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Greetings, and welcome to VIEWING THE CLASSICS. Here you'll find capsule reviews of vintage movies from the early days of cinema through the 1970s, with a special emphasis on sci-fi, horror, and mystery movies. Be sure to check out the Pages links, where you can find a Film Index of all my reviews, links to the reviews organized by cast members, directors, and other contributors, and links to my reviews of the films of talented young director Joshua Kennedy.

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Wednesday, January 22, 2014

The Ghost And Mr. Chicken (1966)

Starring Don Knotts, Joan Staley, Liam Redmond, Dick Sargent, Skip Homeier
Directed by Alan Rafkin
(actor & director credits courtesy IMDB.com)

A meek typesetter for a small town newspaper is given the opportunity to write a feature story, but must spend the night in a haunted house where a murder took place 20 years before.

Playing a role not too different from his Barney Fife persona on The Andy Griffith Show, Knotts is charming as the easily spooked Luther Heggs, whose meekness extends from putting up with a boorish writer at the paper to his timid courtship of the town beauty.  It's not riotously funny, but gently amusing at times, and good-natured throughout, a fine counterpoint to the more raucous and ribald comedies of today.   Vic Mizzy contributes a whimsical music score, and though there's nothing particularly frightening in the haunted house, Knotts does a nice job of entertaining the audience with his fearful reactions.

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