The Ghost and Mr. Chicken, the 1966 comedy starring Don Knotts, was released during a period when the actor was at the height of his post-television popularity. The movie, which also featured Joan Staley, Liam Redmond, and Dick Sergent, became a childhood favorite for many viewers who grew up in the 1960s. Its title was a comedic play on words referencing the 1947 film The Ghost and Mrs.
Muir. The film centered on Luther Heggs, a nervous newspaper typesetter who volunteers to spend the night in a supposedly haunted mansion and later finds himself accused of murder. The production included all the elements audiences expected from a haunted house story, including a mysterious organ that played itself and blood-stained keys that even Bon Ami couldn’t clean. The score by Vic Mizzy contributed significantly to the film’s atmosphere and appeal.
After Knotts left The Andy Griffith Show, he signed a multi-picture deal with Universal Pictures. The idea for the movie was sparked by an episode of The Griffith Show titled “Haunted House,” in which characters Barney, Otis, Gomer, and Andy entered a supposedly haunted house searching for Opie’s baseball. No actor of the era could play nervous or frightened better than Knotts. Director Alan Rafkin and writers Jim Fritzell and Everett Greenbaum had all worked on The Griffith Show, giving them a solid understanding of how to work with Knotts.
Many of the actors in the film were also alumni of the series, including Hal Smith, Riza Royce, Hope Summers, Burt Mustin, and Charles Lane. Several other familiar television faces appeared as well, including Ellen Corby, later known for The Waltons, along with Sandra Gould and Dick Sergent, both of whom had roles on Bewitched. There has been some confusion over the years about the movie’s mansion facade. Many viewers mistook it for the home on The Munsters, but in fact it was located next door to that property.
The same facade was later seen years later in the television series Desperate Housewives. While filming The Ghost and Mr. Chicken, Knotts was reportedly concerned about how the film was shaping up. He brought in an uncredited script consultant to help polish it.
That consultant was none other than Andy Griffith himself, who stepped in to punch up the script. One of the film’s most memorable scenes involves Luther giving a speech at a Chamber of Commerce picnic. Knotts works himself into his signature nervous bit with hilarious results. At one point during the speech, someone in the crowd yells out, “Attaboy, Luther!
” The moment inspired a short-lived public craze of people yelling that same phrase during speeches and in other situations. Years later, the Farrelly Brothers used the same joke in their 1996 film Kingpin. The Ghost and Mr. Chicken earned over a million dollars during its first week of release in 1966, making it the number one top-grossing movie of that week.
Knotts went on to star in several other Universal films, including The Reluctant Astronaut, The Shakiest Gun in the West, The Love God? , and How to Frame a Figg. While those films were generally well received, none of them matched the lasting appeal of The Ghost and Mr. Chicken, which many fans rank alongside classics like Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein.
Knotts later found renewed television success as Ralph Furley on Three’s Company and appeared in films such as The Apple Dumpling Gang. He passed away on February 24, 2006, at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, from pneumonia and lung cancer. He was 81 years old.
He was laid to rest at the Cemetery of the Stars, Westwood Village Memorial Cemetery in Los Angeles, California, where a monument highlights his stellar career.
