Silver Screen Stories: The Ghost and Mr. Chicken

 

 

 

Another year, another October. I started this blog fourteen years ago, back in October of 2012. October and Halloween season hold a lot of weight and meaning for me personally, and for this blog directly. And in all those years, I've talked about a lot of my favorite actors and characters, figures that were significant to my formative childhood years, that always stayed with me as I grew up. But one such figure I've yet to really touch on, is one of the funniest, and dearest to my heart, at least in the realm of comedy. And that figure is none other than the great Mr. Don Knotts.

I've been over, many times in many ways, what a strange and often difficult childhood I had. It was a mixed bag in the most extreme ways. My grandmother was a complicated and very damaged person, very flawed with a lot of issues, issues I personally suffered because of, far too often growing up. But she could also be a lot of fun. It's actually very strange to me, and more than a little fucked up, that for someone who genuinely mistreated, even abused me as she was raising me, I find myself now squarely on the steps of "Middle Age", as pretty much the sole steward of her memory, good and bad, out of literally anyone left on the planet. And while she could be terrifying and horrible to be around, she could also be a real goofball, and sometimes hilarious. She loved humor and comedy, had a very twisted sense of humor herself, and had no qualms about laughing at crude fart jokes, as much as she did clever sight gags or word play.

As such, I grew up with a lot of comedy in my life. From the likes of Bill Cosby (she even owned one of his standup shows on vinyl record), to Red Skelton, or Bob Hope, or Jerry Lewis, or Johnny Carson, or George Burns. From movies stars like Whoopi Goldberg, to Steve Martin, to John Candy, or Gene Wilder, or even my beloved Leslie Nielsen. She loved TV shows like I Love Lucy, The Dick Van Dyke Show, Laugh In, Hee-Haw, The Smothers Brothers, The Golden Girls, Mama's Family, and many more. But one of those I remember seeing reruns of as a kid, was The Andy Griffith Show, and in that show, the character that stood out the most to me, to a lot of people it seems, was Don Knotts. 

Icons.

Not only was Andy Griffith a genuinely funny classic sitcom, but it was one that I genuinely looked forward to seeing reruns of on TV as a kid. Don Knotts especially, as his goofball deputy character Barney Fife, often stole the show. He got famous, and in fact earned his role AS Barney Fife, due to his schtick of being "The World's Most Nervous Man". And that was Barney Fife to a "T". Dead serious about the law, but also a bit of a coward, and always VERY high strung and easily rattled. That character, and his antics, were so funny, and so popular, that by the mid-60s, while he would return once in awhile for a special appearance, he actually got written off the show, said to be moving up in his police career and moving to the big city. That was so he could leave the show, to accept a contract to do movies, in which he would be the star. And boy, as much as I'm sure fans of that show were sad to see him leave, I personally am very glad he made the choice he did.

A childhood favorite.

Leslie Nielsen, playing the straight man.

As much as I love Barney Fife, the movies Don Knotts would make in the mid-to-late 60s were of far greater import and interest to kid me. The first Knotts film I remember seeing on TV, at a very young age, perhaps even before I ever saw an episode of Andy Griffith, was 1964's The Incredible Mr. Limpet. One of the earliest, and certainly earliest non-Disney examples of mixing live action with animation, Mr. Limpet saw Knotts as a brow-beaten, day dreamer husband, who was obsessed with fish and the sea, but was too frail and nervous to ever do more than own a fish tank. He wishes he was a fish, and boom, wouldn't you know it, he turned into Don Knotts in fish form, glasses and all (though he losses those glasses, which becomes a plot point, because he still has awful vision, even as a talking fish).  

Much like Disney's Pete's Dragon,  I was absolutely enthralled with his adventures as a fish, and it was a movie that really stuck with me as I got older. Mr. Limpet may well have even been one of the first "super heroes" I adored, as in the story he aids America during WWII against those dastardly Nazis, utilizing his super-sonic fish yell, or whatever it was he had. 

