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Review by E.C. McMullen Jr. |
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THE GHOST AND MR. CHICKEN- 1966USA Release: Jan. 20, 1966 Edward Montagne, Universal Pictures Rating: USA: G |
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A Universal Picture!
At the bottom of the left hand corner -
Edward Muhl in charge of production
I'll tell you more about Muhl later.
Now imagine a Horror movie that starts without a 5 minute gotcha or a preamble. Plenty of backstory - Absolutely zero exposition!
Wow!
Movie begins and we see a 1958 Ford Edsel Corsair driving through a neighborhood at night during the opening credits. Lightning flashes and thunder cracks as Luther Heggs (Don Knotts: THE PRIVATE EYES, CHICKEN LITTLE) cautiously eyes the sky. Up ahead we see a Victorian house that closely resembles a cross between THE ADDAMS FAMILY [TV] house and THE MUNSTERS [TV] house with plenty of PSYCHO thrown in (because it was).
A drunk walks past it, weaving and singing to himself. His name is Calver Weems (Hal Smith) and on a rough and windy night like this, with stuff blowing around, he gets a knock on the noggin by some debris which lays him out flat.
Luther just happens to be driving by at that moment when he hears the screaming. A neighbor woman in her upstairs bedroom saw the whole thing and is panic stricken, screaming "Murder!"
Susanna Blush (Hope Summers: EVIL TOWN) is her name and she can barely contain herself. She runs to Calver and immediately announces him dead. Murdered by that piece of wood. Luther is there with his camera, taking photos, believing every word she says and getting caught up in her excitement.
Why would he believe her? Because they know each other and they both know Calver Weems. That's how small the town of Rachel is!
He asks if she saw the murderer, but no, Susanna only saw the board hit Calver,
Susanna: "BANG! Right on the head by that board right there! Oh, it was awful"
Luther: "Well did you see who did it?"
Susanna: "No! I just saw Calver get hit! BANG! Right on the head by that board right there! It was terrible!"
Luther: "You didn't see anyone else?"
Susanna: "I told you! BANG!
Right on the head by that board right there! I'll never forget it for as long as I live!"
Susanna is horrified by what she thinks she saw and Luther has a story for the town newspaper, the Rachel Courier Express, where he works.
He tells Susanna to call his boss to meet him at the Police station.
Wow! Calver Weems was murdered in Rachel! Whatta story!
For a tiny rural town the size of Rachel, a local getting murdered is huge news. This kind of thing doesn't happen every decade you know. In fact, the last time there was a murder in this town it was at the old Simmons Mansion 20 years ago.
Oh my gosh! And Calver Weems was walking right past the old Simmons Mansion when he was murdered! And the 20th anniversary of that horrible murder is only days away!
I'm tellin' ya, there's something mighty familiar about that old Simmons place!
Luther is beside himself with his great story. After all, he's not a reporter, he's a typesetter at the town newspaper. But boy would he love to scoop a news story. That would show that smug Ollie Weaver (Skip Homeier: BLACK WIDOW, SCIENCE FICTION THEATER [TV], STARK FEAR, VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA [TV], THE STRANGE MONSTER OF STRAWBERRY COVE), who actually is a reporter - the only one - in Rachel.
At the police station, Luther is so caught up in the excitement and horror of what he thinks he saw that he can barely speak. Matters are made worse by Ollie being there, belittling Luther and trying to steal the story out from under him just as soon as he can understand it. The frustrated Police Chief (Harry Hickox) is trying to make sense of it all and then Luther's boss, George Beckett (Dick Sargent: THE BEAST WITH A MILLION EYES, THE POWER WITHIN, THE CLONUS HORROR, THE ELEVENTH COMMANDMENT, ROCK-A-DIE BABY), shows up. Luther is now front and center and not even the snide Ollie with his withering remarks can bring him down.
Then just as Luther begins his great story of Calver Weems murder, in walks Calver, escorted by his angry wife, and holding an ice pack on his head.
Luther's big moment pops and the station as well as Ollie, have a good laugh at Luther's foolishness.
Luther's humiliation doesn't end there.
Heggs has a room in a large boarding house run by Mrs. Natalie Miller (Lurene Tuttle: PSYCHO, THE MANITOU, THE CLONUS HORROR, HUMAN EXPERIMENTS, EVIL TOWN). Ollie also lives there and regales his fellow tenants, laughing over the idiot Luther Heggs and his "great story".
