Washington Delaware Jones (Mantan Moreland) and his pal Jefferson (F.E. Miller) are a couple of down and out guys just looking for their next meal. After being run out of the last town they were in, the guys try to steal a chicken but get run off again by the owner of the chicken. The guys then come across two men, Mr. Brown (Harold Garrison) and Mr. Dawson (Jessie Cryer), in a fancy car and their chauffer (Napoleon Whiting). When the car runs out of gas, the two men send the chauffer to get more.
In the meantime, Washington and Jefferson see two pigeons and strike up a game of dice with the rich guys. By the time the chauffer returns with gas, Washington has won everything the men own, including their car and their clothes. The chauffer tells Washington and Jefferson that Brown and Dawson had been on their way to “Dr Brutus Blake’s Sanitarium and Country Club”. Washington and Jefferson decide to check it out.
The Sanitarium and Country Club is actually a nightclub and gambling joint. Washington begins flirting with the club’s hostess and Blake’s girlfriend (Florence O’Brien). Blake (Maceo Bruce Sheffield) gets jealous, but the hostess tells him that the guys have a lot of money on them. Blake invites them to the back room where a game of craps is being played. Washington, being really good with dice, manages to win the entire club from Blake.
Unknown by everyone is that Blake’s deceased family members are buried in a small cemetery next to the club. The ghosts in the cemetery, especially Blake’s Uncle Ezra (Henry Hastings), are sick of all the noise coming from the mansion. The ghosts decide to take back the house and scare everybody away.
“Lucky Ghost” AKA “Lady Luck” was released in 1942 and was directed by William Beaudine. Beaudine is credited as William X. Crowley. It is a comedy with some horror aspects. The film is billed as a sequel to “Mr. Washington Goes to Town” 1942.
Lucky Ghost’s claim to fame is that it is part of Black Cinema. The film features and all black cast and was intended to be a film for black film goers. Plus, it has Mantan Moreland which is always good in my book. The film was produced by Dixie National Film Exchanges, a company that made only a few films. The company specialized in movies with black casts for black audiences.
It’s a cute little comedy but the horror parts are slim. It also has some slapstick and a bunch of one-liners. Coming from the early forties, the film has the usual racist tropes. Apparently white people believe that black people think the same things are funny that they do. Still, it is one of the better racist films done in that era, especially when you consider the restraints filmmakers were under when it came to creating films for black audiences.
Mantan and F.E. Miller had been vaudeville partners at one time. The film also features Maceo B. Sheffield, with the smallest moustache I’ve ever seen in my life.