Nathan's Movie Collection: The Ghost and Mr. Chicken (1966)
"Calm? Do 'murder' and 'calm' go together? Calm and murder? Murder?"
Note: Most of these movies have been around for a considerable amount of time, so assume there will be spoilers all throughout. Although this isn’t really the kind of movie where “spoilers” make or break the picture.
When I wrote about A Face in the Crowd, I’d mentioned watching reruns of The Andy Griffith Show on VHS and how shocking it was watching Sheriff Andy play a complete monster. The real star of The Andy Griffith Show to me (and most people, I assume) is Don Knotts playing Deputy Barney Fife and while Sherriff Andy was fine enough, he was boring compared to his deputy. There’s a lot of stuff I watched when I was a kid that absolutely does not hold up but having gone back to the show here and there over the years, I’m happy to report that the antics of Barney Fife have remained evergreen.
At some point, we had a multi-DVD pack of Don Knotts movies that we probably found in a bargain bin at Walmart somewhere. If I remember correctly, it had the following: The Ghost and Mr. Chicken, The Reluctant Astronaut, The Shakiest Gun in the West, and The Love God?. Putting Ghost and Mr. Chicken aside, I remember really liking Reluctant Astronaut and Shakiest Gun1. We didn’t watch Love God because my parents read the synopsis and immediately said no. It’s basically a Don Knotts sex comedy, four words that strung together sound horrendous. Which makes me want to watch it all the more.
If Wikipedia is to be believed, we have Andy Griffith to thank for The Ghost and Mr. Chicken. He suggested the idea to Knotts when they did an Andy Griffith Show episode that involved a haunted house. He saw the obvious, which is that “Don Knotts in a haunted house” is a gold mine of a premise. After that, two Andy Griffith writers, Jim Fritzell and Everett Greenbaum, were recruited to write a script. Griffith also apparently had a lot of creative input, including the “Attaboy, Luther!” gag2.
Broad comedy isn’t for everyone, I understand. Obviously those movies are funny when you’re a kid but when you grow up and put away childish things, to quote our Lord and Savior the Apostle Paul, you’re supposed to develop “taste.” You’re supposed to care about things like “plot” and “well-developed characters.” Make no mistake: I have become this person and I’m completely insufferable. But even at my ripened age of 32, I’m not made of stone. I’m still gonna laugh when I see Andy Samberg forever falling down the side of a mountain. My long-suffering wife popped her head into the living room once while I was watching Hot Rod and she sat down to watch that scene. I didn’t think it was possible for someone to be that infuriated by a movie.
But back to The Ghost and Mr. Chicken. Luther Heggs (Knotts) is a typesetter for a local newspaper who aspires to become a reporter one day. The movie starts with him witnessing and calling in what he thinks is a murder. As Luther is sputtering at the police station trying to get the details out, the victim in question, the town drunk (Hal Smith/drunk tank footnote), walks into the precinct, we learn the perp was his wife, who was standing behind the bush where Luther saw him get hit with a two by four.
The movie isn’t as concerned with the plot as it is putting a Don Knotts character in hilarious situations. It’s the same principle with actors like Jim Carrey. The story doesn’t hang together upon closer inspection, but it doesn’t need to when you have situations like a guy squeezing himself out of a rhinoceros. The Ghost and Mr. Chicken isn’t that kind of movie; the most scandalous moment you get is talk of a woman wearing a shirt with noticeable patterns across her bosom. Oh, and there’s talk of a murder-suicide having occurred years before in the mansion near where Luther witnessed the “murder” at the beginning of the film.
After Luther’s made fun of for his false murder alarm, the newspaper’s janitor, Mr. Kelsey, talks Luther into sneaking his own writing into the paper as he’s typesetting it. It’s the twentieth anniversary of Mr. Simmons, the owner of the aforementioned mansion, killing his wife and jumping from an organ loft to his death. Part of the legend is that Mr. Simmons still plays the organ at midnight, which plays into Luther’s antics at the mansion later. I started this paragraph saying the film isn’t as concerned with plot, which makes it all the more jarring when that gets thrown in the mix. What a time to be alive and making movies.
All roads lead to Luther spending the night inside the Simmons mansion, where we get to see Don Knotts mug his way all over the house when things start getting spooky. Knotts has so many great little moments throughout the movie, but this is the section where he gets to do what he does best. When certain actors go big like this, it can get really distracting and ultimately annoying. Most people already feel that way about Jim Carrey, but I disagree. On paper, “Somebody stop me” is a whatever line. Jim Carrey took that line in The Mask and made the most exquisite meal out of it. It’s an art, I’d say.
God love him but it helps that Don Knotts already looks like he’s terrified by the world3. But while he’s anxious, he still tries to project confidence which is what makes characters like Barney Fife work so well.
Luther becomes a town hero after surviving a night inside the Simmons mansion and personally, I find that’s when the movie takes a dip. There’s some funny business with the town banker’s wife (played by a hilarious Reta Shaw4) who runs a group of women interested in the paranormal. Them acting up in the courtroom audience combined with Don Knotts in the climactic scene delivers. But by the time legal action becomes part of the plot, it slows down some of the momentum the movie’s built up so far.
But these are nitpicks, something you’re better off avoiding with movies like this. These are the movies where I shut my brain off and the only time I start nitpicking is when the movie isn’t succeeding for me at what it set out to do. I’m not gonna ding it for an unrealistic plot or characters, which is something I am fully expecting from a movie like this. If the last act (or earlier in worse movies) starts like you’ve wrung everything you can out of the premise and you’re just limping to the finish line, it can really bring the movie down.
I don’t think The Ghost and Mr. Chicken gets that dire, but it does start to feel like air being slowly let out of a balloon after the haunted house. Still, if you’re following me on Letterboxd, you’ll see I gave it five stars and that’s because of one Jesse Donald Knotts. Even in the movie’s weaker moments, he’s still bringing it. And more importantly, he’s fully committed. I like the Deadpool movies just fine, but I think self-aware, quippy comedy has reached a point where I’m dying for any-and I mean any-sincerity in a big-budget movie that is supposed to be funny. I like Marvel just fine, but maybe consider having a character or two that isn’t completely detached from the absurdity around them. Don’t have them roll their eyes and say “so that happened.” Make them go nuts and do a lap around a haunted house. Don Knotts is funny because his terror is fully palpable, not because he had a clever line some comedian pitched while they were punching up the script.
I’m starting to sound like an old man so I’ll end it here by saying that flaws and all, I love this movie. Now I’ll truly end it with a few of my other favorite lines and also asking you to subscribe if you feel so inclined. I really appreciate it.
“That’s right, karate. Made my whole body a weapon.”
“Why don't you run up an alley and holler fish!”
“Put it on my tab!” “You don’t have a tab.”
“When you work with words, words are your work.”
Not sure who the first person to make this observation was, but I heard it from critic Dave White: “Was it great or were you eight?” I was in my teens when we watched these, far from eight, but I wonder how well these others have held up. Reluctant Astronaut is the one I’m most curious to go back to since it has a pre-Airplane! Leslie Nielsen playing the straight man to Knotts. It was weird watching it having seen Airplane! first, only because I wasn’t aware of his dramatic work before he applied for permanent citizenship in Silly Town.
Everrett Greenbaum is the uncredited voice of the guy yelling “Attaboy, Luther” throughout the movie.
Makes sense. I’d be learning karate by mail, too.
Also known as Mrs. Brill, the family cook, from Mary Poppins.