Watch One Body Too Many For Free

a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

Old dark house comedy starring Jack "Tin Man" Haley as an insurance salesman who goes to a creepy old mansion to sell a millionaire some insurance and gets mixed up in some murderous shenanigans with the recently deceased millionaire's heirs. Most people who see this today are likely doing so because Bela Lugosi is in it and is advertised on DVD covers and the like as being the star. Unfortunately, Bella's part is small and certainly beneath him, no matter his personal demons. He's basically playing a butler. Just a regular butler, not a "The butler did it!" kind. He has a couple of scenes where he gets his red herring on but nothing comes of it. It's not a bad watch for what it is but nothing impressive. Somewhat amusing. The conscience stuff is cute. Pretty Jean Parker is slumming even more than Bela. Doubt I'll ever understand how her career went this far south in the 1940s but it did. Rest of the cast includes Lyle Talbot, Douglas Fowley, Fay Helm, and Dorothy Granger. Surprising this is from Paramount as it has all the earmarks of a poverty row production.

Another winner here from Bela Lugosi, although to be fair he's more of a supporting character here. The film's main protagonist is the who plays hapless life insurance salesman Albert Tuttle, unwittingly drawn into a game of intrigue involving loads of benefactors awaiting the outcome of the will of some rich guy.This rich guy was well into astronomy, and wants to be buried in a glass casket so the stars can shine on him. However, it's stated in his will somewhere that if he gets buried underground, then his will is reversed, and those due very little will get the most. Tuttle doesn't even know the guy is dead, and at first is mistaken for a private detective hired to guard the body (and both the detective and the corpse have gone walkies).Tuttle teams up with the innocent granddaughter of the dead guy to find out who keeps moving the body, and killing off the benefactors. So you've got this Tuttle guy being bopped on the head, buried in a coffin, finding secret passageways, and being harassed for coffee by Bela, who plays the mysterious butler.It's a good laugh all the way as this Tuttle guy gets put through the grinder at every opportunity, having to run around naked to avoid the benefactors, being stalked by someone with a poker, and various other farces. Yep, this film is mainly a comedy with a killer, and who doesn't love a film set in a house with secret passageways. Bela doesn't have too much to do here, but between himself and the guy who played Tuttle (Jack Avery?) One Body Too Many is a good laugh with very few slow spots.

One Body Too Many is a production from Pine-Thomas Paramount B picture unit and after seeing it I'm convinced it was a script and story that was meant for Bob Hope. But old ski nose either rejected this one or was out entertaining the troops during the second World War. So Paramount gave the project to its B unit and got Jack Haley to play the lead.Pine-Thomas assembled a nice cast in a project that was unusual for them, normally they did economical action/adventure stories. This is a comedy involving a late millionaire who was a firm believer in astrology, so much so that he requested to be buried in a glass covered mausoleum like Lenin at the Kremlin so that he would be always under the stars at night. After that the living relatives of whom he didn't have too good an opinion of would split up the estate. Until then they had to live at his house until the burial was done.Poor Haley plays the Bob Hope like schnook who is an insurance salesman and keeps an appointment that he made with the old guy before he passed away. Haley arrives just in time for the reading of the will and the lawyer for the estate thinks he's a bodyguard he hired. Never mind Jack takes the job and the fun starts. If you think a couple of murders that follow is fun.Also in the cast are Bela Lugosi and Blanche Yurka who are the butler and maid. I wish the film had a lot more of them. They look and act so sinister with some lovely eye twinkles. Lugosi had a nice gift for comedy that was too rarely seen on film.The lovely cast of relatives of whom one is a murderer include Lyle Talbot, Jean Parker, Maxine Fife, Lucien Littlefield, Douglas Fowley and Dorothy Granger. Now who do you think is our killer in the cast?One Body Too Many has some funny moments, but a lot of it is a rehash of material from better films. So do you think Hope was busy with the USO or did he pass on this one?

The biggest reason I watched this film is because it co-stars Bela Lugosi. Sure, he made a lot of totally wretched films during his long career (there are too many to list, but would include BELA LUGOSI MEETS A BROOKLYN GORILLA, PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE and BRIDE OF THE MONSTER). However, even his bad films are usually fun to watch--sometimes because they are so bad!! However, I was greatly disappointed to see that Lugosi's part was so small and undeveloped. He played a butler and had NOTHING to do other than to keep offering people coffee! That's really it!! Despite this, the film is pretty good because it doesn't take itself seriously and there are many deliberately funny moments. Now this isn't the most sophisticated humor (as evidenced by its star being Jack Haley), but it has a certain charm that help it to transcend the genre and make it more than just another murder mystery or scary old house film. Not great, but still it's an agreeable time-passer.