The Maltese Monkey

The Maltese Monkey
Episode Number Dvd	01
Production Number	83001
Directed By	L.A.Peerce
Written By	Marc Richards
Date First Aired	09/06/1975

The Maltese Monkey was an episode of The Ghost Busters.

Cast[]

Plot[]

Two gangsters, Fat Man and the Rabbit use a crystal ball to summon the ghost of Big Al Caesar, a deceased crime lord, from the great beyond.

The Ghost Busters receive a message from Zero about the gangsters' activities and travel to the old castle where they overhear them planning to steal the Maltese Monkey, a priceless statue. It turns out Big Al and Spenser look exactly the same, right down to their suits, and Big Al switches places with him when the Ghost Busters go to the museum where the statue is kept to keep it safe. Big Al walks right through the vault door and heads back to the castle with the statue. After a series of chases the Ghost Busters use their dematerializer on Big Al, apprehend the other gangsters by knocking them down with a bowling ball, and return the Maltese Monkey to its rightful owners.

Trivia[]

This episode is a parody of the movie The Maltese Falcon. The Fat Man and Rabbit are spoofs on Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre's characters from this film.
The Big Al character is a spoof on Marlon Brando's Don Corleone in The Godfather.
Big Al holds his hands in front of him as if still in prison shackles, imitating Humphrey Bogart's character Duke from The Petrified Forest.
When Spencer is posing as Big Al, he performs imitations of James Cagney and Edward G. Robinson.
The title of this episode was later used as a Zillion Dollar Adventures segment on the Richie Rich cartoon series in 1982.
Zero's message is inside a dead mackeral. .