The Ghosts of Buxley Hall (1980 TV Movie)
Fun Made For TV Disney Movie
16 February 2005
I caught this one SEVERAL years ago on the Disney Channel. I remember originally seeing it on the Wonderful World of Disney in 1980(I think WWOD was on CBS at the time;but I was only 4). Buxley Hall Military Academy for Boys is steeped in tradition, founded by Gen. Eulace Buxley in the 1800's and now run by his relative. The problem is enrollment is way down, it owes money and the bank wants to foreclose. The only way to save Buxley is to make it co-ed with a girl's school. Of course Col. Joe Buxley hates the idea and doesn't warm up to the house mother or the noisy girls. In comes Jeremy Ross who lost his parents. Jeremy's uncle would like to enroll him and if Jeremy likes it, the uncle will pay off the school's debt. The problem is Jeremy's leech of an aunt and her gigolo husband are fighting Jeremy's uncle for custody(which includes the boy's sizable inheritance). If they can secretly make his life miserable at school, he'll beg to leave and they can offer him a more "stable" home than his single uncle can. But that's not going to happen soon because Jeremy finds a friend in young Posie(who despises the military school's stiff rules). Jeremy is also protected by the GHOSTS of Gen. Buxley, his wife Bettina and Sgt. Chester Sweet. Together the ghosts plot to save Buxley from demolition and Jeremy from his relatives.

Overall a fun, kid friendly movie with plenty of the common, goofy sight gags involving ghosts. Character actor Guy Raymond plays Ben Grissom the drunken caretaker who often see's ghostly activity but no one behind it. Coincidentally Raymond played Ed Peavey in the TV Show "The Ghost & Mrs. Muir" and had many of the same reactions. You can catch Monte Markam in a post "The New Perry Mason" role and Victor French in a pre "Little House on the Prarie"/"Highway to Heaven" role. Also memorable, character actor Vito Scotti playing another accented character(at least he plays an Italian) and actress Ruta Lee in an over the top comical performance. Another coincidence, Rad Daly who played Jeremy and Tricia Cast who played Posie, appeared together a year earlier in the TV version of the "Bad News Bears." Rad played Josh Matthews the snobbish baseball player of the elite team always razzing the bears and Cast played Amanda Whirlitzer.
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