The Comedy of Terrors

Take the three horror legends from The Raven, add in Basil Rathbone, give 'em a sharp script (by Richard Matheson, no less), and you really have a forgotten gem of horror comedy! From start to finish, this movie barely takes a break from the biting dialogue and morbid antics (Price runs a funeral home and when the customers are few, he generates his own business!) that fill it. Vincent Price is given some great lines (especially with his wife) and delivers them with all the hammy goodness and wit he can muster! Of course, anything with Price is worth watching though. Yep, this is one of the best and most entertaining horror comedies I've ever seen.

I have just seen the film - It's good to see again Price, Karloff, Big Mouth Joe E. Brown, Rathbone,Lorre. etc.. The plot may not be exceedingly good but a guy like me who saw them in my early youth cannot help but feel refreshed seeing them again. Just to see them is ample reward. Peter Lorre of all people made me remember the striking beauty of Joan Fontaine in the Constant Nymph which I saw back in 1951! And Casablanca -- ah! I am perhaps too romantic to spend time detecting evident errors in stunts as has my British predecessor in commenting. I just love cinema for the emotions a movie elicits, or the memories it brings back, no matter the technical aspects in it. Certainly, a cast as this had to be in a film that revolved around cemeteries, buried alive people (remember Price in the Fall of the House of Usher..?) I could just continue writing a lot...

The production values (settings, costume...) are high, plus there only are fine actors doing their jobs to interpret the script. Unfortunately Jacques Tourneur is not a comedy director and he appears always at a loss here to find the good pace to bring the comical effects to their full potentials. Too bad? Well even if you are quick to put the blame on the director's poor comical rhythmic abilities you have to acknowledge that the storyline is quite thin. Provided the movie is very short (less than 85', credits included) and drags along, maybe we can blame the pace on the script for a change. Eventually it's never easy to find the right tone and rhythm for dark humour as the main theme. Hitchcock had an inbuilt sense for it yet he never tried to make a movie based solely on it; although The Trouble with Harry comes quite close it's still more of a Mac Guffin detective story 'étude in black' where the humour is in the subtext, not at the foreground. And Hitchock never tried his hands at traditional comedy after he failed with Mr. and Mrs. Smith.

The A.I.P. cycle had edged towards wry humour with "The Raven" and they took another stab at it her, albeit rather more unsuccessfully. The cast of Vincent Price, Peter Lorre, Boris Karloff and Basil Rathbone is exceptional, but this film proves that assembling them together in a comedy-horror film was ill-conceived. The plot has potential, but the script is laboured and painfully drawn-out with the odd memorable moment. Vincent Price and Peter Lorre look comfortable playing things in a tongue-in-cheek fashion, but Boris Karloff just doesn't fit in here. Incredibly, Basil Rathbone plays his role with more ham than Vincent Price - he is the best thing in the film! On a technical note, Price's sword fight with Lorre at the end of the film does not hide the stunt-doubles particularly well, further undermining the film's quality. All in all, a major disappointment, but I have no doubt that individuals will wish to find out for themselves given the quality cast!

Weary black farce, the most depressing film I've ever seen - partly due to the sight of so many talented people obviously not giving a damn and hating what they're doing, but mainly because the treatment of the horror elements is so morbid, devoid of the gaiety and mischief needed to carry them off without leaving a nasty taste. The scene in which some of the characters sing a hymn to the tune of Chopin's Dead March is perhaps the bleakest moment in all mainstream cinema. Worth seeing once, though - it's a genuine oddity and one of a kind.

Comedy Of Terrors is a very rarely seen movie that is a shame because, it is a pretty good movie. The movie was discontinued in 1998 for some reason. You can still see it once in a while on tv. Watch this movie with Vincent Price as Waldo the desperate undertaker and his assistant Peter Lorre, the movie also has Boris Karlof who plays a funny part. Basil Rathbone makes an appearance and doesn't seem to want to die. The movie is filled with many good parts and if you like Vincent Price you'll love this movie. Watch this movie!

