Need help findin the name of this horror

there is a horror movie i saw a few times when i was very young. i was always too scared to watch it all the way. i have no idea what the name of this film is,and very little clues.here is all i can remember.

1) it was a movie that everyone watched once a year, like The Wizard of Oz ,Charlie Browns Holiday Shows, things like that.

2) it was black and white, and had to have been made around the 1950's or earlier , but i'm not real sure about that.

3) i remember kids in halloween costumes or something, and it seems like they
were in like a graveyard or something and scared to go into this haunted house.

4)i remember and old man,very scary in this film.

sorry thats all i remember.i was like between 3 and 6 years old (late 60's,early 70's)and when i got older,and asked about this movie, nobody knew what i was talking about. im 41 now and this has bugged me for decades.
anyone have any clues to what this mvoie might have been?
thanks! allen

[neverending]

It sounds a bit like To Kill a Mockingbird.

[Robert_Dunbar]

Good call. That's exactly what it sounds like. Any of this look familiar?

that looks like it might be it,i will buy that movie and see. after i thought about it some more, it seems like one of the kids was wearing a burlap sack or something,does that ring a bell ?

thanks!!!!!! allen

[Doc Faustus]

Yup. It is indeed the spinechilling horror classic To Kill a Mockingbird. You can tell it's scary because the guy from the Omen's in it.

[Robert_Dunbar]

Originally Posted by allenx1966

after i thought about it some more, it seems like one of the kids was wearing a burlap sack or something,does that ring a bell?

Maybe the famous ham costume? See the photos above. Actually that scene in the woods is pretty scary, as are a number of other bits involving the creepy house next door. (Not to mention Truman Capote as a child.)

[Doc Faustus]

The kid who played Dill is that movie's only weakness.

[Robert_Dunbar]

Who would have been more convincing? Brandon de Wilde? Julie Harris? Some sort of South American tree frog?

[Doc Faustus]

Originally Posted by Robert_Dunbar

Who would have been more convincing? Brandon de Wilde? Julie Harris? Some sort of South American tree frog?

I think the treefrog.

[Robert_Dunbar]

Sadly, I think so too ...