The Ghost and Mr. Chicken (1966)

User Rating:

7.1/10   

Director:

Alan Rafkin

Writers:

James Fritzell (writer)
Everett Greenbaum (writer)

Release Date:

20 January 1966 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Family | Mystery | Romance

Tagline:

G-G-GUARANTEED! YOU'LL BE SCARED UNTIL YOU LAUGH YOURSELF SILLY! (original theatrical poster - all caps)

Plot:

Luther Heggs aspires to being a reporter for his small town newspaper, the Rachel Courier Express. He...

Plot Keywords:

Newspaper | Reporter | Courtroom | Murder | Haunted House

Cast

Don Knotts	...	Luther Heggs
Joan Staley	...	Alma Parker
Liam Redmond	...	Kelsey
Dick Sargent	...	George Beckett
Skip Homeier	...	Ollie Weaver
Reta Shaw	...	Mrs. Halcyon Maxwell
Lurene Tuttle	...	Mrs. Natalie Miller
Philip Ober	...	Nicholas Simmons (as Phil Ober)
Harry Hickox	...	Police Chief Art Fuller
Charles Lane	...	Whitlow
Jesslyn Fax	...	Mrs. Hutchinson
Nydia Westman	...	Mrs. Cobb
George Chandler	...	Judge Harley Nast
Robert Cornthwaite	...	Springer
Jim Begg	...	Herkie (as James Begg)

Runtime:

90 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

USA:Approved (Certificate #21086) | UK:Uc | USA:G

Filming Locations:

Backlot, Universal Studios - 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City, California, USA

Company:

Universal Pictures

Trivia:

One of the few American films shot in the Technicolor Corporation's Techniscope wide screen process. The wide screen effect was achieved by essentially splitting the usual film frame horizontally into two smaller frames with a greater width to height ratio. It was inexpensive, but yielded a grainy image, which probably explains why it was seldom used in Hollywood.

Goofs:

Continuity: The sandwich that "jell-o" man is finishing in the diner switches hands just as Luther tells Alma of the dead whale that washed up on the beach in San Francisco.

Quotes:

Whitlow: I'm asking you a question, Heggs! Can't you curb your imagination for one minute?
Luther Heggs: Can't you curb your tongue for a minute?
Man in audience: Atta boy, Luther!

Movie Connections:

Featured in Cinemacabre TV Trailers (1993) (V)

And they used Bon Ami!

This was Don Knotts' first movie vehicle after he left "Andy Griffith". His character, Luther Heggs, is simply Barney Fife transplanted from Mayberry, North Carolina to Laurel, Kansas. The same gentle but slightly quirky small town residents and Heggs/Fife bumbling along and solving one of the town's mysteries. Knotts even wears the same salt and pepper suit with white fedora that he wore on "Andy Griffith".

This is still a fun movie to watch though. Knotts does his "nervous man" schtick all the way through. His stage-fright speech at the town picnic is great ("let me clarify this")and there are two recurring joke lines, "and they used Bon Ami!" and "atta boy, Luther" which keep being said and which will crack you up every time.