THE COMEDY OF TERRORS (1963)

Director: Jacques Tourneur

Writer: Richard Matheson

Producers: James H. Nicholson, Samuel Z. Arkoff

Cast: Vincent Price, Peter Lorre, Boris Karloff, Basil Rathbone, Joyce Jameson, Rhubarb (the cat Cleopatra), Beverly Powers (as Beverly Hills), Linda Rogers, Joe E. Brown, Luree Holmes, Alan DeWitt, Buddy Mason, Douglas Williams, (and uncredited cast) Paul Barselou, Harvey Parry, Charles Soldani 

In 19th century New England, underhanded undertakers Waldo Trumbull (Vincent Price) and Felix Gillie (Peter Lorre) are so destitute that they have used a single coffin for the last thirteen years. Once the mourners leave the graveside after each funeral service, Trumbull and Gillie dump the corpse into the hole and bury it to keep reusing the same casket. In spite of such economizing, their rent is a year overdue. Trumbull decides that they must resort to murder to generate more business. 

The Flashback Fanatic movie review 

During American International Pictures’ heyday of Edgar Allan Poe story adaptations, they followed up their Poe-inspired horror-comedy The Raven (1963) with The Comedy of Terrors. The latter film is not a Poe-based project and, surprisingly, not even contrived to be marketed as one. After all, AIP was the studio that tried passing off an adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft’s novel The Case of Charles Dexter Ward as a Poe adaptation by calling it The Haunted Palace (1963), merely using the title of one of Poe’s poems. Despite The Comedy of Terrors taking place in the Poe-appropriate setting of 19th century New England and dealing with that Poe-story peril of premature interment, AIP were content to just deliver another comedy dealing with period piece horror situations without a Poe reference. They probably thought that, between the gothic horrors of Britain’s Hammer Films and their own Poe adaptations, the popularity of classic horror was now firmly established and would contrast enough with humor for The Comedy of Terrors to create an interest all its own. 

The Comedy of Terrors has the talent to make it an absolute joy for the classic horror fan. Genre film stalwarts Vincent Price, Peter Lorre, Boris Karloff, and Basil Rathbone are given the chance to play comedy to the hilt. It is clear that they are enjoying themselves bringing to life the morbid slapstick, crass behavior, and bumbling antics in Richard Matheson’s fun script.

Another surprise is that Roger Corman was not this film’s director. Corman had directed all of the previous Matheson-scripted Poe films. That team seemed to be a safe bet at the box office for AIP’s period piece horror films, including the recent horror-comedy The Raven. Matheson had suggested that Jacques Tourneur direct. Best known as the director for several of producer Val Lewton’s atmospheric and thoughtful horror classics of the 1940s, one of the greatest film noirs with Out of the Past (1947), and the intense British supernatural thriller Night of the Demon (1957), Tourneur may seem like an odd choice to direct a comedy, even if it has macabre aspects. Matheson had been impressed with Tourneur’s thorough preparation and efficiency when directing the Matheson-scripted episode “Night Call” of The Twilight Zone television series (1959-1964). Matheson’s instincts paid off. Tourneur’s direction must have agreed with the entire cast who give spirited performances that result in plenty of laughs. 

Vincent Price is every bit as accomplished in his comedy here as he had been with the horror that is a large part of his cinematic reputation. He is hilariously despicable as the unprincipled, sarcastic, and ill-tempered drunkard Waldo Trumbull. My favorite aspect to this comedy is the oh-so-refined manner that Price’s Trumbull knowingly affects that contrasts with the true crassness of his character. One of the funniest line deliveries I have ever heard is when Price says, “Remove the carcass.” 

As Felix Gillie, Waldo Trumbull’s oppressed and bumbling lackey, Peter Lorre has our sympathy while still earning laughs. Gillie’s lack of ability is apparent at all times. Whether trying to build a coffin, breaking into a house, or even correctly pronouncing Trumbull’s name, Gillie never manages to accomplish much more than irritating his employer. Trumbull keeps Gillie under his thumb because he knows of Gillie’s criminal past and thinks that Gillie has no choice but to remain as Trumbull’s unscrupulous, undertaking assistant. 

