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
UnknownSounds
LeeGood evening and welcome to Horror. I'm Lee.
ChrisI'm Chris.
AdamI'm Adam.
UnknownWhat place is this?
LeeWe are here this evening to cover one of my absolute favorites of this era. 1963's The Comedy of Terrors.
LeeA 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.
LeeBut Adam quite rightly said, we talk about this film a lot, we really should cover it, so.
LeeAnd now we have.
LeeChris, what did you think of The Comedy of Terrors?
ChrisIs there no morality left in this world?
ChrisI got I got one bad thing to say. Yeah, how did we leave it like, what, 20 years before we watched this?
LeeYeah.
ChrisI'll I'll give you both black marks for that.
LeeWell, I'm glad that's a good downgrade to get. You're quite right to bring it up.
ChrisYou could, I reckon, if you just had.
ChrisVincent Price and Peter Lorre, not it is Lorre, isn't it? Yeah. And like just them doing this for the whole film.
ChrisThat would be a really good film.
ChrisAdd in the rest of the cast and it just, yeah, it is amazing.
AdamI 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.
ChrisYeah.
AdamOr The Raven.
AdamAnd 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.
AdamAnd it's a real shame because like the Tales of Terrors the last of that sort of series.
AdamBecause just as it starts to sort of get to the best of itself.
AdamBecause you got because Tales, Tales of Terror is a straightforward horror film.
AdamBut it has humorous elements in it and the bits with Peter Lorre and Vincent Price are really fucking humorous.
ChrisYeah.
LeeJoyce Jameson is married to it.
AdamAnd 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.
LeeYeah.
AdamAnd but also you get Basil Rathbone in Tales of Terror as well.
AdamAnd then obviously there's The Raven where you bring Karloff in and you've got Price and Lorre again.
AdamAnd yeah, this is like this feels like, right, we've refined it now.
AdamWe get Richard Matheson to write an original.
AdamWe don't, you know, it's not a Poe adaption.
AdamBut it's the same.
ChrisBut it it does feel very, yeah, yeah, he has nailed it, definitely.
AdamYeah.
AdamAnd and Jacques Tournier directed, which is which is weird.
AdamThat again, there's someone who I mean, his two most sort of celebrated films are Cat People, the original Cat People.
AdamAnd Night of the Demon.
AdamAnd really that certainly Night of the Demon is a film that we should do at some point.
AdamBecause it's basically M R. James casting of the Rooms, but done, yeah.
ChrisNot to you up with Night of the Demons.
LeeWe definitely we definitely must have covered Night of the Demon.
LeeWe can't.
AdamWe've done no, we've done Night of the Demons with the eighties horror.
LeeThe Canadian one.
LeeYou know, I'm sure we covered it, I remember.
AdamNo, but.
LeeOh.
AdamOh, we've done Night of the Eagle, which is kind of similar.
LeeYes.
LeeYes.
LeeThat might be what we.
AdamAnd maybe that's what you're thinking of, yeah.
Adambut yeah, so we're not done Curse of the Demon.
AdamBut yeah, and you get and we just get to this point and then.
AdamApparently, 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.
LeeOh, really?
ChrisHe looked, he looked.
ChrisAll right.
AdamI.
LeeOh, really?
AdamI I would argue the opposite if I'm honest. I think with that fact in mind, he does look a bit.
ChrisOh, okay.
AdamSort of I mean, it doesn't it's not being disrespectful, but it's like.
ChrisBut you could think he's playing it though because he works in undertakers.
AdamYeah.
ChrisYeah. Oh, okay.
LeeHe plays it so well.
LeeThat's the thing.
ChrisYeah, I mean, he's fighting with with Vincent Price.
LeeI love the fact that you can see it's actually them doing so much of the stuff.
AdamApparently 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.
AdamIt's a guy wearing a the stunt man's wearing a mask of Peter Lorre.
ChrisYeah.
AdamWhich is so, yeah.
ChrisThat's one way to do it.
AdamBut
AdamBut no.
AdamI 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.
LeeYeah.
AdamDo 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.
AdamCuz I was when I was watching it, weirdly enough I watched it with Claire and it's like.
AdamAnd I just got a distinct Black Adder vibe.
LeeYeah.
AdamBut it was like.
AdamVincent 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.
AdamDo you know what I mean?
AdamAnd no, actually Boris Karloff's like Nursie.
AdamSo you know, one of those weird sort of you know characters.
