(1964)
Dir - Jacques Tourneur
Overall: GREAT
As a follow-up to the horror/comedy hybrid The Raven, The Comedy of Terrors dives full into the sillies and despite the movie-going public of the day never making it a hit, it probably deserved to be one. Saying Vincent Price is great is of a cliche in and of itself, but it really is almost amazing how scene stealing the world's all time greatest horror movie actor truly was. Price can simply stumble around in a mock-drunken stupor and without a word of dialog can make you feel exactly what you are supposed to. In this case being hysterics. Though this is not as gut-bustery as say some of Abbot and Costello's monster romps, (it is actually more childish and silly), there are laugh out loud moments in spades. Few are better than Basil Rathbone's absurd Mr. Black refusing to die while Price and Peter Lorre are sitting on his casket and hopelessly convincing him that he has indeed passed on. That and Price's tone-deaf wife Amaryllis, (Joyce Jameson), banshee-ing away and literally killing plants with her vocal "gifts". Surprisingly perhaps it is Boris Karloff's ancient, clueless, and deaf Amos Hinchley who is the funniest part. Karloff hardly if at all ever got to play something so over-the-top for laughs and he just kills it in his unfortunate few moments of screen time. Likewise, the script by always competent Richard Matheson is impressive as a send-up to the type of serious work that he usually delivered and excelled at.
(1965)
Dir - Daniel Haller
Overall: MEH
Damn, American International Pictures sure as ass loved to burn down their sets at the end of all of their movies didn't they? Speaking of those sets, art director Daniel Haller designed most all of them for the Roger Corman/Edgar Allan Poe/Vincent Price vehicles and Die, Monster, Die! was his directorial debut. He would make The Dunwich Horror five years later which as Monster, Die! was also based on the works of H.P. Lovecraft. Unfortunately, Haller does not have quite the visual flare of Corman nor his pacing on a bad day and even at under an hour and a half, this movie plods along too much. The set up is identical to far superior outings like House of Usher or The Pit and Pendulum; a guy comes from out of town to a creepy, foggy mansion that is falling apart and boasts no vegetation, then a crazy old guy lives there harboring a deep, evil family secret greets him. Karloff filling in for Vincent Price's usual role is not surprisingly the best thing here as even wheelchair bound as he often was in his last decade making films, he still steals scenes and delivers his lines with his unmistakably commanding voice. The film ultimately substitutes the supernatural for sci-fi type details in the end, though Karloff's Nahum Witley's glowing super zombie is enough of a horror-esque treat in the showdown.
Along with other lighthearted horror fare from the era such as The Munsters, Scooby-Doo Where Are You!, The Addams Family, and Groovie Goolies, Rankin Bass Productions' Mad Monster Party? is fun kids stuff that uses the classic Universal Monsters as an object of parody/homage. The script was co-written by Mad Magazine creator Harvey Kurt and legendary EC Comics/Mad artist Jack Davis did much of the design work. Besides the story and look of the film, the performances also play heavily in selling the enjoyment. Boris Karloff plays Dr. Frankenstein which is as obvious of a casting choice as there has ever been, Phyllis Diller is ridiculous as the Monster's Mate whose rendition of "You're Different" may be one of the most absurdly "sung" musical numbers in cinema, and voice actor Allen Swift does a number of noticeable celebrity parodies, handling most every other character. Right along with the other Rankin/Bass stop-motion classic Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer during Christmas time, Monster Party? is more or less the Halloween equivalent and nearly as essential.
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