The Ghost And Mr. Chicken Italian Style

 

The Ghost And Mr. Chicken has long been one of my favorite films. And it's clear that I'm not alone in my adoration, since Svengoolie often remarks that it's not only one of the most often requested movies on his his Saturday Night spook 'n' snicker show, over on MeTV, but it tends to reportedly bring some of his highest ratings when aired. In the age of DVD and on-demand digital streaming, that says something!

I have full-sized posters for the film all over my house, and thought I'd been privy to all of the variations out there, until I stumbled across these Italian release posters on the internet. Apparently it was released as 7 Days Of Fear (or so Google translate tells me), in Italy, which is a head-scratcher to say the least, since that title reads more like a Dana Andrews film-noir than a Mayberry-esque comic mystery. 

The posters themselves are odd; particularly the top one. A just-been-goosed faced Joan Staley gawks from behind a curiously obscured ghost (I thought it was a plume of smoke or potentially an illustrated page roll to separate her from the Italo-obvious splash of vibrant yellow behind the other figures, but noted that the yellow bled above the ghost and that the white plume had little mitten hands). Why you would hide the ghost behind the title, I'm not sure. The whole composition seems oddly haphazard. Why Don Knotts is tied up and pleading to a bored Jim Begg, I don't know. This poster makes it seem like Knotts is the criminal, which, I suppose is a better marketing misdirection than the American poster hanging on the office wall beside me as I type this, which essentially reveals the mystery of the supposedly haunted Simmons house for all to see. And why the two bored cops? They couldn't work in a Burt Mustin or Dick Sargent in there?

The bottom example captures the comic book kookiness a little better with a John Stanley-esque patchwork ghost, but juxtaposed with a very dramatic depiction of our two leads; depicted as if Maurizio Merli were just off the page with a loaded machine gun or something. Oddly enough, this image of Knotts and Staley was used in the cover design for the cd release of the film's soundtrack, put out by Percepto records back in 2004. Even though I don't think the depiction of Don Knotts is particularly adroit, making him look sunken yet oddly muscular–like some sort of Frank Sinatra / Joe Piscopo hybrid.

I always enjoy seeing some yet-undiscovered piece of information or ephemera pop up for things like this; I suppose it's a way for the things that I love to be continuously-giving gifts. 

And speaking of previously unseen ephemera, I was completely unaware of this Luther Heggs action figure put out by Brentz Dolz!