FIFTEEN FAVORITE MOVIES WITH GHOSTS OR SPIRITS IN THEM:

1. TRULY MADLY DEEPLY (superbly acted, first time I dug Alan Rickman)
2. THE GHOST AND MRS. MUIR (Gene Tierney & Rex Harrison, one of the best)
3. GHOSTBUSTERS (still crazy after all these years)
4. GHOST (despite the subsequent parodies of the clay-shaping scene it still works for me)
5. TOPPER (Cary Grant and Constance Bennett as wise cracking, partying ghosts!)
6. THE BISHOP’S WIFE (Cary Grant as a ghost again, but this time a sober one, and David Niven as a stiff married to Loretta Young at her most beautiful, as sweet as it gets, with honorable mention to Denzel Washington’s more recent version THE PREACHER’S WIFE)
7. I MARRIED A WITCH (with Veronica Lake in one of her most charming performances)
8. A CHRISTMAS CAROL (the 1951 black-and-white one with Alastair Sim as Scrooge, and honorable mention to the late ‘80s version, SCROOGED, with Bill Murray and Karen Allen in one of her most charming performances)
9. WINGS OF DESIRE (directed by Wim Wenders, with Bruno Ganz as an angel, and best thing Peter Falk ever did outside of WOMAN UNDER THE INFLUENCE)
10.BEETLE JUICE (maybe Michael Keaton’s best performance)
11.DROP DEAD FRED (directed by my friend, and one of my favorite directors, Ate de Jong, and starring one of my favorites, Phoebe Cates)
12. STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN (directed by Michael Powell and starring David Niven, classy and classic)
13. HERE COMES MR. JORDAN (pretty corny, and I never quite buy Robert Montgomery as a tough prize fighter but still, Claude Rains as an envoy from heaven! and Everet Evert Horton and James Gleason, two of the most fun character actors from old Hollywood, and honorable mention to Warren Beatty’s 1970s remake HEAVEN CAN WAIT)
14. IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE (still moves me, because it’s so realistic in its portrait of life’s disappointments, today George Bailey would be put on anti-depressants and remain bitter and learn nothing, and don’t get angry and defend anti-depressants, I know they often work and am grateful they exist, but they make for lousy plot points)
15. THE NESTING (pretty bad horror film, but it’s Gloria Grahame’s last flick—playing the ghost of a madame of a brothel—worth it just for her, and one of John Carradine’s final films as well, playing my character’s rich grandfather, yes it’s one of the few films I actually starred in when I was starting out as a professional actor at 39, still not very sure of myself, as is obvious when you watch it, and as far as I know only available on video, if that anymore)