RIP LESLIE NIELSEN

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the passing of one of my all-time favorite funnymen, Leslie Nielsen, who died yesterday at the age of 84.

My current schedule doesn't permit me to go into great detail about his career but for those not in the know (and I doubt few reading this blog fall into that category), Nielsen spent approximately the first two decades of his career primarily doing "straight" roles in films like the sci-fi classic "Forbidden Planet." That all changed with a fateful role in 1980's comedy smash "Airplane." Which in turn led to the short-lived (6 episodes) but brilliantly funny TV series, "Police Squad." Which in turn was spun off into the very successful (and funny) "Naked Gun" comedy film franchise.

He also played a memorable role in the 1982 George Romero/Stephen King horror anthology film "Creepshow," which is more horror than comedy but does have its tongue planted firmly in cheek in spots.

Along the way Nielsen had some chances to appear in modern-day horror-comedies, particularly "Reposessed" (as a priest out to exorcise Linda Blair - yes, it's a spoof of "The Exorcist"), Mel Brooks' "Dracula: Dead & Loving It" (as the title vampire) and a pair of entries in the "Scary Movie" spoof series (3 & 4 to be exact). The films themselves may be a mixed bag, but one thing is sure: Nielsen always brought his A-game, no matter how weak the script or direction of a film may have been.

So here's to you, funnyman! You will be missed.

Now let's let Dracula... er, I mean Leslie have the last word:

BABES IN TOYLAND (aka MARCH OF THE WOODEN SOLDIERS) (1934)

AUTHOR’S NOTE #1: I’m running a review of this film today because the film is a Thanksgiving tradition in the New York Tri-State area where I grew up and still live. WPIX Channel 11 has run this film almost every year on Thanksgiving for the past 40 or so years (a notable exception was last year, which led to the station receiving many protests – and lo and behold the film is back on the air this year, from 9AM to 11AM Thanksgiving morning).

AUTHOR’S NOTE #2: As of this writing I’m still debating whether to include this film among the main Laurel & Hardy horror-comedy entries or whether to place it in the “horror-onable mention” section. The film is not a horror-comedy per se – in fact, it is a children’s fantasy that makes ample use of classic fairy tale characters. Furthermore, a major motif in the film is Santa and his toymakers readying Christmas gifts for the children in the off-season. But its horrific moments and characters are quite palpable and place it in a unique category all its own. More on that in the review...

AUTHOR’S NOTE #3: If I can manage it, I am considering offering a whole week of reviews of Laurel & Hardy horror-comedies leading up to Christmas. Laurel & Hardy always remind me of Christmas – several of their films dealt with the holiday or mentioned it in some way (this one as well as “Big Business” and “The Fixer Uppers” and little bits here and there such as the “Mary Christmas” line in “Way Out West”). I am also aware that Stan & Ollie are something of a Christmas tradition in the UK, with marathons of their films run on TV during the holidays. So… let me know what you think of the idea. You can post in the comments section or send me an email. If I get enough positive feedback I will see if I can make it work, schedule-wise (note that to accommodate this I would need to spend the next few weeks without posting any new content on this blog leading up to the Laurel & Hardy Fest).



RATING: *** & ¾ out of ****

PLOT: The peace and tranquility of the citizens of Toyland (where all the famous nursery rhyme and fairy tale characters live along with Santa Claus and all his helpers) is threatened by its one bad apple: sinister Silas Barnaby (Henry Brandon), a creepy landlord who holds the mortgages on most of the homes in the land, including the shoe-shaped home belonging to the old woman (who lived in a shoe). He also rules the frightening “Bogeyland” and the monstrous “Bogeymen” that inhabit it, a place where criminals are banished as punishment for major crimes. Barnaby is sweet on the old woman’s daughter Little Bo Peep. When Mother Widow Peep (Florence Roberts) can’t meet the mortgage payment on the shoe, Barnaby offers to forget the whole matter if she’ll consent to offering Bo Peep’s hand in marriage to Barnaby. Neither Mother nor Bo Peep, who is in love with Tom Tom the Piper’s Son (Felix Knight) are willing to submit to Barnaby’s demand and so he threatens to evict everyone out of the shoe. Enter two of the shoe’s tenants, Stannie Dumm (Stan Laurel) and Ollie Dee (Oliver Hardy), who vow to get a loan from their boss the toymaker (William Burress) to prevent such a travesty. That doesn’t go over too well as the “boys” get in a heap of trouble with the toymaker after Santa does a spot check at the toy factory. St. Nick wants to see how things are coming along and learns that Stannie got his wooden soldiers order all mixed up – instead of 600 soldiers at one foot high, 100 soldiers each six feet high have been created! A series of triumphs and reversals follow for Stannie, Ollie, Bo Peep and Tom Tom and when it becomes apparent that Barnaby can no longer “trick” his way to achieving his evil desires, he enlists the aid of the ferocious half-men, half-monster Bogeymen to rout Toyland. Can our heroes find a way to defeat these abominable creatures, and what will become of Bo Peep, Tom Tom and the wooden soldiers?

REVIEW: Testament to the role this film has played in my life: I’ve seen it so many times I didn't even need to re-watch it to review it! Without question, this film, based on the Victor Herbert operetta is one of the most unique films ever made – as both a comedy film by major stars and as a holiday classic it stands pretty much alone. Only the all-star “Alice in Wonderland” which also stars Charlotte Henry in the title role (along with Cary Grant, W.C. Fields, Leon Errol, Jack Oakie, Sterling Holloway, Edward Everett Horton, Charles Ruggles and others) comes close but ultimately it's no cigar – while that earlier film shares “Babe’s” weird and spooky oddness it lacks the charm and humor of the Laurel & Hardy opus which despite several terror-filled sequences is filled with hope and optimism. And “Alice” certainly doesn’t evoke any warm-fuzzy holiday feelings... it is most decidedly not a holiday classic.

Where can I even begin? This is one of those films that has to be seen – mere words cannot convey the wonders this film undolds. I suppose I’ll get the intentional and unintentional scares out of the way first:

Silas Barnaby, as performed with relish and flourish by Henry Brandon (real name: Kleinbach) is a dastardly villain of the highest order. He has a huge “creepy” and “spooky” factor, not unlike many of the fiends Bela Lugosi and Vincent Price essayed over their illustrious careers. It is a performance for the ages. Brandon treads that line between funny and purely evil that not many actors since have accomplished (Heath Ledger’s interpretation of Batman’s nemesis “The Joker” is the most recent example I can think of but there have been few and far between). Most amazing of all, Brandon did it at the tender age of 22. That is an amazing accomplishment not just because he’s playing a character much older but also because of all he was able to bring to the character – if you didn’t know Brandon’s real age you’d swear that he had already witnessed decades of villainy to inspire his portrayal. Brandon played many other notable roles through the years (including a part in the Martin & Lewis horror-comedy “Scared Stiff”) and even acted up until the year before his death in 1990 but when all is said and done it is not a stretch to claim that history will put Barnaby at the top of his most memorable roles. Brandon returned to the character three years later and that turn was just as memorable as the original. In the short “Our Gang Follies of 1938” (filmed and released in 1937) Brandon is the Opera House impresario who signs famed Little Rascal Alfalfa to a crooked contract whose deception is worthy of those the devil dealt in “The Devil & Tom Walker,” “The Devil & Daniel Webster,” “Damn Yankees,” “Bedazzled” and so many other tales. The unbreakable contract requires Alfalfa to sing “The Barber of Seville” at his opera house… forever! The character is never called “Barnaby” by name in the short, but in the script he is identified as such.



Barnaby has a manservant, naturally, and as the illogic in old movies usually goes, the villains always pick ineffective manservants like hunchbacks and mutes (sometimes they’re both at the same time). Here, the manservant is a diminutive dwarf played by John George. He is oddly creepy in his own right (which may be the context more than anything – the costumes in this film are creepy as is the lighting and Barnaby’s villainy and lair, and since George appears in those scenes, his character takes on those attributes as well… except when Barnaby laces into him, resulting in some audience sympathy toward the character). He is also somewhat reminiscent of Angelo Rossitto, another dwarf actor with a lengthy career who often appeared in the same manservant capacity, most notably alongside Bela Lugosi in various films including the East Side Kids horror-comedy, “Spooks Run Wild.” Rossitto also appears in "Babes," as one of the little pigs as well as one of the sandmen fairies during the lullaby scene (more on both below).

