WHAT: The Ghost and Mr. Chicken (1966, DCP)
WHEN: October 27, 2021 1 PM & 7:30 PM
WHERE: Pickwick Theatre, Park Ridge, IL
HOW MUCH: $12/$10 advance; $10 for the 1 PM matinee
(To purchase advance tickets for the 7:30 PM screening: Click Here!)
The Ghost and Mr. Chicken is one of the most requested films we’ve ever had. For a certain generation, it’s a well-loved childhood favorite. To help convince patrons to experience this classic comedy in a theatre setting, I thought I’d reach out to one of its biggest fans. This month we have a special contribution from Tony Letrich (Interlibrary Loan/Park Ridge Public Library)...
A Chicken Dissected: How The Ghost and Mr. Chicken Evolved Into a Comedy Classic
by Tony Letrich
This month, just in time for Halloween, the Pickwick Theatre Classic Film Series invites you on a spooky tour of the old Simmons mansion in the beloved motion picture The Ghost and Mr. Chicken. Your guide for the evening: comedian Don Knotts, fresh off his Emmy-winning 5 year run as Barney Fife on The Andy Griffith Show, as Luther Heggs, ace newspaper typesetter/amateur reporter for the Rachel Courier Express in the small town of Rachel, Kansas (population 6384). Luther’s first big assignment: spend one night alone in the Simmons house on the 20th anniversary of the gruesome murder/suicide of old man Simmons and his wife.
Don Knotts successfully scored with his first film, the partially-animated The Incredible Mr. Limpet, and decided to tackle something different for his follow-up: the family-friendly horror comedy, a winning combination for comic teams like The Three Stooges and Abbott and Costello throughout the 40’s and 50’s—- as the ads for Ghost proudly proclaimed, “You’ll Be Scared Until You Laugh Yourself Silly!”
A big hit for Universal Pictures in 1966, The Ghost and Mr. Chicken was directed by Alan Rafkin and written by Jim Fritzell and Everett Greenbaum—- all 3 were seasoned veterans of The Andy Griffith Show and you can tell: it’s as if the whole town of Mayberry was scooped up and relocated from North Carolina to Kansas, making it feel like the best episode of The Andy Griffith Show without Andy himself. Don Knotts is in full Barney Fife mode, all the way down to his salt-and-pepper suit and patented karate chops. The scene where he attempts to read an acceptance speech at the Rachel Chamber of Commerce Picnic is a comic gem and showcases him at his nervous, neurotic best. It’s also a very sweet, endearing performance: we root for Luther to get the better of Rachel Courier‘s resident meanie Ollie (Skip Homeier) and win the heart of the beautiful Alma Parker (a radiant, sunny Joan Staley). As Luther says, “Average is just darn lucky to be sitting on the same porch with above average.”
Another real charm of the film is the cavalcade of character actors that appear throughout the film— it’s an all-star line-up of familiar faces that any fan of 60’s and 70’s television will instantly recognize. See if you can spot: Bert Mustin, best known as Gus the Fireman on Leave It to Beaver… Ellen Corby, Grandma Walton on The Waltons….. three veterans of Bewitched: Sandra Gould, who played nosy neighbor Mrs. Kravitz; Charles Lane, and Dick Sargent, the “other” Darrin….. and several alumni of The Andy Griffith Show: Lurene Tuttle, Reta Shaw, Hope Summers (Aunt Bea’s friend Clara Edwards), and Otis Campbell himself, Hal Smith (also—fun fact!—the voice of the dog Goliath on the old Davey and Goliath cartoon show).
Almost as memorable as the cast are the instantly-quotable lines of dialogue crafted by Fritzell and Greenbaum that are beloved by its legion of fans. Over the years, The Ghost and Mr. Chicken has developed quite a following due to its heavy rotation on local TV stations throughout the 70’s and 80’s (in Chicago it was a staple on ABC Channel 7’s 3:30 movie). Some favorite lines of dialogue among die-hard Chicken fans: “Calm? Do murder and calm go together? Calm and murder? Murder?”….”When you work with words, words are your work”….”I’d rather eat good food than bad food any old day of the week”…”What is brave? Of course we all know it is short for brav-er-y”…”And they used Bon Ami”…”Mr. Boob that’s me-B double O B-boob”… and best of all, “Atta boy, Luther!”—- heard throughout the film by an off-screen character (actually voiced by writer Greenbaum). The gag was suggested by none other than Andy Griffith himself, who made a few uncredited contributions to the script as a favor to his friend Knotts (legend has it my own father yelled out “Atta boy, Luther!” during a showing of Ghost at the late, great Milford Theatre on Chicago’s northwest side in 1966—- I hope the legend is true!).
Italian poster for The Ghost and Mr. Chicken
No tribute to The Ghost and Mr. Chicken would be complete without mentioning the impossibly catchy musical score by Vic Mizzy, composer of the classic TV themes for The Addams Family and Green Acres. The opening theme, a rift on a instrumental from the 30’s titled Mr. Ghost Goes To Town, sets the mood early: from there Mizzy’s score becomes a wild collision of sound, relying on a electric “fuzz” guitar for the comic moments and a traditional pipe organ for the spooky ones. The organ music playing from the loft of the Simmons mansion is Ghost‘s signature sound and figures prominently in the film’s very last scene, as the camera pans across many of the film’s cast for a well-deserved curtain call.
So on October 27th, prepare to learn the shocking secret of the blood-stained organ keys…. get ready to feel the vibrations of The Psychic Occult Society of Rachel and their mantra, “Taro, Caro…Salamund!”…. and witness what is possibly the greatest assembly of character actors to ever appear in one film together… as The Pickwick Theatre Classic Film Series—- and its affable host Matthew C. Hoffman—- proudly presents The Ghost and Mr. Chicken with the incomparable Don Knotts as Luther Heggs, back on the big screen where he belongs….. “Atta boy, Luther!”