One Body Too Many might best be described as a horror comedy. I wasn’t expecting that so as the movie began showing its lighter side I settled in for an hour of groans and boredom. I ended up enjoying the production a great deal.

Tuttle, an insurance agent, travels to a house to sell an insurance policy to a man who turns out to have died a little too soon. This eccentric man had wanted his family to spend a few days together in his mansion. He didn’t like most of them, and they don’t like each other (which is probably why he wanted to force them to endure each other for a while). Tuttle arrives to find a house full of people who mistake him for a detective not realizing that the real officer is actually missing. Tuttle is a timid man, but the pretty young girl in the family needs his help so he sticks around and becomes something of a bumbling gumshoe after all.

There’s a decent, though not great, murder mystery here with some dark intrigue setting the foundation of the mood. That is offset by comedy that is sometimes ironic and sometimes silly. There are a few jokes that don’t work too well, but I laughed a lot throughout the majority of the movie once I had settled into the idea that this was going to be something humorous – intentionally humorous, that is.

Jack Haley plays the lead role. He comes across as likable, but more than that he’s someone that an average kind of person could relate to. If you were nearly killed after being mistaken for someone you weren’t how would you respond? You’d probably want out of there! But what if someone, a stranger, needed your help? I know I’d be torn between self-preservation and the desire to help much like Tuttle is. Relating to the character helps draw the viewer into the story.

The big draw for many people including me would be the name of Bela Lugosi. Don’t let the advertising fool you; he is not the star. In fact, his role is pretty small, not cameo small, but minor just the same. What’s fun about him is that this is the only time I’ve seen him do comedy. The novelty of that alone ought to make this a movie worth seeing for Lugosi fans. He plays a butler who shows up every so often offering coffee that may or may not be laced with rat poison. It becomes a running gag that I found amusing especially in light of the payoff at the end.

Most of the other acting is good also although nobody stands out as much as Haley. That helps the selling of the story.

What's ironic about this comedy is that it has a better dark atmosphere than many full-on horror movies. That is, of course, balanced with the humor, and the compliment of the two makes them both stronger. Far too many movies like this fail to find a really good mix of the sinister and comedic elements.

It's one downfall is that it gets long. Some scenes feel rehashed and unnecessary. It had me laughing enough to overlook most of that, though.



CONTENT: Considering this is a movie largely about murder it is an exceptionally clean film. I don’t recall hearing any bad language at all. The murder is off-screen and only denoted by reference. I don’t think we even see the corpses at any point. There are some spooky moments including someone being “buried” alive underwater. There is some mild sexual innuendo when a guy is found naked in a girl’s bedroom and everyone gets the wrong idea. The guy is well covered from the waist down, though, and the innuendo is nothing like the sexually charged dialogue you'd get from most modern movies. See? You don't have to be vulgar to be funny! If your kids aren’t easily spooked I’d say this movie is fine for them.


DVD:
Like many of these really old movies I’d be willing to bet you could get it for $1 somewhere or packaged with another movie or two. I got mine in a pack of 50 "Horror Classics" and figure that is one of the best deals you could get on it although I think it's worthy of a commentary or something extra.

In other ways the movie is unimpressive. What do you want? It’s old. They made this a week after sound was invented I think. I’m kidding about that, but it is an old movie so you’re going to get dated video quality, a black and white image, and genuine mono sound.


FINAL THOUGHTS:
If you like old movies and enjoy spooks and laughter rolled together in the vein of Ghostbusters I would suggest checking out One Body Too Many. The rating depends on how you look at it. The low production quality keeps the movie from stacking up against more modern ones in that sense, but there's a reason these old movies still have an audience which is a style that contemporary works rarely capture. It teeters somewhere between 3 and 4*, but since this is so much better than most horror comedies I've seen I'll round up.

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Good for Groups
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 9 - 12