The Comedy of Terrors
00:31:15
About
Settle in your best (and only) coffin, grab a drink or twelve and join us for “The Comedy of Terrors”. In film in which we hear possibly the only use of the phrase “Toss Pot” outside of the UK; Orangey displays why he was considered one of the finest cactors of his generation; and Osgood Fielding III gives the best scream this side of a Tom and Jerry cartoon. Sadly, this is the last time that Vincent Price and Peter Lorre demonstrated their magnificent comedy double act as part of this amazing ensemble with Joyce Jameson, Boris Karloff and Basil Rathbone, all of whom totally embrace the grotesque insanity of their characters and the tale itself. “The Comedy of Terrors” is a real refinement of the dark vein of humour the various cast members had begun exploring with Roger Corman in the Poe adaptations “Tales of Terror” and “The Raven”, but this time, it’s the legendary Jacques Tourneur behind the camera, with an original script from the pen of the great Richard Matheson, both of whom mould this original gem of Gothic Black Comedy. Sadly, “The Comedy of Terrors” failed to perform at the box office, and with Lorre’s death only a few months after release, it closed a chapter on what could have been a far more interesting direction for producers AIP. Watch (or re-watch) to avoid spoilers and join us.
Will you KINDLY have the goodness to die?
Famous lines
- "Why did I ever escape from prison? It was so peaceful there !" — FELIX GILLIE
- "What place is THIS?" — John F. Black, Esq.
- "Oh yes, Mr. Black, quite dead. Everybody knows it... except apparently you." — Waldo Trumbull
- "Get up, you're sitting on my money!" — Waldo Trumbull
Quotes verified against Wikiquote.
Adam's research
Verbatim lifts from Adam's own words in the episode. Click a timestamp to hear him say it.
- Film's place in Poe cycle and cast continuity
I mean that's that's the thing as well is I think we've I'm kind of glad we've watched it in the right order because this is obviously kind of like a you've had the kind of the same you've had most of the same cast in either Tales of Terror. … Or The Raven. And and like The Raven comes out the same year as this, it's earlier, but it's so we've we've watched them in the right order. And it's a real shame because like the Tales of Terrors the last of that sort of series. Because just as it starts to sort of get to the best of itself. Because you got because Tales, Tales of Terror is a straightforward horror film. But it has humorous elements in it and the bits with Peter Lorre and Vincent Price are really fucking humorous. And and Joyce Jameson, sorry, yes, yes, and because obviously she's in there as well and yeah and it's the same thing of a love triangle basically between the three of them. And but also you get Basil Rathbone in Tales of Terror as well. And then obviously there's The Raven where you bring Karloff in and you've got Price and Lorre again. And yeah, this is like this feels like, right, we've refined it now. We get Richard Matheson to write an original. We don't, you know, it's not a Poe adaption.
- Director, box office, Peter Lorre's death, and stunt trivia
And um uh and Jacques Tournier directed, which is which is weird. That again, there's someone who I mean, his two most sort of celebrated films are Cat People, the original Cat People. And um Night of the Demon. And really that certainly Night of the Demon is a film that we should do at some point. Because it's basically M R. James casting of the Rooms, but done, yeah. … We've done no, we've done Night of the Demons with um the eighties horror. … No, but. Oh, we've done Night of the Eagle, which is kind of similar. And maybe that's what you're thinking of, yeah. Um, but yeah, so we're not done Curse of the Demon. But yeah, and you get and we just get to this point and then. Apparently, it didn't do well, didn't do too well at the box office and then Peter Lorre died two months after it came out. I. I I would argue the opposite if I'm honest. I think with that fact in mind, he does look a bit. Sort of I mean, it doesn't it's not being disrespectful, but it's like. … Yeah. … Apparently a lot of a lot of stunt a lot of the stunt work when Peter Lorre is like jumping off roofs and stuff like that. It's a guy wearing a the stunt man's wearing a mask of Peter Lorre.
- Hearse prop at Disney Haunted Mansion
It's all studio based, so it's like, yeah, they have that real control and everything looks incredible. Apparently the hearse, you know the coach drawn horse drawn fucking coach drawn horse. Jesus. The horse drawn coach, um that's apparently outside the Disney Haunted Mansion nowadays. I'm not sure if that's still the case cuz this is, you know, dusty old facts on the internet that may have never been updated for lies. For 20 odd years, so who knows.
- Unproduced sequel 'Sweethearts and Horrors' and AI film recreation
But apparently there was Richard Matheson did write a sequel. And it's I've now found that it's apparently it's published in some of like Richard Matheson collections, there's like stuff that's collected writings and things like that. And the script is in there, but what's it called? It was Sweethearts and Horrors. And it was so it would have had the cast returning, you would have had Price as a ventriloquist. So I'm assuming this is all like theatrical thing or whatever. But you'd have had Price as a ventriloquist, Lorre, a magician, Karloff, a children's TV presenter and Basil Rathbone, a musical comedy star. And they were going to get Tallulah Bankhead in as well to play a part in it. And um but it didn't obviously that didn't happen because this didn't perform very well and then Peter Lorre died as well. Uh. But um. Yeah, I now have to go. I'm going to have to find that. … Yeah. Cuz I think. … Well then, then I can piss off. … I know and this is obviously on a very, very severe budget. I know that there is a guy who's a Doctor Who fan who's extremely wealthy. Who has made AI versions of missing episodes using using what what he has so far of like he has price wise so far, as well as technology. And apparently. They are real dog shit. We might be some way away before we get London After Midnight as it was. Or or as near as damn it. The thing is London After Midnight now is such an old film. That it's like. Well, actually potentially. You know, this could come out, no one knows whether it was right. Cuz no one alive was seeing it, you know, so. Um, but no, definitely I've got to track down the script on this. Cuz that script. Because. Yeah. Yeah. I think it. Oh, yeah, just just to live in that hope that you that they'd have they'd have continued the the style of this.
