The Boogie Man Will Get You (1942)

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

In my collection, I have an excellent Columbia DVD that features Boris Karloff's worst film, namely "The Boogie Man Will Get You" (1942), a woefully misguided attempt to cash in on the stage success of "Arsenic and Old Lace". The two dotty old ladies are now played by Karloff and Peter Lorre (minus both drag and wit), while Larry Parks makes an absolutely charmless attempt at the Allyn Joslyn (1941 Broadway) - Cary Grant (1944 movie) hero. Karloff himself played the Raymond Massey (featured in the movie) role on the stage, which is here woefully undertaken by hammy Frank Puglia as a deranged human bomb! Instead of lonely old men, the victims are a succession of door-to-door salesmen led by Maxie Rosenbloom, the one player who brings a touch (just a touch, mind you) of the requisite insanity to his performance. All the other players, with the possible exception of the lovely Jeff Donnell (she does her best to spread a little cheer), are so leaden-footed and heavy-handed as to be downright embarrassing.

The Boogie Man Will Get You marks the first joint appearance of Boris Karloff and Peter Lorre in the same film. Both certainly could qualify as Boogie Men for the title, both frightened movie goers for generations. This was their first joint screen appearance and the first film where they spoofed their own images.Karloff is a scientist of the mad kind who boards in an old colonial type inn that is run by an equally screwy couple George McKay and Maude Eburne. Lorre is the county sheriff and kind of a Grand Pooh Bah of the region, he's everything else official. When he discovers Karloff is experimenting on making zombie like supermen for the war effort, rather than arrest him Peter's intrigued even though five fatalities might be traced to Karloff's experiments.There's also quarreling couple Jeff Donnell who wants to buy the old inn and Larry Parks her estranged husband who says no. Add to that Maxie Rosenbloom who plays Lorre's amiable lunkhead retainer and you've got a first rate spoof of horror pictures.Certainly Karloff and Lorre showed they had a flair for comedy which would pop up every so often in their credits midst all the fiendish parts they did play. Very funny film, should not be missed by fans of either Karloff or Lorre.

Boogie Man Will Get You, The (1942) *** (out of 4) A nutty doctor (Boris Karloff) plans on creating supermen but his experiments continue to fail. With the help of another man (Peter Lorre) the two start kidnapping folks from the hotel being ran above their basement. This is a pretty entertaining comedy/horror film from Columbia that works best thanks to the performances by Karloff and Lorre. The two work very well together and their comic timing is right on the mark. The supporting players are fine as well in this cash in on Arsenic and Old Lace.

Obviously inspired by (but certainly no match for) the theatrical success of the legendary black farce, ARSENIC AND OLD LACE (co-starring Boris Karloff) - whose film version, featuring Peter Lorre(!), had been shot but not yet released - the film can also be seen as a spoof on Karloff's "Mad Doctor" cycle of films (which, unfortunately, I've yet to sample myself!) he had just finished for the same studio, Columbia; the film also touches upon the wartime situation by having Karloff's mysterious experiments emerge as a crackpot attempt to aid the war effort! At first I wasn't particularly enthused with it, but gradually the film settled into being a pleasant diversion, with the two stars making a truly wonderful team (a surprisingly bemused Karloff still manages to retain his dignity while Lorre, typically shady and nervy at the same time, gives it his all as the jack-of-all-trades of a remote small town); Lorre has a tiny but intuitive Siamese cat for an assistant, which he carries along in the inside pocket of his coat!Still, the film is more silly than funny: there is, of course, a bland romantic couple (the male half of which is Larry Parks, later to achieve short-lived fame portraying Al Jolson in the two Columbia biopics of the great entertainer!) and the rest of the cast play either goofy or eccentric characters but, alas, none is all that engaging!! Besides, given the low-budget which must have been afforded the production, the laboratory design and the special effects are pretty shoddy!