Le week-end de l'épouvante

A good film that borrowed on the 'mousetrap' plot, & rather predictable. Acted out at a fast pace with great enthusiasm by all. Sid James was his usual brilliant self & Ken Connor too. Shirley Eaton played her part well. Dressed in a shift over a nylon slip for much of the film, strange how, when running from room to room, she'd continually hold her shift together in an attempt to stop it falling open thus giving us a glimpse of her slip underneath. Naively prudish of her, & ironic in that 2 yrs later she would appear in a Bond film wearing nothing but a coat of paint! At the time Ken Connor was one of the most sought after comedy film actors.

What a great movie, laugh, jump with terror (ish) a classic story with a obvious ending but still funny. Sid James and Kenneth Connor are a great comedy pair.See how young Shirley Eaton is WOW. Nice film in the middle of the carry on's.

Novel proof reader Ernie is reading horror novels late one night when he has interrupted by a mysterious man claiming to be the lawyer representing Ernie's late uncle who has recently passed on. Ernie and his friend Sid travel up to his uncle's creepy mansion in Yorkshire to attend the reading of the will with the rest of the unhinged family. However a murder occurs within the group and anyone could be the suspect. Ernie and Sid try to avoid joining the body count while working out who is behind the killings.

The leads here made me think this would be a Carry On style film a la `Carry on screaming'. However it is more of a gentle spoof than a festival of innuendo and excess. The plot is the story `The Ghoul' rewritten for laughs, and it contains every horror cliché that exists! From the thunderstorm, the power cut right down to the inclusion of Donald Pleasance in the cast! Of course it's never going to be a great film, rather it's clichéd and played for gentle laughs without completely making fun of the material. Instead the story is the same but the characters are made fun of and exaggerated for humour.

The two leads are also given reign to make fun and operate outside of the clichés in the story. In fact Sid draws attention to them well and it helped me laugh along with him basically giving a nudge and a wink. James is always strong in the type of role where he gets to play himself and Kenneth Connor does well as the timid jumpy side of the duo.

Overall it isn't hilarious rather gently amusing. The plot is all cliché – but then that's the point. Sid James and Kenneth Connor deliver convincingly and do well where other performers may have struggled to be relaxed and enjoyable.

Spooky-looking Donald Pleasance visits Kenneth Connor to tell him that his uncle is dead and he must be present for the reading of the will. Out at the castle on the moor, there is the usual assortment of greedy relatives, Shirley Eaton, the cute nurse, and Michael Gough doing a Boris Karloff impression as the butler. Plus of course, Connor's pal Sid James, who figures he's on to a good thing. When Pleasance reads the will, however, only Miss Eaton is left anything: the pill bottles. They all settle in for the night, and then someone starts killing them all in this Old Dark House comedy.

There's long been a tendency of the Old Dark House genre to indulge in comedy, and this looks suspiciously like a feature-length version of THE LAUREL-HARDY MURDER CASE, with James and Connor playing a variation on the Boys. While the mystery aspect of the movie is pretty good, the comedy is fairly standard.... but very well executed.

I've finally managed to get my hands on a copy of this movie, after searching websites, video stores, and many a failed bid on eBay. And although it's a while since I last watched it, this movie is as good, if not better, than I remember.

Sid James gets the best lines, and delivers them with the consummate ease of a true professional. Kenneth Connor is a bit like his roles in the early Carry On's - but he was very good in them. Throw in a wonderfully sinister Donald Pleasance, the typically statuesque and beautiful Shirley Eaton, and a host of other suitable strange and quirky characters, all locked in a creepy mansion where the guests begin dropping like flies one by one. It all adds up to a marvelous romp - not so much scary as very creepy, very suspenseful, and very, very funny.