Not sure if anyone else has picked up on this yet but those who have seen the Bob Hope film Ghost Breakers may remember the part where they find the portrait that looks just like Paulette Goddard's character and they determine it is her ancestor. A very similar sequence occurs in the Ghostbusters game when they find the portrait of Shandor's mother and determine Ilyssa is a Shandor. it seems to me that it's very likely this part of the game was inspired by the film.

Nate- Ghostbuster Lord;159207
Not sure if anyone else has picked up on this yet but those who have seen the Bob Hope film Ghost Breakers may remember the part where they find the portrait that looks just like Paulette Goddard's character and they determine it is her ancestor. A very similar sequence occurs in the Ghostbusters game when they find the portrait of Shandor's mother and determine Ilyssa is a Shandor. it seems to me that it's very likely this part of the game was inspired by the film.

I don't think so. I never heard that film mentioned int he office.

It's just a very common theme in fiction.

Nate- Ghostbuster Lord;159207
Not sure if anyone else has picked up on this yet but those who have seen the Bob Hope film Ghost Breakers may remember the part where they find the portrait that looks just like Paulette Goddard's character and they determine it is her ancestor. A very similar sequence occurs in the Ghostbusters game when they find the portrait of Shandor's mother and determine Ilyssa is a Shandor. it seems to me that it's very likely this part of the game was inspired by the film.

That sort of story reveal isn't unique to that movie. In fact it is much older. In high school I read a book (name escapes me at the moment) that had a similiar reveal moment and I know of atleast 2 others that are suspense / suspense horror stories that have use it as well

I didn't put the two together before, but I will add that Ghost Breakers is a great movie. There are some very funny one-liners in it.

One of the major plot reveals of The Hound of the Baskervilles revolves around a portrait revealing a character's ancestry.

It's not a reference to Ghost-Breakers, but then, Skanker already covered that.

I knew it had been used before but I thought there was a possible connection considering that Ghost Breakers was somewhat of a predecessor to Ghostbusters as a paranormal comedy.

Nate- Ghostbuster Lord;159241
I knew it had been used before but I thought there was a possible connection considering that Ghost Breakers was somewhat of a predecessor to Ghostbusters as a paranormal comedy.

There's something really, really weird in one of the Tomart's Action Figure Toy Guides about this. The article for the Filmation's Ghostbusters toyline comments that Dan Aykroyd wanted to do a movie for Columbia based on The Ghost Breakers, and that a legal conflict forced the name to be changed from Ghostbreakers to Ghostbusters. The Filmation lawsuit was then mentioned.

It's quite possible that the makers of the book didn't have their facts straight when they wrote that, but a later issue more accurately describes the death of John Belushi for the name change to Ghostbusters with no mention of The Ghost Breakers.