Boris Karloff makes a seemingly thankless role as a doddering and ineffectual old man into another comedy highlight. As Amos Hinchley, he is the senior partner of the Hinchley & Trumbull Funeral Parlor. Being hard of hearing, tired, and senile, Hinchley is oblivious to the treachery of his partner. Trumbull’s favorite drunken game is trying to offer the old man “medicine” from a clearly labeled bottle of poison. When Hinchley’s daughter, Trumbull’s neglected wife Amaryllis, keeps preventing her father from being poisoned, Hinchley whines that nobody cares whether or not he lives or dies since he can’t take his “medicine.” 

Making the despicable Waldo Trumbull even more unreasonable is his disdain for his voluptuous wife. The beautiful blonde Amaryllis tries to be faithful to her habitually drunk husband despite his insults and ill temper. Apparently, Amaryllis is stuck in this marriage to her father’s amoral business partner. It must be said that her ear-splittingly awful attempts at operatic singing would test anyone’s patience except her nearly deaf father and the love-struck Felix Gillie. As Amaryllis, Joyce Jameson adds to the silliness with her character’s total lack of self-awareness regarding her terrible singing voice and her ambition to be an opera singer. 

It is interesting to consider that in the 1962 AIP film Tales of Terror, during the segment adapting Poe’s “The Black Cat,” the acting trio of Price, Lorre, and Jameson also played out the situation of the destitute inebriate not appreciating his luscious wife who is charmed by an associate. Price and Lorre are actually almost playing reversed roles in The Comedy of Terrors. Peter Lorre’s role in “The Black Cat” was that of the crude, drunken lout neglecting Joyce Jameson as his wife who falls for the refined and appreciative wine taster played by Vincent Price. Lorre and Price were in fine, if more subdued, comic form there, as well. 

Another cast member from Tales of Terror is Basil Rathbone. Here his John F. Black is the landlord threatening Waldo Trumbull with eviction, which inspires the unsavory undertaker to commit murder to get paying customers in a hurry. Rathbone’s Black is a devotee of Shakespeare and indulges himself acting out with hammy excess scenes from the Bard’s plays. In Poe fashion, Black is afflicted with frequent deathlike spells from catalepsy that keep the audience and the shifty undertakers wondering if he is ever really going to die. 

I can’t recall ever seeing a film where it was more evident that everyone involved must have been having a great time making it. The Comedy of Terrors is a farce that should also give every fan of classic horror a great time watching it.

CAT PEOPLE (1942)

Director: Jacques Tourneur

Writer: DeWitt Bodeen

Producer: Val Lewton

Cast: Simone Simon, Kent Smith, Tom Conway, Jane Randolph, Jack Holt, (and uncredited cast members) Alan Napier, Elizabeth Russell, Alec Craig, Theresa Harris, John Piffle, Dot Farley, Steve Soldi

In New York City’s Central Park Zoo, Oliver Reed (Kent Smith) meets lonely and beautiful Serbian immigrant Irena Dubrovna (Simone Simon). They soon fall in love and get married. Unfortunately, Irena is afraid to consummate their marriage because she believes that she is descended from a Serbian race of satanic cat people. She fears that if she has her passions aroused she will transform into a huge cat and kill her lover.

The Flashback Fanatic movie review

When RKO Radio Pictures wanted to pounce on the same audience that made Universal Pictures’ The Wolf Man (1941) a big hit, they figured that a picture with the title of Cat People would grab them. They dumped that derivative title into the lap of their fledgling producer Val Lewton to make a derivative B-film. However, Lewton was a literate and cultured man with no appreciation for the horror film standards set by Universal Pictures. Despite the exploitative title, Lewton set out to make a horror film with a sophisticated and innovative approach.

