The Comedy of Terrors (1963)

User Rating:

6.6/10   

Director:

Jacques Tourneur

Writer:

Richard Matheson (written by)

Release Date:

22 January 1964 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Horror

Tagline:

Your favorite creeps...together again!

Plot:

An undertaker who hasn't had any 'customers' in a long time is forced the pay one year's back-rent....

Plot Keywords:

Undertaker | Poison | Carpenter | Crypt | Sword

Cast

Vincent Price	...	Trumbull
Peter Lorre	...	Felix Gillie
Boris Karloff	...	Hinchley
Joyce Jameson	...	Amaryllis
Joe E. Brown	...	Cemetery Keeper
Beverly Powers	...	Mrs. Phipps (as Beverly Hills)
Basil Rathbone	...	Mr. Black
Orangey	...	Cleopatra (as Rhubarb)
Alan DeWitt	...	Black's Servant
Buddy Mason	...	Mr. Phipps
Douglas Williams	...	Doctor
Linda Rogers	...	Phipps' Maid
Luree Holmes	...	Girl

Also Known As:

The Graveside Story

Runtime:

84 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Pathécolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Iceland:L | UK:12 (new rating) | Australia:PG | Spain:T | Sweden:15 | USA:Unrated | UK:15 | West Germany:16

Filming Locations:

Producers Studios - 5330 Melrose Avenue, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

American International Pictures (AIP)

Trivia:

Boris Karloff was originally hired to play John F. Black but it soon became clear that his severe arthritis would not permit him to undertake such a strenuous role. Karloff was switched to the part of Mr. Hinchley, and Basil Rathbone was brought in to play Black.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: 'Peter Lorre''s stunt double is quite obvious - he's clearly a younger man (with longer, darker hair), wearing a Lorre mask.

Quotes:

Waldo Trumbull: Is there no morality?

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Elvira's Haunted Hills (2001)

Macabre black comedy sports top-flight cast

THE COMEDY OF TERRORS

Aspect ratio: 2.35:1 (Panavision)

Sound format: Mono

The proprietor of a debt-ridden funeral parlor (Vincent Price) seeks to drum up a little business by resorting to murder, but one of his 'victims' (Basil Rathbone) is merely cataleptic and refuses to lie down and die...

Eager to re-team their 'triumverate of terror' following the unexpected commercial success of THE RAVEN (1963), AIP assembled Price, Peter Lorre and Boris Karloff for this second helping of macabre black comedy, adding Rathbone to an already potent brew and hiring much of the same production personnel, including cinematographer Floyd Crosby and set designer Daniel Haller (later a director in his own right). In fact, Rathbone - who must have been insulted by his 'also starring' credit, behind even fleeting guest star Joe E. Brown and 'Rhubarb' the cat! - steals the picture from his high-profile co-stars, playing the dotty, Shakespeare-spouting owner of Price's funeral parlor whose verbal gymnastics alone are worth the price of admission (he warns Price and his cohorts they "face the incommodious prospect of taking up residence in the street" if they don't pay their hefty rent arrears!).

But Richard Matheson's tongue-in-cheek script is quite bleak in places: Price plays a sarcastic, bad-tempered drunk who lords it over his hapless assistant (Lorre), treats his untalented, opera-loving wife (Joyce Jameson) with open contempt, and is prepared to commit first degree murder in order to sustain his fortunes! Karloff sits on the sidelines for the most part, consigned to a chair due to ill health, but he makes the most of what he's given, and he plays a crucial role in the climactic sequence, which closes proceedings on a note of pitch black humor. Fans of lowbrow comedy will be especially amused by the devastation wrought whenever Jameson launches into one of her operatic arias! An ultra-professional production team - under the direction of Val Lewton protégé Jacques Tourneur - performs minor miracles on a clearly impoverished budget, and Crosby's gleaming cinematography makes a virtue of Haller's minimalist production design. Watch out for Rathbone's scene-stealing catch-phrase: "What place... is THIS?!"