Review of The Comedy of Terrors

When I was young there was a comedy series on TV in my country that revolved on the hilarious adventures of a family of undertakers. I loved it very much, but I remember the show getting canceled prematurely because there were too many prudish people complaining that death and burial aren't topics you should laugh with. Of course they are! Top series like "Six Feet Under" prove that a funeral home is the ideal setting for black comedy situations, and the cast and crew of "The Comedy of Terrors" already knew it since the early 60's. Legends of horror cinema Boris Karloff, Peter Lorre and Vincent Price are united once more, after "The Raven" one year earlier, and once more in a film that is primarily a comedy instead of a horror. It's interesting how all three of them are notorious horror icons, yet when they're cast together they act like comedians. Even more so than the aforementioned "The Raven", this "The Comedy of Terrors" is solely intended as a black comedy with slapstick elements, running jokes and tons of self-mockery. You won't here me claim that "The Comedy of Terrors" is a brilliant film, but it's nevertheless a relaxing and light-headed flick with massively talented people involved both in front and behind the camera. Vincent Price stars as the mean-spirited, heavy-drinking and ill-natured mortician Waldo Trumball. He inherited the grave digging business from his aging father-in-law, but things really aren't going too well. The landlord insists on recovering a year's worth of unpaid rent, but the people in the village just don't seem to be dying! Along with his assistant Felix, who cherishes a profound love for Trumball's neglected wife Amaryllis, Trumball has no other option but to assure their employment by killing some villagers. But even that doesn't always mean there's money coming in. The basic premise and at least the first half hour or so are extremely entertaining; with the introduction of the awesome main characters as well as some sublime supportive ones, like Basil Rathbone as the virulent landlord. Vincent Price and Peter Lorre form a downright comical duo, presumably because they are each others' opposite in every area including screen appearance and charisma, and even though Boris Karloff hasn't got too much to do, his presence definitely is the icing on the cake. Unfortunately, the film is not consistently funny and there are a couple of painfully tedious sequences to struggle through during the middle section. Veteran writer Richard Matheson tried to make his script a little too ambitious, with even a whole William Shakespeare homage near the finale and an overly hectic finale. In fact, the funniest moments in "The Comedy of Terrors" (apart from the vivid performances) include the little gags and simplistic running jokes. For example Felix pronouncing Waldo Trumball's name incorrectly but nonetheless claiming he's right or Trumball repeatedly trying to feed his father-in-law his "medicine", which is a flagon that clearly states the word "poison" and a skull on it. This exact same medicine is put to another brilliant use at the very end of the film, by the way