- Casting changes for Boris Karloff and Basil Rathbone
Cuz but funny enough because that was originally originally when they were doing when they were casting this. They were going to get Boris Karloff was going to play the Basil Rathbone role. So he was going to play Mr. Black. But they realized that by that point, Boris Karloff's like arthritis. Was just too, you know, it was just going to take too physically heavier toll on him to be. Well. Chasing two fuckers around with a bloody sword and screaming, you know, screaming the last the last part of fucking Macbeth. So, um yeah. So they decided so he got the, so he was then given the. Uh old boy role, like the father role. And um they got Basil Rathbone in for Black. And it's like. Oh, that's a much better movie. Because Basil Rathbone's just got he has got that sort of bulldozer intensity in this where it's like. You know, it would be laughable, someone running around in their pajamas shouting Shakespeare on you. But he's just like he's such a fucking force. Yeah. That you're like. No, that would be abjectly terrifying. You've broken into his house, but, you know, you think you've got him on the back foot and it's like, oh, no, he is fucking mad and this is, you know, this is.
- Peter Lorre's filmography and typical roles
Oh, no, and and like we've said, Price and Lorre. I mean, the weird thing is, is I realized that this is the third film we've watched with Peter Lorre. But it's always been part of this what I'm going to loosely call a trilogy of, you know, the Price Lorre double act. Because you've got Tales of Terror, you've got The Raven and then this. Um. So I think at some point, much like we've said, we haven't done Curse of the Night of the Demon. Um, I think at some point we need to look at other Lorre films and just to see what a sinister bastard he can be. Cuz you're only seeing. And it's lovely to see him in this role, but it's in that same way that you're watching. Cuz actually I think of all of them, he is probably the most sort of usually playing the scarier characters. You know, Vincent Price it sort of can go either way and Karloff has his own menace. But it's a very gentle sort of menace, I think that's why he wouldn't necessarily have been great as Black. Like as Mr. Black in this. Um. Because he does do looming menace, but you know, is it the right. Kind of looming menace that you'll need for that. But yeah, Peter Lorre can be um fucking like despicable, you know, as. The key one I would say is there's M, literally the letter M. Which is. Yeah. No, M, M is. Well, we're we're definitely we're definitely stick M on the list just because Peter Lorre and that is that's. I mean that's a fucking masterpiece, but um. What's the oh, we were talking about it the other week. Mad love. Yes. That's I mean that's another Peter Lorre film that's fantastic. Um. He's also he's in a lot of film noir and stuff and he was with um what's his name. He like Humphrey Bogart, he's in The Maltese Falcon. And he's I mean The Maltese Falcon, it's not a horror film, but it's a fucking great film. And that's definitely worth checking out and he's um. Really good in it. He's in Casablanca. He's in. He plays a lot of basically, if he'd have been alive, he'd have played Toht in Raiders of the Lost Ark. But Ronald Lacey plays him instead. So, you know. He that would have been, but he's literally he's like channeling Peter Lorre in that, I think, you know, he really is.
- The cat actor 'Orangey' (Rhubarb) and his filmography
Orangey is his real name. And yes, what a fine character or actor. Orangey is. Cuz he cuz he's called Rhubarb here because that was the first film he did. He was one of 14 cats who played who played the title character in the 1951 film Rhubarb. Cat owns a baseball team or something. It's like. It's like the cat had an eccentric owner who leaves it all his estate and so the cat owns a baseball team. I think that's like the premise of that. Um, he was owned and trained by animal animal handler Frank Inn. And he's the only cat to have won two Paty Awards, that's the picture animal top star of the year, the animal Oscars. So. So. So often he was credited as Rhubarb because that was the the the film that made his name. Um. And uh. In other films, he's he was in 35, he's got 35 credits on IMDb. And uh he was he was Cat in Breakfast at Tiffany's. So quite a big role there. Butch in The Incredible Shrinking Man. Neutron in the Island of in this Island Earth. Um, giant cat in Village of the Giants. Ginger in Darby O'Gill and the Little People. And to prove that he could do, you know, he was as happy with drama with comedy. He was Moushey in The Diary of Anne Frank. Um, he was the Beverly Hillbilly's Cat Rusty for in 18 episodes. Um. He was the main character's cat in uh four episodes of something. Called Our Miss Brooks, which was basically throughout his career. And um. But he was also in The Twilight Zone, um The Night of the Meek. Outer Limits, Mission Impossible, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, I Dream of Jeannie, My Favorite Martian, The Fugitive, Mr. Ed Dick Van Dyke Show and he's in three episodes of the Adam West Batman. Two of which cat and also one of one of which he is. Um, I can't think of her name, who plays Morticia in The Addams Family. Um. Caroline. Oh. In the original one. Yeah. I can't. Sorry. But he's he's her cat in an episode of that as well. But um, yeah. And I just I think there we go. That's so. Orangey. You know. That's. Was I would have liked to have seen Orangey come back. They don't say what part Orangey would have played in the film that they didn't make, but you know. That might have been a.