ChrisNot with it. Yeah.
AdamAnd then but Basil Rathbone's character is a fucking grotesque who's weird and everything else like that.
AdamAnd 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.
AdamBut they're exactly the same as.
ChrisI'm going to have to watch it again now with this in mind.
AdamThey're all comic monsters or sort of comic characters.
AdamSo there's no there's no one there going, oh, look at all this.
AdamIt's just no, this is the setup and you just get to enjoy it.
AdamAnd it's so fucking quotable.
LeeThat'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.
LeeI mean I still at least once a fortnight will say to my wife.
LeeYour mouth, madam, shut it.
LeeI don't think she knows the quote, she just accepts her fate.
AdamSo she just she she just assumes you're gaslighting.
AdamSo.
AdamI mean, I don't know why it was.
AdamBut the one that got me really got me this time was, and you're sitting on my money.
ChrisYeah.
AdamCuz.
AdamI think it's it's very it's very cartoony.
AdamIt's very sort of do you know what I mean?
AdamAgain, it's that thing of like, you know, the characters because they're all larger than life and everything else like that.
AdamIt's let's face it.
AdamHe celebrates like a cartoon character.
AdamHe throws money over his head.
ChrisYeah.
AdamYou know.
AdamIt's Daffy Duck.
AdamSort of.
ChrisAnd they almost none of them actually converse, like they don't exactly talk to each other.
ChrisThey're just talking at each other.
LeeYeah.
ChrisIt doesn't actually matter really what they've been said.
LeeI 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.
LeeAnd he's going to be very sensible and down to earth because he's a big businessman.
LeeBut 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.
AdamYeah, 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.
LeeOh, it just makes me absolutely die.
LeeIt's so.
AdamOh, it's.
LeeIt's.
AdamGo sorry.
LeeGo sorry.
AdamNo, no, no, I was just agreeing with you.
AdamI think we're.
LeeI think everything about this, I love the it's got that very sort of slap sticky.
Leemusic to it, which goes with the the element of the comedy.
LeeBut as you say, it looks like those Roger Corman films.
LeeSo it looks beautiful.
Lee
AdamYeah.
ChrisYeah.
ChrisIt's still.
ChrisQuite atmospheric.
AdamIt's all studio based, so it's like, yeah, they have that real control and everything looks incredible.
AdamApparently the hearse, you know the coach drawn horse drawn fucking coach drawn horse.
AdamJesus.
AdamThe horse drawn coach, that's apparently outside the Disney Haunted Mansion nowadays.
LeeOh.
LeeReally?
AdamI'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.
AdamFor 20 odd years, so who knows.
AdamBut yeah.
LeeI'd be tempted to fly over just to see in person.
ChrisThere's a mission for you.
AdamCuz like you say, the Les Baxter music, they're.
AdamWhich I'm going to have to track down because.
AdamAgain, like I say, it's it's like Carl Stalling stuff, it's like Looney Tunes sort of stuff.
AdamIn that it's got that right bit of let's be overly dramatically serious and then crazy.
LeeYeah.
AdamAnd everything.
AdamAnd I have to say the Joyce Jameson singing.
ChrisOh, yeah.
AdamHe is not dead.
AdamBut sleepeth.
ChrisYeah.
AdamI'll I'll I'll hold my hands up.
AdamI've got I listen, I've got a few albums that sound like that.
AdamI mean more professionally vocalized, but not far off that.
AdamAnd yeah, that was just again, really good, just a lovely little moment.
AdamOf just cuz everyone at that point, I mean Joyce Jameson's obviously given it that just amazingly.
AdamBecause it's just teetering on.
AdamCan do it.
LeeYeah.
ChrisYeah, yeah, definitely.
AdamAnd then it goes and yeah.
AdamAnd then you've got them playing like operating the organ at the back and everything.
AdamAnd they're just like look.
AdamAnd just a series of looks and sort of, you know, it's just they're so.
AdamI just it's really annoying because you sort of watch it and go, this should have been the first of like.
AdamFive movies where they're all doing this.
AdamAnd and yeah, it just doesn't happen.
AdamBut apparently there was Richard Matheson did write a sequel.
Chris
AdamAnd 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.
AdamAnd the script is in there, but what's it called?
AdamIt was Sweethearts and Horrors.
Chris
AdamAnd it was so it would have had the cast returning, you would have had Price as a ventriloquist.
AdamSo I'm assuming this is all like theatrical thing or whatever.
