BY HANK REINEKE
On the very month that Roger Corman’s The Raven was to hit theaters in January
1963, AIP announced that they had just signed a four year eight-film contract
with that film’s co-star Peter Lorre. The contract was an interesting one as it wasn’t exclusive: the actor
wasn’t necessarily barred from accepting acting offers from other studios. But the contract stipulated Lorre could not
accept any roles offered of “the horror, science-fiction, macabre type,†and certainly
not in any competing non-AIP Edgar Allan Poe film adaptation. Such movies would remain the domain of AIP,
which had recently been on a hot streak with their churning of Gothic horrors. Arkoff and Nicholson triumphantly announced
they had already readied two new projects for Lorre, one titled It’s Alive (reported to co-star Elsa (The Bride of Frankenstein) Lanchester and
a second, The Comedy of Terrors. The former film, alas, would never see the
light of day.
Then, in March of ’64, AIP announced a similar deal had
been struck with the aging and increasingly frail Boris Karloff. Perhaps sensing that the seventy-six year old
Karloff’s faltering health might prove a liability, the actor’s contract called
for a more cautious four film, two-year deal. As with Lorre, the rider in Karloff’s contract also precluded him from
appearing in any non-AIP horror-type pictures in the years 1963-1965.
In the final tally, Karloff was able to fulfill to the
terms of the deal struck, appearing in two films, The Comedy of Terrors and The
Terror in 1963. His concluding two
films for AIP were less demanding on the beloved actor. He would appear in a cameo role in the Annette
Funicello and Frankie Avalon romp Bikini
Beach (1964) and, lastly, as “The Corpse†– a somewhat more substantial seated
role for the mostly wheelchair-bound actor - in the Nancy Sinatra vehicle Ghost in the Invisible Bikini (released
1966).
Lorre’s tenure with AIP was, sadly, cut short. The actor appeared, memorably, in The Comedy of Terrors and, in a brief
cameo, in still another Frankie and Annette teen-comedy Muscle Beach Party (1964). These two films would be among his last released. Lorre was found dead, the apparent victim of
a stroke, in his apartment on Hollywood Boulevard in March of 1964. He was a mere 59 years of age. Vincent Price, his co-star in both The Raven and The Comedy of Terrors, told the Los
Angeles Times that he was “crushed†when he learned of his friend’s
passing. “Peter was the most inventive actor I’ve ever
known,†Price memorialized. “He was a great scholar, an accomplished dramatic
actor and a masterful comedian. Peter liked to make pictures which entertained
people, not critics. He didn’t have any pretensions about conveying messages to
the world.â€
AIP was doing very well, thank you, not making edgy
soapbox pictures. So well, in fact, that
in October of 1963, Nicholson and Arkoff announced that 1964 was going to be
their biggest year ever. The two were
feeling, justifiably, cocky. Two months
earlier the national Theater Owners Association named the pair “Producers of
the Year.†AIP was riding high and the
company’s future plans were being readied to be put into aggressive
motion. The producers planned for no
fewer than twenty-three films to be put into production - with the caveat that
only nine would actually be filmed in costly Hollywood. Their promised investment of twenty-five
millions dollars into these twenty odd projects would mark a twenty-five
percent increase in their budget expenditures of the previous year.
“In the field of Edgar Allan Poe, the teen-age appeal
‘beach’ pictures and in comedy-terror, AIP will continue to be the leaders with
even bigger and better productions,†the partners promised via a crowing press
release. Though they had definite
designs on AIP’s future, they also thought it time to look back on what had been
issued since their incorporation in 1955. To stoke interest in two new Poe adaptations scheduled for release in
’64 (The Masque of the Red Death and City in the Sea), the company also
planned to reissue twin-bills of earlier efforts, pairing House of Usher with The Pit
and the Pendulum and The Premature
Burial with Tales of Terror.
One of the films that AIP had hoped would carry the day
was The Comedy of Terrors, the title
a jokey if macabre homage to the famous Shakespeare play. The title was the idea of screenwriter
Richard Matheson. Nicholson wanted to
title the film Graveside Story, a
lampoon of the recent box-office musical smash West Side Story. Matheson
conceded that Nicholson’s suggested moniker might have ultimately brought in
more patrons to the cinema to see the film, but he believed that the insert of the
word “comedy†into the title might possibly have alienated horror-film
stalwarts. Though a non-Poe production,
the film would share many of the same qualities – and technical crew - of that
series. The movie would re-team the
“Triumvirate of Terror†that made The
Raven such a great success:
Lorre, Karloff, and – of course – AIP’s number one ghoul Vincent Price.
