Blackbeard's Ghost
by Robert Stevenson
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DVD details
Actor: Dean Jones, Elsa Lanchester, Joby Baker, Peter Ustinov, Suzanne PleshetteDirector: Robert Stevenson
Brand: Walt Disney Video
Cinematographer: Edward Colman
Editor: Robert Stafford
Producer: Bill Walsh
Writer: Bill Walsh
Writer: Ben Stahl
Writer: Don DaGradi
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 106 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2002-06-04
Audience Rating: G (General Audience)
Studio: Walt Disney Video
DVD Reviews of Blackbeard's Ghost
DVD Review: Fun Disney Pirate Tale Starring Peter Ustinov As The Loveable Blackbeard
Summary: 4 Stars
I've always had a warm nostalgic place in my heart for this 1968 Disney comedy that I remember being so excited going to see as a child. A recent viewing confirmed in my mind it's enjoyable family story, pleasing performances, and colourful lead character. "Blackbeard's Ghost", is without doubt most memorable for the great performance by the late great Peter Ustinov as the terror of the seven seas, Blackbeard the Pirate. In this Disney tale however he comes across more as a likeable pussy cat than a deadly cut throat and with the big success of the movie Blackbeard was yet another addition to Ustinov's steadily growing portfolio of memorable and slightly eccentric movie characters. In this role of Blackbeard he has a field day mugging and stealing every scene he is in and he has great fun teaming up with resident Disney leading man Dean Jones. Not your typical movie pirate in the mold of Errol Flynn or Trone Power, Ustinov makes his Blackbeard a wonderful Disney character that gives this film a funny and memorable quality that ensured it became one of the Disney Studios most loved comedies from the 1960's.
Basedon the novel by Ben Stahl, "Blackbeard's Ghost", opens with an atmospheric prologue of a storm tossed pirate ship that relates to us the history of the dreaded Captain Edward Teach or "Blackbeard", (Peter Ustinov),as he was known, a notorious 18th Century pirate who was the scourge of the seven seas and who supposedly died in a bloody sea battle just off the American coast. The story then jumps to the present (1968) where we see Steve Walker (Dean Jones), arriving for his new appointment at the local college. Forced to find a room on thl ocal island in a very strange hotel run by an eccentric group of old ladies who call themselves the "Daughter's of the Buccaneers", Steve ends up wit hmore than he bargained for when he finds himself sharing a room with none other than the ghost of Blackbeard the pirate who Steve unknowingly cunjured up after reading a spell on a scrap of paper found in the handle of an old bed warmer. Blackbeard it turns out had a curse placed on him by his vengeful 10th wife to walk the spirit world in limbo until he performs a good deed after which he can finally enjoy his eternal rest. Blackbeard has the supposedly great idea of helping his new "mate", Steve in his role as coach of the college's very underachieving track team . Steve however finds Blackbeard more of a frustration than anything else in particular since no one but Steve can see Blackbeard. He just wants to get Blackbeard out of his life and after he spends his first night in town in the local jail as a result of Blackbeard's interference while he was driving. Everyone in town from Dean Wheaton (Richard Deacon), to Steve's new romantic interest Jo Anne Baker (SuzannePleshette), begin to think Steve is crazy after seeing him supposedly talking to thin air however when Steve locks horns with local thug and casino owner Silky Seymour (Joby Baker), who is trying to drive the "daughter's of the Buccaners" out of their home in order to build a larger casino, Blackbeard begins to prove himself to be very useful. During a very amusing run in with Silky Blackbeard manages to outwit and destroy Silky's whole team of trained thugs and when Steve's track team finally have to appear in the local competition he manages with some selected "assistance", to make sure Steve's college, long known for it's dud track and field team, wins the event. Having also helped retrieve the money that the old ladies had saved to pay out the mortgage on their home to preserve it forever Blackbeard finally "earns his wings", so to speak and with the old ladies happily back in their historic pirate home and Steve and Jo Anne working out their differences, Blackbeard is able to happily sail away to his eternal rest finally free of the curse that had kept him in limbo for 200 years.
A delightful family comedy is the best way to describe "Blackbeard's Ghost", and it is a worthy product of the historic Walt Disney Studios despite it being released roughly a year after the death of the legendary Walt Disney. Getting a celebrated Academy Award winning actor such as Peter Ustinov to play the lead was a major plus and he makes Blackbeard a memorable character right up there with his other celebrated creations such as his Emperor Nero in "Quo Vadis?", and Hercule Piorot in the Agatha Christie mysteries. He certainly looks the part of a pirate to a tee and he has an expecially good chemistry with a very different type of performer in Dean Jones. Jones by this time was becoming the Disney Studios most valuable leading men and his innocent good looks suited the studio's family oriented pictures perfectly. He enjoyed a very profitable working relationship with long time director Robert Stevenson whose work stretched back to the 1930's and who during the 1960's and 70's became Disney's number one director helming the classic "Mary Poppins", in 1964 and reteaming with Dean Jones again the next year following their success in "Blackbeard's Ghost", in the mega hit "The Love Bug". Supporting performances are fine given their limitations due to the spot light being deservedly on the colourful lead character however Suzanne Pleshette makes a most beautiful leading lady and works well in the comedy scenes with Dean Jones and Joby Baker as the resident villian Silky Seymour is enjoyable playing a character who really appears quite tame by your average standards of what a villian should be like. A point of major casting interest is provided in with presense of veteran actress Elsa Lanchester as Emily Stowecroft the main old lady who with her friends refers to herself as a "daughter of the Buccaneers". Most fondly remembered for playign "The Bride of Frankenstein", back in the early 1930's here she plays an equally eccentric character to good comic effect. Being a tale of pirates and old curses the screenplay is full of "old salt" humour and the set design and cinematography are first rate in creating just the right atmosphere and look to the story. Special mention must also be made of the at times excellent special effects employed in "Blackbeard's Ghost", which for the period they were created in are of a superb standard.
The 1960's was a rich time in the history of Walt Disney Studios and they really had their creative sights perfectly in line with current tastes for family entertainment. "Blackbeard's Ghost", combined with their major effort the following year with "The Love Bug", are some of their best and most fondly remembered efforts. While of course not in the same league as the studio's legendary classic "Mary Poppins", from four years previously "Blackbeard's Ghost", has much that is appealing about it even today in our present cynical times. While innocent humour such as this really is no longer much in evidence on our movie screens I always enjoy this trip back to simpler and some how nicer times with Peter Ustinov camping it up as the notoriously lovable pirate Blackbeard, try to check it out with your family some time soon.
Description of Blackbeard's Ghost
Features include:
?MPAA Rating: G
?Format: DVD
?Runtime: 106 minutes
In the moody prologue, amid a raging storm that evokes Hollywood golden-age high-seas swashbucklers, a foreboding scroll recounts the legend of one of the bloodiest pirates in the history of the Caribbean. Leave it to Disney to turn him into a fun-loving old prankster with a whimsical side. Peter Ustinov mugs shamelessly as the bombastic but harmless apparition who renounces his wicked ways to become the mischievous school spirit of the local college, much to the annoyance of straight-arrow track coach Dean Jones. Made in the heyday of Disney?s live-action family comedies, Blackbeard's Ghost is all haphazard but high-energy slapstick and squeaky-clean romance (courtesy of contemporary schoolmarm Suzanne Pleshette) performed with more gumption than grace, but there?s a nostalgic innocence to the whole overplayed affair. --Sean Axmaker
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