The Ghost & Mr. Personality




Don Knotts was many things.  A gifted comic actor, a multiple Emmy winner, and one of TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Stars of All Time.  However, he was not (and I think we can all agree on this) leading man movie star material.  Yet in the '60's, driven no doubt by the popularity of his brilliant portrayal of Barney Fife on The Andy Griffith Show, he WAS the leading man in a handful of popular comedy movies.  As I kid I loved them all, but my favorite was The Ghost & Mr. Chicken."  I had forgotten that, until the movie began calling to me a few weeks ago, first on two different Friend's Facebook pages, and then on one of the premium cable channels.  Ended up recording it, and when I finally sat down to watch it I discovered that the movie really was as funny as I remembered, and what's more, there were some surprises in the picture that I never picked up on as a kid - surprises that had nothing to do with ghosts.

If by some chance you've never seen this masterpiece, here's the short version.  Mr. Knotts plays Luther Heggs, a small-town newspaper typesetter (Google it, kids), who has ambitions of being a famous journalist. To that end, he's always looking for the big story that will make his career.  He agrees to spend a night in the local "haunted house," which he finds full of all sorts of "ghostly activity."  His report makes him both a local celebrity - and the local crackpot.  The owner of the house sues him for libel, and when he returns to the house to prove his truth, he discovers not ghosts, but a murder cover-up.  In the end, the bad guy is arrested and Luther is vindicated... he even gets the girl (Atta boy, Luther)!  Fade to credits while an invisible ghost plays the organ.

My description doesn't do the movie justice; it really is very funny.  Perhaps if I simply said, "Don Knotts in a Haunted House," your imagination can fill in the blanks.  Still, The Ghost & Mr. Chicken isn't just a slapstick 60's comedy.  It's really a Masterclass in character development.

One could argue that Don Knotts played the same character his entire life, and you'd have a valid point; Luther Heggs could easily be mistaken for Barney Fife out of uniform.  What made him such a successful actor (leading man, even) was that he had perfected that character to the point that, no matter how unbelievable the situation he got himself into was, his reactions were completely genuine. As an actor, Don Knotts truly became "Everyman," a reflection of all the ambitions, uncertainty, awkwardness, pride, fear, and bravery that we all experience in our life, yet he could experience it all in 90 minutes and make you believe that every emotion was real.  The phrase, "One of a Kind" gets kicked around a lot, but Don Knotts truly was, taking what he had and turning himself into a unique character who was not only loved by millions, but who could stand toe-to-toe with any other actor.

The movie and this realization about Mr. Knotts come to me at an interesting time.  As I move along in this magic journey of mine, it's been important to me to consider what character I'll play when doing magic. Should I be mysterious?  Funny?  Dark & angsty?  I was throwing all sorts of characters against the wall, but none of them stuck.  Then I watched Mr. Knotts and realized that I simply need to be me, warts and all.  It's the character I know best, the one I've played my entire life, the one that will always be uniquely me.  Thank you for reminding me of that Mr. Knotts - or should I say, "Atta boy, Luther!"


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