- Original film title
Apparently, so apparently the first time. … Originally, this was called Gravestone Story instead of Westside Story. I think they were just like, oh, let's try and think. But Comedy of Errors works so much better. Because you've got Basil Rathbone doing bloody huge swaths of Macbeth. So you've got the Shakespeare connection, so it makes more sense.
- Biography of actress Beverly Powers (Beverly Hills)
I mean, I love that where it's just cuz um the actress who plays the widow is um. She's. Her name Beverly Powers, but she's credited here as Beverly Hills. Hm. She was a I uh I'll just write it down. I'll write it down. Yeah. She was a burlesque and striptease artist under the name Miss Beverly Hills, appeared in three Elvis movies. And then in 1986, she became an ordained minister and a year later moved to Hawaii, where she founded the Living Ministry in Maui. A non-denominational non-profit ministry that's still going. She also served as Chaplin at the Maui Memorial Hospital and Maui's Prison Ministry. Uh she's now retired after 25 years of service and released a memoir of her time in Hollywood passing the Baton of Light in 2014. Wow. So, but it's just it's just really weird. Because I mean all of her credits are like topless swimmer in Jaws, nightclub stripper in Breakfast at Tiffany's. And and so on and so forth. So yeah, and and like I say, she her her stage name. If you like was Beverly Hills. So. It's but. Again, I just love that where it's just she with all the thing.
- Richard Matheson's writing approach and Jacques Tourneur's view on film's reception
It's weird because you kind of to get to this, the weird thing is, is the bit you remove is. Well, the bit you remove is Corman and Poe. But particularly I think Poe, cuz what was the quote I saw, Richard Matheson was like. I got bored of writing about people being buried alive, so I thought I'd make a joke out of it. Which. Was his take on it. And like, and but I mean, where it didn't do very well. I think I've got the quote from Jacques Tourneur where he said. It was um, you know, it didn't it didn't do very well, but where is it? Uh. He felt the film's poor reception. Was because it was too sophisticated and satirical and cynical to appeal to the teens who expected the same kind of horror from the AIP Poe adaptations. So in a weird way, cuz it cuz when you watch the. When you watch the Poe cycle as it is, The Raven is brilliant, but it's the outlier. The rest of them are pretty they're straight. You know, and to varying degrees of success, but they are, you know, straight horror films basically. And it's only that sort of the Cask of Amontillado bit in Tales of Terror, which is the Vincent Price, Peter Lorre and Joyce Jameson bit. That becomes comedic and becomes, you know, brings out that sort of flair to it.
Highlights
Transcript
Show full transcript
Unknown Sounds
Lee Good evening and welcome to Horror. I'm Lee.
Chris I'm Chris.
Adam I'm Adam.
Unknown What place is this?
Lee We are here this evening to cover one of my absolute favorites of this era. 1963's The Comedy of Terrors.
Lee A film we've mentioned dozens of times and I was so convinced that we'd already covered it that I didn't suggest it until now.
Lee But Adam quite rightly said, we talk about this film a lot, we really should cover it, so.
Lee And now we have.
Lee Chris, what did you think of The Comedy of Terrors?
Chris Is there no morality left in this world?
Chris I got I got one bad thing to say. Yeah, how did we leave it like, what, 20 years before we watched this?
Lee Yeah.
Chris I'll I'll give you both black marks for that.
Lee Well, I'm glad that's a good downgrade to get. You're quite right to bring it up.
Chris You could, I reckon, if you just had.
Chris Vincent Price and Peter Lorre, not it is Lorre, isn't it? Yeah. And like just them doing this for the whole film.
Chris That would be a really good film.
Chris Add in the rest of the cast and it just, yeah, it is amazing.
Adam I mean that's that's the thing as well is I think we've I'm kind of glad we've watched it in the right order because this is obviously kind of like a you've had the kind of the same you've had most of the same cast in either Tales of Terror.
Chris Yeah.
Adam Or The Raven.
Adam And and like The Raven comes out the same year as this, it's earlier, but it's so we've we've watched them in the right order.
Adam And it's a real shame because like the Tales of Terrors the last of that sort of series.
Adam Because just as it starts to sort of get to the best of itself.
Adam Because you got because Tales, Tales of Terror is a straightforward horror film.
Adam But it has humorous elements in it and the bits with Peter Lorre and Vincent Price are really fucking humorous.
Chris Yeah.
Lee Joyce Jameson is married to it.
Adam And and Joyce Jameson, sorry, yes, yes, and because obviously she's in there as well and yeah and it's the same thing of a love triangle basically between the three of them.
Lee Yeah.
Adam And but also you get Basil Rathbone in Tales of Terror as well.
Adam And then obviously there's The Raven where you bring Karloff in and you've got Price and Lorre again.
Adam And yeah, this is like this feels like, right, we've refined it now.
Adam We get Richard Matheson to write an original.
Adam We don't, you know, it's not a Poe adaption.
Adam But it's the same.
Chris But it it does feel very, yeah, yeah, he has nailed it, definitely.
Adam Yeah.
