Archive for G
The Greatest Halloween Movie Ever – The Ghost and Mr. Chicken
The Ghost and Mr. Chicken is hands-down the best Halloween movie ever. The music alone is worth the price of admission. It’s got that groovy 60s organ music by Vic Mizzy. Don Knotts, in his first film, plays Luther Heggs, a very nervous employee of the newspaper in Rachel, Kansas. He is awfully fond of Alma Parker (Joan Staley). The Ghost and Mr. Chicken is peopled with a who’s who of character actors, including Dick Sargent and Charles Lane. It’s a great family Halloween movie, with the caution of some scares for the youngest ones.
As the movie opens he is driving his 1958 Edsel when someone screams. Luther jumps out of the car and sees a man lying by the side of the road with a 2×4 beside him. He grabs his camera and press card, takes photos, then goes to the police station jumping with excitement. They tell him to calm down. Luther exclaims, “Calm down? Do ‘calm’ and ‘murder’ go together? ‘CALM’ and ‘MURDER’?”
Turns out the body walks into the police station. He was a man who likes to drink and was wacked over the head by his wife. Luther is disgraced and ridiculed. When we see him at his job at the newspaper, he is not a photographer. Or a reporter. He’s just a typesetter who dreams of being a real newspaperman.
When word spreads through town that the Simmons Mansion will be torn down, it’s big news. You see, a murder-suicide took place in the house years ago, and some people say the old blood-stained pipe-organ still plays at night.
Luther gets assigned to spend the night the supposed haunted house. To prove he’s not a coward, he agrees to do it. When he goes into the mansion, there is some real suspense and horror, perhaps a bit much for young kids. (It was a bit much for me just a few years ago. But then, I identify with Luther.) Luther becomes a hero, then a disgrace once again when he is sued because his story prevents the house from being torn down.
My lousy synopsis doesn’t in any way capture the coolness of this movie. Far and away Knott’s best, the bright colors of the film, the music, and the dialog all combine to make The Ghost and Mr. Chicken the world’s best horror-comedy.
Thanks to The Uranium Cafe for a good review himself and all but one of the pictures. I forget where I got the other.
The Ghost and Mr. Chicken, starring Don Knotts, Joan Staley, and Dick Sargent. Directed by Alan Rafkin, written by James Fritzell, Everett Greenbaum, with some uncredited help from Andy Griffith. Universal Pictures 1966.
The Ghost and Mr Chicken Movie Review
The Girl Can’t Help It Movie Review
Jayne Mansfield is the very definition of a bombshell. And very funny. In this movie, Tom Miller (Tom Ewell) is a talent agent. He’s not had much luck lately when he gets a call from a mobster, Fats Murdock (Edmond O’Brien). Fats wants his girlfriend Jerri Jordan (Jayne Mansfield) to make the big time so he can have a big-time girlfriend. Fats wants her to be a star, but she likes to cook and wants a family. “Don’t I look maternal?” she asks Tom while leaning over, her 40 inches almost in his face. Tom falls for Jerri of course. The Girl Can’t Help It is an enjoyable, but not great, movie, if a bit schizophrenic.
For some reason, this movie has lots of Rock ‘n’ Roll stars in it. They have nothing to do with the story, but it’s a fantastic opportunity to see Little Richard, Fats Domino, Gene Vincent and the Blue Caps, Eddie Cochran, The Platters, and a Rock ‘n’ Roll band with an accordion, all in living Technicolor. I love the over-bright film used in the 1950s.
Who is Tom Ewell and how did he get to star opposite both Marilyn Monroe and Jayne Mansfield? There are better comedians, more romantic leading men, better looking actors, but he gets these plum movies. Well he was a Broadway star, and was in the Broadway version of The Seven Year Itch. And he followed his short movie career with a long television career.
The DVD has a Biography Channel documentary on Jayne Mansfield. She had a 40-inch bust and loved attention, especially from men. She married a Mr. Universe, Mickey Hargitay. She claimed to have an IQ of 163, but scholastic evidence is lacking though she could speak five languages.
