Um Cientista Distraído

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.

The Boogie Man Will Get You marks the first joint appearance of Boris Karloff and Peter Lorre in the same film. Both certainly could qualify as Boogie Men for the title, both frightened movie goers for generations. This was their first joint screen appearance and the first film where they spoofed their own images.

Karloff is a scientist of the mad kind who boards in an old colonial type inn that is run by an equally screwy couple George McKay and Maude Eburne. Lorre is the county sheriff and kind of a Grand Pooh Bah of the region, he's everything else official. When he discovers Karloff is experimenting on making zombie like supermen for the war effort, rather than arrest him Peter's intrigued even though five fatalities might be traced to Karloff's experiments.

There's also quarreling couple Jeff Donnell who wants to buy the old inn and Larry Parks her estranged husband who says no. Add to that Maxie Rosenbloom who plays Lorre's amiable lunkhead retainer and you've got a first rate spoof of horror pictures.

Certainly Karloff and Lorre showed they had a flair for comedy which would pop up every so often in their credits midst all the fiendish parts they did play.

Very funny film, should not be missed by fans of either Karloff or Lorre.

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.

While the film fails to offer any actual "Boogieman", it does offer up a variety of decent chuckles, courtesy of its then all-star cast. With a goofy set up, likable characters, and some great slapstick, The Boogie Man Will Get You is a decent, fun little romp from yesteryear.

The plot follows a young woman who decides to purchase an old Colonial mansion in the middle of nowhere with the hopes of turning it into a hotel, even though it is barely standing. Her ex-husband finds her only seconds after she has made the purchase (a plot device never fully explained) and tried to convince her she's been swindled. She doesn't care, having become fond of the eclectic cast of characters that inhabit the house... but little does she know, the old man who works in the basement is actually trying to create a race of electric supermen! Bodies begin piling up (or do they?), Peter Lorre shows up playing the town mayor/sheriff/notary with a kitten in his coat pocket, and general Hollywood hijinks ensue. The ending is a mess, but it ends up being so convoluted, it somehow finds charms in all of its lunacy. While far from intelligent entertainment, you could do a lot worse for 66 minutes of your life.

If you're a Karloff or Lorre fan, its well worth seeing. Others, its hit-or-miss.

Though conceived as a quickie ripoff of "Arsenic and Old Lace," "Boogie Man" now seems more like a weird precursor of "Green Acres," featuring (Miss) Jeff Donnell as a sort of young female Eddie Albert, and Boris Karloff in what might be called the Eva Gabor position, spoofing his kindly old mad scientist roles as a semi-senile inventor attempting to create a race of electrically enhanced supermen in the basement of a crumbling colonial inn while Miss Donnell joyously appraises all the charming old antiques upstairs. Peter Lorre, of all people, gives a rare comic performance as the local version of Mr. Haney, running around dressed like Robert Mitchum in "Night of the Hunter," with a cute little Siamese kitten in his pocket that he periodically coos to in German. This is the sort of movie you used to catch one night on the late late show, and wonder for years afterwards if you'd actually seen it or just dreamt it.