Adam And and Jacques Tournier directed, which is which is weird.
Adam That again, there's someone who I mean, his two most sort of celebrated films are Cat People, the original Cat People.
Adam And Night of the Demon.
Adam And really that certainly Night of the Demon is a film that we should do at some point.
Adam Because it's basically M R. James casting of the Rooms, but done, yeah.
Chris Not to you up with Night of the Demons.
Lee We definitely we definitely must have covered Night of the Demon.
Lee We can't.
Adam We've done no, we've done Night of the Demons with the eighties horror.
Lee The Canadian one.
Lee You know, I'm sure we covered it, I remember.
Adam No, but.
Lee Oh.
Adam Oh, we've done Night of the Eagle, which is kind of similar.
Lee Yes.
Lee Yes.
Lee That might be what we.
Adam And maybe that's what you're thinking of, yeah.
Adam but yeah, so we're not done Curse of the Demon.
Adam But yeah, and you get and we just get to this point and then.
Adam Apparently, it didn't do well, didn't do too well at the box office and then Peter Lorre died two months after it came out.
Lee Oh, really?
Chris He looked, he looked.
Chris All right.
Adam I.
Lee Oh, really?
Adam I I would argue the opposite if I'm honest. I think with that fact in mind, he does look a bit.
Chris Oh, okay.
Adam Sort of I mean, it doesn't it's not being disrespectful, but it's like.
Chris But you could think he's playing it though because he works in undertakers.
Adam Yeah.
Chris Yeah. Oh, okay.
Lee He plays it so well.
Lee That's the thing.
Chris Yeah, I mean, he's fighting with with Vincent Price.
Lee I love the fact that you can see it's actually them doing so much of the stuff.
Adam Apparently a lot of a lot of stunt a lot of the stunt work when Peter Lorre is like jumping off roofs and stuff like that.
Adam It's a guy wearing a the stunt man's wearing a mask of Peter Lorre.
Chris Yeah.
Adam Which is so, yeah.
Chris That's one way to do it.
Adam But
Adam But no.
Adam I think it's what I love about this is that this is a film with it's that thing of not having any straight men.
Lee Yeah.
Adam Do you know what I mean? Everyone's a character, everyone's funny, everyone's weird or grotesque or humorous or fallible in some way or another.
Adam Cuz I was when I was watching it, weirdly enough I watched it with Claire and it's like.
Adam And I just got a distinct Black Adder vibe.
Lee Yeah.
Adam But it was like.
Adam Vincent Price is obviously Black Adder because it's a lot of verbal put downs so, you know, and then Lorre's Baldrick essentially, but then Joyce Jameson's almost like Mrs. Miggins or like Nursie or something.
Adam Do you know what I mean?
Adam And no, actually Boris Karloff's like Nursie.
Adam So you know, one of those weird sort of you know characters.
Chris Not with it. Yeah.
Adam And then but Basil Rathbone's character is a fucking grotesque who's weird and everything else like that.
Adam And he's like a sort of when they get the Duke of Wellington in or Dr. Johnson in the third, those sort of bullish antagonists.
Adam But they're exactly the same as.
Chris I'm going to have to watch it again now with this in mind.
Adam They're all comic monsters or sort of comic characters.
Adam So there's no there's no one there going, oh, look at all this.
Adam It's just no, this is the setup and you just get to enjoy it.
Adam And it's so fucking quotable.
Lee That's the thing Vincent Price's dialogue in this is just one of my absolute favor Like like you say, everything he said almost is gold.
Lee I mean I still at least once a fortnight will say to my wife.
Lee Your mouth, madam, shut it.
Lee I don't think she knows the quote, she just accepts her fate.
Adam So she just she she just assumes you're gaslighting.
Adam So.
Adam I mean, I don't know why it was.
Adam But the one that got me really got me this time was, and you're sitting on my money.
Chris Yeah.
Adam Cuz.
Adam I think it's it's very it's very cartoony.
Adam It's very sort of do you know what I mean?
Adam Again, it's that thing of like, you know, the characters because they're all larger than life and everything else like that.
Adam It's let's face it.
Adam He celebrates like a cartoon character.
Adam He throws money over his head.
Chris Yeah.
Adam You know.
Adam It's Daffy Duck.
Adam Sort of.
Chris And they almost none of them actually converse, like they don't exactly talk to each other.
Chris They're just talking at each other.
Lee Yeah.
Chris It doesn't actually matter really what they've been said.
Lee I think the thing I love about the Basil Rathbone character in this is that he initially, as you say, looks like he's going to be a straight, like the straight man, the straight character.
Lee And he's going to be very sensible and down to earth because he's a big businessman.
Lee But yeah, then when you see him in his bedroom at night and he just takes a sword off the wall and starts running around and shouting Shakespeare and stabbing things.
Adam Yeah, he's doing in the bedroom the way he's doing like basically does like the last third of Macbeth throughout the end of this film.
Lee Oh, it just makes me absolutely die.
Lee It's so.
Adam Oh, it's.
Lee It's.
Adam Go sorry.
Lee Go sorry.
Adam No, no, no, I was just agreeing with you.
Adam I think we're.
Lee I think everything about this, I love the it's got that very sort of slap sticky.
Lee music to it, which goes with the the element of the comedy.
Lee But as you say, it looks like those Roger Corman films.
Lee So it looks beautiful.
