Rating: 3/5
Hooptober 4.0 | 14/31 | Before 1970 2/6
Is there no morality left in this world?
Waldo Trumbull (Vincent Price) and Felix Gillie (Peter Lorre) attend a funeral. After the mourners leave, the two signal to one another. They discard the body from the coffin into the grave, polishing the coffin for future use. They jump on their wagon, reading Hinchley and Trumbull Funeral Homes, and depart.
Cleopatra the cat (Rhubarb) runs around the dingy basement full of oddities and antiques, where Felix shoddily mends shoddy coffins.
Upstairs, Waldo argues with his wife, Amaryllis (Joyce Jameson). Above the mantel is a hand-stitched sign reading, “Honor, Patience, Tranquility.”
Amaryllis’s father, Amos (Boris Karloff), quietly sips his tea as Amaryllis accuses Waldo of courting her only to take control of Amos’s business.
The landlord, John F. Black (Basil Rathbone), stops by to collect the overdue rent. Waldo is once again short, so John threatens eviction if Waldo cannot pay it in 24 hours. Waldo and Felix must find more clients.
At midnight, they meet and go to the extravagant home of a man Waldo met at a pub. Felix demonstrates his lock-picking ability, only to find the door already unlocked. Somehow, despite making a ridiculous amount of noise, they sneak in and kill the wealthy man.
When the family discovers the dead body, Waldo shows up to offer his funeral services.
The film is a mean-spirited comedy — every joke is at someone else’s expense. I like Richard Matheson’s horror scripts, but his humor here is too cruel by a hair for my taste. Still, the movie has a few laughs that got me.
I love this cast. I appreciate their work in Tales of Terror from the previous year, but I’m happy to see them together in one story. Vincent Price delivers acerbic jokes with the cadence of a queen.
The cat in this movie, Orangey, has his credit as “Rhubarb.” He’s the same cat from The Incredible Shrinking Man! He is good at being a little asshole and sleeping on Boris Karloff.
Jacques Tourneur directed several of my favorite horror movies. Here, he works expertly with an AIP budget to match the tone and pacing the script requires.
Overall, the film is a goofy romp — not my sense of humor, but entertaining throughout.