Starring Jack Haley, Jean Parker, Bela Lugosi, Blanche Yurka, Lyle Talbot
Directed by Frank McDonald
(actor & director credits courtesy IMDB.com)
An insurance salesman calls on a millionaire with dreams of selling him a policy, only to find him deceased and his heirs scheming to abduct his body to get a better inheritance.
I enjoyed this mystery-comedy with plenty of "Old Dark House" elements, from secret passages to a mysterious murderer among the heirs to a storm that strands the participants in the spooky mansion. Haley offers a fine comic lead performance, Parker is appealing as the noblest of the heirs, and Lugosi is well-cast as the sinister butler who may or may not be trying to poison the coffee he serves to the mansion's guests. However, I've never been able to find a copy of this film in an acceptable print, so the image on the DVD I viewed is very murky with many dark scenes hard to view, and inexplicable bright triangle shapes that pop up on screen at regular intervals. I hope to see a more pristine version of the film someday, but still find it worthwhile.
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