The Ghost and Mr. Chicken (1966), Part 1
HAPPY HALLOWEEN! For the season, a special two-part review of one of my old favorites, The Ghost and Mr. Chicken.
Ah, Halloween. For the stuff you really want to see in a spooky film around this time of year -- the vampires in capes, the hairy werewolves, and the haunted houses that really look like haunted houses -- you've just got to go old school. I mean, is this a haunted house, or what?
The Ghost and Mr. Chicken is what used to be called a "family movie," the sort of thing that everyone, including the little kids, could watch. As I recall, it used to air on TV around this time every year, along with It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!, because until A Nightmare Before Christmas came out (a holiday special double-header!), those two productions were about it for family Halloween features.
Now, if you've never seen this type of movie before, the focus was a little different from today's family movies, which typically feature rapid-fire pop-culture references that either a) only older adults would get or b) only younger adults would get. In comparison, The Ghost and Mr. Chicken is almost ridiculously accessible. There's only a couple of running gags ("Atta boy, Luther!"), and only one of them requires foreknowledge. (Bon Ami is a cleaning powder that you scrub things with to get stains out. That's all you need to know.)
Our Hero in the movie is Luther Heggs, a timid, easily startled small-town type who likes to pretend he's cooler and manlier than he really is. He's played by Don Knotts, who was at this time a big TV star playing a timid, easily startled small-town type who likes to pretend he's cooler and manlier than he really is on The Andy Griffith Show. It becomes clear that we're essentially dealing with the same type of character as soon as the movie opens, in which Luther is shown freaking out, thinking he's witnessed a murder.
Which, of course turns out to be nothing but a husband being knocked unconscious by his wife for drinking too much. Um, yeah. Funny?
But you've really got to hand it to Knotts, he really sells those freakout moments. Much of the movie's appeal revolves around his ability to bug his eyes and distort his face. Take that, all you rational, cool people!
Luther works in the basement of the local newspaper as a typesetter--a the closest modern-day equivalent job would probably be data entry--but what he really wants is to be a reporter. This provides no end of hilarity to the actual reporters on the paper. (One of these reporters is played by Dick Sargeant, best known to TV Land fans as the second "Darren" on Bewitched.)
We start hearing about the local "haunted house," which is about to be torn down by its owner, 20 years after a notorious murder took place there. This is the cue for Luther's coworker, coincidentally once the old caretaker of that very same house, to tell him the creepy story about the murder... and how the ghost still plays the organ in the organ bay.
The old caretaker successfully talks Luther into writing a story about the house as space-filler (apparently, this was one of the jobs typesetters did in the old days on newspapers, find column-filler at the last minute), and hey presto! Soon the old murder house and its creepy history are the talk of the town.
You can totally see why. Dig this awesome prose.
We hear more about the murder story at Luther's boarding house, one of many picture-perfect representations of mid-century Americana that you get in this film. Ever wondered what small-town USA was supposed to look like? Wonder no more.
These two old ladies practically steal the movie, by the way.
"And they used Bon Ami!"
A subplot introduced about this point in the proceedings is how Luther is stuck on wholesome small-town girl Alma, who's clearly out of his league, but is nice enough not to act like it.
His interactions with Alma tend to vary between outright boastful lies where he tries to big himself up, and sort of furtive, shy approaches. At the time, I'm sure this read as cute, but unfortunately it makes him look a stalker to modern eyes.
Anyway, with the murder house story on everyone's lips, the newspaper isn't slow to recognize they're onto a good thing. A speedy brainstorming session follow about what the next logical step should be to capitalize on the craze. Hmmm.... maybe someone should spend the night in the murder house to see if the ghost really does play the organ at night?
"What we need is someone with a wild imagination. Someone who's a bit of a coward. Someone who's a little bit superstitious."
Right. Guess who they pick?
Luther agrees, and cases the joint beforehand, only to be scared by a black cat crossing the road (seriously, the creators of this film worked every scary-movie cliche they could think of). After some more cautionary advice from every well-meaning person he meets, finally enters the house right about the 30-minute mark into the movie. Everything up to this point has just been buildup to the night in the haunted house.... .but not before we get this awesome moment, of Luther on his way to the front door, being pranked on by one of his coworkers. I'm including this scene just because it's one of my favorite screenshots from the film.
So what's going to happen when he gets inside? Find out in Part 2!