Arnold

The Abominable Dr Phibes was quite successful. One of the first films to feature "creative deaths", it was soon followed by a sequel and imitations (Theater of Blood, also with Vincent Price).

Arnold follows the pattern of someone who may or may not be dead getting revenge on those who have wronged him. Here we have a corpse (is it really millionaire Arnold Dewellyn?) who lays in his coffin for the entire movie while tapes of his voice are played at various intervals. Arnold knows his greedy relatives are after his money, but he has a surprise for each of them. Who will survive???

This movie is basically a comedy, with some semi-gruesome murders (tame by today's standards) thrown in. If you like black-comedies (Murder By Death for example) you should enjoy this PG rated Bing Crosby Production (BCP). The cast is great: Stella Stevens, Roddy McDowell, Elsa Lanchester, Victor Buono, Charles Fox.

The movie did hardly any business in 1973. BCP sold the movie to be tacked on to double bills. In 1976 it was paired with Grizzly! In the mid 80's it finally came to television on the Late Show, and then a year later to video.

It is out of print now, and very hard to see (cable TV has NOT embraced it). It is a cult movie waiting to be discovered. It is certainly weird enough!

One of my sci-fi/horror/fantasy reviews written 50 years ago: Directed by George Fenady; produced by Andrew J. Fenady for Cinerama Releasing. Screenplay by Jameson Brewer and John Fenton Murray; photography by William Jurgenson; edited by Melvin Shapiro; assistant director: Daniel McCauley. Starring Stella Stevens, Roddy McDowall, Elsa Lanchester, Shani Wallis, Farley Granger, Victor Buono, Bernard Fox, John McGiver, Patrick Knowles, Jamie Farr, Norman Stuart, Ben Wright and Wanda Bailey. Original title was: "Family Plot".

Ridiculously TV-oriented in its pablum script and direction with bland TV lighting to boot. This great step backward in ultra-phony, sloppy studio anti-realism takes off on horror/mysteries of "The Old Dark House" genre with insipid, tedious attempts at humor -for one of the most embarrassing of the modern horror films. Especially for its fine (on paper) walk-through cast.

Arnold is everything a black comedy should be! It has the all the cynicism and wit of a Gogol novel. Another terrific performance by the incomparable Roddy McDowell...if only I could find out where to buy one of his "shrink wrap suits" to send to all of my "favourite" people.

ARNOLD opens with the unholy matrimony of Karen (Stella Stevens) and the non-living, coffin-bound title character. Karen has "married" Arnold postmortem, per his request, in order to inherit his vast fortune.

It's revealed during the reading of the will, that Karen is the only person whom Arnold trusted. His other "friends" and relatives include his daffy sister, Hester (Elsa Lanchester); the ultra-slimy, Robert (Roddy McDowall); Evan (Farley Granger); and Evan's mysterious, faithful servant, Dybbi (Jamie Farr).

It's not long before these detestable people start perishing in twisted, terrible ways. As Constable Hooke (Bernard Fox) investigates, the question is: Is Arnold committing murder from beyond the grave?

Soaked in an atmosphere of hilarious gloom, and boasting classic devices such as secret passages, paintings with eyeholes, etc., ARNOLD is a fun horror / comedy with a truly macabre sensibility.

Expect nothing of a serious nature, and you should enjoy yourself...

I've noticed there aren't a lot of comments on this film, and for good reason. It's been burried in the annals of time, from that dark age where films where made before Direct to Video that were obviously prime candidates.

I managed to see the piece with my fiance last weekend on television as part of a run of 'bad movies'. We intended to go out to a show that night, but ended up caught up in the funny weirdness of the story, the sets, the acting, the whole mess, and couldn't leave. Each time we planned to get up to go, we remained seated, glued to the set, in awe of the bizzare feature. It was like some sort of perverse Estragon and Vladimir situation.

And if that isn't a recommendation, I don't know what is.

It's certainly no classic. It's a pretty lousy movie. The cheerful early seventies theme that opens the feature ("How happy we'll be, together you and me... Arrrrnold, Arrrnold!") is played over the background of a funeral in an obviously small soundstage with styrafoam tombstones and the obligatory raven and fog, which is of course hillarious.

But it's a fun watch. No one in it thinks they're in a classic, and the whole situation gets quite laughable frequently. It's got enough aspects of a whodunit to be vaugly interesting.

Best points are probably the police constable commenting 'Now, is this place a cemetary because it's always foggy here, or is it always foggy here because it's a cemetary?' and the tapedeck in the coffin. Oyvey!

The only word for it is 'hypnotic'. You'll keep watching. You won't believe what you're seeing, yet you'll have to watch more.

In the words of the bobby "If I hadn't a seen it I wouldn'ta believed it!"