Lee
Adam Yeah.
Chris Yeah.
Chris It's still.
Chris Quite atmospheric.
Adam It's all studio based, so it's like, yeah, they have that real control and everything looks incredible.
Adam Apparently the hearse, you know the coach drawn horse drawn fucking coach drawn horse.
Adam Jesus.
Adam The horse drawn coach, that's apparently outside the Disney Haunted Mansion nowadays.
Lee Oh.
Lee Really?
Adam I'm not sure if that's still the case cuz this is, you know, dusty old facts on the internet that may have never been updated for lies.
Adam For 20 odd years, so who knows.
Adam But yeah.
Lee I'd be tempted to fly over just to see in person.
Chris There's a mission for you.
Adam Cuz like you say, the Les Baxter music, they're.
Adam Which I'm going to have to track down because.
Adam Again, like I say, it's it's like Carl Stalling stuff, it's like Looney Tunes sort of stuff.
Adam In that it's got that right bit of let's be overly dramatically serious and then crazy.
Lee Yeah.
Adam And everything.
Adam And I have to say the Joyce Jameson singing.
Chris Oh, yeah.
Adam He is not dead.
Adam But sleepeth.
Chris Yeah.
Adam I'll I'll I'll hold my hands up.
Adam I've got I listen, I've got a few albums that sound like that.
Adam I mean more professionally vocalized, but not far off that.
Adam And yeah, that was just again, really good, just a lovely little moment.
Adam Of just cuz everyone at that point, I mean Joyce Jameson's obviously given it that just amazingly.
Adam Because it's just teetering on.
Adam Can do it.
Lee Yeah.
Chris Yeah, yeah, definitely.
Adam And then it goes and yeah.
Adam And then you've got them playing like operating the organ at the back and everything.
Adam And they're just like look.
Adam And just a series of looks and sort of, you know, it's just they're so.
Adam I just it's really annoying because you sort of watch it and go, this should have been the first of like.
Adam Five movies where they're all doing this.
Adam And and yeah, it just doesn't happen.
Adam But apparently there was Richard Matheson did write a sequel.
Chris
Adam And it's I've now found that it's apparently it's published in some of like Richard Matheson collections, there's like stuff that's collected writings and things like that.
Adam And the script is in there, but what's it called?
Adam It was Sweethearts and Horrors.
Chris
Adam And it was so it would have had the cast returning, you would have had Price as a ventriloquist.
Adam So I'm assuming this is all like theatrical thing or whatever.
Adam But you'd have had Price as a ventriloquist, Lorre, a magician, Karloff, a children's TV presenter and Basil Rathbone, a musical comedy star.
Adam And they were going to get Tallulah Bankhead in as well to play a part in it.
Adam And but it didn't obviously that didn't happen because this didn't perform very well and then Peter Lorre died as well.
Adam
Adam But
Adam Yeah, I now have to go.
Adam I'm going to have to find that.
Lee I've just written it down because I'm definitely going to have to read it.
Lee If I won't ever get to see it, the least I can do is read it.
Adam Yeah.
Adam Cuz I think.
Chris The rate we're going, give it two years and I will make it for you.
Lee Yeah.
Adam Well then, then I can piss off.
Chris Depends if, you know, if the Lord is get sent to the correct people.
Lee That's true.
Lee You're true.
Lee Actually, see, I never thought of that, yes, if stuff like London After Midnight.
Lee If you could feed AI the story and the script, which we've still got and enough images that have been that have made it from it.
Lee Maybe it could produce something that would actually be watchable.
Chris Yeah.
Adam I know and this is obviously on a very, very severe budget.
Adam I know that there is a guy who's a Doctor Who fan who's extremely wealthy.
Adam Who has made AI versions of missing episodes using using what what he has so far of like he has price wise so far, as well as technology.
Adam And apparently.
Adam They are real dog shit.
Chris I could expect, I could expect they would be yet.
Chris But.
Adam We might be some way away before we get London After Midnight as it was.
Adam Or or as near as damn it.
Adam The thing is London After Midnight now is such an old film.
Adam That it's like.
Adam Well, actually potentially.
Chris You might.
Adam You know, this could come out, no one knows whether it was right.
Adam Cuz no one alive was seeing it, you know, so.
Adam but no, definitely I've got to track down the script on this.
Adam Cuz that script.
Adam Because.
Adam Yeah.
Adam Yeah.
Adam I think it.
Adam Oh, yeah, just just to live in that hope that you that they'd have they'd have continued the the style of this.
Lee Oh, absolutely.
Lee I'm sure we've mentioned it on the show before.
Lee But there was an evening when my brother came over and Adam.
Lee And we'd we'd planned to do a drink along The Comedy of Terrors, Dean and I.
Lee So we got a tray of vodka shots and we said every time Vincent Price has a drink, we take one.
Lee and we got about 20 minutes in and we'd drunk half a bottle of vodka.
Adam Yeah.
Adam We we literally.
Chris As long as it wasn't poison, you you're right.
Adam No, there was there was almost a point where I had to intervene to make sense that it was like.
Adam You know, you you're about 12 shots down and we haven't got past the first scene.
Adam Because you don't quite realize just how often Vincent Price is drinking.
Adam Which is it's if he's not throttling someone, he's got a drink in his head.
Adam That's basically the role.
