Welcome to my weekly discussion of the films of the Walt Disney Studio. I’m proceeding mostly chronologically. The title comes from a quote from Walt, “I never called my work an ‘art’ It’s part of show business, the business of building entertainment.”
Title: Blackbeard’s Ghost
Year: 1968
Source materials: based upon the 1965 novel of the same name by Ben Stahl
Box office: $21,540,050
Plot: Steve Walker arrives in a New England seacoast town, called Godolphin, Maryland, to take the position of track coach at Godolphin College. The night of his arrival coincides with a charity bazaar at the hotel where he will be boarding — Blackbeard’s Inn, named after the notorious English pirate Captain Edward Teach and now run by the Daughters of the Buccaneers, elderly descendants of the pirate’s crew. The inn had been built from timbers of ships that had run aground in the bay. The owners are attempting to pay off their mortgage to keep the inn from being bought by the local crime boss, Silky Seymour, who wants to build a casino on the land. Steve quickly discovers his track team’s shortcomings and runs afoul of the dean of Godolphin College, its football coach, and Seymour. He also makes the acquaintance of attractive Godolphin professor Jo Anne Baker, who is anxious to help the elderly ladies save Blackbeard’s Inn.
After a bidding war with the football coach at the charity auction, Steve wins an antique bed warmer once owned by Blackbeard’s 10th wife, Aldetha Teach, who had a reputation of being a witch. Inside the hollow wooden handle of this bed warmer is hidden a book of magic spells that had once been the property of Aldetha. Steve recites, on a lark, a spell “to bring to your eyes and ears one who is bound in Limbo”, unintentionally conjuring up the ghost of Blackbeard, who appears as a socially-inappropriate drunkard, cursed by his wife to an existence in limbo unless he can perform a good deed.
Steve and Blackbeard are bound to one another by the power of the spell, and only the very reluctant Steve can see or hear the ghost. As a result, Steve must deal with the antics of the wayward pirate while attempting to revive Godolphin’s track team and form a relationship with Jo Anne. Steve is falsely arrested for drunk driving when Blackbeard attempts to drive Steve’s automobile, steering it like a pirate ship. Because the arresting officer can’t see Blackbeard (and because Blackbeard riding the cop’s motorcycle crashed it into a tree), Steve spends a night in jail. While in jail, Steve reminds Blackbeard that if he does a good deed, his curse will be broken. Steve asks Blackbeard for his treasure to help the Daughters of the Buccaneers save the inn, but Blackbeard admits that he spent all of the money. Steve decides not to trust Blackbeard.
Steve is released from jail the next morning due to lack of evidence but is put on probation with the college, forced to win the big track meet or be fired from his position. The problem is that Steve’s team is sorrowfully weak and ordinarily do not stand a chance at winning. Blackbeard is firmly told by Steve, more than once, not to interfere with the boys on his team or the opposing team either. But Blackbeard creates further complications by stealing one of the Inn’s mortgage payments and betting it on Steve’s track team. Blackbeard’s intention is to use his ghostly powers to help Godolphin win the track meet, and then use the winnings to pay the mortgage in full. Steve is at first outraged by the pirate’s interference, but he decides the greater good is to win the money for the sake of the Inn. He also accepts the pirate’s help in shaking down Silky Seymour and his thugs after Seymour refuses to pay out the winnings from the bet.
With the mortgage paid, Blackbeard has performed his good deed and is released from the curse. After Steve asks the ladies and Jo Anne to recite the spell, thereby rendering Blackbeard visible to them, Blackbeard bids them all a cordial goodbye and departs to join his former crew, leaving Steve and Jo Anne to pursue their future together.
Changes from the Source Material: Track coach Steve Walker (Dean Jones) discovers the book of magic spells; in the source Ben Stahl novel of the same name, the edition is found by two teenage boys.
Cast: Peter Ustinov, Dean Jones, Suzanne Pleshette, Elsa Lanchester, Joby Baker, Elliott Reid, Richard Deacon, Norman Grabowski, and Alan Carney return.
Michael Conrad He is best known for his portrayal of veteran cop Sgt. Phil Esterhaus on Hill Street Blues, in which he ended the introductory roll call to each week’s show with “Let’s be careful out there”. He won two Emmy Awards for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for Hill Street Blues in 1981 and 1982. He also had a memorable role in the 1974 film The Longest Yard. Herbie Faye as Croupier. He appeared in the film Requiem for a Heavyweight. He appeared in many television series including The Untouchables, Make Room for Daddy, The Joey Bishop Show, The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Jack Benny Program, Bewitched, My Favorite Martian, The Andy Griffith Show, Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C., Here’s Lucy, Love, American Style, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Bob Newhart Show, All in the Family, The New Dick Van Dyke Show, Happy Days, The Odd Couple, Chico and the Man and Barney Miller.
George Murdock as Head official. Among his numerous appearances are roles in Barney Miller, Battlestar Galactica, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, Star Trek: The Next Generation and Seinfeld. He also voiced the character of Boss Biggis in Batman: The Animated Series. Ned Glass as Teller. Notable roles he portrayed included Doc in West Side Story, Gideon in Charade, and a ticket agent in North by Northwest. His other film appearances included Kid Galahad, Who’s Got the Action?, Papa’s Delicate Condition, Blindfold, A Big Hand for the Little Lady, The Fortune Cookie, Never a Dull Moment, The Love, Lady Sings the Blues, Save the Tiger, The All-American Boy, and the TV movie Goldie and the Boxer.
Charlie Brill as Edward. He played Klingon spy Arne Darvin in the Star Trek episode “The Trouble with Tribbles” a role he reprised in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode “Trials and Tribble-ations.” He also appeared on the show Silk Stockings.
Critical Reception:
- Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film three stars out of four and called it “Disney’s best since ‘The Absent-Minded Professor’ and a splendid vehicle for the many talents of Peter Ustinov.”
- Howard Thompson of The New York Times wrote, “The Walt Disney people have delivered a delightful seasonal goody for the young and young-hearted, called ‘Blackbeard’s Ghost.’ After a couple of limp herrings, the master’s live-action unit is back on sure footing with the neat, perky and flavorsome little comedy-fantasy that arrived yesterday at neighborhood theaters.”
- Variety declared, “The inspired direction makes it all come alive via firstrate special effects and sight gags, and through a fanciful script that, in a most adroit way, is neither too literate nor too sketchy. Ustinov plays his part to the hilt: mugging and cutting up, as the wandering spirit who must do a good deed to achieve repose.”
- Charles Champlin of the Los Angeles Times praised the film as “a warm and wacky diversion which could not really have been assembled much better.”
- The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote, “Peter Ustinov’s exuberant professionalism just about rescues what would otherwise have been a disaster. The basic idea contains a pleasant germ of fantasy, but this is dissipated by a ponderous and self-indulgent script which seems determined to make a mountain out of a molehill. Robert Stevenson’s direction is equally pedestrian, and the rather silly fantasy of the crazy sports sequence is a feeble echo of a similar scene in the Marx Brothers’ Horse Feathers’.”
Legacy: There was a comic book adaption from Gold Key released in June of 1968.
My take: When you find and ancient scroll with a spell on it, never read it out loud. Ustinov looks like he is having a blast and the rest of the cast are game.
Available on Disney +?: Yes
Next Week: The Million Dollar Duck