Hollywood-Monster
{{Infobox film
| name = Ghost Chase
| image = Ghost Chase.jpg
| alt =
| caption = Theatrical release poster by Renato Casaro
| director = Roland Emmerich
| producer =
| screenplay = Roland Emmerich
Thomas Kubisch
| story = Roland Emmerich
Oliver Eberle
| starring = Jason Lively
Tim McDaniel
Jill Whitlow
Chuck Mitchell
Paul Gleason
| music = Hubert Bartholomae
| cinematography = Karl Walter Lindenlaub
| editing = Pia Fritsche
| studio = Centropolis Film Productions {{cite book|title=Fischer Film Almanach|first=Horst|last=Schäfer|publisher=Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag|year= 1988|page=150}}
| distributor = Filmverlag der Autoren
| released = {{Film date|1987|6|25}}
| runtime = 85 minutes
| country = West Germany
United States
| language = English
| budget =
| gross = }}
Hollywood-Monster (working title - released as Ghost Chase in the United States) is a 1987 horror comedy film directed by Roland Emmerich, about a film crew working in a haunted mansion.Haase, Christine [https://books.google.com/books?id=O-CAXVjNvFoC&dq=Roland+Emmerich%27s+Hollywood+Monster+Ghost+Chase&pg=PA107 When Heimat Meets Hollywood: German Filmmakers and America, 1985-2005] Camden House, Rochester, NY (2007) p.107. {{ISBN|9781571132796}} Emmerich's third film,Fischer, Dennis, [https://books.google.com/books?id=7msrAwAAQBAJ&dq=Ghost+Chase+Emmerich&pg=PA170 Science Fiction Film Directors, 1895-1998], McFarland (2000), p.170-171. {{ISBN|9780786460915}} it starred Jason Lively, Jill Whitlow, Paul Gleason, Chuck Mitchell, and Tim McDaniel.[https://web.archive.org/web/20140903145555/http://www.nytimes.com/movies/movie/19631/Ghost-Chase/details Ghost Chase entry in New York Times film database]. Retrieved August 28, 2014. A co-production between West Germany and the United States, the film was released theatrically in Germany on June 25, 1987.{{cite web|title=Ghost Chase (1988)|url=https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/501877/ghost-chase#notes|website=TCM|access-date=June 2, 2023}}
Plot
Two cousins, Fred and Warren, live together in Hollywood. Fred, an aspiring horror-movie director with developed skills in SFX and animatronics, desperately tries to shoot his first movie in their house, but Warren, who plays the main male protagonist, keeps on flirting with Laurie, the main actress. When she can't stand it anymore, the project is over, and the bills are piling up.
Out of the blue, Warren is called out to the reading of his grandfather's will and testament. The boys end up with an old clock, inhabited with the spirit of Louis, Warren's grandfather's deformed butler. The benevolent spirit, having appeared to Fred in the night, shows him a flashback of the day he and Warren's grandfather Karl died. Karl poisoned himself, and sealed himself in the basement with all his money to prevent his family from getting any. The butler coincidentally died by falling down stairs. The dream inspires Fred in making a new script for which he builds an animatronic version of the butler, whose spirit proceedes to inhabit the artificial body.
The butler and the boys will help each other as they face a new problem: the son of Warren's grandfather's partner who managed to swindle Warren's family out of their property, Producer Stan Gordon, who wants the grandfather's heritage to be kept secret, and try to get Fred's new movie made. It will all end in a race against the clock in an old house basement, and a fight against a demented ghost armor, as the movie pays homage to the late 1950s-to-1970s science fiction B movies.
Cast
- Jason Lively as Warren McCloud
- Tim McDaniel as Fred
- Jill Whitlow as Laurie Sanders
- Leonard Lansink as Karl
- Paul Gleason as Stan Gordon
- Ian MacNaughton as Frederick McCloud
- Chuck Mitchell as Mr. Rosenbaum
- Cynthia Frost as Secretary
- Andreas Kovac-Zemen as Pawn Shop Owner
- Toby Kaye as Laurie's Girlfriend
- Ernie Lively as Production Manager
- Julian Curry as Lawyer
- Larry Pennell as Bum
Production
Filming took place primarily in the Swabian town of Sindelfingen utilizing old factory buildings as shooting locations.{{Cite book| last1 = Bock | first1 = Hans-Michael| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=_Z4kDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA359| title = The Concise Cinegraph: Encyclopaedia of German Cinema| last2 = Bergfelder | first2 = Tim | date = 2009 | publisher = Berghahn Books| isbn = 978-0-85745-565-9 | page = 11| language = en}} Roland Emmerich secured financing on the film by preselling distribution rights to foreign territories.
Release
The film was theatrically released in Germany by Filmverlag der Autoren on June 25, 1987.
Home media
Ghost Chase was released on video cassette in the United States on February 7, 1990 by M.C.E.G. Virgin Home Entertainment. On March 13, 2001, the film was released on DVD by Image Entertainment.
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- {{IMDb title|0093201}}
{{Roland Emmerich}}
Category:Films directed by Roland Emmerich
Category:1987 comedy horror films
Category:Films about Hollywood, Los Angeles
Category:1980s English-language films
Category:English-language German films
Category:Films with screenplays by Roland Emmerich
Category:Films about filmmaking
Category:Films about inheritances
Category:Films set in country houses
Category:Films shot in Germany
Category:Domestic workers in films