Review of The Comedy of Terrors (1964) by Lanky Man P — 19 Jun 2012
Directed by Jacques Tourneur (Cat People (1942) I Walked with a Zombie (1943) and Night of the Demon (1957)), this is a very silly comedy-horror written by Richard Matheson, which just seems like an excuse to get the cast of Tales of Terror (1962) and The Raven (1963) together again, just to ham it up.
Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Somewhere in New England, drunken and scheming undertaker Waldo Trumbull (Vincent Price) is looking to drum up a little business, as no-one seems to be dying lately, and when they do die, they dump the body and reuse the same coffin.
His money-grabbing landlord Mr. Black (Basil Rathbone) is on the verge of evicting him, his loud wife Amaryllis (Joyce Jameson) and her father Amos Hinchley (Boris Karloff). But, Trumbull has an idea how to speed up business, he decides to bump Mr.
Black off, so that he doesn't have to pay the rent. So Trumbull and his assistant Felix Gillie (Peter Lorre) go to Black's manor to do the deed, and they scare him off, but they find out Black has had bouts of bouts of death-like sleep, and he won't stay dead when Trumbull wants him to.
It's a very silly comedy, not scary at all, but with Price hamming it up to high heaven. It has some good set pieces, and it's reminiscent of the Black Cat segment from Tales of Terror, only this is played for laughs with a ginger cat called Rhubarb that steals the show.
This review of The Comedy of Terrors (1964) was written by Lanky Man P on 19 Jun 2012.
The Comedy of Terrors has generally received positive reviews.
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