AdamBut you'd have had Price as a ventriloquist, Lorre, a magician, Karloff, a children's TV presenter and Basil Rathbone, a musical comedy star.
AdamAnd they were going to get Tallulah Bankhead in as well to play a part in it.
AdamAnd but it didn't obviously that didn't happen because this didn't perform very well and then Peter Lorre died as well.
Adam
AdamBut
AdamYeah, I now have to go.
AdamI'm going to have to find that.
LeeI've just written it down because I'm definitely going to have to read it.
LeeIf I won't ever get to see it, the least I can do is read it.
AdamYeah.
AdamCuz I think.
ChrisThe rate we're going, give it two years and I will make it for you.
LeeYeah.
AdamWell then, then I can piss off.
ChrisDepends if, you know, if the Lord is get sent to the correct people.
LeeThat's true.
LeeYou're true.
LeeActually, see, I never thought of that, yes, if stuff like London After Midnight.
LeeIf 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.
LeeMaybe it could produce something that would actually be watchable.
ChrisYeah.
AdamI know and this is obviously on a very, very severe budget.
AdamI know that there is a guy who's a Doctor Who fan who's extremely wealthy.
AdamWho 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.
AdamAnd apparently.
AdamThey are real dog shit.
ChrisI could expect, I could expect they would be yet.
ChrisBut.
AdamWe might be some way away before we get London After Midnight as it was.
AdamOr or as near as damn it.
AdamThe thing is London After Midnight now is such an old film.
AdamThat it's like.
AdamWell, actually potentially.
ChrisYou might.
AdamYou know, this could come out, no one knows whether it was right.
AdamCuz no one alive was seeing it, you know, so.
Adambut no, definitely I've got to track down the script on this.
AdamCuz that script.
AdamBecause.
AdamYeah.
AdamYeah.
AdamI think it.
AdamOh, yeah, just just to live in that hope that you that they'd have they'd have continued the the style of this.
LeeOh, absolutely.
LeeI'm sure we've mentioned it on the show before.
LeeBut there was an evening when my brother came over and Adam.
LeeAnd we'd we'd planned to do a drink along The Comedy of Terrors, Dean and I.
LeeSo we got a tray of vodka shots and we said every time Vincent Price has a drink, we take one.
Leeand we got about 20 minutes in and we'd drunk half a bottle of vodka.
AdamYeah.
AdamWe we literally.
ChrisAs long as it wasn't poison, you you're right.
AdamNo, there was there was almost a point where I had to intervene to make sense that it was like.
AdamYou know, you you're about 12 shots down and we haven't got past the first scene.
AdamBecause you don't quite realize just how often Vincent Price is drinking.
AdamWhich is it's if he's not throttling someone, he's got a drink in his head.
AdamThat's basically the role.
AdamSo that that game had to be abandoned fairly swiftly because yeah, just for for logic and expense, you know.
LeeIt was I think I think we stopped drinking vodka.
LeeAnd 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.
LeeSo I don't remember.
LeeOkay.
AdamThere we go.
LeeBut yeah, yeah, it is it's the interactions in this.
LeeThe 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.
LeeBut.
LeeIt it just works so nicely that just his viciousness towards his wife is hilarious.
AdamWell, cuz he's obviously only come he's married her because.
Adamher dad is Basil Rathbone, who is one of the heart what did own the business.
AdamSo there's just this possibility that he's just this decrepit who's sort of, you know, he.
ChrisHe was hoping to get rich from.
LeeBoris Karloff, not Basil Rathbone.
LeeSorry, just.
AdamOh sorry.
AdamBoris.
LeeI just thought I'd better correct you, cuz otherwise listeners are going to be confused.
AdamOh, yeah.
AdamNo, no.
AdamNo, bang on.
AdamBut
AdamNo, he's
AdamBut he plays that sort of absolutely it's that lovely thing when you get characters who are barely there.
AdamLike Father Jack or so, you know, where they're.
AdamThey're all totally almost completely peripheral, but absolutely perfect.
ChrisBut they have an amazing arc.
AdamTheir contribution is always astounding, you know.
AdamCuz but funny enough because that was originally originally when they were doing when they were casting this.
AdamThey were going to get Boris Karloff was going to play the Basil Rathbone role.
AdamSo he was going to play Mr. Black.
AdamBut they realized that by that point, Boris Karloff's like arthritis.
