The Comedy of Terrors (1963)
Definitely one of director Jacques Tourneur's lesser efforts, this tale of undertakers Vincent Price and a wonderful Peter Lorre, in one of his last screen roles, murdering potential customers to ensure the family business (run by Boris Karloff) thrives, ends up quite weak following a promising start.
The legendary Basil Rathbone completes a real fearsome foursome of horror stars who try hard with a regrettably dull and uneven script. The film looks tremendous though, with a stunning burial sequence at the beginning one of the highlights.
The script from Richard Matheson lacks horror and sadly also lacks much in the way of laughs, one or two lines of dialogue aside. Co-stars Joe E Brown and the buxom but irritating Joyce Jameson are outshone by Rhubarb the cat.
Despite me sounding over critical, the film comes across as an interesting failure that ends up worth watching thanks to it's star power alone.
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