Barnaby’s minions, “The Bogeymen” are horrific monster-men designed to give children (and maybe a few adults) nightmares. Less frightening once you get past a certain age and spot the rubber faces and the pillow pads within their shaggy suits, they are also fairly unique considering the year the movie came out. The most natural comparisons would be movie werewolves and ape men but most of those types of films (such as “Werewolf of London” and “The Wolf Man” and “The Ape Man”) came out after “Babes.” Prior to “Babes,” the most notable example was “The Island of Lost Souls” a year earlier and perhaps some of Lon Chaney Sr.’s silent monster films. Like Barnaby, the Bogeymen (or at least A BogeyMAN) would return in an “Our Gang” short. Well, at least the costume and mask (without an actor inside) would, as Alfalfa, Buckwheat and Porky are scared witless by a Bogeyman that flings out of a hidden panel during an unplanned (and unrealized by the kids) journey through a spooky carnival funhouse in the last Hal Roach-produced “Our Gang” short , “Hide & Shriek” (1938). Not to be outdone, Barnaby is also evoked in an early scene that has "detektive" Alfalfa showing off his expertise at disguises - answering the door dressed as Barnaby complete with hat, cape and cane!

Barnaby and the Bogey Men are the obviously scary elements, but the whole production has an (appropriately) surreal and otherworldly sensibility that sometimes borders on the eerie, with even some of the favorite children’s characters rendered in slightly “off” costumes and masks that are downright spooky at times. These include the Three Little Pigs, played by dwarves (including the aforementioned cult film favorite Angelo Rossitto) and children (including Payne B. Johnson who is still with us as of this writing – I had the pleasure of meeting him at the 2006 Sons of the Desert convention in Atlanta, GA) in garish costumes. The masks make the faces of the pigs seem a little scary – they look old and wrinkled and not capable of showing much emotion (especially since you can’t really see their eyes), which heightens the bizarre feeling (a pig jumping up and down and clapping its hands in victory with an emotionless face is an odd thing indeed. There is also man in a cat suit (Pete Gordon, who played the Chinese cook in Laurel & Hardy’s horror-comedy classic “The Live Ghost”) with a fiddle, naturally, who comes off slightly scary – mostly unintentionally although there is one cheat scare when Ollie is explaining to Stan about the Bogeyman’s horrible claws… just as the “cat” puts its paw on Stan’s shoulder!

One scene that was edited out of many television prints through the years had Tom Tom, having been banished to Bogeyland after being falsely accused of pignapping (Barnaby framed him of of course) comforting Bo Peep, who had traveled into Bogeyland after her true love. Tom Tom sings Bo Peep to sleep with a lullaby while fairies (played by dwarves again… perhaps the producers of the still-a-few-years-away “Wizard of Oz” took notice of these diminutive thesps with big talents) dance overhead in spectral, see-through form. The ghostly figures make the scene more eerie than magical for me.



Oddest of all however has to be... Mickey Mouse. You heard that right, Mickey Mouse. PLAYED BY A MONKEY! I always personally loved the monkey-in-a-mouse suit character, but I know others who were totally frightened by it. It is weird to say the least (I still wonder how the heck the monkey was able to breathe in that costume). The character is a mix of the plucky and resourceful Mickey from the 1930s black & white cartoons combined with the offbeat, bouncy movements of a typical monkey (the character gets a major moment of its own during the climactic battle with the Bogeymen, piloting a toy zeppelin and dropping explosives onto the monsters from overhead). The Hal Roach Studios (producers of the film) had a long-standing relationship with the Disney studio and their “stars” occasionally crossed over (Laurel & Hardy are prominent in the classic “Mickey’s Polo Team” and in the same year as “Babes” Mickey and Stan & Ollie co-starred again in the all-star MGM feature, “Hollywood Party”). This friendly co-existence between Disney and Roach also extended to Disney granting Roach the rights to use the smash hit song “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf” in “Babes” (the award-winning animated “Three Little Pigs” Disney short having debuted the year before).

I have always found this film absolutely delightful. As a child I don’t remember being scared by the spookier elements; it’s only as I grew older that I realized how frightening some elements in this film are. But I am still delighted by it, for two reasons. First, Laurel & Hardy are simply sublime as usual in this film. Their comedy is warm, funny and at times magically surreal and the screen characters audiences had become used to remain intact in the middle of this high fantasy. Perhaps since I had seen so many other features and shorts by the duo as a child I knew that they “always came back” for another adventure, so I was certain that they would help defeat the marauding monsters (despite fearful moments of real terror and concern – such as when the Bogeymen snatch Toyland’s children from their beds). I also grew up in a time where Hollywood saw the value in the darker side of the fairy tale. Overcoming fears and learning important lessons through scary allegories were hallmarks of children’s stories. Disney knew this well – during Hollywood’s golden age his “Snow White & the Seven Dwarves” and “Pinocchio” didn’t pull any punches in the “scares” department. This approach lasted at least through the early 1970s with Gene Wilder’s masterful portrayal of the alternately whimsical/frightening title character of “Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory.” Somewhere along the line, the “gatekeepers” decided that scares had to be skirted in children’s fantasies, leaving whole generations with much more homogenized stories lacking true heart and humanity.

“Babes in Toyland” has a slippery history. Hal Roach originally bought the rights to do a film version of the Herbert operetta "Babes" then realized it had very little plot, at least not one that would easily accommodate a feature film (it was fine for the stage where it worked perfectly as a lovely revue of childhood memories of the toy chest set to song). So Roach conceived a story with Stan and Ollie as “Simple Simon and the Pie Man.” The villain was a spider who turned into a man and put “hate” into the wooden soldiers so they could ravage the town and eliminate “love and happiness.” It sounds a lot like the Beatles’ classic animated feature “Yellow Submarine” which would be released 32 years later… but as envisioned by Roach, the studio would have been hard-pressed to convey the abstract elements of his idea and there hardly seems room for typical Stan and Ollie antics within. Thankfully Laurel, the creative architect of most of the team’s films (he wrote gags and stories and often directed many scenes – mostly uncredited) won out over Roach and collaborated with his own writers and gagmen to deliver the film we know and love today. As odd as it may sound, to me Laurel’s version anticipates Peter Jackson’s “Lord of the Rings” trilogy (condensed from a combined ten plus hours to “Babe’s” compact 78 minutes) with the unlikely heroes (Stan & Ollie/Frodo & Samwise) routing the mephistophelean villain (Barnaby/Saruman) and his minions (The Bogeymen/The Orcs). But maybe that’s just me...

The other side of this film’s checkered past has to do with its release history. (it’s so confusing in fact that I’m not even fully certain if the following is entirely accurate). The film was sold off by Roach to an independent distributor named Robert Lippert. It was reissued to theaters several times over the years under various names such as “March of the Toys,” “March of the Wooden Soldiers” (its most commonly known moniker) and the non-sequitur non de plum, “Revenge is Sweet.” It made the rounds of schools where it was shown to students on 16mm projectors. Ultimately it wound up on TV, where it became a staple broadcast around the holidays (run on or near Thanksgiving or Christmas and sometimes both). When the growing popularity of VCR’s made videotapes as attractive to buy as they were to rent, several companies released the film under the mistaken notion that the film was in the public domain. The truth was that the Tribune Broadcasting Company (owners of WGN in Chicago and WPIX in New York City) had an ownership stake. At some point they lost the rights and the Samuel Goldwyn Company snatched them up, colorizing the film for home video release and then a national syndication deal (which Tribune signed on for). This colorized version is broadcast on TV to this day. Meanwhile, the DVD age ushered in more home video releases by companies assuming the film was in the public domain (these included a newly colorized version from Legend Films that was an improvement over the original color job but still looks like kids using their Crayolas over old film frames to this reviewer). When MGM bought out Goldwyn’s assets, they ended up owning a film they had released and distributed in the first place. A couple years back they gave the world a wonderful Christmas present in the form of a DVD of the film in its pristine, original black & white form… complete with all scenes intact and the original “Babes in Toyland” title cards!