AdamWas just too, you know, it was just going to take too physically heavier toll on him to be.
AdamWell.
AdamChasing two fuckers around with a bloody sword and screaming, you know, screaming the last the last part of fucking Macbeth.
AdamSo, yeah.
AdamSo they decided so he got the, so he was then given the.
Adamold boy role, like the father role.
AdamAnd they got Basil Rathbone in for Black.
AdamAnd it's like.
AdamOh, that's a much better movie.
AdamBecause Basil Rathbone's just got he has got that sort of bulldozer intensity in this where it's like.
AdamYou know, it would be laughable, someone running around in their pajamas shouting Shakespeare on you.
AdamBut he's just like he's such a fucking force.
AdamYeah.
AdamThat you're like.
AdamNo, that would be abjectly terrifying.
AdamYou'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.
LeeAnd 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.
LeeAnd it's because he plays it so straight as well.
AdamYeah.
LeeAnd I know the sort of the narcolepsy thing he obviously does in a comedic way.
LeeBut yeah, as you say, his when he's running around with a sword and stuff.
LeeLike he is doing it so perfectly straight that it just, oh, yeah, it just makes me absolutely die.
AdamOh, no, and and like we've said, Price and Lorre.
AdamI mean, the weird thing is, is I realized that this is the third film we've watched with Peter Lorre.
AdamBut it's always been part of this what I'm going to loosely call a trilogy of, you know, the Price Lorre double act.
ChrisYeah.
AdamBecause you've got Tales of Terror, you've got The Raven and then this.
Adam
AdamSo I think at some point, much like we've said, we haven't done Curse of the Night of the Demon.
AdamI think at some point we need to look at other Lorre films and just to see what a sinister bastard he can be.
LeeOh, yeah.
ChrisSo what what.
AdamCuz you're only seeing.
AdamAnd it's lovely to see him in this role, but it's in that same way that you're watching.
AdamCuz actually I think of all of them, he is probably the most sort of usually playing the scarier characters.
Chris
AdamYou know, Vincent Price it sort of can go either way and Karloff has his own menace.
AdamBut it's a very gentle sort of menace, I think that's why he wouldn't necessarily have been great as Black.
AdamLike as Mr. Black in this.
Adam
AdamBecause he does do looming menace, but you know, is it the right.
AdamKind of looming menace that you'll need for that.
AdamBut yeah, Peter Lorre can be fucking like despicable, you know, as.
ChrisSo what what what films is he like that in?
AdamThe key one I would say is there's M, literally the letter M.
AdamWhich is.
ChrisI do not remember.
ChrisThat ever being mentioned.
AdamYeah.
AdamNo, M, M is.
ChrisYou've been keeping that one.
AdamWell, we're we're definitely we're definitely stick M on the list just because Peter Lorre and that is that's.
AdamI mean that's a fucking masterpiece, but
AdamWhat's the oh, we were talking about it the other week.
AdamMad love.
LeeYes.
AdamYes.
AdamThat's I mean that's another Peter Lorre film that's fantastic.
Adam
AdamHe's also he's in a lot of film noir and stuff and he was with what's his name.
ChrisOh, okay.
AdamHe like Humphrey Bogart, he's in The Maltese Falcon.
AdamAnd he's I mean The Maltese Falcon, it's not a horror film, but it's a fucking great film.
AdamAnd that's definitely worth checking out and he's
AdamReally good in it.
AdamHe's in Casablanca.
AdamHe's in.
AdamHe plays a lot of basically, if he'd have been alive, he'd have played Toht in Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Chris
AdamBut Ronald Lacey plays him instead.
AdamSo, you know.
AdamHe that would have been, but he's literally he's like channeling Peter Lorre in that, I think, you know, he really is.
Lee100%, absolutely.
AdamSo.
AdamBut
ChrisYeah, we should definitely do that then.
AdamThere's one actor we haven't mentioned.
LeeRhubarb.
AdamOrangey.
LeeOrangey.
LeeYes.
AdamOrangey is his real name.
AdamAnd yes, what a fine character or actor.
ChrisYeah.
AdamOrangey is.
AdamCuz he cuz he's called Rhubarb here because that was the first film he did.
AdamHe was one of 14 cats who played who played the title character in the 1951 film Rhubarb.
LeeAbout.
AdamCat owns a baseball team or something.
AdamIt's like.
LeeOh.
AdamIt's like the cat had an eccentric owner who leaves it all his estate and so the cat owns a baseball team.
