Am I Missing Something?

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

Wow! What a bizarre film! Unfortunately the few funny moments there were were quite overshadowed by it's completely weird and random vibe throughout.

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Corny low budget horror film about a rich old woman who staves off her relatives seeing inheritance by using her creepy insane brother to act as the butler, who then frightens (and possibly murders) them off. The brother is played by Craig Stevens, who's later play the ultra cool Peter Gunn, but here he's looking very much like Riff Raff from "The Rocky Horror Picture Show." Overall, it's a dumb mystery that's not at all scary. The film is very stagey (there was basically one set) and is overly talky. At times, this film felt like an SCTV parody of this type of bad 1940s horror picture. No real reason to watch this one outside of camp value.

Gathering her relatives together at her house, a woman's intent on celebrating her wealth with them is interrupted by a series of murders forcing them to find the killer before he strikes them again.This here was a rather decent enough murder/mystery rather than a true horror effort. This is mostly undone by the fact that there's the opening escape that showcases the killer from the beginning which really tends to lower that factory considerably as this one features such an illogically-staged sequence putting him in full-view for the entire scene doesn't make the fear of him all that common here which is pretty much the whole purpose here. That could've easily been done by framing the escape without showing him in order to keep the mystery going, but rather the fact that the rest of the movie takes place with him out in the open along with the rest of the family is where this one does tend to show itself off in that regard as a fine comedic horror effort as there's some really decent slapstick scenes here of the murder attempts on her life that really are quite enjoyable. The falling flower pot and the poisoning do make for quite silly scenes but are played off as genuine enough to prolong the mystery well enough for them to be considered goofy, silly fun long enough to hold this up nicely enough in carrying the first half here. The second half plays like a true old- school haunted house mystery with the secret passages, disappearing rooms and investigations into the events here that makes for quite a fun time here and really makes for quite a fun time in generating some genuine laughs and enough twists in the final moments to make it memorable though still somewhat troubled.Rated Unrated/PG: Violence.

I think that in the past six months alone, I have watched at least 6 films and reviewed them that had the often told plot line of a family gathering where an aging relative expresses their displeasure over their family's greed and ends up being murdered for their honesty. In this film's storyline, there's a bit of an "Arsenic and Old Lace" twist with the presence of a crazy uncle (Milton Parsons) posing as the butler, never seen by his greedy nephews and their money-grubbing wives. Matriarch Cecil Cunningham (in one of her hammiest performances) plots to have herself put into a death-like trance to test them after she announces that her devoted secretary (Elizabeth Fraser) will inherit the majority of her estate. But a greedy doctor is ultimately tested and Cunningham is indeed buried alive inside the family crypt. Twists and turns in this plot line make it a fun programmer with a short running time and amusing dialog. Comical black actor Willie Best provides some of the film's funniest moments as a devoted servant, while psychotic Parsons' eyes alone also deliver both chills and chuckles. This may not be no "Old Dark House" in the realm of Hollywood classics, but for a plot that has been repeated probably 50-100 times, what results is a far cry better than most in this genre.

A really first-class mystery thriller! Although the plot seems to be fairly straightforward and even familiar, the screenwriters manage some really thrilling and clever variations and even a few surprises. Despite the large cast of characters, they are all essential to the telling and working out of a really first-class plot that is built upon what seems at first to be an engaging but familiar idea, but actually has a few very novel and unexpected twists. The lead character provides Cecil Cunningham with one of her best roles in the cinema. Gale Sondergaard played this role on the stage Although billed way down in the cast list, Cecil Cunningham is actually the female lead. She had already played the role as the star as the 1934 stage presentation. However, the male lead in the movie is an even greater surprise, and even further down the official cast list, namely Milton Parsons, who here enjoys by far the meatiest and the largest role of his entire Hollywood career of more than 170 movies and TV shows. Willie Best is billed fourth and normally I would object to this stereotype, but West's timing is so perfect and he is so genuinely funny that he overcomes all my objections. The three top-billed stars, Stevens, Fraser and Bishop actually have only minor roles. Humphrey Bogart played an Horatio Chaning on the stage – but not here, alas!. The movie moves fast and is most capably directed by Ben Stoloff. Production values are first class., including noirishly glossy photography by Henry Sharp and ingenious sets by Stanley Fleischer. The movie is particularly well paced. Not a single minute is wasted. In fact the only thing that shouts "B" about the movie is its short running time of only 63 minutes. But they are 63 thrillingly heady, edge-of-the-seat minutes. Available on an excellent Warner Archive DVD.