One key member of the team that would be missing from the
set was Roger Corman. The antsy director
was interested in going off in another direction with such films as his Grand
Prix drama The Young Racers (1963). The figure eventually chosen to replace
Corman in the director’s chair was certainly no slouch. Matheson suggested that Jacques Tourneur, the
French-born director of several of the greatest RKO horror-mystery films of the
1940s (Cat People, I Walked with a
Zombie, and The Leopard Man) would
be well-suited to the task, the pair having recently worked together on an
episode of The Twilight Zone.
The producers agreed and Tourneur was promptly signed. The pipe-smoking auteur had been working in
the film industry since the late 1920s, but his fortunes and opportunities had
reversed in the succeeding decade. He
went from directing critically-acclaimed features in the 1940s to helming
television dramas throughout most of the 1950s. The offer to direct The Comedy of
Terrors would give the fifty-nine old director an opportunity to get back
into the game.
One of the prizes that AIP dangled before him was an
opportunity to direct one of the most ambitious films that they had on their
schedule. In December of 1963, AIP
signed the Frenchman to direct a lavish production of Genghis Kahn, a 70mm “Technirama†epic to be shot in Italy and
Spain at a cost of some 4.5 million dollars. That film would, of course, never see production, so Tourneur had to
settle on helming AIP’s succeeding Poe-project War Gods of the Deep, a very
free adaptation of the author’s City by
the Sea.
Matheson recalled that the role of John F. Black,
eventually played by Basil Rathbone in The
Comedy of Terrors, was originally designed with Karloff in mind. But the role was a hugely physical one, and
Karloff’s mobility issues and emphysema precluded his accepting the part. Regardless, having Karloff’s name on the
marquee of a horror film still carried a lot of value, so he was given the role
– if little substantial screen time - as the doddering Amos Hinchley. Matheson would later sigh that the legendary
actor wasn’t given the opportunity to “do too much of anything†in the film –
though he would figure as a key player in the film’s dénouement.
Rathbone was actually a splendid replacement, appearing as
a hoary poof who recites Shakespeare soliloquies and performs all manner of
physical comedy. The problem he causes
Price and Lorre, two perversely unethical morticians, is that the
cataleptic-prone character he portrays steadfastly chooses to remain un-dead despite the pair’s devious
machinations, an obvious detriment to their funeral business. Though the film’s box-office totals did not
match that of The Raven, Matheson
maintained The Comedy of Terrors
still did OK when all was said and done. In his view, the penny-pinching producers of AIP were very box-office savvy
and “didn’t spend enough money to lose money.â€
The film did well enough that in September of ’63, just
as shooting was near completion, there was some scuttlebutt that most of the assembled
talent in the film – including actress Joyce Jameson who played Price’s frustrated
wife – would be reunited on screen before long. Nicholson once again teased Graveside Story as the working title on
the company’s next horror-comedy extravaganza. Matheson recalls that another actress, Tallulah Bankhead, was also in
contention for a role in the projected film. The problem was that, similarly to Karloff, the aging actress’s health
was also in decline. Bankhead’s recent
plum role in the Hammer Films production Die!
Die! My Darling (1964) was reportedly almost scrubbed due to her health
issues, but the production of that film managed to soldier on regardless.
Matheson had even written the screenplay for the
projected new film, a self-described comedy-thriller, now titled Sweethearts and Horror. Sadly, the passing of Lorre in early winter
’64 and the producer’s hesitancy of working with two cast members with day-to-day
health issues effectively put the kibosh on the project. If film fans desire to learn what they missed
due to this confluence of bad breaks and health-related caution, they need only
check out Matheson’s Visions Deferred:
Three Unfilmed Screenplays (Gauntlet Press, 2009). The book includes the screenwriter’s unproduced
script for Sweethearts and Horror.
If The Comedy of
Terrors was to serve as a template for producing Sweethearts and Horror, it might have been for the best. It’s not that the former is not a serviceable
and entertaining film – it’s actually quite funny in moments - but its
predecessor The Raven was certainly
the better film. One might reasonably
assume that had Sweethearts been
made, that film might have reflected another step down on the pedestal.
I for one, would have loved to have seen it made
regardless, even if Lorre was no longer around to once again take part in
ghoulish revelry with friends Price and Karloff. I simply love all of these colorful ‘60s AIP
horror films – produced tongue-in-cheek or otherwise. Should you share my enthusiasm, dim the
lights, stretch out on the couch some late Saturday night, snack on a bowl of
popcorn, relax and enjoy The Comedy of
Terrors. You might not be
enlightened, but you will be entertained.
This impressive Kino Lorber Studio Classics Blu-ray
edition of The Comedy of Terrors is
presented here in a 1920x1080p with an aspect ratio of 2.35:1 and dts sound. There
are removable English subtitles and an attractive slipcase cover. The set also includes featurette Richard Matheson: Storyteller and an
audio commentary track by film historian, author, and publisher Tim Lucas. The release rounds out with the film’s
original theatrical trailer as well as an additional eight titles from Kino’s
Vincent Price catalog.
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