Le bal des fantômes

I was telling a friend of mine about the time my grandfather actually picked this horrible piece of crap for us to see one night at the theater. He never picked another one again! It was that bad! Anyway, my friend then told me that her father did some of the writing for this garbage. I thought she was kidding. It turns out, she was serious. She had never actually seen it, and she said that it put a quick halt to her father's writing career. I told her not to waste her time. But, if she did actually break down and watch it, she would see within the fist minute why this ended her father's days as a writer. I mean, even for the 1980's, this crap is bad beyond description. I mean, Joe Frazier as Terrible Tucker? And why in the world would two cops care one bit about a house full of ghosts? And the movie poster? A ghost with his tongue hanging out? What is that about? Nothing about this makes any sense. Well, I told my friend that this crap not only ended her father's writing career, it ended the careers of everybody involved. Or, at least none of them ever fully recovered from being in this garbage of a movie. Let's just say that I will forever ridicule my friend for revealing to me that her father was a writer for this movie! That alone should tell just how bad this is!

Comedy with its moments of comedy even if calling it a decent movie is an almost correct judgment. It is not so bad as to be memorable but it strives not to fall into the most desecrating ugliness.

I agree with many other here that this movie is SOOOOOO BAD it is good. You will laugh unintentionally at the horrible trainwreck this movie is. Its shot badly, acted badly and the "script" is atrocious. They tried to jump on the Ghostbusters bandwagon but there are sequences in here that will make your jaw drop to the floor and then your jaw will try and leave the room. The break dancing scene is truly memorable and yes, lots of "groin" jokes. Wow!! There is also a long boxing subplot that comes out of nowhere. It is deathly unfunny. And horribly done. All the effects are lame. But....A great bad 1980s disaster. Just the kind of thing those recent great Slate podcasts highlight!

GHOST FEVER is possibly one of the greatest bad movies ever made. MADE might be too strong of a word - regurgitated and somewhat spliced together in an editing bay is maybe more apropos. Hemsley had a lot of faith in this Ghostbusters-like rip-off and it tanked big time and messy lawsuits followed btwn Hemsley and the producers. The director, Lee Madden was so aghast at the finished product he took his name off and they slapped on the infamous Alan Smithee credit. The script is credited to three hacks and the script is truly awful. Terrible. Sucky. Not one good joke. Plenty of groin and crotch humor and a truly offensive scene where they find machines in the basement of a Southern mansion that were used on slaves. One of the machines (which of course Hemsley gets trapped in) has two large hammers coming down close to the person's groin while a device is twirled into their backside (supposedly to give them rhythm!!!) Yikes. Oddly though Hemsley seems to turn over lots of the movie to his co-star Luis Avalos and Avalos gives one of the worst "comedic" performances ever captured on film. His double takes fail, his funny faces, his "fear" of the ghosts, his physical comedy - all of it fails. Yet, because the movie is jawdroppingly incompetent, it is cruelly enjoyable. You keep getting shocked by another terrible set piece. Like when a mummy appears wearing shades a bow-tie and a top hat and proceeds to BREAK DANCE. Then Hemsley and Avalos do a dance number and then when you are begging the movie to end there is a looooong boxing scene where Avalos boxes Smokin Joe Frazier (this scene goes on and on and has not one funny moment). A true cinematic nightmare. Seek it out if you DARE!!!

My review was written in November 1987 after watching the film on Charter video cassette.

"Ghost Fever" is an earnest but unsuccessful attempt to resurrect the 1940s style of comedy associated with Abbott & Costello. Heavy dose of strained ethnic humor was released on a regional basis last March and is now a home video item.

Sherman Hemsley and Luis Avalosl poetry Buford and Benny, a pair of cops sent to evict two old ladies from their ante bellum mansion. The place is haunted by a spirit of Beauregard, an evil former slave owner (film's previous title was "Benny and Buford Meet the Bigoted Ghost"), who pulls practical jokes on the hapless heroes, while they dally with the beautiful blonde great-granddaughters of Beauregard. Commenting on the action are two other ghosts. Andy, played by Myron Healey, who is Beauregard's son and Jethro, Buford's ancestor (dual role for Hemsley).

Shenanigans climax pointlessly with Benny agreeing to fight ex-champ Terrible Tucker (played by former Heavyweight champ Joe Frazier) in order to raise money to save the mansion. Predictably dumb finish has the heroes better off dead.

Though Hemsley and Avalos are adequate farceurs, the material is lame and only interesting on a poor taste level (endless dialog referring to "spooks" and a wacky scene of Hemsley reading an illustrated Victorian-era porntome entitled "Groins of the Darker Species"). Pic was directed in Mexico in 1984 by Lee Madden, but anonymous later shooting caused him to have his name removed and fictitious Alan Smithee credited.