The film as it stands is an amazing, unique achievement. The comedy of Stan & Ollie is in high gear and one can’t help but laugh and smile from ear to ear when they are onscreen. The horrific aspects are appropriate for a classic approach to fairy tales, the benevolent Toyland characters are warmly drawn and the rescue of Toyland by Stan, Ollie and the Wooden Soldiers is rousing indeed. While some of the songs sung by the romantic leads have a tendency to slow the film down in spots (the one thing that keeps me from giving it a full four star review), they don’t overpower it. The overall plot, while taking a few meandering detours still has a beginning, middle and end and adheres to the old adage from Chekhov wherein he states that if a gun is shown in the first act, it better go off in the third. The gun here is the wooden soldiers, and the resonance is the fact that the hero’s seeming mistake (Stan’s botching of the wooden soldiers order) is the very thing that ends up saving the day. Kind of like Frodo taking that ring...

BEST DIALOGUE AND GAGS (normally I separate these categories but in this film, as in most Laurel & Hardy sound films the verbal and visual gags are often intertwined)

Stan explains to Ollie that he borrowed money from their piggy bank to replace a “pee wee” – a little wooden peg that when hit with a stick returns like a boomerang. Unless you are Ollie, who pompously insists that anything Stan can do he can do… but he can’t! To add insult to injury, Ollie also learns he can’t do Stan’s finger tricks either.

Ollie and Stan have chased Barnaby down a well. “You better come up, dead or alive,” says Stan, alluding to the King’s edict that Barnaby is a wanted fugitive (when the King announces the award for bringing back Barnaby "Dead or Alive," Stan asks "Can't you make up your mind how you want him?"). “Now how can he come up dead when he’s alive,” protests Ollie. “Let’s drop a rock on him,” counters Stan. “Then he’ll come up dead when he’s alive!”

Stan and Ollie have a plan: Stan will show up at Barnaby’s door with a big box – a Christmas present! Inside is Ollie, who plans to sneak out once inside to find and destroy the shoe’s mortgage. Barnaby asks, “Christmas present… in the middle of July?” “We always like to do our Christmas shopping early,” retorts Stan. Their plan backfires when Stan says goodnight to Ollie and Ollie pops his head out of the crate, leading to them being put on trial.

When Ollie gets "dunked" in the lake as punishment for the attempted robbery of the mortgage, he hands Stan his watch for safe keeping. Distressed by the dunking Bo Peep consents to become Barnaby's wife... which means that the charges are withdrawn and Stan doesn't have to get dunked! Ollie doesn't like this and pushes Stan into the lake... and a soaked Stan emerges pulling Ollie's waterlogged watch out of his pocket!

When Bo Peep gives in to Barnaby’s marriage proposal, Ollie explains that Stan is so upset he’s not even going to the wedding. “Upset,” exclaims Stan. “I’m housebroken!” When Mother Peep determines to speak to Barnaby to try to change his mind, Stan says "Her talking to him is just a matter of pouring one ear into another and coming out the other side... can't be done!"

The boys realize that they can pass Stan off as Bo Peep as long as he keeps his face covered by the veil. Their ruse is a success, but Stan is surprised when he can’t leave with Ollie. Ollie explains that now that Stan’s married, he has to stay with Barnaby. “But I don’t love him,” Stan wails!

During Tom Tom’s trial for pignapping, Stan and Ollie sit on the sidelines. The evidence (a plate of sausage links) is placed near where they sit. Stan asks Ollie what it is and Ollie explains that the sausage used to be Elmer the pig (allegedly at least). Stan takes a bite and says it doesn’t take like pig – it tastes like pork to him! This inspires Ollie to take a bite and brings Tom Tom’s innocence to the forefront as Ollie exclaims, “why that’s neither pig nor pork… it’s beef!”

SPOTTED IN THE CAST: My favorite Our Gang/Little Rascals kid, Scotty Beckett has a small part. He made several movies apart from the Gang shorts, but his only other recurring part was as Winky in the “Rocky Jones, Space Ranger” TV series. He worked until 1957 then tragically died eleven years later due to a drug overdose.

Ellen Corby will forever be known as the grandmother on “The Waltons” but her roles are numerous. They include bit parts in two Laurel & Hardy classics (“Sons of the Desert” and “Babes in Toyland,” aka “March of the Wooden Soldiers”), playing a maid in Abbott & Costello’s “The Noose Hangs High” appearing in Jerry Lewis’ “Visit to a Small Planet” and three major horror-comedy roles: playing one of the Gravesend clan in “The Bowery Boys Meet the Monsters,” Mother Lurch in the classic “Addams Family” TV series, and Luther Hegg’s childhood schoolteacher in “The Ghost & Mr. Chicken.” In addition to her acting roles, apparently Corby was also a script supervisor at the Roach Studios on numerous Laurel & Hardy, Our Gang, Charley Chase, Thelma Todd & Zasu Pitts/Patsy Kelly, etc., shorts and was also married at the time to Hal Roach cinematographer Francis Corby.

Ironically, Billy Bletcher started out in silent movies, but his career would be made via his deep baritone voice. He appeared in many vintage comedy shorts alongside Laurel & Hardy, the Little Rascals (including “Hide & Shriek”), W.C. Fields and others; classic animated shorts from Disney and Warner Brothers, did a couple voices in “The Wizard of Oz,” and appeared in Red Skelton’s horror-comedy “Whistling in the Dark.” His voice was often utilized to portray villains (he was the voice of The Big Bad Wolf) as well as ghosts and other spooky characters (he lent his talents to the classic Mickey/Donald/Goofy horror-cartoon, “Lonesome Ghosts”).

FURTHER READING: There are many great books on Laurel & Hardy out there but I will single out three that particularly highlight “Babes.” The coffee table book "Laurel & Hardy" by John McCabe and Richard W. Bann has some great production and promotional stills from “Babes.” Randy Skretvedt’s essential, impeccably researched “Laurel & Hardy: the Magic Behind the Movies” goes into deep detail about the behind-the-scenes trials and triumphs of this film, from Roach’s ill-conceived plot to young Henry Brandon getting into bar brawls when off-camera. Scott MacGillivray’s equally essential “Laurel & Hardy: from the Forties Forward” presents the story of the film’s second (and third and fourth and fifth, etc.) life as theatrical reissue, television staple and home video release. Last but not least, there are a lot of reviews of the film out on the internet but instead of those I’ll share these links - one is from Mark Evanier's site with his thoughts as well as those of Randy Skretvedt and Jim Hanley (primarily having to do with Roach's original story, the colorized versions and scenes that may have been deleted) which you can read when you click here; the other is a link to a Village Voice article that is more of a remembrance of the impact this film had on so many kids growing up with it on TV in the New York area – click here to read it.

Laurel & Hardy Compiled by Al Kilgore, Filmography by Richard W Bann









BUY THE FILM: There are lots of versions out there – some unauthorized, some colorized, some butcherized (as in edited). But I really can only endorse the official MGM DVD release in glorious black & white:














WATCH THE FILM: As of this writing, Hulu has posted the entire film on their site by special arrangement with MGM. You can enjoy the Hulu presentation right here on the Scared Silly site when you click here.

In the meantime, enjoy the original trailer for “Babes in Toyland” (note that it uses Henry Brandon’s real name and also exaggerates the running time, claiming the film contains 12 minutes more than it actually does)... and have a Happy Thanksgiving!