Adam So that that game had to be abandoned fairly swiftly because yeah, just for for logic and expense, you know.
Lee It was I think I think we stopped drinking vodka.
Lee And we went on to I went down the shop and bought some vodka ice, which is obviously only about 5% and we drunk a shot of that every time to continue, but I think by that point the damage was done.
Lee So I don't remember.
Lee Okay.
Adam There we go.
Lee But yeah, yeah, it is it's the interactions in this.
Lee The way that as you say, they're all very different and you do wonder how they all ended up in this world together with them all being so completely different.
Lee But.
Lee It it just works so nicely that just his viciousness towards his wife is hilarious.
Adam Well, cuz he's obviously only come he's married her because.
Adam her dad is Basil Rathbone, who is one of the heart what did own the business.
Adam So there's just this possibility that he's just this decrepit who's sort of, you know, he.
Chris He was hoping to get rich from.
Lee Boris Karloff, not Basil Rathbone.
Lee Sorry, just.
Adam Oh sorry.
Adam Boris.
Lee I just thought I'd better correct you, cuz otherwise listeners are going to be confused.
Adam Oh, yeah.
Adam No, no.
Adam No, bang on.
Adam But
Adam No, he's
Adam But he plays that sort of absolutely it's that lovely thing when you get characters who are barely there.
Adam Like Father Jack or so, you know, where they're.
Adam They're all totally almost completely peripheral, but absolutely perfect.
Chris But they have an amazing arc.
Adam Their contribution is always astounding, you know.
Adam Cuz but funny enough because that was originally originally when they were doing when they were casting this.
Adam They were going to get Boris Karloff was going to play the Basil Rathbone role.
Adam So he was going to play Mr. Black.
Adam But they realized that by that point, Boris Karloff's like arthritis.
Adam Was just too, you know, it was just going to take too physically heavier toll on him to be.
Adam Well.
Adam Chasing two fuckers around with a bloody sword and screaming, you know, screaming the last the last part of fucking Macbeth.
Adam So, yeah.
Adam So they decided so he got the, so he was then given the.
Adam old boy role, like the father role.
Adam And they got Basil Rathbone in for Black.
Adam And it's like.
Adam Oh, that's a much better movie.
Adam Because Basil Rathbone's just got he has got that sort of bulldozer intensity in this where it's like.
Adam You know, it would be laughable, someone running around in their pajamas shouting Shakespeare on you.
Adam But he's just like he's such a fucking force.
Adam Yeah.
Adam That you're like.
Adam No, that would be abjectly terrifying.
Adam You've broken into his house, but, you know, you think you've got him on the back foot and it's like, oh, no, he is fucking mad and this is, you know, this is.
Lee And he's one of those, I think because I always see him as a more as a serious actor, so his role in this, yeah, when he when you do realize just how nuts he actually is, yeah, it just, yeah, it just makes me laugh so much every single time.
Lee And it's because he plays it so straight as well.
Adam Yeah.
Lee And I know the sort of the narcolepsy thing he obviously does in a comedic way.
Lee But yeah, as you say, his when he's running around with a sword and stuff.
Lee Like he is doing it so perfectly straight that it just, oh, yeah, it just makes me absolutely die.
Adam Oh, no, and and like we've said, Price and Lorre.
Adam I mean, the weird thing is, is I realized that this is the third film we've watched with Peter Lorre.
Adam But it's always been part of this what I'm going to loosely call a trilogy of, you know, the Price Lorre double act.
Chris Yeah.
Adam Because you've got Tales of Terror, you've got The Raven and then this.
Adam
Adam So I think at some point, much like we've said, we haven't done Curse of the Night of the Demon.
Adam I think at some point we need to look at other Lorre films and just to see what a sinister bastard he can be.
Lee Oh, yeah.
Chris So what what.
Adam Cuz you're only seeing.
Adam And it's lovely to see him in this role, but it's in that same way that you're watching.
Adam Cuz actually I think of all of them, he is probably the most sort of usually playing the scarier characters.
Chris
Adam You know, Vincent Price it sort of can go either way and Karloff has his own menace.
Adam But it's a very gentle sort of menace, I think that's why he wouldn't necessarily have been great as Black.
Adam Like as Mr. Black in this.
Adam
Adam Because he does do looming menace, but you know, is it the right.
Adam Kind of looming menace that you'll need for that.
Adam But yeah, Peter Lorre can be fucking like despicable, you know, as.
Chris So what what what films is he like that in?
Adam The key one I would say is there's M, literally the letter M.
Adam Which is.
Chris I do not remember.
Chris That ever being mentioned.
Adam Yeah.
Adam No, M, M is.
Chris You've been keeping that one.
Adam Well, we're we're definitely we're definitely stick M on the list just because Peter Lorre and that is that's.
Adam I mean that's a fucking masterpiece, but
Adam What's the oh, we were talking about it the other week.
Adam Mad love.
Lee Yes.
Adam Yes.
Adam That's I mean that's another Peter Lorre film that's fantastic.
Adam
Adam He's also he's in a lot of film noir and stuff and he was with what's his name.
Chris Oh, okay.
Adam He like Humphrey Bogart, he's in The Maltese Falcon.
Adam And he's I mean The Maltese Falcon, it's not a horror film, but it's a fucking great film.
Adam And that's definitely worth checking out and he's
Adam Really good in it.
