Nick (Warner Baxter) and Ellen Desborough (Andrea Leeds) have been married for five years and are on their second honeymoon in Switzerland. Nick receives a telegram instructing him to return to Paris on business. Believing that the cable is from his solicitor, Amos Totten (Ian Wolfe), Nick leaves Ellen in Switzerland and returns by train to Paris. On the train he meets Mr. Whimser (Charley Grapewin), a bible enthusiast.
When Nick gets to Paris, he finds out that the telegram wasn’t sent by Totten or by Nick’s partner, Dr. Jeff Reynolds (Henry Wilcoxon). Instead, it came from Jeff’s wife, Linda (Lynn Bari). Nick and Linda had an affair sometime in the past, but Nick called it off and recommitted to Ellen. Linda is still in love with Nick and refuses to believe that he doesn’t love her, so she leaves Jeff and tries to convince Nick to take her back. When Nick rejects her again, Linda shoots him. The gun falls into the fireplace and slips through the ash dump door. The shot brings Jeff running into the room.
Jeff takes the blame for the murder and is put on trial. Nick’s spirit is trapped on Earth unable to rest until the real murderer, Linda, confesses. The only one who can see Nick is the train companion, Mr. Whimser. Whimser becomes Nick’s mentor on how to handle the afterlife. With Whimser as his guide, Nick tries to mentally communicate with Ellen to get her to understand who really killed him.
“Earthbound” was released in 1940 and was directed by Irving Pichel. It is an American fantasy film. The film is a remake of the 1920 silent film of the same name. The movie is sometimes advertised as a mystery film, but there really isn’t any mystery involved. It does have religious undertones in both some of the story line and the theme of the film.
I’m not sure what the point of this movie was supposed to be since it plays as more fluff than deep. Perhaps it was a metaphor for war or something. The plot is very thin, and not much in the way of explanations is given.
It was quite sappy and corny. I’m not sure why a cheating husband is the antihero of the story but perhaps that was a 40’s thing. The film does vary from the 20’s silent version in that more stress is placed on the ghost making amends to those he wronged. That part of the story is very lacking in this version.