SHOOTIN' INJUNS (1925)

RATING: *** out of ****

PLOT: In this silent short featuring Our Gang (aka “Little Rascals” – here played by Mickey Daniels, Jackie Condon, Johnny Downs, Allen “Farina” Hoskins, Joe Cobb and Mary Kornman), the kids are a bit too fervent in their games of “Cowboys and Indians,” leading their parents to threaten to knock down the gang's “hideout” (aka “shack”). Undeterred, the kids set out west after nightfall in search of real Indians. They stumble upon a mysterious house that is actually a prototype “magnetic house” full of tricks and illusions that an inventor has created in hopes of a big sale to amusement park investors. Taking shelter from the storm outside, the group get more than they bargained for when they trip all the mechanical “funhouse” features and are scared out of their wits! Can they get out of the house with their nerves intact?

REVIEW: The *** out of **** rating I gave this film is an average. Based on the opening portion of this short alone I would have given the film one star or maybe even half a star. That’s because the opening concerns itself with the Our Gang kids involved in fantasy role play scenario as cowboys on the lookout for Indians. Some of what happens in these scenes is amusing in a cute way, but hardly laugh-out-loud funny. There are also a few uncomfortably un-PC overtones regarding how Indians are referred to in the title cards (both the “narration” and the kids’ “dialogue”) – although one of the kids’ mothers does reprimand her son saying the Indians should be left alone – they haven’t done any harm. If I were writing a book about western-comedies perhaps I’d feel differently, but the opening segment of “Shootin’ Injuns” presents little promise for the horror-comedy fan.

Thank goodness for broken promises! Once the film puts our protagonists inside the trick “magnetic” house that the kids think is haunted, the short becomes a wild free-for-all of wonderful “scare comedy” and stunning – even to modern audiences – special effects. This is the first ever Our Gang horror-comedy and I can truly say that of all their similar shorts to follow, not one tops its “scare” moments (although “Shivering Spooks” comes close). And so, the “spooky” portions of this short get a four star rating from me.

Average it out and you get a solid 3 star rating.

For this review then I’m going to spend less time on the western elements so I can get to the horror gags quicker.

The film starts in quaint fashion with a title card informing us that “In the life of every boy there comes the desire to go out west…” The kids are playing that old politically incorrect chestnut of a game “Cowboys and Indians” in their clubhouse, which is complete with secret tunnel entrance and elaborate Rube Goldberg-esque contraptions (Joe Cobb blows through a hose to announce his presence then Mickie flips a switch that opens the shrub like a trap door for Joe to climb down) . Each of the kids is introduced with their non de plume - the name of the legendary western character they’re playing (Micky as General Custer, Jackie as Daniel Boone, Johnny as “David” Crockett, and Farina as “Pancho Farina”)… except for Mary, who has been excluded from the game for suggesting that “some of the Indians might want to keep on living.”

Mary isn’t excluded for long - she strong-arms the gang into letting her into their cowboy games by threatening to tell her Mom, who she promises will “do some real scalping” if they persist to keep her out.
The film quickly shifts gears. After being told their shack will be knocked down the kids decide they need to literally head “out west” to find Indians and agree to meet at 8PM to begin their trek (“We’ll be in a foreign country by morning”). They don’t get far when the spooky stuff starts happening.

The fun starts with Farina, who is hiding under a sheet in the back of a laundry wagon. When the driver sees him he gets scared. Then both Farina and his driver see sheets on a clothesline eerily fluttering in the wind. Farina exclaims, “Splooks!”

Joe Cobb gets caught up in tree branches and the dangling laundry while Mickie and Johnnie are nearby dealing with scares of their own. First a black cat loudly knocks objects off a roof. This is followed by a tire blowing out. Finally a howling dog and a gunshot from a rifle toting man trying to get some sleep sends the boys completely off the deep end.

All of this is just a warm-up, for as the title card tells us, “The old inventor had perfected his Magnetic House – A magic maze of mechanical mysteries.” Magnets, mechanics, strings and electricity, to be exact. The inventor is trying to sell the house to investors who plan to put one “in every big amusement park in America!” Whether intentional or not, the inventor’s house acts as kind of a connecting device to the kids’ own gadgets from their hideout shown earlier in the film.

Needless to say, once the kids are inside the house the pace picks up considerably. There are lots and lots of tricks the totally frighten the kids, including:

• Doors that open on their own
• Lots of creepy paper mache’ heads that pop out of the floor and figures that plop out of closets and sit up in bed shooting guns.
• Spooky smoke emanating from sink drains.
• Arms that pop out of cakes.
• Cabinets with dancing products on their shelves.
• Skeletons that appear and disappear… and some that even grab the kids!
• Revolving secret doors in the walls,
• A 3-D portrait on the wall with googly eyes that pop out and a necktie for a tongue that flails about.
• Legs that pop out of the wall to kick the kids in the seat of the their pants.
• Revolving panels in walls.
• Solid windows – they look like real windows but when the kids try to jump through they just hit the wall. .
• Staircases that collapse as the kids climb them, sending them sliding down to the bottom.
• Balloons with flourescenet scary faces painted on their surfaces float around.
• Scary clown and elephant imagery add to the fright-fest.

In his seminal book “Our Gang: the Life & Times of the Little Rascals,” film historian Leonard Maltin singled out two sequences as being the most creative (which in this film full of creativity is saying a lot):

• A single skeleton at the top of the stairs multiplies into several skeletons, and then the various skeletons slide down the banister only to come back together as one skeleton at the bottom of the stairs!

• While running from a skeleton Farina actually freezes in place and a second shadow image of Farina actually leaps out of the skin of the original to accentuate how frightened the character is! Then Farina rejoins that shadow figure to become one again (this trick would be employed again in the classic sound era Our Gang short, “Mama’s Little Pirate”).



All tolled it is a frenzy of amazing action. Like “Shivering Spooks” which followed a year later, some of the optical effects are truly frightening and must have really unnerved audiences. But most of the effects are so outlandish and exaggerated that the effect is more like a cartoon and less scary than some of “Shivering Spooks” scares. In any event the effects in “Shootin’ Injuns” trump those seen in “Shivering Spooks” – and given how amazing the scare scenes in “Shivering Spooks” that is quite the endorsement!

In the finale, the kids are saved by their concerned parents who have arrived on the scene… but not before the parents themselves are amusingly scared by the magnetic home’s tricks!

The sheer virtuosity and imagination at work here is unmatched even by some of the better horror-comedies, probably because it’s all so crazy that it’s unexpected – the viewer is surprised at every turn by the dizzying array of spectral spectacles on display. If you have an opportunity to see it on video, simply fast-forward to the haunted house scene and you will not be disappointed!

BEST DIALOGUE: This is a silent film so there isn’t any dialogue – just title cards. Most of the dialogue in this one is uncharacteristically mundane (the silents often had very witty title cards) or just plain politically incorrect, but Joe Cobb does get to make the understatement of the year (or at the very least this short) when he mutters “If I ever get outta' this alive, I’ll never run away from home a’gin!”

BEST GAGS: All the gags mentioned above!

SPOTTED IN THE CAST: A few notable adult actors. Richard Daniels, real-life father of Mickey plays the inventor here but often played Mickey’s dad (and other kids’ dads) in various silent Our Gang shorts. Rotund Martin Wolfkeil is Joe Cobb’s dad, “Tonnage.” Before Stan Laurel teamed with heavyweight Oliver Hardy, beefy Wolfkeil appeared in a variety of solo Laurel films. William Gillespie, playing yet another dad here has the most impressive resume of all, having had parts in several other Our Gang shorts as well as a half dozen classic Laurel & Hardy films (he’s the piano salesman in “The Music Box”), over a half dozen Harold Lloyd movies (including the classic horror-comedy “Haunted Spooks”), some Chaplin shorts and the sublime Snub Pollard short “It’s Gift,” where he played oil executive “Weller Pump.”

BUY THE FILM: This short has been released several times on various collections. The Lucky Corner, a site dedicated to Our Gang films has a listing of the various releases that include “Shootin' Injunss” that you can check out by clicking here.

FURTHER READING: There are two great blogs highlighting the horror comedies of Our Gang/the Little Rascals. Click here to read The Haunted Closet and click here to read Ghosts of Halloween Past.