Another great Knotts flick that I saw at a young age, though later than Limpet, was The Reluctant Astronaut, from 1967. Nervous Don Knotts, who dreams of space but finds himself too scared and frail to try out for NASA, winds up stumbling his way into being a "civilian astronaut", so that America can beat those damn Russians to the punch in sending a civilian into space. As you would expect, hilarity ensues, as Knotts is of course a total klutz and goof, so him in space with zero gravity are not a good combo. It's also neat, looking at it retroactively, to see Leslie Nielsen having a prominent role as the straight man to Knotts' doofus, a straight-laced and handsome hero astronaut, who has to help Knotts prepare for his trip to space. I honestly don't remember, whether I first saw Nielsen in this, in my beloved seminal sci-fi epic Forbidden Planet, or the comedy classic Airplane. But there's a very good chance my first ever exposure to Leslie Nielsen, one of my favorite people to ever exist, was in a Don Knotts (ditto) picture. 

An absolute masterpiece of comedy.

But the movie I'm actually here to talk about, and the one, out of a slew of funny Knotts movies (including other gems like The Shakiest Gun in the West and The Private Eyes), was 1966's The Ghost and Mr. Chicken. It is easily his funniest movie, and that's saying something, but it might also be the overall best written and directed. It would seem audiences of the era agreed with me, as it was his most financially successful film. 

Now, outside of Mr. Limpet, I think this was the first Knotts movie I ever saw, and either way, as a kid, while I certainly laughed at the funny parts, I'm not sure I fully understood what "comedy" and "horror" were. I just knew when something made me laugh, and when something made me scared. And at a young age, taking everything at face value, this movie did both. Keep in mind that to a child's mind, I took something like Plan 9 From Outer Space, a very cheesy and poorly acted/written science fiction film, dead serious. As such, while Knotts' usual comedy antics likely had me howling, when it came to the spooky old haunted house central to the story, it still managed to scare me a bit too. And honestly, while you don't understand or can even process everything you're seeing, this is precisely why there are movies I missed out on seeing as a kid, that I wish I had. Because when you experience things as a child, before you're grown up and jaded, everything is so much bigger, more raw, and more powerful. 

The staff of the Rachel Courier Express.

The Ladies.

Living in small town Rachel, Kansas, working as a type-setter who dreams of becoming a big shot journalist, Knotts plays the affable but, naturally, nervous and timid Luther Heggs. Luther lives in a boarding home, populated by not only his obnoxious co-worker Ollie, but three very opinionated and nosy old ladies, as well. He works for the local small-time newspaper, whose entire staff consists of he, journalist Ollie Weaver, owner/editor George Beckett (played by Dick Sargent, famous for playing the second Darrin in Bewitched), and Irish janitor Kelsey. 

As the story starts, it's coming up on the 20th anniversary of an infamous murder/suicide at the old Simmons House, a huge deal to a small town. Told to provide "filler" for tomorrow's paper, Kelsey prompts Luther to instead write his own little piece about the event. This is such a hit with the townspeople, that Mr. Beckett wants a follow-up piece, this time involving someone staying in the "haunted" mansion overnight, that person being Luther. And with that kind of classic set-up, it's off the the races!

The haunted organ.

The paranormal?

Now one thing about "Mr. Chicken", is that he's got a little bit of Marty McFly in him, meaning that while he's a naturally nervous and shy coward, he can also pretty easily be provoked into doing things he wouldn't otherwise dream of doing, if you say he's too scared to do it. Which is precisely what Ollie does, and this prompts Luther, who already gets antagonized by Ollie as it is, to go through with the ludicrous assignment. So go Luther does, taking only a rolled-up sleeping bag and a borrowed flashlight. Ollie even shows up, backhandedly offering to go in with him, but Luther flatly refuses, and faces the daunting challenge all by his lonesome. 

There's a local legend, you see, connected to the murder/suicide of old Mr. Simmons and his beautiful young wife. It's said that after he allegedly killed her, with a pair of gardening sheers, that he ran up into the organ room in the tower of the old house, and played the organ like a madman, before leaping to his own death. So every year since, so it's claimed, at the stroke of midnight on the anniversary of the tragedy, you can still hear the pipe organ play. And it just so happens, during Luther's fateful visit, that not only does he seemingly discover a secret stairway, up to the old organ, but when he reluctantly goes snooping up there, the organ does indeed start to play, seemingly all on its own, the blood stains still on the keys. This causes him to freak out and run, and when he gets back downstairs, he encounters the painting of Mrs. Simmons pictured above, freshly stabbed with sheers, and dripping blood!