Luther can hear it all from his room of course, as Ollie intends, but when he comes down to the table everyone but Ollie is circumspect enough not to rub it in his face. Ollie has a new mocking nickname for Luther and calls him "Scoop".
Deeply humiliated, Luther goes outside where he finds the town beauty, Alma Parker (Joan Staley: VALLEY OF THE DRAGONS, CAPE FEAR [1962]) in her car, catching the sun, and waiting to carpool with Ollie into town.
Alma is completely self-possessed, assured and confident: Everything Luther isn't. Because she's all these things, she doesn't need to look down on anyone, though everyone looks up to her. Ollie only carpools with her, but out of earshot of Alma, he's told the town that they are an item. Yet whenever someone speaks well of her, Ollie smiles, dismissing her as a "Good kid." As if their romantic involvement is nothing more to him than a passing interest.
Outside however, as Luther awkwardly tries to make small talk with Alma, she makes it clear that Ollie is just someone she gives a ride to. They aren't a "thing".
Luther sees his chance but it only makes him more nervous. As he struggles with himself, Ollie interrupts and with yet another tear down at Heggs in front of Alma, they drive off leaving Luther both dejected and hopeful.
Alma is more than just a pretty face to Luther. She's the only woman in his general age group who will talk to him and speaks with kindness and respect when she does! If only there was some way he could prove he was worthy of her.
As a typesetter on a local newspaper so small the news of the day is whatever local business is having a sale, 35 year old Luther's fortunes have dropped from Loser to Village Idiot. Even the Town Drunk, Calver Weems, has a higher position in the town of Rachel and he's too inebriated to realize it.
Of course, you may think that a 36 year old Ollie, who rents a single bedroom in a boarding house, same as Luther, is the only reporter in town, doesn't own a car (Luther at least has his Edsel), and generally covers news of the latest small store sale, has no room to look down on anyone about anything - and you'd be right.
That's exactly why Ollie keeps Luther under his mocking magnifying glass. Ollie is desperate to have someone beneath him, and for a bully like Ollie, being only one step above Luther is the best he can do.
Worse, he has to keep at it. Ollie is keenly aware of how little it would take for Luther to rise above him, which is why Luther must never know that. There's no one else in town for Ollie to lord over.
Ollie can't lord it over the town drunk. Even Calver has a house and a wife.
Ollie can't do that to old Mr. Kelsey (Liam Redmond: DAUGHTER OF DARKNESS, THE GLASS TOMB, CURSE OF THE DEMON, PHANTOM OF THE OPERA [1962]), the retiree whose job it is to sweep the Rachel Courier Express. He's an old man who no longer needs to prove anything.
As Luther sets type and tears himself down, Kelsey tries to cheer him up.
Luther wasn't as wrong as he may think, Kelsey tells him. It's no surprise you'd think someone died at the old Simmons House, because that's a Murder House!
Kelsey tells him the scary history of the house, a tale so terrible it chills Luther.
Luther nearly leaps out of his chair when Ollie pops his head in to demand a three inch filler for the paper.
Newspaper fillers are usually superficial: a daily joke, one panel cartoon, or an astrology bit.
Kelsey convinces Luther to write a story on the upcoming anniversary of the old Murder House for the filler.
Because its filler Ollie didn't read it and neither did newspaper owner Mr. Beckett. So the next day when Beckett is repeatedly complimented on the story as he walks to work, he's convinced and tells Ollie they should capitalize on it.
Except Ollie knows nothing about it, as he knows next to nothing about the town of Rachel at all. Ollie gets his news from the gossipy old ladies at his boarding house.
Then who wrote it?
Wait! Luther?!?
Actually that's perfect! Beckett's idea is to have the Village idiot Luther spend the night in the old Simmons Mansion on the 20th anniversary of the murders.
As it turns out, the house's soon-to-be actual owner, Nicholas Simmons (Philip Ober: THE SECRET FURY), is angered by the idea. He is working to finally get the estate legally turned over to him, since he's the last surviving member of the family. Despite the potential value of the house, Nicholas plans to have it bulldozed to the ground.
He tries and fails to stop the local paper from doing a story about it (it's town history after all), but he's ready to sue if Luther writes anything unflattering about his family.
Well when you're covering a family murder at the old Simmons "Murder House", how do you make it flattering?
Luther goes to spend the night, experiences horrific things, and away we go!
