Blackbeard's Ghost

Walt Disney. Director Robert Stevenson; Producer Bill Walsh; Screenplay Bill Walsh, Don DaGradi; Camera Edward Colman; Editor Robert Stafford; Music Robert F. Brunner; Art Director Carroll Clark, John B. Mansbridge

Peter Ustinov
Dean Jones
Suzanne Pleshette
Elsa Lanchester
Joby Baker
Elliott Reid

Blackbeard's Ghost, a lively and entertaining Walt Disney production, features Peter Ustinov in a tour de farce title role as the restless spirit of the famed pirate. Dean Jones and Suzanne Pleshette share top billing. Robert Stevenson's direction is highlighted by several very amusing chase and special effects sequences.

Ben Stahl's novel has been adapted into an essentially one-situation script - some hoods want to take over an island for a gambling casino; Ustinov and Jones thwart the scheme - loaded with self-contained vignettes.

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.

Joby Baker is the lead heavy, and Pleshette's presence lends a romantic, also sympathetic touch to the proceedings.

(Color) Available on VHS, DVD. Extract of a review from 1968. Running time: 106 MIN.

Variety is striving to present the most thorough review database. To report inaccuracies in review credits, please click here. We do not currently list below-the-line credits, although we hope to include them in the future. Please note we may not respond to every suggestion. Your assistance is appreciated.