The Boogie Man Will Get You

Karloff and Lorre attempt to make superhuman zombies for the war effort. Its far from the best horror comedy ever made but if you click into its loopy silliness you're in for a breezy hour plus.

What can I say I found it charming and sweet even as seemingly ghoulish things were going on. Some people I know find it dumb, and to be honest, it is dumb, but the chance to see Lorre and Karloff being silly together years before Roger Corman brought them together again is a joy.

Should you run across this film, by all means see it, you may not laugh but you will smile from start to finish is a goofy sort of way.

This film was quite enjoyable for what it was. A cockeyed optimist(Miss Jeff Daniels) buys a rundown colonial era inn with high hopes and decides to allow the current inhabitants, among them a scientist working on a device that will help the Allies win the war(Boris Karloff)and an old woman who obsesses about chickens, to stay on. Her bumbling ex-husband has followed her. The scientist is soon joined by the sheriff/coroner/justice of the peace (and purveyor of baldness cures),played by Peter Lorre. The big question is: Is there are or aren't there a room full of corpses in a secret room off the wine cellar? They have been experimenting on travelling salesmen who happen by the house,using the standard bulb- and- helmet type of contraption that should be familiar to moviegoers. Lorre's character packs a huge pistol and keeps a Siamese kitten in his pocket, claiming that "she has a incredible sense for crime and corruption." Good thing.

(Miss) Jeff Donnell (yes, that's how she's billed) plays a woman who loves the charm of anything antique and buys a rundown old inn to renovate, much to the dismay of her ex-husband, Larry Parks. These two are fine in their roles as the squabbling exes, but honestly those parts are secondary to the real stars of the picture, Boris Karloff and Peter Lorre.

Karloff owns the place, but is being evicted and needs Donnell's cash. He asks only to stay on to finish his 'experiments' in the basement: Karloff, as sweet and grandfatherly as can be, has created a machine he's sure can turn a mere mortal into superman and win the war..unfortunately, glitches in the procedure have produced nothing except the five bodies in the wine cellar. Also staying are the chicken-obsessed housekeeper (Maude Eburne) and a handyman who likes to carry his piglets about the house.

To make the sale legal, they call in Peter Lorre..the local mayor/coroner/sheriff/seller of insurance and hair tonic. Lorre's character is terrific--dressed all in black with a cute little kitten in his pocket. Parks sees bodies (that vanish) and Donnell thinks he's just trying to scare her, and she continues to believe the loony characters are just dears. When Lorre finds out about the bodies, he doesn't make an arrest--he suggests Karloff cut him in on the invention, and they are thrilled when Maxie Rosenbloom knocks on the door selling powder puffs (all the 'subjects' were salesmen) so they crank up the machine one more time. Things go from wacky to full-blown chaos to tie up all the loose plot strings.

This was obviously a take on "Arsenic and Old Lace"..Parks is no Cary Grant and this is not on a par with that classic comedy, but it is just silly enough to be charming, and worth seeing if only for Lorre and Karloff in a comic/satirical take of their usual frightful roles.

Horror King Boris Karloff seems to be having a good time here spoofing his own mad doctor image in this light-hearted black comedy which was probably inspired by ARSENIC AND OLD LACE. As a kindly (but naive) old inventor, the wacky Karloff wants to "aid the war effort" by creating his own homegrown superman. Boris teams up in this one with the offbeat Peter Lorre as another "scientist" and "jack of all trades" to bop unsuspecting subjects over the head for usage in their daffy experiments. One of their dimwitted victims is even Max "Slapsie Maxie" Rosenbloom. Karloff and Lorre make a good comical duo in the first of a few films where they'd eventually share the spotlight together, and there are some light chuckles to be had in this good natured, if uneven, diversion. **1/2 out of ****

A curious film which weaves satirical comments about World War Two into a modified "Arsenic and Old Lace" theme, together with an implicit weakness of technology and what passes for science. The strongest satire revolves around nutty Professor Nathaniel Billings (Boris Karloff), a mad but seemingly harmless scientist, whose attempt at creating a superman is so close to Hitler's expressed plan for a superman race that the parallel cannot be ignored. The film was produced during a time of military victories for the Axis powers, at a point in World War Two when the Allies were all but powerless to resist. Satire seemed the only sure weapon. As a movie, it's great fun, with a cast much too sophisticated for both the plot and the script. In effect, the acting skill of both Karloff and Peter Lorre (as Dr Lorenz) are the film's salvation. As wacky as the characters are, they seem plausible representations of real folks, which makes one wonder who, indeed, is really in charge of the asylum.