It’s spooky season once again, which means that for our October podcast, A Damn Fine Cup of Culture turns to the creepier side of things. And what could be creepier than ghosts? Except: while the films we are talking about in this month’s episode are all about the ghostly, none of them are scary – and not because they mess up the frights, but because they aim at entirely different things, from laughs via romance to… existentialist musings? Join Matt, Alan and Sam as they talk about the 1937 comedy Topper, starring Cary Grant, Constance Bennett and Roland Young (spoiler: at least two of which spend most of the film being ghosts), the supernatural romance The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947), and David Lowery’s A Ghost Story (2017), in which Casey Affleck spends 90% of the film wearing that most traditional of spectral outfits: a sheet with two eye holes cut out. Where do ghosts stand (or float?) in the rogue’s gallery of the supernatural? Do they scare us – and, if not, what is their storytelling purpose? How do our three films fit into all of this? And, last but not least: would you fall for the romantic advances of a character played by George Sanders?

P.S.: If you missed the scary dimension of cinematic ghosts, do stick around this month – because we may just have something more haunting for you as we get closer to Halloween!