Val Lewton made me appreciate that a film producer could be much more than just the guy watching the schedule and the budget on a film while kicking the director in the ass. Lewton’s taste and creativity shaped his productions as much as his writers and directors. He contributed story ideas and rewrote scripts.

Above all, Lewton decreed that his horror films would involve the audience by being ambiguous. There was often a decision to be made by the characters and the audience about what the menace was and who or what was to blame. The scares came from within the viewers prompted by the tease of shadows and sounds that could suggest almost anything. Suggestion forced the viewers to pay attention and use their imaginations that involved them more deeply than most other films.

In Cat People Lewton uses a very low-key approach in a slow burn story of marital dysfunction. We are left to figure out if that dysfunction is due to a psychological or supernatural cause. There is no outright villain provided.

As Irena Dubrovna, Simone Simon is quite adorable. She is immediately likable and always sympathetic. Even once we are aware that she may become a menace, we still feel for her. She has been emotionally and psychologically injured through no fault of her own.

Because Simon’s character is so charming, it would be easy to resent Kent Smith’s Oliver Reed. Some people may find him a bit dense as the lucky bum that hooks up with a sweet lady like Irena and can’t deal with her superstitions. That is really not a fair criticism. The horror film audience is primed to accept the possibility of a supernatural menace in a story. Were such a complication to be fixated on by someone in our own relationships, we would want to dismiss that as a fantasy or delusion to reestablish a sense of stability in our lives. Let’s cut Oliver Reed some slack. He does manage to remain chaste in his marriage waiting for his wife Irena to overcome her sexual dread.

However, Oliver does manage to eventually piss us off when he has the thoughtless lapse of letting his gorgeous co-worker Alice Moore (Jane Randolph) in on his marital problems. Despite the fact that she is also in love with Oliver (like I said, he’s a lucky bum), she is such a good sport that she recommends a psychiatrist to help Irena. As Alice says, she’s “the new kind of other woman.” It is a true credit to Randolph’s performance that we still like her Alice character as much as Irena.

A real highlight is the enigmatic cameo by Elizabeth Russell. She seems positively mystical as she disturbs Irena during a brief encounter in a restaurant. As with so many incidents in this film, we can’t put our finger on anything that is truly an indication of danger or evil in this moment, but as horror film patrons we are just as sensitive as Irena to the potential for the sinister.

The one character that seems a bit shifty is the psychiatrist Dr. Louis Judd (Tom Conway). With his upper crust manner and English accent, he seems a bit removed from the other characters and perhaps a bit too smug. He also lets his libido cross the line in his doctor-patient relationship.

Good performances by the aforementioned actors make the slow build up to the scenes of threat really work. Once we are bonded with these characters and their lives, the scary set pieces succeed because we feel that there is something to lose rather than just a morbid spectacle to witness. The technique used to present the scares relies on suggestion and the unease about a menace that can’t be fully comprehended.

The higher-ups at RKO insisted on a few shots in some scenes to make the menace a bit less ambiguous. There is still plenty left to the imagination and we are teased throughout the first half of the picture wondering just what sort of threat we are dealing with. In some later Lewton flicks, the menace could be soft-pedaled to the point of frustration. I think Cat People has just the right menacing mix of the suggested, the suspected, and the certain. Our perceptions are a bit vague as they are for the film characters, but we are given just enough information to arrive at our own conclusions.

It must be noted that one of Val Lewton’s innovations was introduced in Cat People. It has been dubbed “the bus.” This jump scare technique is usually done with much less finesse these days as the false scares that must punctuate most youth-centric fright flicks between the kills.

Cat People was the first of Val Lewton’s nine RKO horror films of the ’40s that have become classics of the genre. It set out to be a classy counterpoint to the prevailing MO in horror films typified by Universal Pictures. The management of RKO was not happy with Cat People until the cash from the box office started piling up. After a couple of big-budget RKO flops by Orson Welles, Cat People’s huge success on its small investment saved the studio. With its intimacy and sympathetic characters presented in a reserved and moody manner, Cat People demonstrated that there was more than one way for the horror film to skin a cat.