Best movie of this year hands down!

best movie i've ever seen.

A Masterpiece!

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Blackbeard's Ghost stars Dean Jones as GoDolphin College's new track coach. On his first night arriving, he stays at Blackbeard's Inn and discovers said ghost after accidentally conjuring the spell that makes him visible only to him. The rest of the story centers on the relationship between the two and how they help the ancestors of Blackbeard's crew retain ownership of the Inn from the clutches of the local casino-running gangster. Richard Deacon plays the Dean of the college and Suzanne Pleshette plays the psychology professor assigned to keep an eye on their new track coach once they notice he seems to be talking to himself a lot (although it is really to Peter Ustinov as Blackbeard, who is invisible to everybody else). You have to suspend some disbelief in the beginning that this track coach comes in to town knowing very little about the school or the team of track misfits he inherits and that there is no athletic director character or anybody that enters the story that actually hired him, but oh well, I digress... Ustinov does a great job with the character, taking full advantage of the opportunities he gets to show off his comedic skills, and Dean Jones does a sneaky good job too with the role he's given, playing the good man going crazy over dealing with the ghost he didn't sign up for. There are plenty of special effects and sight gags, and some are entertaining to watch, but overall it's just not that funny. Suzanne Pleshette plays the straight woman to perfection, which you can see becomes the precursor to her role on The Bob Newhart Show. Overall a watchable show with some slow patches and some good performances, but I wanted to leave it with a few more belly laughs than what I got. Maybe I needed to be ten years old again to enjoy it more.

Besides his renown for creating cartoon characters and making animated films, Walt Disney had a penchant for telling the stories of people of legend and fairy tales. This has carried on by the Disney Studios since Walt's death on Dec. 15, 1966. "Blackbeard's Ghost" is one such storied film. It is a fictional story that has a notorious American colonial period pirate come back to life as a ghost in modern-day (1968) North or South Carolina. (The movie doesn't say which one, and the location and Godolphin College are fictional.)This is a children's film that has some very silly scenes. Blackbeard's ghost, played well by Peter Ustinov, helps the track team of newly arrived coach, Steve Walker (played by Dean Jones), win an invitational track event between four schools. His athletes are mostly physical weaklings, but they beat the top athletes of the other schools in several events. The ghost trips runners and points them to run the wrong direction. For the top competing shot putter, the ghost blocks the iron ball about five feet away and it falls to the ground to the befuddled look of the husky athlete and those watching nearby. Then, the Godolphin athlete's ball takes several bounces in mid-air (we don't actually see this, but Blackbeard looking on and moving his finger to show the bounces). Another scene shows Blackbeard taking the Godolphin athlete's javelin toss, running with it some distance, and then tossing it. It has the look of a javelin bouncing along in the air to the spectators who can't see the ghost. Other silly scenes show outcomes of the pole vault, high jump, discus and hurdles. The acting is OK, with good performances also by Suzanne Pleshette, Elsa Lanchester and others. But the story is lame and the script isn't better than average. The portrayal of Blackbeard's character as not vicious and somewhat whimsical may be closer to the real Edward Teach than the legends would make him out to be. The story of the real Edward Teach (aka, Blackbeard) is an interesting read. While he was a feared pirate – mostly because of his appearance and some actions, he was never known to have killed anyone he captured. He had served in the British Royal Navy as a seaman before joining the pirate trade under Captain Benjamin Hornigold. For a couple of years, 1716-18, Blackbeard held sway off the SE Coast of the new land and into the Caribbean. In May 1718, Blackbeard organized a pirate blockade of Charles Town (now Charleston, SC) that plundered the town and commercial ships. His ship took captives who were ransomed with a chest of medicine. The lieutenant governor of Virginia, Alexander Spotswood, hired two private ships and organized a small force of Royal Navy men to hunt down Blackbeard. They caught up with him at Ocracoke on the Outer Banks of North Carolina on Nov. 22, 1718, and killed the pirate and many of his men. Blackbeard was only about 38 years old when he died.

While silly and over-the-top at times, this film is a lot of fun. My main problem though with "Blackbeard's Ghost" though is that it is tad too long by 10 minutes. But it is hugely enjoyable entertainment for the whole family, with some nice costumes and cinematography. Also a vast majority of the jokes are very funny, the intriguing plot is along the lines of "The Canterville Ghost" and the performances are spirited. Peter Ustinov, a great actor, makes a very lively lead who is condemned to wander in limbo until he performs a good deed, and Dean Jones also does a good job. Elsa Lanchester almost steals the film though, as one of the ladies he must save from gambling gangsters. Overall, while not perfect, it is enjoyable and worth watching. 7/10 Bethany Cox

Watching Blackbeard's Ghost yesterday put me in mind of the late Robert Newton and his portrayal of Blackbeard in a classic film from the Fifties. Had Mr. Newton not died of chronic alcoholism in 1957, I'm sure he would have been the Disney studio's choice to play Blackbeard.With Robert Newton not being available, the studio got another actor famous for a bravura performance, that of Nero and Quo Vadis. Who'd have thought that Peter Ustinov would have gotten another role that called for flamboyant overacting. Ustinov's Blackbeard is a combination of Newton's Blackbeard and his own Nero. And he dominates the film completely.Dean Jones who was Disney's major leading man at the time who played the roles Kurt Russell was too young for, borrows a great deal from that other actor, who's career Disney rejuvenated, Fred MacMurray. In fact the similarities between this and Absent Minded Professor and Son of Flubber are too obvious to be missed.Still those were two pretty funny films and Blackbeard's Ghost is in a great tradition. Dean Jones is the new track coach at Godolphin College and he stays at the inn that's run by the descendents of the crew of none other than Edward Teach better known as Blackbeard. But they are a harmless bunch of senior citizens led by Elsa Lanchester. Yet that inn is coveted by gangster Joby Baker who's bought the mortgage. Jones finds a faded piece of paper in an old bedwarmer and it's a spell that makes the ghost of old Blackbeard visible to him only. After that Jones plays straight man to a hilarious Ustinov. Blackbeard and is doings cause some romantic problems for Jones with Suzanne Pleshette, but in Disney tradition in the end the old buccaneer sets everything to right and escapes the limbo he's consigned to.For Peter Ustinov fans, this is a must. You can see it in his face and his performance how much of a good time Ustinov was having with this part. It will translate into your enjoyment as well.