AdamI think that's like the premise of that.
Adamhe was owned and trained by animal animal handler Frank Inn.
AdamAnd he's the only cat to have won two Paty Awards, that's the picture animal top star of the year, the animal Oscars.
AdamSo.
ChrisNice.
AdamSo.
AdamSo often he was credited as Rhubarb because that was the the the film that made his name.
Adam
AdamAnd
AdamIn other films, he's he was in 35, he's got 35 credits on IMDb.
AdamAnd he was he was Cat in Breakfast at Tiffany's.
AdamSo quite a big role there.
AdamButch in The Incredible Shrinking Man.
AdamNeutron in the Island of in this Island Earth.
Adamgiant cat in Village of the Giants.
AdamGinger in Darby O'Gill and the Little People.
AdamAnd to prove that he could do, you know, he was as happy with drama with comedy.
AdamHe was Moushey in The Diary of Anne Frank.
LeeWow.
Adamhe was the Beverly Hillbilly's Cat Rusty for in 18 episodes.
Adam
AdamHe was the main character's cat in four episodes of something.
AdamCalled Our Miss Brooks, which was basically throughout his career.
AdamAnd
AdamBut he was also in The Twilight Zone, The Night of the Meek.
AdamOuter 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.
LeeWow.
AdamTwo of which cat and also one of one of which he is.
ChrisThat's.
ChrisPretty serious.
AdamI can't think of her name, who plays Morticia in The Addams Family.
Adam
ChrisCarolyn Jones.
AdamCaroline.
LeeNo.
AdamOh.
LeeIn the original one.
AdamIn the original one.
AdamYeah.
LeeOh, yeah, no, I can't name.
LeeYou've done that.
AdamI can't.
AdamSorry.
LeeYeah.
LeeThat's.
AdamBut he's he's her cat in an episode of that as well.
AdamBut yeah.
AdamAnd I just I think there we go.
AdamThat's so.
AdamOrangey.
AdamYou know.
AdamThat's.
AdamWas I would have liked to have seen Orangey come back.
AdamThey don't say what part Orangey would have played in the film that they didn't make, but you know.
AdamThat might have been a.
AdamApparently, so apparently the first time.
ChrisCarolyn Jones.
AdamOriginally, this was called Gravestone Story instead of Westside Story.
AdamI think they were just like, oh, let's try and think.
AdamBut Comedy of Errors works so much better.
AdamBecause you've got Basil Rathbone doing bloody huge swaths of Macbeth.
AdamSo you've got the Shakespeare connection, so it makes more sense.
AdamYeah.
LeeYeah.
Adam
AdamBut
AdamYeah, I've
AdamOh, I just yeah.
AdamI just absolutely fucking adore this film.
AdamAnd I haven't it's weird because I haven't watched it possibly since that night that you and Dean were drinking.
LeeOh, really?
AdamYeah.
AdamCuz 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.
AdamAnd then it was like, oh no.
AdamI bought it in an Arrow sale like four years ago.
AdamAnd just hadn't got around to the hadn't got around to watching it yet.
AdamSo it was so it was there, which was a bloody godsend as well.
LeeYeah, this is just this is one of my favorite rainy night movies, you know, and it's, you know.
LeeIt's wet and rainy outside and you just want to curl up on the sofa and watch something cozy.
LeeThis is one of my go-tos.
LeeI I just it's just something about the feel of it, it's the color palette of it.
Lee
LeeYeah.
LeeAnd 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.
LeeYeah, it's just it's.
AdamOh, it's it's a dark comedy, there's no doubt about it.
AdamI mean, just.
AdamI mean, this could be that was the other thing that was like when.
AdamMe and Claire were watching it, we were talking about it, Claire was like, I feel I could watch the series of this.
LeeYes.
AdamYou 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.
AdamBut just that that would just be I mean, the lovely running joke.
AdamThat they've got one coffin.
LeeYeah.
ChrisYeah, well did did did he actually manage to kill anyone?
ChrisCuz at the end, I was like.
ChrisDid everyone live?
LeeHe did suffocate the guy at the beginning, the very first house.
AdamYeah, Mr. Riggs, yeah.
LeeYeah.
ChrisSo just the one.
LeeJust him.
LeeYeah, but it is it is implied he'd done it before.
AdamThat's Yeah, it's implied that's a fairly regular thing, yeah.
AdamAnd
AdamI mean, I love that where it's just cuz the actress who plays the widow is
AdamShe's.
