Fight That Ghost
Cast & Crew
Sam Newfield
Pigmeat "alamo" Markham
John "rastus" Murray
Percy Verwayne
David Bethea
Alberta Pryne
Film Details
Synopsis
Pigmeat Markham and Shorty Murray, proprietors of Pigmeat & Pigmeat & Shorty's Bootery and Tailor, are woken up one morning by their landlord, who loudly demands the rent. Shorty tries to trick the landlord by miscounting the money, but the man soon realizes he has been cheated and threatens to have the pair thrown in jail. With a sob story about his ninety-five year old grandmother, Pigmeat convinces him to wait a bit longer. At his shop, Pigmeat flirts mercilessly with all the women customers, driving them out, and when Mr. Cook comes in for a rush suit alteration and Pigmeat ruins it, Mr. Cook threatens to sue. With their problems multiplying, Shorty and Pigmeat decide to commit suicide by inhaling gas fumes. A lengthy series of last confessions, however, allows them to stall the final moment. Fortuitously, a telegram arrives, and its messenger lights a match that explodes the gas fumes, hurling the two onto the roof. The telegram announces that Pigmeat and Shorty are the beneficiaries of the will of Mr. Watkin Jones. Later, at the reading of will, Pigmeat and Shorty learn that, as the result of a favor they once did for Jones, they will each receive $2,500 and a house in Riverdale if they can spend one night alone in the dead man's bedroom. If not, the money goes to charity. The pair go to the Riverdale house and get locked inside a dark room. Strange occurrences begin to take place, including the appearance of mysterious hands offering Pigmeat a candle and a match. Pigmeat then hears a voice and notices that a man in a portrait has suddenly grown a beard. The two get into bed and again hear voices. Unknown to them, a gang of crooks who have been using the Jones Mansion as a hideout for the previous five years are trying to scare the wits out of the two so that they will never return. Pigmeat and Shorty eventually discover the ruse and slap the crooks in the dark, terrifying them. They decide to tie the crooks up and heroize themselves, until another strange noise causes them to flee.
Director
Sam Newfield
Cast
Pigmeat "alamo" Markham
John "rastus" Murray
Percy Verwayne
David Bethea
Alberta Pryne
Claire Leyba
Bill Dillard
George Wiltshire
Wen Talbert
Clarice Graham
Ray Allen
Rudolph Toombs
Milton Woods
Sid Easton
Crew
John Allsteadt
J. Burgi Contner
Thomas Darby
Jack Etra
Porter Grainger
S. Hickman
R. J. Liszt
Richard Marks
Elmer J. Mcgovern
Nelson Minnerly
John "rastus" Murray
Violet Neufeld
Sam Newfield
Ted Toddy
Ted Toddy
Sol Wichuall
Film Details
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
The above credits and plot synopsis were taken from a shooting dialogue script deposited in the NYSA, which credits actor Dewey "Pigmeat" Markham as Pigmeat (Alamo) Markham. Regional censorship reports contained in the MPAA/PCA Collection at the AMPAS Library note that Maryland censors deleted lines containing the phrase "yellow gal" from the song "A Brown Skin Gal Is the Best Gal After All." The reports also indicate that between April 1946 and June 1947 the film was approved for exhibition in New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania without eliminations.
