CommentsXp Best movie ever!

Breakinger A Brilliant Conflict

Mabel Munoz Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

Kamila Bell This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

ksf-2 Jack Haley... a couple years AFTER Wizard of Oz. Quite a step down from that. Here, he's Al Tuttle, insurance guy, who thinks he's going to sell insurance to a (dead) rich guy, but gets caught up in the family squabbles. The deceased has put a lot of wacky conditions in his will, which will undoubtedly pit the family members against each other. The always scary Bela Lugosi is "Merkil", the butler. Tuttle arrives, and rather than just leave, sticks around for some reason.... presumably because he likes "Carol" (Jean Parker). This one is just okay. We're halfway through, and so far, there is no mystery to be solved... it's just a bunch of people staying in a house. The script needed a patch-job. It's trying SO hard to be a murder noir, or a comedy, according to imdb, but it's not really either, and we're already 30 minutes in. Finally, someone has stolen or moved the dead body, and everyone wants to know who did it. Although with the crazy conditions of the will, no-one really knows who would benefit if the conditions aren't met. I guess that's part of the story... the people who THINK they will benefit may be doing things that are NOT in their own best interest. And so much screaming. Was she paid by the scream?? Directed by Frank McDonald, who made TONS of films in the 1930s, 1940s, 1950s. Nothing too special. Moved into TV series later in the sixties... Get Smart, Flipper. Meh. This one shows on Epix channel. I wonder if Neil Simon had seen this... so many references to this film in "Murder by Death".. a MUCH better, funnier film.

bkoganbing One Body Too Many is a production from Pine-Thomas Paramount B picture unit and after seeing it I'm convinced it was a script and story that was meant for Bob Hope. But old ski nose either rejected this one or was out entertaining the troops during the second World War. So Paramount gave the project to its B unit and got Jack Haley to play the lead.Pine-Thomas assembled a nice cast in a project that was unusual for them, normally they did economical action/adventure stories. This is a comedy involving a late millionaire who was a firm believer in astrology, so much so that he requested to be buried in a glass covered mausoleum like Lenin at the Kremlin so that he would be always under the stars at night. After that the living relatives of whom he didn't have too good an opinion of would split up the estate. Until then they had to live at his house until the burial was done.Poor Haley plays the Bob Hope like schnook who is an insurance salesman and keeps an appointment that he made with the old guy before he passed away. Haley arrives just in time for the reading of the will and the lawyer for the estate thinks he's a bodyguard he hired. Never mind Jack takes the job and the fun starts. If you think a couple of murders that follow is fun.Also in the cast are Bela Lugosi and Blanche Yurka who are the butler and maid. I wish the film had a lot more of them. They look and act so sinister with some lovely eye twinkles. Lugosi had a nice gift for comedy that was too rarely seen on film.The lovely cast of relatives of whom one is a murderer include Lyle Talbot, Jean Parker, Maxine Fife, Lucien Littlefield, Douglas Fowley and Dorothy Granger. Now who do you think is our killer in the cast?One Body Too Many has some funny moments, but a lot of it is a rehash of material from better films. So do you think Hope was busy with the USO or did he pass on this one?

mark.waltz It's the usual reading of the will old dark house movie, done during the silent era ("The Cat and the Canary"), the golden age of movie horror ("The Old Dark House"), and remade many times. (In fact, both titles were remakes). The story is always the same---an elderly person either is dying, or has died, and the greedy relatives await the reading of the will. Some die, some are red herrings, and always, the killer is never a surprise. Of course, with the 1927 "Cat and the Canary" and 1932's "The Old Dark House", the atmosphere was so chilling that the repetition of the plot didn't matter. Here, for this Pine-Thomas quickie, Jack Haley is the insurance salesman sent for by the deceased to sell him insurance, and he arrives to find out it is too late. But the usual assortment of relatives are present, including one who is genuinely good (heroine Jean Parker). With Bela Lugosi and Blanche Yurke as the spooky servants, coffee is always ready to be served, and the question is, is it laced with rat poison? That's a standing joke that unfortunately doesn't come off as very funny. Poor Blanche Yurka, excellent as Madame De Farge in "A Tale of Two Cities", and equally as nefarious as any of Lugosi's villains in "Lady For a Night", doesn't get anything resembling an acting scene. Her fabulous voice is ill-used. It's a role we've seen hundreds of times-Gale Sondergaard in 1939's "Cat and the Canary", Judith Anderson in "Rebecca", Margaret Hamilton in "The Invisible Ghost", Rafaela Ottiano in "Topper Returns", and years later, Elizabeth Lawrence as Palmer Cortlandt's spooky housekeeper on "All My Children", and Beaulah Garrick as Quentin Chamberlain's equally spooky HK on "Guiding Light". But Ms. Yurka is the most ill-used of them all, a crime considering her tremendous stage career.Lugosi plays another red-herring butler, which he did opposite the Ritz Brothers in "The Gorilla", but at least he gets more screen time than poor Ms. Yurka. The assorted relatives aren't really worth mentioning by actor's name as they run the typical assorted of greedy heirs drooling at the thought of the others demise and their inclusion as the main heir. A lawyer and "scientist of the stars" are also present, but they too, aren't very memorable. The long scene of Haley alone in the room where the coffin is makes one long for Lugosi's coffee (even if it is laced with rat poison), and an extended gag of a towel cladding Haley hiding once that towel is snagged off by a bolted door is rather unfunny. Haley underwater in the glass covered coffin, viewing the fish in the dead man's pond, is only slightly amusing. There are no real laughs to be found, but with that cast, it's at least a curiosity. Just don't expect any nice moments like Eva Moore in "The Old Dark House" telling the young women how their skin will someday rot, all the while reminding her brother, "No beds! They can't have beds!"

Hitchcoc You know, this had some potential. There were some great character actors, including Bela Lugosi and Jack Haley (the Tin Man). He mugs for the camera and plays the star struck cowardly insurance salesman. The sad thing is that they set up all these relatively interesting characters and then didn't know what to do with them. The pacing is terrible. There are actually pauses in the film where nothing at all happens. I don't mean action; I mean nothing at all. At times there is a fade to black and we hear sounds and voices, and then nothing. A few close-ups would have helped. Sometimes in the drear of the black and white, it takes a few seconds to realize who is in the scene, especially during the frantic running around that takes place the second half.There is also the silliness of the conditions of the will which is to give the opposite share to everyone if the deceased were buried in the ground. Since we don't know what the specifics of the will are, it makes it hard to figure out who the potential murderer is. I agree with a previous reviewer. When Bela Lugosi is on the screen, I can't take my eyes off him. The business with the rat poison and the coffee is quite funny. He is so put off when people refuse to have a cup of coffee. His best line, "There are too many rats in this house."I love these old movies and relish the atmosphere. Maybe a better print or better sound would have helped, but this got pretty stale so I couldn't recommend it.