All of this is too much for poor Luther to take, and he passes out. But the next day, while feebly trying to recount his tale, George and Ollie manage to craft one hell of an article of his ordeal, supposedly in his own words. 

Mr. Nicholas Simmons

Miss Alma Parker

Now there are two major players I have yet to introduce, one being the love interest, and one being the antagonist. The latter, pictured in color, is Nicholas Simmons, the nephew of the deceased, and the only surviving heir to the Simmons' fortune. He's back in town after twenty years, because he wants to bulldoze the old mansion to the ground, and sell the land off. In fact he seems fervently determined to do so. The other, is the pretty young Alma Parker, a nice local girl who is the metaphorical "apple" of Luther's eye, but who also seems to spend a curious amount of time hanging around jerk-ass Ollie Weaver. 

For Alma's part, Luther adores her, and tries his best to work up the courage to talk to her. And his newfound fame, due to this Simmons House business, gives him a bit of courage to try and get to know her better, since now he's a "somebody". And she genuinely seems to like him in return, though at first of course, seeing her with Ollie, it's easy to think that it's the usual "nice guy finishes last" scenario, where she likes him, but "not THAT way". And for Simmons' part? Well, he becomes furious over the newspaper article, dredging up the memory of that horrible night, which also obstructs his demolition plans, so he sues Luther and the newspaper, if they refuse to publicly admit his experience was purely fictional. Which in an admirable moment for Mr. Beckett, he stands behind Luther and does just that. 

The court case.

That's more than the basic setup for the plot, but as for the film itself, I genuinely consider it an absolute classic, and a masterpiece of comedy. It has all of the integral elements: a likeable protagonist, a compelling conflict, and plenty of moments for hilarious hijinks. Don Knotts, naturally, steals the show, as it IS his show, he's the reason to watch. But he is supported brilliantly by some very snappy and clever dialogue, a tight script, smooth pacing, some wonderful sets (especially the old Simmons House, which is a character unto itself), and even a quaint, catchy score. The town is populated by quirky, memorable characters, such as the eccentric, occultist banker's wife and her crew of "spiritualists", or the unseen man-in-the-crowd who keeps calling out "Atta Boy Luther!". The entire film, as far as this man is concerned, is just *Chef's Kiss*.

It can definitely, and probably correctly, be claimed that when it came to comedy, the 1960s belonged squarely to Jerry Lewis. Yet another whose films I grew up watching, Lewis' hits like Who's Minding the Store, The Disorderly Orderly, and most famously The Nutty Professor, certainly made him the king of the 60s. But I think there is also a very strong argument, that while his window as a top-billed star only lasted a few years in the mid-to-late 60s (mainly), that Don Knotts was, at least for awhile, #2. 

The Simmons House

Now I'm not going to spoil the ending for you, so if you've never seen it and are curious to know how it all turns out, by all means, do yourself a favor, and go and watch this treasure! For me, I watch it every year, and not just around Halloween time. It's one of those rare films, where some years, I watch it multiple times. It's a very rare case, in very select company, of a movie that I don't necessarily have to be in a specific "mood" for, and can put on and watch, in part of or in full, just about any old time. It really is a perfect little film, a perfect combination of its parts. It possesses that small-town charm and innocence that made Mayberry from Andy Griffith so watchable. But it also has a madcap nature, clearly focused on Knotts, that turns his act and his antics up to 11. Plus it has that great, and oddly cozy, haunted house/fall atmosphere to it.

I don't mind saying that it is one of those rarities that is a "comfort film" to me, and I am absolutely biased in my love of it. But that doesn't alter the fact that it's also a legitimately great movie, one of the very best comedies, I think, of the classic era (30s-60s), So if you've never seen it, or even if you have, make sure to add The Ghost and Mr. Chicken to your Halloween rotation this year. And hell, if you have extra time, toss in 1980's The Private Eyes, as well, another spook show mystery, and one of his great teamings with fellow comedian Tim Conway! 

Whatever you do, make sure and have a fun and Happy Halloween! 

Don Knotts 1924-2006