Hammer made its reputation with fresh versions of stories done by Universal – Frankenstein, Dracula, the Wolf Man, the Mummy, the Phantom of the Opera. So here’s their take on the JP Priestley novel which was filmed by James Whale in 1932 – it’s considerably different from that movie, not to the good. The director of this one was William Castle, who plays it all for laughs.
The plot has been changed so it’s about a dopey American car salesman (Tom Postyn, who you might recognise as Newhart’s dumb friend on Newhart), delivering a car to an associate (Peter Bull) in a mansion. He turns up and Bull is dead, but his weird family is there. Then the film turns into a version of The Cat and the Canary, i.e. people must stay alive in order to inherit money.
The plot has been changed so it’s about a dopey American car salesman (Tom Postyn, who you might recognise as Newhart’s dumb friend on Newhart), delivering a car to an associate (Peter Bull) in a mansion. He turns up and Bull is dead, but his weird family is there. Then the film turns into a version of The Cat and the Canary, i.e. people must stay alive in order to inherit money.
This is an odd movie – not really scary, or funny, though I think it’s meant to be both. Kids might like it (eg the Noah’s arc sequence where Postyn stumbles upon a bunch of animals); it will also help I you’re a fan of Postyn, who takes up most of the running time mugging and reacting bug-eyed. Personally I found him irritating, and wished bigger parts were played by the more talented support, including Peter Bull, Robert Morley and Jeanette Scott. Some perks: enjoyable photography and design, interesting death with a woman impaled with kitting needles (it needed more people to die – or a greater threat), the drawings for the credits are done by Charles Addams. Not a success at the box office, partly because censorship meant it couldn’t be seen by young kids.
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