As Good As It Gets

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

Kay Kyser, orchestra leader and radio star (and eternal college fraternity jokester), was sort of the precursor to Spike Jones; a born ham, he was a show-off goof for his guests, backed up willingly by his merry troupe of musicians. In this theatrical advertisement for his brand of comedy and music, Kyser is hired to play a birthday party in a gloomy mansion, the kind where poison darts imported from Africa are framed and hung on the wall. The shindig guest-list includes a creepy judge, a scary professor, an ominous swami, lots of giggly females and enough bad jokes to fill three Bob Hope pictures. The songs (by Jimmy McHugh and Johnny Mercer!) are nothing to brag out, and neither is over-confident Kyser, yukking it up as usual with elbow-nudging material that turns 1940 back 10 good years. * from ****

Karloff and Lugosi are back together again, and this time, they aren't on opposite sides, but along with Peter Lorre, plotting the hopefully perfect crime. There's no vampire chaser or torch-carrying townspeople after them, just a wacky bandleader (Kay Kyser) and his assorted group of nutty band members. Helen Parrish is the heir to her aunt Alma Kruger's estate, but Aunt Alma is into the occult, under the spell of evil swami Lugosi and devoted to her attorney Karloff. Peter Lorre arrives at a party to celebrate Parrish's birthday as an investigator of fraudulent occult leaders where Parrish is in danger from someone trying to murder her.The corny Kay Kyser had a hit radio show in the late 1930's and 1940's. He made one film a year at RKO from 1939 to 1943, and here, he gets to spoof the old dark house genre. The three villains are all appropriately creepy, and Kruger, usually cast as a stern dowager, is closer to the type of roles Billie Burke was playing. Dennis O'Keefe, who appeared in another similar film the same year ("Topper Returns"), is again the handsome hero protecting the endangered heroine. A cute little pup with a glow-in-the-dark waggedy tale also gets to steal a few scenes and even ends up a hero.Musically, there are some good things here, with pretty Ginny Simms singing the Oscar Nominated "I'd Know You Anywhere". Two comical numbers are presented with some truly corny visual and verbal gags, including "Like the Fella Once Said" and the totally silly "The Bad Humor Man", giving mop-topped Ish Kabibble (the name says it all) his opportunity to take silliness to a new level of eye-rolling groans. When the film focuses on the supernatural elements of the script, it gives out a few goose-bumps, especially Lugosi's sound-altered voice coming from an instrument attached to his windpipe. That instrument, used for a musical finale, may not have altered the shape of American music, but it does provide both chills and amusement here. Corny humor may not have aged gracefully as we got more cynical, but in small doses, it can be amusing.

Classic horror film fans will salivate at the thought of seeing Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff, and Peter Lorre all at their devilish best in any film even if it's not a horror film per se. But the star of this film was noted band-leader and radio personality Kay Kyser who back in 1940 was enormously popular for his music and his Spike Jones lite type of orchestra comedy.You'll Find Out features Kay and the boys hired to play at a party that their manager Dennis O'Keefe has arranged for his girlfriend Helen Parrish. She's an heiress whose money is held in trust by her aunt Alma Kruger. But Kruger is in the thrall of fake swami Bela Lugosi who's got a séance also planned for the evening. Also in attendance in addition to Parrish's girlfriends are Boris Karloff as the family attorney and Peter Lorre as a psychologist hired to expose Lugosi as a fake.If you liked as I do Abbott&Costello Meet Frankenstein than you should like this film as well. In fact Bud and Lou also did Hold That Ghost which is even more similar to this film. But it's a double treat if you like the music of the era as I did.Kay Kyser's orchestra also featured singers Harry Babbitt and Ginny Simms who introduce I'd Know You Anywhere which gained for You'll Find Out an Oscar nomination. Kyser himself was good as both comedian and musician.Even though it's a comedy and not a Gothic horror film one should never pass up seeing Karloff, Lugosi, and Lorre in the same film.

IMDb lists this film as a Comedy / Horror / Musical / Mystery. While it does have elements of all four genres, none are portrayed very well. The comedy is weak. The horror is almost non-existent. While there are musical numbers, none is very memorable. And the mystery could be solved by a first grader. Sounds pretty bad, huh? With all this having been said, I still enjoy this movie. Why? Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, and Peter Lorre make their only joint appearance in a film (that I'm aware of). Each provides a level of excitement and enjoyment to what would otherwise be a very forgettable movie. In the film, they are plotting together to scheme a rich heiress out of her fortune. It's up to Kay Kyser and his band to save the day. The plot involves psychics, poison darts, ghosts, trap doors, and hidden passageways. If you're a fan of Lugosi, Karloff, and Lorre, You'll Find Out can be fun.