Bela Lugosi gives another in his long, long, long (long, long) line of red herring performances – he’s a caretaker at a dark old house where a bunch of people have gathered for, you guessed it, a will reading. Attempts at Cat and the Canary style laughs are somewhat thwarted by having Broderick Crawford (!!) play a comic lead. He's not very funny; neither is Hugh Herbert as Crawford's constantly drunk sidekick.
There’s stylish Universal photography -courtesy of Stanley Cortez - and a starry cast: in addition to Lugosi and Crawford there’s also Gale Sondegaard, Basil Rathbone, Gladys Cooper and a very young Alan Ladd, all wasted in this film (except for Cooper who gets some good scenes). Far too much time is spent on Crawford and Herbert.
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