his way back onto the ship --- still covered in whitewash --- and terrifies Stan and Ollie (and also frightens the returning sailors, who immediately jump overboard and swim frantically back to shore), who think he is a ghost. The captain also returns at that same time with Maisie in tow; she was reluctant to marry him because she had heard the stories of his ship being haunted, so he is showing her around the ship to try to prove to her that it is perfectly safe and normal, with no ghosts on board. The boys tells the captain about their having seen a ghost, and the exasperated captain (by now feeling additionally vexed at Laurel and Hardy for causing him to not only lose his "new" crewmembers but now his one "original" sailor, as well --- Maisie recognizes the drunken sailor's face despite his ghastly "make-up", and drives him off the ship with her furled umbrella) irately carries out his promise of twisting their heads around after they say the word "ghost".

Cast

• Stan Laurel
  Stan Laurel
  Arthur Stanley "Stan" Jefferson , better known as Stan Laurel, was an English comic actor, writer and film director, famous as the first half of the comedy team Laurel and Hardy. His film acting career stretched between 1917 and 1951 and included a starring role in the Academy Award winning film...
  
  
• Oliver Hardy
  Oliver Hardy
  Oliver Hardy was an American comic actor famous as one half of Laurel and Hardy, the classic double act that began in the era of silent films and lasted nearly 30 years, from 1927 to 1955.-Early life:...
  
  
• Walter Long
  Walter Long (actor)
  Walter Huntley Long was an American character actor in films from the 1910s. He was born in Nashua, New Hampshire.-Career:He appeared in many D. W...
  
  
• Arthur Housman
  Arthur Housman
  Arthur Housman was an American actor in films during the Golden Age of Hollywood.-Career:Initially as a leading man, Housman later became known as Hollywood's most familiar comic drunkard in films of the 1930s, usually playing cameo parts in features but with better opportunities in short films...
  
  
• Charlie Hall
• Mae Busch
  Mae Busch
  Mae Busch was an Australian film actress who worked in both silent and sound films in early Hollywood. In the latter part of her career, she appeared in many Laurel and Hardy comedies, where she frequently played Hardy's shrewish wife.-Early life and career:Born in Melbourne, Australia, Busch was...
  
  
• Leo Willis
  Leo Willis
  Leo Willis was an American actor in films from the silent days. He played mainly tough guys and comic villains, notably opposite Harold Lloyd, Charley Chase and Laurel and Hardy at the Hal Roach Studios.-Selected filmography:...