The cast are the high point of this interesting and fun little film. Vincent Price steals the show and is brilliant, and he is supported wonderfully by Peter Lorre whose character spends a lot of time being demeaned by Price and Basil Rathbone, who is a very suave and charismatic actor and his "what place...is THIS?!" is iconic. I was a little disappointed in Boris Karloff, I love him, I liked his character, I liked what he did with it, what let me down in regards to him is that I would have loved to have seen much more of him. My only other complaint is the short length which probably accounts for why the ending was as hectic as it was, otherwise this is a very good film. The cast of course are wonderful, but there is also a deliciously witty and bleak script, a fun story, skillful photography, nice minimalist production values, efficient direction from Tourneur and an interesting sending up of past horror clichés. All in all, I like this film. 8/10 Bethany Cox

I'm a collector of CLASSIC horror films and (remembering this trio's triumphs of the past), watching this film was a sad experience. Karloff is absolutely wasted, Rathbone doesn't seem to have the faintest idea what he's doing, and Lorre's acting is as dead as the corpes he's burying! The only thing that keeps this film going is the over-acting of Vincent Price. If he would've played his part "straight", this film would've been a TOTAL FLOP. By over-acting, he enlivens it immensely. The plot is worn andd moth-eaten, and it drags terribly in spots. In fact, the only interesting thing about it is the appearance of Joe E. Brown, who doesn't look like he's aged much since his classic 30's comedies! (He even lets go with his famous "HEYYYYY!"). The film is worth seeing, however, because of it's "Gathering of the Greats", even tho it's their last "hurrah"! R.I.P.

The alcoholic director of the Hinchley & Trumbull Funeral Parlor Waldo Trumbull (Vincent Price) is a cheater that has married Amaryllis Trumbull (Joyce Jameson) in a marriage of convenience to get control of the business of her father Amos Hinchley (Boris Karloff). Trumbull has been using the same casket for more than thirteen years, dumping the corpses in their graves to resell the coffin. He also blackmails his only employee Felix Gillie (Peter Lorre) that had robbed a bank and is an abusive husband, threatening to poison his father-in-law and not allowing Amaryllis to sing. Gillie has a crush on Amaryllis and loves to hear her singing. Trumbull owes more than one year of rental of his premise to Mr. John F. Black (Basil Rathbone) and he has no client. So he decides to improve his business killing Mr. Phipps (Buddy Mason) to get a new client. However his wife Mrs. Phipps (Beverly Hills) flees to Europe with all her possessions and does not pay for the funeral service. When Mr. Black duns his debts, Trumbull decides to kill him to make some money and resolve his financial problem. But Mr. Black is epileptic and his family wants to keep his body in a crypt instead of burying him in a grave. During the night, the Cemetery Keeper (Joe E. Brown) hears a cry and releases Mr. Black from the coffin in the beginning of a tragic night. ... "Comedy of Terrors" is a very funny comedy of black humor. The veterans Vincent Price, Peter Lorre, Boris Karloff and Basil Rathbone have incredibly comic performances. The movie begins hilarious before the credits and I laughed and repeated many scenes so funny they are. It is impossible to list the best scenes since there are many of them. My vote is seven. Title (Brazil): "Farsa Trágica" ("Tragic Farse")

This film really shouldn't be taken seriously. It's a spoof of itself, through and through, and it looks like the cast had a good time with it. My three favorites are here: Vincent Price plays the unscrupulous mortician, whose impatience brings his floundering business some new customers. Peter Lorre is his unwilling partner and Boris Karloff is the bumbling father in law. Pretty Joyce Jameson is here too, with a singing voice that could shatter nerve endings but which nonetheless weaves a siren spell over lovesick Lorre. Basil Rathbone is here too, playing his part of The Rich Jerk with an unrivaled prissy elegance. Vincent Price has never played a better slimy villain; his performance is truly hysterical. This is a very satisfying film; it's funny, it's spooky when it needs to be and it has a great happy ending where everyone who deserves comeuppance gets it and everyone else goes away happily ever after. I actually prefer this film to "The Raven" and would only name "The Masque of the Red Death" as my absolute favorite out of all the Corman/Price vehicles.