One Body Too Many (1944)

Truly Dreadful Film

Did you people see the same film I saw?

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

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.

It was a dark and comical night... this movie turned out to be a very pleasant surprise! I knew it was a comedy-horror but it was funnier than I expected. This flick is worth watching if you like old school comedy films. I have to say this movie is underrated!! The movie has all the ingredients for a good old fashioned comedy-horror: we have a dead man, a will, greedy & goofy inheritors, a murderer on the loose, a big spooky mansion, secret passages, a stormy night, Bela Lugosi & COFFEE.I think the best parts of the film were: the insurance man in a towel in the secret passageway, the wicker basket, the coffin in the water and COFFEE! LOL. You will have to watch the film to get the scenes I am referring to. COFFEE is peppered throughout the entire film! This is a great afternoon film and would make a great double feature with a film like: The Comedy of Terrors (1963). I highly recommend skipping the COFFEE while watching these films. ;) 9/10

The idea behind this movie is clever: an eccentric millionaire's will that distributes wealth very unevenly among the heirs, but nobody knows who gets how much; if the dead man's conditions are not met, the will will be reversed - but what happens if the heirs don't know if trying to reverse the will is in their best interest or not? The film, however, drags, especially during a long section where we get to see the flabby Jack Haley snooping around the house's secret passageways half-naked....why? It's a poverty-row production, and apart from the appealing (though a little bland compared to her turn in the same year's "Detective Kitty O'Day") Jean Parker and the creepily amusing Bela Lugosi ("I assure you this coffee will NOT keep you awake"), the rest of the supporting characters kind of blend together. Nice gag with the ladder at the end, though. ** out of 4.

Insurance man Jack Haley keeps an evening appointment at a rich client's mansion to make a sales pitch—and is instantly mistaken for a detective. The client is lately deceased, all of his relatives are there for the reading of the will, and funny business has already commenced. Bela Lugosi is tops as the butler: "Perhaps you would all like some coffee," he suggests early on, and then spends the entire rest of the picture trying to persuade the guests to accept a cup of his coffee, which may or may not be poisoned. Jean Parker is fine as the appealing young relative who may be in line to inherit via the will, once it's finally read; she and Haley work nicely together, naturally falling into a romantic subplot that is cute and lively if predictable.The other plot elements are the standard items no dark house can be without—a phone that's mysteriously disconnected, switched bodies in the closet, secret passages all over the place, a thunderstorm. Favorite scene: Haley, having thrown himself into the role of amateur detective, tries to catch Lugosi off guard regarding the mud on his shoes. Lugosi replies that he opened the door for the cat and there was mud from the rain. Haley springs: "What rain?" To which Bela Lu responds with a sort of quiet incredulity, "What rain?"—walks to the door and opens it, displaying thunder and lightning and pouring rain—"The rain that's falling down, sir." It's a lot of fun if not exactly a workout for the brain.

I won't go into the plot too much as it has already been relayed by several contributors here; but all the friendly clichés you'd expect are present - so much so you tend to welcome them as you're ticking them off.This is not a Lugosi star vehicle - he merely plays support as the butler; but he has a fine flair for comedy and plays on his sinister image with aplomb. The real star of the film is the personable Jack Haley, who plays an insurance salesman mistaken for a detective who is to guard the body of a millionaire. The heirs are gathered, and they have to wait out the satisfying of a condition of the rather curious will...Haley's character, while a bit of a buffoon, is not an outright caricature and remains likable. This is a movie, of course that owes a lot to The Cat And The Canary. It does contain one neat little sequence slightly reminiscent of Vampyr, in which Haley is trapped in coffin, which is then carried to the garden pond and dropped to the bottom. It's still quite chilling today.Enjoyable film and recommended by this 30s and 40s horror fan.