Adam He's in Casablanca.
Adam He's in.
Adam He plays a lot of basically, if he'd have been alive, he'd have played Toht in Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Chris
Adam But Ronald Lacey plays him instead.
Adam So, you know.
Adam He that would have been, but he's literally he's like channeling Peter Lorre in that, I think, you know, he really is.
Lee 100%, absolutely.
Adam So.
Adam But
Chris Yeah, we should definitely do that then.
Adam There's one actor we haven't mentioned.
Lee Rhubarb.
Adam Orangey.
Lee Orangey.
Lee Yes.
Adam Orangey is his real name.
Adam And yes, what a fine character or actor.
Chris Yeah.
Adam Orangey is.
Adam Cuz he cuz he's called Rhubarb here because that was the first film he did.
Adam He was one of 14 cats who played who played the title character in the 1951 film Rhubarb.
Lee About.
Adam Cat owns a baseball team or something.
Adam It's like.
Lee Oh.
Adam It's like the cat had an eccentric owner who leaves it all his estate and so the cat owns a baseball team.
Adam I think that's like the premise of that.
Adam he was owned and trained by animal animal handler Frank Inn.
Adam And he's the only cat to have won two Paty Awards, that's the picture animal top star of the year, the animal Oscars.
Adam So.
Chris Nice.
Adam So.
Adam So often he was credited as Rhubarb because that was the the the film that made his name.
Adam
Adam And
Adam In other films, he's he was in 35, he's got 35 credits on IMDb.
Adam And he was he was Cat in Breakfast at Tiffany's.
Adam So quite a big role there.
Adam Butch in The Incredible Shrinking Man.
Adam Neutron in the Island of in this Island Earth.
Adam giant cat in Village of the Giants.
Adam Ginger in Darby O'Gill and the Little People.
Adam And to prove that he could do, you know, he was as happy with drama with comedy.
Adam He was Moushey in The Diary of Anne Frank.
Lee Wow.
Adam he was the Beverly Hillbilly's Cat Rusty for in 18 episodes.
Adam
Adam He was the main character's cat in four episodes of something.
Adam Called Our Miss Brooks, which was basically throughout his career.
Adam And
Adam But he was also in The Twilight Zone, The Night of the Meek.
Adam Outer Limits, Mission Impossible, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, I Dream of Jeannie, My Favorite Martian, The Fugitive, Mr. Ed Dick Van Dyke Show and he's in three episodes of the Adam West Batman.
Lee Wow.
Adam Two of which cat and also one of one of which he is.
Chris That's.
Chris Pretty serious.
Adam I can't think of her name, who plays Morticia in The Addams Family.
Adam
Chris Carolyn Jones.
Adam Caroline.
Lee No.
Adam Oh.
Lee In the original one.
Adam In the original one.
Adam Yeah.
Lee Oh, yeah, no, I can't name.
Lee You've done that.
Adam I can't.
Adam Sorry.
Lee Yeah.
Lee That's.
Adam But he's he's her cat in an episode of that as well.
Adam But yeah.
Adam And I just I think there we go.
Adam That's so.
Adam Orangey.
Adam You know.
Adam That's.
Adam Was I would have liked to have seen Orangey come back.
Adam They don't say what part Orangey would have played in the film that they didn't make, but you know.
Adam That might have been a.
Adam Apparently, so apparently the first time.
Chris Carolyn Jones.
Adam Originally, this was called Gravestone Story instead of Westside Story.
Adam I think they were just like, oh, let's try and think.
Adam But Comedy of Errors works so much better.
Adam Because you've got Basil Rathbone doing bloody huge swaths of Macbeth.
Adam So you've got the Shakespeare connection, so it makes more sense.
Adam Yeah.
Lee Yeah.
Adam
Adam But
Adam Yeah, I've
Adam Oh, I just yeah.
Adam I just absolutely fucking adore this film.
Adam And I haven't it's weird because I haven't watched it possibly since that night that you and Dean were drinking.
Lee Oh, really?
Adam Yeah.
Adam Cuz actually I panicked when we said about we were going to do it, I was like, oh shit, I've got to sold to this.
Adam And then it was like, oh no.
Adam I bought it in an Arrow sale like four years ago.
Adam And just hadn't got around to the hadn't got around to watching it yet.
Adam So it was so it was there, which was a bloody godsend as well.
Lee Yeah, this is just this is one of my favorite rainy night movies, you know, and it's, you know.
Lee It's wet and rainy outside and you just want to curl up on the sofa and watch something cozy.
Lee This is one of my go-tos.
Lee I I just it's just something about the feel of it, it's the color palette of it.
Lee
Lee Yeah.
Lee And it's not I mean, although it's it's obviously quite ghastly a subject matter, but because it's got that humor running through it.
Lee Yeah, it's just it's.
Adam Oh, it's it's a dark comedy, there's no doubt about it.
Adam I mean, just.
Adam I mean, this could be that was the other thing that was like when.
Adam Me and Claire were watching it, we were talking about it, Claire was like, I feel I could watch the series of this.
Lee Yes.
Adam You know, where they're just, you know, it'd be just, I don't know, you have a special guest corpse of the week or something like that.
Adam But just that that would just be I mean, the lovely running joke.
Adam That they've got one coffin.
Lee Yeah.
Chris Yeah, well did did did he actually manage to kill anyone?
