One Body Too Many (1944)
One Body Too Many (1944)
Films that mixed horror and comedy together have a long history dating back to 1920 with Haunted Spooks, and many of the biggest names of the horror genre have been in comedic horror films. One of my favourite horror comedy films came in 1944 with One Body Too Many, which featured Bela Lugosi and comedic actor Jack Haley. One Body Too Many is a comedic horror film about a wealthy man who dies, and has left a strange and very specific will regarding how his body will be placed in a glass vault on the top tower of his home under the stars, and that his family must stay in the house until the vault is built, they cannot leave for the couple days that it will take to prepare the vault, and the body must not be buried in any other way, and there are very specific consequences in the will if any of the instructions are violated. But the family is against each other, and they hire an investigator to guard the body, but the investigator goes missing, and along comes Albert Tuttle a life insurance agent trying to sell an insurance to policy to the man who he doesn't realize is already dead. A case of mistaken identity, a missing body, and a new body show up, and hilariousness ensues. All the while Bela Lugosi plays the butler, who keeps offering everyone coffee, and of course we all know that Bela Lugosi is the villain...right?!
One Body Too Many was directed by Frank McDonald, with a screenplay by Winston Miller and Maxwell Shane. The film was distributed by Paramount Pictures and released in 1944. Though Boris Karloff was originally wanted for the film, the filmmakers settled for Bela Lugosi. The film's star Jack Haley was a Vaudeville actor who turned to motion pictures, and is best known for playing the Tin Man in The Wizard Of Oz in 1939. I couldn't find a lot of information about how successful the film was, though it holds a rather low score on online review sites like Rotten Tomatoes and IMDb. Though personally I really enjoyed the film, and thought it was really great for what it is.
One Body Too Many stars Jack Haley as insurance agent Albert Tuttle, Bela Lugosi as Merkil the butler, and Jean Parker as Carol Dunlap. The film features members of a dysfunctional family, the housekeeper, and the attorney who all are set to inherit something from the will, which includes Blanche Yurka as Matthews, Lyle Talbot as Jim Davis, Douglas Fowley as Henry Rutherford, Fay Helm as Estelle Hopkins, Bernard Nedell as Attorney Morton Gellman, Lucien Littlefield as Kenneth Hopkins, Dorothy Granger as Mona Rutherford, and Maxine Fife as Margaret Hopkins. The film has a great cast, who are all comedic in their own way, though the films three main stars Jack Haley, Jean Parker, and Bela Lugosi are definitely the best. I love Lugosi's ability to play the role so straight and serious, making him feel so absolutely sinister, which makes the comedy of the film that much better. I am not usually a fan of comedic films, unless they are done well, and One Body Too Many is really well done.
Sadly my copy of this film, is not very well restored, and in the darkest scenes of the film, it seems like the entire picture just goes black, as the film quality that the DVD used was seriously deteriorated and wasn't properly restored. I would love to see a high quality restored version of this film. One Body Too Many was a film that actually had me laughing out loud, and I appreciate that, because usually I am not a fan of comedies. The cast and the writers did a great job on this film. I love the juxtaposition of Jack Haley playing up the comedic aspect in a sometimes slapstick sort of way, and Bela Lugosi playing it straight and serious like a horror film villain, and the combination works so deliciously well. If I were to give films a score, I would definitely score this film highly, it is a fun comedy with some excellent horror elements.
If you have not yet seen One Body Too many, I highly recommend checking it out, it is a wicked fun film, with tons of humour and chills, and balances perfectly as both a horror and a comedy film. I don't know that I would call this a must-see film, but it is definitely great for what it is. So if you ever see a copy of this film for sale, I would highly recommend checking it out, I think it would be a great addition to any horror film collector's library, and it is one of those kinds of film that would be fun to put on during a Halloween Party.
Sadly I couldn't find a decent quality trailer for the film, which I like to post in these reviews, so you can get a bit of an idea what the film is like, I did however find dozens of posts of the full film, since it is in public domain it can be freely shared on sites like Youtube, so I guess if you can't find a DVD or VHS copy, you can always watch it on Youtube for free, I however won't post a full film video on here, even if it is in public domain.
One Body Too Many was directed by Frank McDonald, with a screenplay by Winston Miller and Maxwell Shane. The film was distributed by Paramount Pictures and released in 1944. Though Boris Karloff was originally wanted for the film, the filmmakers settled for Bela Lugosi. The film's star Jack Haley was a Vaudeville actor who turned to motion pictures, and is best known for playing the Tin Man in The Wizard Of Oz in 1939. I couldn't find a lot of information about how successful the film was, though it holds a rather low score on online review sites like Rotten Tomatoes and IMDb. Though personally I really enjoyed the film, and thought it was really great for what it is.
One Body Too Many stars Jack Haley as insurance agent Albert Tuttle, Bela Lugosi as Merkil the butler, and Jean Parker as Carol Dunlap. The film features members of a dysfunctional family, the housekeeper, and the attorney who all are set to inherit something from the will, which includes Blanche Yurka as Matthews, Lyle Talbot as Jim Davis, Douglas Fowley as Henry Rutherford, Fay Helm as Estelle Hopkins, Bernard Nedell as Attorney Morton Gellman, Lucien Littlefield as Kenneth Hopkins, Dorothy Granger as Mona Rutherford, and Maxine Fife as Margaret Hopkins. The film has a great cast, who are all comedic in their own way, though the films three main stars Jack Haley, Jean Parker, and Bela Lugosi are definitely the best. I love Lugosi's ability to play the role so straight and serious, making him feel so absolutely sinister, which makes the comedy of the film that much better. I am not usually a fan of comedic films, unless they are done well, and One Body Too Many is really well done.
Sadly my copy of this film, is not very well restored, and in the darkest scenes of the film, it seems like the entire picture just goes black, as the film quality that the DVD used was seriously deteriorated and wasn't properly restored. I would love to see a high quality restored version of this film. One Body Too Many was a film that actually had me laughing out loud, and I appreciate that, because usually I am not a fan of comedies. The cast and the writers did a great job on this film. I love the juxtaposition of Jack Haley playing up the comedic aspect in a sometimes slapstick sort of way, and Bela Lugosi playing it straight and serious like a horror film villain, and the combination works so deliciously well. If I were to give films a score, I would definitely score this film highly, it is a fun comedy with some excellent horror elements.
If you have not yet seen One Body Too many, I highly recommend checking it out, it is a wicked fun film, with tons of humour and chills, and balances perfectly as both a horror and a comedy film. I don't know that I would call this a must-see film, but it is definitely great for what it is. So if you ever see a copy of this film for sale, I would highly recommend checking it out, I think it would be a great addition to any horror film collector's library, and it is one of those kinds of film that would be fun to put on during a Halloween Party.
Sadly I couldn't find a decent quality trailer for the film, which I like to post in these reviews, so you can get a bit of an idea what the film is like, I did however find dozens of posts of the full film, since it is in public domain it can be freely shared on sites like Youtube, so I guess if you can't find a DVD or VHS copy, you can always watch it on Youtube for free, I however won't post a full film video on here, even if it is in public domain.
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