What happens when you take Jacques Tourneur, legendary director of Cat People and Out of the Past, Vincent Price, Peter Lorre, Boris Karloff, and Basil Rathbone, put them in a blender, and hit puree? You get the delightful 1964 film The Comedy of Terrors. A film that mixes horror and comedy together with wild abandon, The Comedy of Terrors feels like a screwball comedy à la Howard Hawks or Frank Capra straight from Transylvania. It centers on Price and Lorre who run an undertaking business in late 19th century New England. The motley duo concoct a brilliant solution to a recent drought of deaths: create their own business by killing wealthy locals. Of course, this is easier said than done. They try and kill Mr. Black, their landlord. However, they are unaware that he suffers from chronic bouts of "death-like sleep." So, much to their dismay, they have a "corpse" who has the bad manners of routinely waking up during his funeral and burial. This film is a blessing for horror fans. Rarely has such an all-star cast of horror icons been assembled on screen. Seeing these stars play off each other is a delightful treat.
8/10
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