When insurance agent Albert Tuttle (Jack Haley, THE WIZARD OF OZ’s Tin Man) secures a meeting with rich recluse Cyrus Rutherford, he thinks he’s pulled off quite the feat. Until he arrives at the mansion and finds Rutherford is dead and everyone in the house is subject to the terms of Cyrus’s will. Cyrus Rutherford, an amateur stargazer, wants to be enclosed in a glass-topped vault so the stars can shine down on him for the rest of eternity. His family and friends, most of whom he never liked anyway, must remain in the mansion until the enclosure can be built and Rutherford properly interred. And if anyone leaves, or if Rutherford is buried anywhere but in his special enclosure, the terms will be reversed: whoever got the lion’s share of his estate will get the least, and vice versa. Since no one knows who got what, they must abide by the terms until the proper reading a few days hence. But for Albert Tuttle, it’s just a matter of wrong time, wrong place.

When he discovers Rutherford is dead, he tries to leave--after all, it’s none of his business--but Cyrus’s niece Carol (Jean Parker) convinces him to stay. She fears for her safety, positive someone in the house is trying to scare everyone away or do something with Rutherford’s body in order to reverse the will. Tuttle, smitten, decides to help her reveal the culprit.

This movie confused me. It’s included in my 50 HORROR CLASSICS set, but I laughed more throughout this movie than I have in any 5 comedies released this past year. There’s nothing “horror” about it and I suspect it’s labeled such only because Bela Lugosi appears as Rutherford’s butler Murkil. Jack Haley gives an awesome performance and is obviously having fun with his role, standing out amongst a crowd of a dozen other characters. He plays the reluctant hero who may just be too “simple” for his own good, but in the end, when push comes to shove, Tuttle comes through and realizes his own potential.

Released in 1944 with a running time of 75 minutes, ONE BODY TOO MANY has something I haven’t experienced very much of from other movies of the same era: a story I can follow. Unlike previous Lugosi installments THE BLACK DRAGONS and THE INVISIBLE GHOST, ONE BODY TOO MANY makes perfect sense. It’s silly and overplayed at times, but it works. The actors all give fine performances, the set looks complete and not staged at all, and the story never seems to lag. If I had to find a con here it would be the quality.

ONE BODY TOO MANY is hard to see. The lightning is bad, the film quality seems substandard and full of cracks and breaks, and the editing is choppy in a few places. I didn’t get the impression the filmmakers were using shadow to effect, it was just a dimly-lit movie. In a few scenes, it was almost impossible to tell what was going on at all.

Fortunately, given the amount of enjoyment I got from the story and the performances, I can overlook a few pops and shadows. Concerning the plot, I don’t know what qualifies Albert Tuttle to sit with the body of Cyrus Rutherford all night to make sure no one disturbs him, nor do I totally get why someone as shaky and unsure as Tuttle would agree to the job just because a woman he only met a few minutes earlier asked him to, but Tuttle definitely shows growth during the course of the story so in the end this plot hole might not be such a hole after all.

It was a shame to see Lugosi relegated to butler—with maybe half a dozen lines in the entire movie—but considering how unimpressed I’ve been with his other performances, maybe that’s as it should be. Still, it’s a bit sad to see, as if he was hired so people would see the movie based on his name, but all the good parts were already taken so he was shoved in a closet and brought out every 20 minutes or so. But really, all that is neither here nor there, I enjoyed ONE BODY TOO MANY neither because of nor in spite of Lugosi. Jack Haley was the star here and he earned it.

ONE BODY TOO MANY isn’t a horror movie, it might not even be a classic (just because it’s 63 years old, I don’t think that counts for movies), but I enjoyed it and will almost definitely see it again from time to time, and that’s more than I care to say for either BLACK DRAGONS or THE IINVISIBLE GHOST.


other Horror Classics
Carnival of Souls: http://www.epinions.com/content_403446140548
Atom Age Vampire: http://www.epinions.com/content_403512856196
Creature from the Haunted Sea: http://www.epinions.com/content_403596349060
Nightmare Castle: http://www.epinions.com/content_404037799556
Black Dragons: http://www.epinions.com/content_404796575364
The Invisible Ghost: http://www.epinions.com/content_405221379716


Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Good for Groups
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older