Gildersleeve's Ghost

Looks like the comedic setup here is more suited to an Abbott and Costello romp than to the gentler humor of Gildersleeve. The material is pretty familiar to old movie fans—a fake gorilla, a real gorilla (sort of), and invisible people who come and go. Of course, there's a ready-made bonanza of cheap laughs in schtick like this, so I suspect this series entry was working on a shorter production schedule than the preceding three that required more difficult scripts.

Anyway, familiar material or not, there's still the surreal premise that guarantees obvious laughs as director Douglas keeps things moving expertly. And get a load of blonde bombshell Marion Martin who wiggles in and out as the Marilyn Monroe of the '40's. Still, I was expecting the subtler humor of small town eccentrics that the series was so good at. Unfortunately, this distinctive brand of humor gets lost in the hectic hijinks of the surreal, making this the weakest of the four series entries, maybe not in the number of laughs, but in overall Andy Griffith-type satisfaction.