Tonight on Svengoolie-it’s an all-star cast of horror legends- a mix of humor and horror with mirthful morticians who decide to take it upon themselves to create new customers -and a corpse that just won’t stay dead! It’s the scream team of Vincent Price, Peter Lorre, Boris Karloff and Basil Rathbone-making the curtain rise-and bodies fall- in the “Comedy of Terrors”!
This 1963 America International chiller with chuckles begins with mortician Trumbull and his partner Gillie trying to keep their funereal parlor afloat by reusing a coffin over and over! Trumble has plenty to deal with- impending bankruptcy, the lovely wife he continually berates, and her aging father, who he keeps trying to poison in hopes of getting an inheritance.
Things get especially tense when his landlord, Mr. Black, appears with an ultimatum- pay the overdue rent or get evicted! Trumbull decides the only way out is a new scheme- why not kill off wealthy businessmen, and then offer his services to provide the funeral?
The plan doesn’t quite work out, and when Black makes a final demand for the money owed, Trumbull has a new way out- why not murder Black?! Before he and Gillie can pull off the foul deed, the Shakespear-quoting Black has a heart attack -doing the job for them…they think! It seems no one is aware that Black suffers from catalepsy- a condition that makes him only appear to have died!
The dastardly duo deal with Black’s constant demises and resurrections- while Trumbull’s set-upon wife Amaryllis decides to act on Gillie’s infatuation with her – with everyone from her dotty father to her pet cat complicating the situation- leading to everyone out to kill everyone else!
This film, written by Richard Matheson, was planned as a follow-up to the Price/Lorre/Karloff comedy-horror story “The Raven”- with some changes in casting that we will tell you about. We’ll talk about the cast, which also includes a visitor to Mayberry and a classic comedian- be bedeviled again by the Imp and Gwengoolie- bedevil YOU with another round of our drawing game “Too Drawn Out”—and present not one but TWO songs -including a seasonal duet with a legendary little person.
“Comedy of Terrors” begins tonight at 8 pm eastern/pacific, 7 central time tonight. You can join in on the live-Tweeting during the show on Twitter/X – make sure you add the hashtag #svengoolie to your Tweet! This morning, our Chicago area viewers will find us back on the usual channel, CW26, for our Saturday encore of “13 Ghosts” at 11 am.
On a personal note: Rich Koz thanks you for all the kind birthday greetings earlier here I the blog comments this week! He appreciates all your good wishes- but was unable to blow all the candles out by using a rubber chicken as a bellows…
We wish all those who celebrate a happy St. Patrick’s Day (we know many of you are already wearing green in honor of Godzilla’s Oscar win)-and join us tonight for funerial fun with four famous fright fixtures on MeTV!
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(Distract them with adorable pet pix mwah hahaha!)
Ironically, still earlier, Lorre had come close to having played the character Rathbone would later play in SON OF FRANKENSTEIN, Wolf von Frankenstein. Lorre was Universal's first choice, but the Hungarian actor, who was under contract to 20th Century Fox and enjoying great popularity as Japanese detective Mr. Moto over there, turned down the part.
Lorre claimed that, following his starring role in the 1935 MGM horror film MAD LOVE, he had decided not to appear in another "meanie" ever again if he had any say-so in the matter. Universal then briefly considered Claude Rains for the role before finally deciding on Rathbone, which, of course, turned out to be the right decision after all.
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For more on Burke and Hare, you can download this aricle, or check out Wikipedia's page on the subject.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burke_and_Hare_murders
many Canadian actors had their early beginnings at the Shakespeare Festival in Stratford, Ontario.
Christopher Plummer - Hamlet
Lauren Greene - Merchant Of Venice
William Shatner - Henry V
Leslie Nielsen - Julius Caesar
Eric McCormack - A Midsummer Nights Dream
See also https://www.webtoons.com/en/canvas/pixie-and-brutus/list?title_no=452175&page=16