Chris Cuz at the end, I was like.
Chris Did everyone live?
Lee He did suffocate the guy at the beginning, the very first house.
Adam Yeah, Mr. Riggs, yeah.
Lee Yeah.
Chris So just the one.
Lee Just him.
Lee Yeah, but it is it is implied he'd done it before.
Adam That's Yeah, it's implied that's a fairly regular thing, yeah.
Adam And
Adam I mean, I love that where it's just cuz the actress who plays the widow is
Adam She's.
Adam Her name Beverly Powers, but she's credited here as Beverly Hills.
Adam
Adam She was a I I'll just write it down.
Adam I'll write it down.
Adam Yeah.
Adam She was a burlesque and striptease artist under the name Miss Beverly Hills, appeared in three Elvis movies.
Adam And then in 1986, she became an ordained minister and a year later moved to Hawaii, where she founded the Living Ministry in Maui.
Adam A non-denominational non-profit ministry that's still going.
Adam She also served as Chaplin at the Maui Memorial Hospital and Maui's Prison Ministry.
Adam she's now retired after 25 years of service and released a memoir of her time in Hollywood passing the Baton of Light in 2014.
Adam Wow.
Adam So, but it's just it's just really weird.
Adam Because I mean all of her credits are like topless swimmer in Jaws, nightclub stripper in Breakfast at Tiffany's.
Adam And and so on and so forth.
Adam So yeah, and and like I say, she her her stage name.
Adam If you like was Beverly Hills.
Adam So.
Adam It's but.
Adam Again, I just love that where it's just she with all the thing.
Adam And it's like.
Adam Cuz like I say, there's not a there's not a straight person in this.
Adam There's not technically.
Adam The nearest you get to a well, no, actually Joyce Jameson's character as.
Adam You know, she's decent, she just thinks she can sing.
Lee Yes.
Adam You know.
Adam That's.
Adam That's her only real failing, she she thinks she can sing and puts up with Vincent Price.
Adam That's really, you know, so.
Lee Oh, yeah, so yeah, this is this is one I do just come back to again and again, it always comes out when I go through that Corman post cycle, despite the fact it isn't in it.
Lee Because it's just so so tightly.
Chris It fits.
Adam It feels part of it.
Adam Definitely.
Adam And like I say.
Adam It's weird because you kind of to get to this, the weird thing is, is the bit you remove is.
Adam Well, the bit you remove is Corman and Poe.
Adam But particularly I think Poe, cuz what was the quote I saw, Richard Matheson was like.
Adam I got bored of writing about people being buried alive, so I thought I'd make a joke out of it.
Lee Yeah.
Adam Which.
Adam Was his take on it.
Adam And like, and but I mean, where it didn't do very well.
Adam I think I've got the quote from Jacques Tourneur where he said.
Adam It was you know, it didn't it didn't do very well, but where is it?
Adam
Adam He felt the film's poor reception.
Adam Was because it was too sophisticated and satirical and cynical to appeal to the teens who expected the same kind of horror from the AIP Poe adaptations.
Lee Yeah.
Adam So in a weird way, cuz it cuz when you watch the.
Adam When you watch the Poe cycle as it is, The Raven is brilliant, but it's the outlier.
Adam The rest of them are pretty they're straight.
Lee Yeah.
Adam You know, and to varying degrees of success, but they are, you know, straight horror films basically.
Adam And it's only that sort of the Cask of Amontillado bit in Tales of Terror, which is the Vincent Price, Peter Lorre and Joyce Jameson bit.
Adam That becomes comedic and becomes, you know, brings out that sort of flair to it.
Lee Yeah.
Lee Yeah.
Lee Absolutely.
Lee but yeah, a fantastic movie.
Lee I I always love digging this one off the shelf.
Lee So I I I apologize to everyone that we took so long to get to it.
Lee
Adam All that.
Adam All that's for nothing.
Lee So.
Lee So on our next episode, we're going to be doing a roundup of what we've been watching.
Lee
Lee I know myself and Adam have been working through some stuff that we wanted to discuss.
Lee I'm sure Chris has as well.
Adam Oh the ecology thing we've been working through some things we want to discuss.
Lee It does sound a bit like an intervention, I should probably have phrased that slightly differently.
Lee
Lee Yes, so we'll be back for that.
Lee just another quick thing I wanted to mention.
Lee I was chatting the other day with a guy called John Hamilton.
Lee Who is just re-released his book Beasts in the Cellar.
Lee Which looks at the Tigon studios and all the things that were involved with those movies.
Lee it's just come out about a week ago, I believe at the time of us recording this and I will be very keen to get my hands on a copy quickly.
Lee So I just thought.
Adam Oh, that's what I love me a bit of Tigon.
Lee Yeah.
Lee That's and it's it's it's one of those studios unlike Hammer and Amicus that people talk about a lot, it doesn't have the documentaries and all that kind of stuff about.
Lee So I know so much less about Tigon.
Lee so yeah, I will definitely be going and digging that out and filling up that that space in my in my knowledge.
Lee
Lee Yes, so.
Lee Thanks ever so much for listening everybody.
Lee go and check out The Comedy of Terrors, just go and watch the Poe Corman films as well cuz they're just amazing.
Lee and we will see you all in a fortnight's time to go through what we've been watching.
Lee Good night.
Chris Good night.
Adam Good night.
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