As for books, the ultimate one on the kids is “Our Gang: the Life & Times of The Little Rascals” by Leonard Maltin. Buy the book here:













WATCH THE FILM: Since this is a short, and a silent one at that no trailer is available. However, you can enjoy this amazing clip:

THE GHOST & MR. CHICKEN (1966)

AUTHOR’S NOTE: Welcome to the one year anniversary of “Scared Silly!” One year ago today I launched this site with the inaugural review of the four star horror-comedy classic, “Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein.” I want to thank all of the fans who have stuck with me through the past twelve months, through both prolific periods and those with delays. I truly appreciate your loyalty and patience as we explore this wonderful sub-genre of movies together! Let’s kick off the next twelve months with a review of yet another four-star horror comedy delight – Happy Haunting!



RATING: **** out of ****

PLOT: As typesetter Luther “Scoop” Heggs (Don Knotts) heads toward the spooky old Simmons mansion in the middle of a thunderstorm, he drives past a stumbling drunk right before the souse is clonked on the head by an unseen person with a two-by-four. A neighborhood woman witnessing the scene cries “murder” which gets Luther’s attention so he stops to investigate. Luther rushes to the police station to report the incident. With his rival Ollie (Skip Homeier as the newspaper’s ace reporter) and boss George Bennett (Dick Sargent as the paper’s editor) on the scene, Luther is mortified when the drunk man suddenly appears alive and well. Back in the boarding house where Luther lives with his rival and some elderly folks, talk turns to a legend of the old house being haunted in the wake of some gruesome murders that once took place there. When Luther is given a chance to write a little throw-away mention about the upcoming 20th anniversary of the murders, Mr. Kelsey, the newspaper’s janitor who was a gardener at the house at the time of the murders encourages Luther to elaborate. Spinning the tale of what happened that fateful night, Luther delivers an atmospheric piece that is a little more than a throw-away and elicits great interest from the readers. The editor and Ollie think it would be a great publicity stunt to have one of the reporters spend the night in the house on the eve commemorating the murders. Naturally (with Kelsey’s subliminal suggestion) they turn to Luther to guarantee they’ll have a sensationalized piece fueled by his overactive imagination! They get a whopper of a tale with an unexpected side effect: Luther is declared the town hero for braving the mansion (especially by the old folks who make up the Psychic Occult Society)! But the paper is also cited in a lawsuit by the heir, nephew Nick Simmons claiming that the family name has been besmirched. Can Luther prove he saw what he said he saw or is he destined to go from zero to hero and back again?

REVIEW: Of the few films of the 1960s to carry on the horror-comedy tradition, none was more traditional than this Don Knotts opus. This is perhaps due to the fact that Knotts himself was such a throwback to classic comedians like Bob Hope and Joe E. Brown. Knotts was a master at portraying the cowardly character who feigned bravado to impress the ladies. “Mr. Chicken” was also peppered with supporting players that were (or would become) familiar to TV audiences of the Sixties – the same way the cache of character actors who populated classic B-movies of the 1940s and ‘50s became household faces, if not names. Last but not least it really got across the small town feel and/or sense of community that often permeated the classic “old dark house” motif.

Despite these old-fashioned touches, there were some modern conceits. Start with the music playing behind the opening credits – the jazzy score by Vic Mizzy is almost James Bond-esque in spots. The initial action takes place over the opening credits, a device employed in some movies prior to the 1960s that became more prevalent from the ‘60s forward. The “scare” scenes include a “bleeding portrait” – complete with gardening sheers piercing the neck of the woman in the painting! This gorier-than-usual image for a horror-comedy actually leaks blood-red! Come to think of it, the full technicolor process used is also more of a modern touch, as the majority of horror-comedies prior were filmed in black and white. Unlike the remake of “The Old Dark House” the color really works here – the set designers went out of their way to make it all look effectively spooky and creepy.

So here we have this film, with its low-budget, its TV sitcom lineage in full view (shot on the Universal studio lot and bearing more than a passing resemblance to many of the Universal TV shows then on the air) and working actors with nary (apart from Knotts) a marquee name in the bunch… and me bestowing a full four out of four star rating! How can that be? Is it really as good as “Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein” and “Arsenic & Old Lace?” I’ll say this: its direction and production values may not be up to the level of those two classics, but like Laurel & Hardy’s short “The Live Ghost” (which I also gave four stars) and the Vincent Price-Peter Lorre-Boris Karloff laugher “The Raven” any shortcomings are obliterated by the solid performances and genuinely effective and sometimes downright creepy atmosphere. In addition to Knotts bringing his A-game, “Mr. Chicken” also succeeds in spades due to its script. It is one of the best-scripted horror-comedies since 1948’s “Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein.” Most if not all of the pieces fit, and the comedy comes out of the characterizations – the reactions of each personality to the situations they find themselves in. While the script isn’t quite as polished as some of the other four star Scared Silly delights it is quite underrated and much better than any of its detractors would have you believe.

The key phrase here actually is “believe.” There’s an authenticity to this film amidst its eccentric characters. This is a story that one could actually imagine happening, at least for the most part. Ask your parents about small-time life and the various characters who wove in and out of it and you get an idea of a time when community was a bigger part of people’s lives – warts and all. After all, people weren’t as distracted by things like 500 channel TV services, cell phones and the Internet. They actually not only interacted directly with one another – they also spent time together, too! There were also more people back then prone to jump to (and stick to) fantastical explanations of things than the generally skeptical generation today – something else that can be attributed to the Internet which puts the art of “debunking” at everyone’s mouse-clicking fingertips. You may not believe what’s happening on the screen, but you believe that the characters on the screen believe what’s happening.



A major reason for this film’s setting fitting like a comfortable old shoe is the uncredited involvement of Andy Griffith. Whether asked to help or just jumping in in support of Don, Andy’s fingerprints (as well as those of his TV show’s writers) are pretty evident. The town of Rachel, Kansas is only a few steps up the evolutionary ladder from Mayberry. Maybe a few less back roads and tumbleweeds but still the same old “small town loaded with eccentrics” sensibility. A running gag in the film is also attributed to Griffith: a voice in the crowd (whose owner is never revealed but seems to be at every major public event that takes place in the movie) prone to exclaiming “Attaboy, Luther!” The line brings a smile every time, especially when it comes unexpectedly such as when the bailiff retrieves a bible for the judge and explains that “Arnold had it.” This revelation is followed by “Attaboy, Arnold!”

One seemingly small but quite nice touch is the way the movie carries on the Abbott & Costello tradition of “funny” character names that relate in some way to the whole. Don Knotts is Luther Heggs. Heggs of course reminds one of “eggs,” which are laid by chickens… and Don is the chief chicken here… the title “Chicken” and the film’s #1 scaredy cat. Knotts is the king of nerves and hyper from the get-go, but in a wonderfully funny and endearing way. It also establishes that he is the nebbishy character that will inevitably be the butt of others’ jokes. Luther’s rival Ollie ruthlessly ribs him, calling him “Scoop” and referring to his press card as a price tag amongst other cruelties. In the court scene the prosecution uses Luther’s bookworm-ish tendencies to paint a negative portrait. When it seems Luther has been proved a fraud, even his backers – the old ladies from the Psychic Occult Society – turn on him, including one who beans him with her handbag! In perhaps the most poignant scene, Ollie displaces Luther at lunch with Alma, leaving Luther to sip his soup standing up. The viewing audience’s sympathies are with Luther the whole time, even when the characters on screen have abandoned him.

There are four main set-pieces in this film: Luther’s first misadventure within the “haunted house,” his triumphant speech at the public celebration of Luther having spent the night in the house, the courtroom scene where the Simmons heir tries (and succeeds) to discredit Luther, and Luthor’s return to the mansion to restore his good name.

