The Ghost and Mr. Chicken

Luther Heggs sets type at the town paper. He wants to be a reporter and looks for a story at every chance. There is an empty house in town; a murder was committed there twenty years ago and nobody has gone in since. Luther brings a proposal: he will spend one night in the house and write what he sees. It is accepted. He goes in at night. The organ plays by itself, a bloodstain appears on the wall, and a pair of shears moves. The piece comes out and the town is in an uproar. Then the owner of the house sues and the court asks Luther to prove what he described. Alan Rafkin directs. Don Knotts plays Luther; Joan Staley, Liam Redmond and Dick Sargent are in the cast. It is an American production, made in 1966. Don Knotts was known at the time from television and this is among his first leading roles in cinema. The humour comes from a frightened man having to look brave. The film uses the elements of horror but does not aim to frighten; a joke follows every chill. The town characters are a separate layer; everyone is in everyone else's business. A line from the film became a saying repeated for a long time in America. The narrative changes kind with the courtroom section and the resolution comes there. Its limit is age; the narrative is slow, the jokes of their period, and the ending too tidy. Who it is for: viewers who like classic American comedy and light mixtures of horror. Who it is not for: it is old, the pace low, and the ending easy.