One Body Too Many (1944)

Fairly standard 1940s comedy/horror/mystery/thriller, 9 October 2007

One Body Too Many is a fairly enjoyable The Cat and the Canary style film. It's not great, but it's certainly not the worst piece of trash to come down the pike. As I alluded, those familiar with The Cat and the Canary aren't going to find the plot groundbreaking with its originality – an old dark house with secret passages, greedy family members gathered for the reading of the will of an eccentric and rich patriarch, the will includes all sorts of unusual stipulations, and at least one person in the party proves to be a killer and begins bumping off other family members. It's nothing new. This basic plot structure was fairly common in the 40s and One Body Too Many is a typical example.

As I've learned to expect from a comedy/horror/mystery/thriller from the 40s, some of the movie will work and some won't. Going in, I always hope that what works is more than what doesn't work. One of the things that worked well for me in One Body Too Many was Bela Lugosi. Playing what is essentially the supporting role of butler, Lugosi steals scene after scene. The running gag involving Lugosi and the coffee is very nearly laugh-out-loud funny. Jack Haley (who generally gets on my nerves) also has his moments that really work. He has at least one scene where he ends up naked in a clothes hamper that I found hysterical. But even with these great moments, overall the good and the bad in One Body Too Many pretty much balanced out, resulting in what I'll call an average way to spend 75 minutes.

5/10