The Girl Can’t Help It, 1956. Jayne Mansfield, Tom Ewell, Edmond O’Brien. Directed by Frank Tashlin. 99 minutes.
The photos below include the iconic shot of Jayne holding two bottles of milk.
The Ghost of Dragstrip Hollow and The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini-DVD Movie Review
EDIT: I’d like to state that I was sick as pig when I watched these movies and wrote the review. Two movies in one pack: The Ghost of Dragstrip Hollow and The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini. Almost nothing similar about them except they both are about teenagers, have some element of the supernatural, and, interestingly, they both have a song called “Geronimo.” Two completely different songs, one an instrumental with gunshots and the name Geronimo shouted out occasionally, and the other is sung by Nancy Sinatra. Full review below the ton of pictures.
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- TV Tommy Ivo
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- I want a shirt like this
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- Nancy Sinatra
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- Vox Guitar – Bobby Fuller Four
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- Nancy Sinatra
The Ghost of Dragstrip Hollow (1959) begins interestingly enough with a pair of female hotrodders street racing. One good girl and one troublemaker. Then there is a cool scene inside a hot rod garage with several cool old 1950s hot rods and “TV” Tommy Ivo, the drag racer. There are good clean-cut kids explaining to the adult reporter that most hotrodders are just good clean-cut kids and only a small minority are troublemakers. Then to the hangout, where there is some horrible lip-synching and instrument-synching. And the music only mediocre at best.
The good female hotrodder has a good family with a dad who worries too much and mother who seems to understand the kids. The girl gets grounded for being in the race, but her mom works out that she can still have a bash at her house, followed by a slumber party. During the party, the dad goes out on the porch and sees a couple kissing, the young man says “We just came out to get some fresh air.” The dad: “Where did you think you’d find it? Down her neck?” Then during the slumber party there is more dancing, just this time the girls are in pajamas. A lot of this movie is dancing teens, not much in the way of story, drag racing, or horror.
At 40 minutes into the movie we finally hear about a ghost and Dragstrip Hollow. They of course have a dance at the haunted mansion in Dragstrip Hollow and an implied drag race. For some reason what could have been a great climax is nothing because they were too cheap to film another race. There is some artificial intelligence (AI), which is very interesting for a show this old. All in all, watching The Ghost of Dragsrip Hollow is not a bad way to spend Sunday morning when you’re sick on the couch.
The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini (1966) has Basil Rathbone, Boris Karloff, and Nancy Sinatra! What more could you ask of a horror movie? Well how about introducing The Bobby Fuller Four (of “I Fought The Law” fame) playing some very unusual Vox instruments. Actually, The Invisible Bikini is not a horror movie, more like a spoof of horror. It has Eric Von Zipper and the Rats motorcycle gang from the Frankie Avalon Annette Funicello beach movies, so that tells you what level this movie is aiming at.
Boris Karloff is a dead circus performer who has to do one good dead to go “up there” with his old girl who died 30 years ago. She wore an invisible bikini. Not a see-through bikini, but a bikini that shows whatever is behind her. So, if she’s standing in front of a wall then you the wall where her bikini is. Kinda pointless except it makes a very interesting title for a movie. Anyway, she has to go out and accomplish his good deed, which is to make sure the kids of some people he swindled become his heirs. The lawyer, Rathbone, is trying to do away with all the heirs so that he can become the sole benefactor.
That’s about the plot. This one has lots of dancing also, only now they are in swim suits. And there is a scene with girls in pajamas again.
That’s about the plot. This one has lots of dancing also, only now they are in swim suits. And there is a scene with girls in pajamas again.
Actually both movies were enjoyable in their own way. Ghost Of Dragstrip Hollow/The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini (Midnite Movies Double Feature)
Gilda Movie Review
Before I started this blog, I did some classic movie reviews at my old blog. Gilda Movie Review.