In the haunted house scenes, the horror-comedy trappings are as numerous as those found in the best of the genre: a thunderstorm and whistling winds, a screeching cat, a revolving bookcase that reveals a hidden passageway, a Victrola that starts playing records on its own, cobwebs, things that go “bump” in the night, etc. There are not a lot of original touches here (this film even has the same kind of trap door that dumps people onto beds of coal seen in the aforementioned remake of “The Old Dark House”) but while these “scare” elements are overly familiar and even time-worn, they are all performed with gusto and great care here. A couple of the devices used are even intricately woven into the story: in addition to the painting that bleeds red this film features an organ that plays on its own (or does it)? These last two bits feature prominently into the plotline and one particular character’s connection to the proceedings.

A benefit of this film’s script are those scenes that surround the scare sequences. The scene in the park where Luther is celebrated as a hero probably goes the longest way toward cementing audience sympathy for the character. The town desperately wants to believe in him, even after the notes to his speech blow away and he bumbles his way through it. Luther ends up giving a great circular speech that goes absolutely nowhere despite his best efforts to be totally serious and in command. The scene also serves as a short-hand to further develop some of the characters already introduced as well as introduce new ones like Deputy Herkie.

The courtroom scene is reminiscent of the comedies the MGM studio made in the 1940s. In those films, such legendary talents as Buster Keaton, the Marx Brothers and Laurel & Hardy were put through their paces and brought to lower-than-low spots that they had to rally from and overcome. The formula didn’t work as well as for those classic characters as it forced them into situations where they lost their natural resourcefulness. But the Luther Heggs character is established early on as not having a lot of resourcefulness or even nerve so when the outside forces conspire against him its understandable how quickly he falls from the townsfolks’ favor.



The scene is one of the best-written in the movie and gives some real veterans a chance to shine. The prosecution brings out Luther’s grade school teacher. She starts by saying lots of good things, but then the lawyer asks her to elaborate on how Luther was a “keyed up” kid. She notes his many eccentricities – like eating bread from the middle to avoid the crust, losing his shoes as he ran, and most of all making up stories – including finding a skeleton (Luther protests that it was a squirrel skeleton, not human), telling a girl he liked that his cavity filling was a short wave radio that could pick up messages from Admiral Bird (Luther says he only wanted the girl to like him) and writing an essay about his father claiming the he was really the Prince of Wales but there was a mix-up at the hospital. Then a CPA is called to the stand. He claims to have heard organ music accompanied by screams coming from the mansion on separate occasions at midnight. He is soon rebuffed when the lawyer mentions that the CPA is president of a UFO society (when asked where their last meeting was held, the CPA says “on Mars”). Last but not least Luther himself is called to the stand. The prosecution plays up Luther’s love of newspapers – Luther says that if you were to cut him, he’d bleed ink and that “when you work with words, words are your work.” This feeds right into the lawyer’s hands, who accuses Luther of exaggerating so he can go from typesetter to reporter. Luther excitedly protests, standing up and recounting everything he saw, with the members of the ladies occult group answering him as if he was a Pentecostal preacher, until their leader faints at the mention of the bleeding portrait!

As mentioned above, the town is loaded with many interesting characters bordering on the eccentric… and played by several notable character actors and comedic talents. Dick Sargent was known primarily as one of the two actors who portrayed Darrin Stevens, husband to witch Samantha on TV’s long-running sitcom “Bewitched.” He played many other roles in films and on TV, usually alternating between put-upon domestics like Darrin and more take-charge authority figures like the newspaper editor he plays here. His resume includes a couple of horror flicks that are unintentionally funny – “The Beast with a Million Eyes” and “The Clonus Horror.” Joan Staley as love interest Alma also had an extensive career including recurring roles on TV’s “Perry Mason” and “77 Sunset Strip,” guest spots on “The Munsters” and “Batman” and appearances in the Elvis films “Kissin’ Cousins” and “Roustabout” and the suspense classic “Cape Fear.” Luther’s rival Ollie was played by Skip Homeier who had already racked up several credits playing crumbs, starting out paying troubled teens and growing up (and into) gangster and desperado roles. Another journeyman actor, most of his roles were movie or TV one-shots (although he did have a recurring role on TV’s “The Interns”) and included parts in several episodes of such fantasy fare as “Walt Disney’s Wondcrful World of Color” (including one called “The Strange Monster of Strawberry Cove”), “Alfred Hitchcock Presents,” “Star Trek,” “The Bionic Woman” and “The Incredible Hulk.” James Millhollin as the lawyer Milo Maxwell was a throwback to the likes of Franklin Pangborn and Everett Edward Horton playing hotel clerks, waiters, authority figures and the like with a flowery yet nervously fluttery presence. Pick a classic TV series and odds are he was on it – he was on “The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis” four times in fact as four different characters! – and among his notable genre show appearances were multiple shots on “The Twilight Zone” and a part on “Lost in Space.” James Begg plays Herkie the cop and is yet another veteran of countless movies and TV shows as both a character actor and a producer. He appeared on both “I Dream of Jeannie” and “Bewitched” as well as providing voices for several animated “Scooby Doo” projects. George Chandler is here as Judge Harley Nash. He had the title role in the TV series “Ichabod & Me,” was president of the Actor’s Guild from 1960 to 1963 and his career spanned the late 1920s through the late 1970s. His extensive credits include roles in W.C. Fields’ classic short “The Fatal Glass of Beer,” a pair of Mr. Moto movies and a couple of episodes of “The Abbott & Costello Show” as well as “Kolchak the Night Stalker” and many more. Phil Ober essaying the role of villainous Nick Simmons was a bit of typecasting. The former Broadway actor famous for his crooked authority figure roles also had an infamous personal life. He was prolific on the small screen with guest-shots on many series including “Boris Karloff’s Thriller” and “The Munsters.” The ubiquitous Charles Lane turns up here as lawyer Whitlow. Lane was the stern-faced authoritarian who always looked older than he was, until his actual age caught up with him (he managed to live to 100). Where do you even start with listing his innumerable credits? Suffice to say he appeared in everything from the Capra classic “It’s a Wonderful Lfe” to the less-than-classic “Charlie McCarthy, Detective” (removing a bullet from the title ventriloquist dummy’s body)! Before he became every TV producer’s favorite go-to guest star, he also appeared in the classic horror-comedies “The Cat & the Canary” with Bob Hope and “Arsenic & Old Lace” with Cary Grant as well as several appearances in films in the “Blondie” series, parts in fan-favorites including “Tarzan’s New York Adventure” and “Mighty Joe Young,” and roles in a couple of Abbott & Costello features (“Ride ‘em Cowboy” and “Pardon my Sarong” and the solo Costello film, “The 30 Foot Bride of Candy Rock”). Last but not least is Liam Redmond as Kelsey, the newspaper’s janitor. His role is pivotal and really the second most important part in the film after Knott’s Heggs. Redmond was more known for drama and appeared in many roles that played off his Irish heritage. Most notable was portraying one of the professors in the classic Jacques Tourneur horror film “Curse of the Demon” (aka “Night of the Demon”). He crossed several genres including westerns, costumers/period pieces, crime dramas and spy series including guest shots on “The Avengers” and “The Saint.”

Redmond does an exceptional job here as his character Kelsey literally and figuratively drives much of the action. It starts when Kelsey dictates to Luther the story behind the “murder house.” This inspires Mr. Bennett the editor tries to think of a way to capitalize on the anniversary of the Simmons murder to help sell more newspapers… and it’s Kelsey who “coughs” out the suggestion that someone stay in the mansion overnight – an idea Mr. Bennett takes credit for. When Mr. Bennett exclaims that it must be someone with a wild imagination – a coward – Kelsey shouts out to Luther who is in the next room, putting the idea of Luther into Bennett’s head. At the film’s climax it is apparent that that Kelsey’s involvement in the case and his interest in the resolution are of tantamount (and hand’s on) importance.