Of course, only Luther saw and experienced the things he said (he was too scared to take photos) and his reputation, and probably being the least credible person in town, is giving Mr. Beckett second thoughts.
Not everyone else though. The whole town is delighted at the prospect of something - anything - happening in their dreary old town, and having a haunted tourist attraction right under their nose is cause for celebration! Luther is the hero that made that happen (and Ollie's worst fear is realized: He's the new nobody in a nowhere town)! Unfortunately Beckett's suppressed second thoughts return when Nicholas Simmons' lawsuit goes to court. Freedom of the Press may not win the day, but Luther, desperate to stay his town's heroic newspaper reporter and impress Alma, will say anything. So he blurts out in court,
TRIVIAOkay, so just who was Edward Muhl (CHARADE, THE NIGHT WALKER, MADAME X) and why would his name be right up there with the Universal Pictures logo at the start of the movie? He was a Production Manager, that's who. And not just any Production Manager, apparently. Looking at his IMDb, I can't think of a single Producer, Writer, Director, or Production Manager - no one in fact - who has such an impressive resume of heavily voted, highly placed, critical and audience ranked movies as Edward Muhl. The man was hardly in charge of every picture, but damn he sure knew how to pick the best ones to work on! Don asked for his friend, Andy Griffith to have input on the script for his character of Luther Heggs The studio wanted Don to be more like his character Barney Fife on the Andy Griffith Show, particularly the way he acted on a haunted house episode of that show. Since the show was Andy's co-creation, Knotts felt that Andy should have a say in the screenplay and Griffith was brought on as a script consultant. |
"I can prove it!"
In 1966 actor Don Knotts was a seemingly unstoppable comedic force. His persona of a coward who forces himself to face his fears, for no other reason than to better himself, was hilarious yet admirable and therefore irresistible in the 1950s and 1960s. So when Universal Pictures gave him a leading man shot in a movie, he wowed the studio and audiences with his star power, making one box office hit after the next.
A huge part of the overall charm of his movies was his desire to bring on the people he'd worked with on his most popular TV series of the time, The Andy Griffith Show.
Knotts wanted to lift all his friends and all of his fellow hard-working TV character actors, who were grinding out one small guest appearance after the next on Television. You'd see them in nearly every show, but always in the low pay bits and backgrounds: That guy who always plays a drunk. That person behind the cash register, the old ladies at the bus stop, the cop walking past, twirling his baton.
With Knotts they suddenly found themselves being the honored guests at motion picture premiers, walking the red carpet, interviewed by the major media on press junkets, and more. Everyone's fortunes rose to some degree simply because Don wanted to bring everyone along.
Because of that they had great chemistry as, in front of or behind the camera, Don already knew they all worked well together.
Television Composer Vic Mizzy (THE ADDAMS FAMILY [TV], THE SPIRIT IS WILLING, TERROR ON THE 40TH FLOOR) was brought on board to supply the haunting yet catchy soundtrack: Spooky yet jazzy at the same time. So catchy in fact, that Vic would go on to compose the soundtrack for many future Don Knotts movies.
Director Alan Rafkin was another work for hire, grinding out individual episodes of comedy television. He only had a single low budget Frankie Avalon movie to his credit, but THE GHOST AND MR. CHICKEN was his big hit and he was brought back for another Don Knotts movie.
With a script by established television comedy writers James Fritzell and Everett Greenbaum (Everett is the voice of the unseen person shouting out, "Attaboy, Luther!"), you may wonder how Don so easily managed to assemble his team and get his way.
He didn't assemble anything, he only asked. So why were producers and studio bosses so eager to honor his whims?
Because the people Don asked for were known to be solid and dependable who could deliver without ego clashes. They were established daily workers, well-experienced on a set, always hit their marks, took direction without fuss, knew when to talk and when to shut up (all extremely important on a set).
Most of the actors generally played the same types of characters on TV, show after show, regardless of story or genre, so none of them needed their own backstory. The audience would feel they knew these people regardless of character name. And they were all eager to do it because pay is higher on a movie than a television show and working on studio feature films increases your value on television and stage.
Plus, Don was just so darn likable and easy to work with!
Though it has its laughs, THE GHOST AND MR. CHICKEN is more fun than funny today and is a perfectly enjoyable family film.
Four Shriek Girls.
This review copyright 2023 E.C.McMullen Jr.
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