Blackbeard's Ghost is about a morally upright -- even uptight -- college track coach accidentally calling the ghost of Blackbeard the pirate out of limbo and then being dragged into and rescued from a series of mishaps, hi-jinks, and calamities. That's the best I can do at summing it up in one long and complicated sentence.
This movie bears some big similarities to both The Shaggy Dog (1959) and The Absent-Minded Professor (1961), two live-action Disney films I grew up watching over and over on VHS. I think the use of "a mysterious force/thing/person helping a hapless team of wannabes win a sporting competition" is far funnier in Blackbeard than in Professor, possibly because the event has higher stakes within the movie. And I think the way Blackbeard explores the idea of having a perfectly ordinary person read a mysterious incantation aloud and inadvertently bring about some magical hi-jinks works better than The Shaggy Dog (1959). In this case, it's funnier because the incantation doesn't turn the reader into a dog... it brings Edward Teach, better known as the pirate Blackbeard, back to life
Well, sorta. It's complicated.
The story revolves around Blackbeard's Inn, a fanciful old hulk built from bits of wrecked ships that floated to shore over the centuries. It's inhabited by a couple dozen little old ladies that call themselves the Daughters of the Buccaneers. These ladies are about to lose their home because they can't pay off a big mortgage on their inn.
A local gangster named Silky Seymour (Joby Baker) is intent on making sure the old ladies don't pay off their loan because he wants to tear down Blackbeard's Inn and build a casino on the little spit of land that houses it. Some tiny technicality of the law means it is the only place where he could build a legal casino in the state, so... if the Daughters of the Buccaneers can't come up with thousands of dollars by the end of the week to pay off their loan, out they go, and he gets to build his casino.
As a villain, Silky Seymour feels a little tame, even for an old Disney movie. He wouldn't stand a chance against Frank Stillwell from The Apple Dumpling Gang (1975), Long John Silver from Treasure Island (1950), or even Vicky from The Parent Trap (1961).
Anyway, enter our hero, Steve Walker (Dean Jones), the new track coach for Godolphin College. Dean Jones is the perfect choice for this role because he exudes kindness and genuine niceness... but he is also excellent at portraying frustration. He makes us believe Steve truly wants to do the right thing, to be nice to other people, but that he also doesn't have infinite patience. That makes him feel human, and his humanity grounds a story that could otherwise devolve into too much silliness.
Steve quickly meets his love interest, Professor Jo Anne Baker (Suzanne Pleshette), who also works at Godolphin College. She's friends with the Daughters of the Buccaneers and helps them organize a fundraiser to save their home. The fundraiser does raise quite a bit of money, but not nearly enough to save Blackbeard's Inn. Pleshette does a fine job acting shocked, incredulous, surprised, and suspicious as called for by the script, but I never really quite figure out why she falls for Steve. Or why he falls for her. I think Pleshette and Jones have way better chemistry a few years later in The Shaggy D.A. (1976).
One broken antique, one funny incantation, and a few special effects later, and lo and behold, Blackbeard (Peter Ustinov) has returned to the land of the living from the limbo realm where his dead wife Aldetha's curse had sent him when he died.
The minute Peter Ustinov arrives on the scene, the movie jolts into high gear. I sometimes joke that I wonder if they had to pay him anything at all to play Blackbeard -- he is so obviously having the most enormous amount of fun in every scene! Ustinov plays the pirate as conniving, selfish, bad-tempered, loud... and an absolute softie at heart. Ustinov rants and roars and chortles and wheedles and yowls his way through the movie, and I love every minute of it. He might chew up a goodly portion of the scenery, but he stops short of taking bites out of his co-stars, at least.
The comedic chemistry between Peter Ustinov and Dean Jones is perfect. Watching them play off each other is an absolute delight. Their every interaction is hilarious and poignant and relatable, and I'm in awe of how they pull off that specific mixture.
Blackbeard and Steve take turns being angry with each other and feeling sorry for each other, and I'm not sure which is funnier.
Blackbeard decides he needs to do something really good to make up for all the bad things he's done in life, and that will enable him to leave reality AND limbo behind. Bad theology, but a good recipe for a funny movie. Blackbeard decides he will help the Daughters of the Buccaneers save their home, and that will earn him his ticket out. He will bet lots of money on Godolphin's track team and then ensure they win their meet. However, Steve insists Blackbeard cannot and must not use his ghostly powers to make the team win by cheating!
At one point, Blackbeard opines, "I perceive now how difficult it be to do a good deed in this dirty world." I think that's a central theme for the movie: that our world and the people in it are in no way better than the world and the people of Blackbeard's day. Cheaters prosper, so good guys must find ways to cheat the cheaters. A dubious moral, maybe, but one that provides a lot of laughs.
One of my favorite random things about this movie is this sportscaster, who is played by Elliott Reid. Reid played an English professor in The Absent-Minded Professor who also taught at a small-town college, and I kind of wish they had tied this movie to that one via this character. Like, maybe had him be Shelby Ashton, now an ex-professor who discovered being a sports commentator was more lucrative? And who makes comments about having flashbacks to a really weird basketball game once a few years ago. They don't do it, so it's just my head-canon.
But the funniest part also might be the final showdown with Silky Seymour and his goons, because it involves finger guns.
So many finger guns.
Yes, I agree. A shocking number of finger guns. And every minute with them is funny!
All's well that ends well, of course. It's a classic Disney movie. All the good characters get a happy ending, including Blackbeard.
Is this movie family friendly? Absolutely. There are a couple of low-level scary moments involving Aldetha's portrait, lightning, and Elsa Lanchester telling a spooky story. And Silky Seymour's men pull guns out of their coats so they can kill our heroes, but are prevented from doing so. Also, gambling and dishonesty aren't exactly portrayed as being the worst ideas in the world, which some families may object to. But there's no cussing, no real violence, and no smut. I don't think Steve and Jo Anne even kiss.
This is my contribution to the Make 'Em Laugh Blogathon hosted this week by the Classic Movie Blog Association.