In the end, it is of course the masterful performance of Don Knotts that puts this one over in a big, big way. Knotts is unbelievably funny in this film. And actually he’s more than that, as he is in complete control delivering whatever each scene calls for. This ranges from multiple ways to show how scared he is (everything from chattering teeth and knocking knees to bugged-out eyes and flailing limbs in a desperate attempt at martial arts) to amazing restraint when he’s feigning bravery, to simply maintaining composure while trying to deliver a speech without his notes… even though we know he’s terrified inside! He also is adept at dramatics, bringing a genuine pathos to his character that ensures that audiences can’t help but root for him. It is a tour de force performance and a standout in a career that was loaded with high marks, and contributes in large part to making “The Ghost & Mr. Chicken” the classic horror-comedy it is.

SPOTTED IN THE CAST: As if the who’s who of character actors mentioned above wasn’t enough, there are additional performers in this film who shine large despite their miniscule parts.

Start with Ellen Corby as Luther’s former schoolteacher. She will forever be known as the grandmother on “The Waltons” but her roles are numerous. They include bit parts in two Laurel & Hardy classics (“Sons of the Desert” and “Babes in Toyland,” aka “March of the Wooden Soldiers”), playing a maid in Abbott & Costello’s “The Noose Hangs High” appearing in Jerry Lewis’ “Visit to a Small Planet” and two major horror-comedy roles: playing one of the Gravesend clan in “The Bowery Boys Meet the Monsters” as well as Mother Lurch in the classic “Addams Family” TV series.

Eddie Quillan plays an elevator operator who can’t quite get the elevator to line up with each floor. It is a nice showcase for his comedic talents, which were on display for many years in movie musicals and shorts (including a Columbia short subject series as half of a comedy team with Wally Vernon). Quillan actually appeared in one of the very first horror-comedies, the 1926 silent Mack Sennett short “The Ghost of Folly” with bathing beauty Alice Day and future Columbia studio-mate Andy Clyde. He was also in the classic “The Grapes of Wrath” as well as Abbott & Costello’s “It Ain’t Hay” as a con-man. His career extended into the late 1980s with many TV roles, including playing several characters on the classic “Addams Family” TV series.

Burt Mustin plays Mr. Dellagando, one of the elderly residents of the boarding house. He is a familiar face to TV and movie viewers of the 1960s – whenever a story called for a man older (and less stern) than Charles Lane, Mustin got the part! Actually he more often than not played friendlier sorts than Lane. And like nearly everyone else in “Mr. Chicken,” his credits are innumerable. He appeared in an episode of “The Abbott & Costello Show,” played a farmer in the feature “Snow White & the 3 Stooges,” and made scores of other movie and TV show appearances but it is three TV characters that he will be remembered for most: Gus the fireman from “Leave it to Beaver,” Charles Augustus William Smith the septuagenarian bandit from “Dragnet” and Jethroe Collins – who sets Bobby Brady straight about his “hero,” Jesse James on “The Brady Bunch.”

BEST DIALOGUE EXCHANGES:

LUTHER: Calm?!? Do murder and calm go together? Calm and murder?!?
MR. BENNETT: Do haunted houses scare you?

LUTHER (with false bravado): They’re mortar, stone and wood!

LUTHER: Mr. Boob – that’s me – B-double O-B – Boob!

LUTHER (explaining to Alma that he’s been studying karate for years): My whole body’s a weapon!

LUTHER (to Alma): Take your average guy and your above-average girl. Average is just darn lucky to be sitting on the porch with above-average!

LUTHER (as he leaves to spend the night in the haunted house): I’ll see you in the morning.

FELLOW BORDER: God willing!

OCCULT CLUB WOMAN #1: They say there are still bloodstains on the keyboard.

OCCULT CLUB WOMAN #2: That’s right – they’ve never been able to get them off!

OCCULT CLUB WOMAN #3: And they used Bon Ami!

BEST VISUAL GAGS: The above-mentioned haunted house scares all deliver laughs and Knotts in general is a comedic force of nature. Just Don Knotts running around, being scared out of his wits and pretending to know karate moves would be enough to recommend this film (but as a special bonus we’re given so much more)! One particular standout is when Luther is startled by a mannequin and knocks its head off,

FURTHER READING: This film has been written about extensively – you can find several reviews with just a quick online search. I’ll only highlight one of the reviews. “The Ghost & Mr. Chicken” was a highlight of many people’s childhoods, and no one does a better job of conveying that than reviewer Mark R. Hill on the Kiddie Matinee site. You can read Mark’s review as well as several facts and trivia details by clicking here.

There's also a book out on Don Knotts' theatrical films which I haven't read yet but I have to assume it speaks extensively about "Mr. Chicken" since its success along with that of "The Incredible Mr. Limpet" two years earlier were instrumental in solidifying Knotts' career as a simultaneous TV star (as Barney Fife on "The Andy Griffith Show") and cinema star. Buy the book here:














BUY THE FILM: “The Ghost & Mr. Chicken” has been released on DVD by Universal in both stand-alone versions and as part of a Don Knotts collection.














WATCH THE FILM: As of this writing, “The Ghost & Mr. Chicken” is available as an instant view selection on Netflix… and you can watch the trailer right here:





…and as a special bonus, here’s a tutorial on how to play the movie’s “haunted organ” melody!:

WELCOME TO HALLOWEEN SHRIEKEND!

Well, the Halloween weekend is finally upon us! A couple days ago I posted my recommendations for perfect Halloween viewing, but I realized I left some good choices out. So with this post I hope to rectify that.

I also thought it might be great to embed trailers or clips from some of the movies mentioned in Wednesday’s post for which I only provided hyperlinks. Just trying to make things easier for all of you!

Anyway, no Halloween is complete without Bela Lugosi and Vincent Price – I’ll watch just about any of their movies at any time – but here I’ll just point out a few you may want to check out:

BELA LUGOSI: Most folks are familiar with the tale of “poor Bela.” Hungarian matinee idol of stage and silent screen emigrates to America and lands iconic role of “Dracula.” Appears in a few bona-fide classics thereafter including “White Zombie,” “The Black Cat,” “Son of Frankenstein,” “Island of Lost Souls,” “The Wolf Man” and of course, “Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein”… but appears in double (maybe triple) the amount of less-than-classic cheapies for “poverty row” outfits including Monogram, PRC and Ed Wood. Bela holds the record as the boogeyman that appeared in the most horror-comedies, so he’s “Scared Silly” royalty. Some of his films I really like are:

“The Devil Bat”: a PRC low-budget classic. So bad it’s good in spots… but actually pretty good in spots as well. Very entertaining, with some laughs as well (some intentional and some not). A scientist (Bela) specializing in perfumes sells out his share of the royalties in exchange for upfront payment and then gets ticked when everyone else in the company gets rich off their profits. He breeds giant bats (that look more like turkeys crossed with vultures) trained to kill when they smell a particular scent – which Bela somehow manages to dab on each of his victims! Arthur Q. Bryan – the original voice of Elmer Fudd has a role.



“The Corpse Vanishes”: this time Bela is set adrift in a Monogram cheapie. This one is totally loopy – Bela is a mad scientist that sleeps in matching coffins with his equally creepy wife (Elizabeth Russell). Oh, and the corpses that keep vanishing are the brides who keep kicking the bucket at their weddings. Bela is draining their fluids to keep his wife young. I think Ralph Kramden was considering doing the same for Alice (can you blame him)? Also features one of Hollywood’s most towering yet diminutive talents, dwarf actor Angelo Rossitto – a favorite Lugosi sidekick.



“Return of the Vampire”: this wartime programmer gets short shrift from a lot of folks but I consider it quite effective. Lugosi is Count Tesla, not Dracula – but only because the studio is Columbia, not Universal. Matt Willis plays a talking werewolf cursed by Tesla and under his control. The film offers some flips to the Dracula formula – a female Van Helsing-like character (Frieda Inescort) for one, and a (then) present-day setting of war-torn Europe, with bombs dropping amidst the gothic melodrama. Silent comedy film star Billy Bevan gets a comic relief turn as a gravedigger.