AdamHer name Beverly Powers, but she's credited here as Beverly Hills.
Adam
AdamShe was a I I'll just write it down.
AdamI'll write it down.
AdamYeah.
AdamShe was a burlesque and striptease artist under the name Miss Beverly Hills, appeared in three Elvis movies.
AdamAnd then in 1986, she became an ordained minister and a year later moved to Hawaii, where she founded the Living Ministry in Maui.
AdamA non-denominational non-profit ministry that's still going.
AdamShe also served as Chaplin at the Maui Memorial Hospital and Maui's Prison Ministry.
Adamshe's now retired after 25 years of service and released a memoir of her time in Hollywood passing the Baton of Light in 2014.
AdamWow.
AdamSo, but it's just it's just really weird.
AdamBecause I mean all of her credits are like topless swimmer in Jaws, nightclub stripper in Breakfast at Tiffany's.
AdamAnd and so on and so forth.
AdamSo yeah, and and like I say, she her her stage name.
AdamIf you like was Beverly Hills.
AdamSo.
AdamIt's but.
AdamAgain, I just love that where it's just she with all the thing.
AdamAnd it's like.
AdamCuz like I say, there's not a there's not a straight person in this.
AdamThere's not technically.
AdamThe nearest you get to a well, no, actually Joyce Jameson's character as.
AdamYou know, she's decent, she just thinks she can sing.
LeeYes.
AdamYou know.
AdamThat's.
AdamThat's her only real failing, she she thinks she can sing and puts up with Vincent Price.
AdamThat's really, you know, so.
LeeOh, 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.
LeeBecause it's just so so tightly.
ChrisIt fits.
AdamIt feels part of it.
AdamDefinitely.
AdamAnd like I say.
AdamIt's weird because you kind of to get to this, the weird thing is, is the bit you remove is.
AdamWell, the bit you remove is Corman and Poe.
AdamBut particularly I think Poe, cuz what was the quote I saw, Richard Matheson was like.
AdamI got bored of writing about people being buried alive, so I thought I'd make a joke out of it.
LeeYeah.
AdamWhich.
AdamWas his take on it.
AdamAnd like, and but I mean, where it didn't do very well.
AdamI think I've got the quote from Jacques Tourneur where he said.
AdamIt was you know, it didn't it didn't do very well, but where is it?
Adam
AdamHe felt the film's poor reception.
AdamWas 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.
LeeYeah.
AdamSo in a weird way, cuz it cuz when you watch the.
AdamWhen you watch the Poe cycle as it is, The Raven is brilliant, but it's the outlier.
AdamThe rest of them are pretty they're straight.
LeeYeah.
AdamYou know, and to varying degrees of success, but they are, you know, straight horror films basically.
AdamAnd 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.
AdamThat becomes comedic and becomes, you know, brings out that sort of flair to it.
LeeYeah.
LeeYeah.
LeeAbsolutely.
Leebut yeah, a fantastic movie.
LeeI I always love digging this one off the shelf.
LeeSo I I I apologize to everyone that we took so long to get to it.
Lee
AdamAll that.
AdamAll that's for nothing.
LeeSo.
LeeSo on our next episode, we're going to be doing a roundup of what we've been watching.
Lee
LeeI know myself and Adam have been working through some stuff that we wanted to discuss.
LeeI'm sure Chris has as well.
AdamOh the ecology thing we've been working through some things we want to discuss.
LeeIt does sound a bit like an intervention, I should probably have phrased that slightly differently.
Lee
LeeYes, so we'll be back for that.
Leejust another quick thing I wanted to mention.
LeeI was chatting the other day with a guy called John Hamilton.
LeeWho is just re-released his book Beasts in the Cellar.
LeeWhich looks at the Tigon studios and all the things that were involved with those movies.
Leeit'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.
LeeSo I just thought.
AdamOh, that's what I love me a bit of Tigon.
LeeYeah.
LeeThat'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.
LeeSo I know so much less about Tigon.
Leeso yeah, I will definitely be going and digging that out and filling up that that space in my in my knowledge.
Lee
LeeYes, so.
LeeThanks ever so much for listening everybody.
Leego and check out The Comedy of Terrors, just go and watch the Poe Corman films as well cuz they're just amazing.
Leeand we will see you all in a fortnight's time to go through what we've been watching.
LeeGood night.
ChrisGood night.
AdamGood night.
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