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The Comedy of Terrors
The Graveside Story
USA 1963
produced by
Samuel Z. Arkoff, James H. Nicholson, Richard Matheson (associate) for Alta Vista/AIP
directed by Jacques Tourneur
starring Vincent Price, Peter Lorre, Boris Karloff, Joyce Jameson, Basil Rathbone, Joe E. Brown, Beverly Hills (= Beverly Powers), Alan DeWitt, Buddy Mason, Douglas Williams, Linda Rogers, Luree Holmes, Paul Barselou, Harvey Parry
written by Richard Matheson, music by Les Baxter
review by
Mike Haberfelner
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Waldo Trumbull (Vincent Price) is a hopeless drunk who runs the funeral
parlor of his deaf father-in-law Amos Hinchley (Boris Karloff) together
with his associate Felix Gillie (Peter Lorre), who in turn is madly in
love with Trumbull's wife Amaryllis (Joyce Jameson), a failed opera singer
whose main purpose is to drive Trumbull up the walls, which he returns in
kind. Thing is, business isn't going very well, and their landlord Mr.
Black (Basil Rathbone) threatens to evict them if they don't come up with
last year's rent soon. So they go out to make themselves a customer by
killing wealthy Mr. Phipps (Buddy Mason). But while his wife (Beverly
Hills) hires them for the funeral services, she then takes off without
paying them. So Trumbull comes up with the idea to just kill Black. And
even if Gillie totally botches that up, Black dies from a heart attack
that night. Black though has a rare condition that renders him in a state
of apparent dead to which he always comes to after a few hours. So at
Trumbull's funeral home, Trumbull and Gillie soon have their hands full
keeping Black dead long enough for the funeral - but he comes to in his
crypt and is freed by the cemetery keeper (Joe E. Brown), to return to
Trumbull's place with murder on his mind and an ax in his hands - only
while trying to kill Trumbull, he dies a few more times, and ultimately is
shot dead by Trumbull, who then has to fight it out with Gillie, and is
ultimately accidently poisoned with his own "medicine" by his
father-in-law ... After the success of the horror comedy The
Raven, AIP were quick to put the trio Price-Lorre-Karloff
into another horror comedy, very aptly titled Comedy of Terrors,
and one thing's for certain, they have lost none of their chemistry when
playing off one another, and seem to have had a good time doing so,
something that clearly transpires in this film, with especially the
conflicting acting styles of Lorre and Price once again being a pretty
awesome source of comedy. However, despite the addition of veteran
comedian Joe E. Brown and horror mainstay Basil Rathbone in full
Shakespeare-quoting mode, the comedy doesn't really take off: Sure, some
isolated scenes are hilarious, and the acting is really top notch, but as
a whole the story is too convoluted, tries to stuff too much conflict into
its 84 minutes of running time, and really lacks stringency. And while
Jacques Tourneur is quite probably the most subtle horror director of his
day, his approach to comedy is rather blunt and lacks restraint. That all
said, this one's still fun to watch, but it's definitely not on a level
with The Raven, and also it failed
to repeat that film's success at the box office.
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