VINCENT PRICE. What can I say about Vincent? I already said quite a bit in this post as well as these reviews of his films with Peter Lorre. Vincent was one of a kind. His films remain as entertaining as ever whether Vinnie’s playing over the top, restrained or somewhere in-between. Here are a few fun Price flicks to check out:

“The Bat”: another film that is not highly regarded by most. I admit it is alternately creaky and too television-esque in spots and can see how it appeared “old hat” when it was originally released but there’s still something fun about it. It is derived from one of the great “terror templates” which I spoke about extensively here – the Mary Rheinhart Roberts play “The Bat,” with a little “Seven Keys to Baldpate” thrown in for good measure. Someone is masquerading as a bat and picking off folks staying at an old mansion… and the guests include Agnes “Endora” Moorehead and Darla “The Little Rascals” Hood! Sizzling tremelo electric guitar over the title credits, too!



“The Tingler”: William Castle’s classic. Dr. Vinnie sets out to prove that a lobster-like creature on everyone’s spine can strangle everyone to death whenever they’re scared… unless they scream which makes the creature break its hold. The seats in the theaters were rigged to vibrate at key moments. Other highlights: Vinnie drops acid to see how scared he can get (assumed to be one of the first movie “trips” ever), a mute woman is induced to horrifying hallucinations in which every faucet drips blood red (the only color in this otherwise black and white film), and the Tingler eats through the film and breaks loose into the audience at the silent movie screening (did it have to buy a ticket)?



“The Abominable Dr. Phibes”: Horribly disfigured from a car accident but believed to be dead, Vinnie as the title character seeks to avenge his wife’s death... she mortally injured in the same car crash. Nine doctors worked in vain but failed to save her life. Now Vinnie will visit the curses of the Pharoahs upon each for one ghoulish death after another. With a beautiful female assistant to boot (you think he’d be more interested in this living beauty at this point). Amazing color schemes, wry dark humor, art deco designs, fantastic music, profound acting from Price using primarily his eyes and a top supporting cast that includes Joseph Cotten and Terry-Thomas.



As promised, here are trailers and clips from some of the films I highlighted in the previous post:











HAPPY HAUNTING!

SEASON’S SCREAMINGS!

You know what’s an incredible movie? “The Ghost & Mr. Chicken” with Don Knotts. That’s what. It’s so incredible, has so many lovely details and nuances that it’s taking me a year and a day to write a review of it. Of course, the wealth of delights found in that film aren’t the only reasons for the delay.

As I’ve stated previously, “Scared Silly” is still a “hobby” project. I do not have a publisher yet. That means a.) I don’t have a deadline and b.) I’m not getting paid for my work-in-progress. Which means c.) projects that do have deadlines and/or for which I’m getting paid have to take preference. I’m not thrilled that I’ve been too bogged down to get another major review up in a timely fashion, but as always I thank the faithful for your patience.

And… I can’t promise this but maybe, just maybe I can get that “Mr. Chicken” review completed and up by Halloween. If I manage to complete it (key word “if”) it will be my trick-or-treat goodie for you.

In the meantime I thought I’d give you some recommendations for films you can rent (or buy if you choose) and watch this Halloween weekend. Most of these are available at Netflix or Amazon.com. I’ve broken them down into categories:

MYSTERY SERIES ENTRIES: Classic Hollywood excelled at the “movie series” with recurring characters that had one adventure after another in multiple entries – detectives like Sherlock Holmes, heroes like Tarzan, comic figures like Blondie – you get the picture. Three of my favorites make a swell Halloween triple feature. “Nancy Drew & the Hidden Staircase,” the Charlie Chan programmer “Meeting at Midnight” (aka “Black Magic”) and the Sherlock Holmes classic “The Scarlet Claw” present the famous detectives in situations that are quite spooky and atmospheric… and most of all a lot of fun! These are not comedies but they do contain some laughs – the mystery series were known for being deft blends of action, intrigue (of course), adventure and comedy. These three have differing production values as well as acting and script quality (the low budget Chan entry suffering the biggest deficit in these areas) but son-of-a-gun if they don’t all deliver on the entertainment scale – the engaging leads in each see to it that all are compelling and enjoyable entries.



PSYCHOLOGICAL TERROR: A big misconception among many people is that old movies are “unsophisticated.” Balderdash! Films that challenge audiences and make them think have been around since the inception of cinema. In Hollywood’s Golden Age, this meant the occasional “thinking man’s horror film,” exemplified by the handful of films produced by Val Lewton at RKO. Three films in this genre that I really enjoy are Universal’s original “Black Cat” from 1934 with Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi (not to be confused with the 1941 horror-comedy of the same name with Hugh Herbert and Bela Lugosi that I reviewed here), “The Seventh Victim” from 1943 – one of the Val Lewton produced films I mentioned above, and 1957’s “Night of the Demon,” a British-produced film known in the US as “Curse of the Demon,” directed by Jacques Tourneur. All three tales are haunting and disturbing with images and instances that will stay with you long after the end credits have rolled. Don’t look for comic relief here – these are dark films about dark Satan worshippers… but at least one (“Curse”) has somewhat of a happy ending. I mean, as happy an ending as a dark film about a dark Satanist and the dark demon he conjures can be…



COMEDY SERIES ENTRIES: Remember those mystery series I talked about above? There were some great comedy series, too. I’m not talking about Laurel & Hardy or Abbott & Costello or Bob Hope or any number of famous comedians who made several consecutive films over the years. The comedy series specifically revisited specific fictional characters from film-to-film… and several of them had horror-comedy entries. The series based on the famous Blondie comic strip delivered one of the best of the horror-comedies, “Blondie Has Servant Trouble.” The Francis the Talking Mule series breathed its last with “Francis in the Haunted House.” The Bowery Boys were forever getting mixed up with haunted houses, mad scientists and gorillas – throw a stone and you’ll hit one of their classics. Let’s make it “Spook Busters.”



NEWER FILMS FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY: One of the absolute best family horror-comedies is Sky Soleil’s “How My Dad Killed Dracula” starring Daniel Roebuck. And it’s a short to boot! I cannot recommend it highly enough, especially if you’re looking for something appropriate for the whole family. You can buy a Blu Ray or download the short when you click here. Larry Blamire has also been making spoofs that are throwbacks to the classic horror films of yesteryear. You can’t go wrong with entries like “The Lost Skeleton of Cadavera” and “A Dark & Stormy Night.”



CLASSIC HORROR-COMEDIES OFF THE BEATEN PATH: Abbott & Costlello… Laurel & Hardy… the Three Stooges… the Little Rascals… you know how much I love them all! But I’d love it if you got familiar with some of the talents that are no longer household names… and it just so happens several of their classic horror-comedies are available on DVD. Try Hugh Herbert and Allen Jenkins in “Sh! The Octopus” (a recent addition to the customized Warner Archives line). Or Hugh Herbert and Broderick Crawford in the previously mentioned (1941 comedy) “The Black Cat.” Wally Brown and Alan Carney are on a mission to retrieve some undead talent for their all-singing, all-shambling revue, “Zombies on Broadway.” And what happens when Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi and Peter Lorre team up to scare the Kay Kaiser band? “You’ll Find Out” when you rent the movie of the same name! Last but not least, that Dracula man meets Jerry Lewis’ biggest nightmare (aka Sammy Petrillo) when “Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla!” So what are you waiting for? Stock up on these gems and get those DVD players churning this weekend!

HAPPY HAUNTING!

SCARED SILLY HITS THE ROAD!

Sort of...

I'll be at the New York Comic Con Saturday at the Archie Comics booth signing copies of what I have left of the horror-comedy comic book series I wrote, "Archie's Weird Mysteries." I may also have some "Conservation Corps" issues on hand... featuring such monster bad guys as Robo-oily Bird and Styranofoamus Rex!

(And let me pause for a moment to give a shout-out to comic artist extraordinaire Chris Allan for his wonderful caricature of yours truly)!



Stop by if you can - Saturday evening at the Archie booth between 6 and 7PM at the Javits Center. See you there! Meanwhile, here's the opening of the "Archie's Weird Mysteries" animated cartoon that the comic book series I wrote was based on: