The Comedy of Terrors (1963)

Director: Jacques Tourneur

Starring: Vincent Price, Peter Lorre, Boris Karloff, Joyce Jameson, Joe E. Brown, Beverly Powers, Basil Rathbone

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Your favorite creeps...together again!

Plot: Waldo Trumbull, an undertaker who hasn't had any 'customers' in a long time is forced the pay one year's back-rent. To get money he starts to kill people in order to get new clients.

My rating: 8/10

Will I watch it again? Yes.

This is my first viewing and I loved it.  Vincent Price is in rare form.  It's such a treat when I see iconic actors doing something different for a change.  Just like in HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL (1959), the dialogue exchanges between Price's character and his on-screen wife are priceless.  He's scathing in his treatment of Amaryllis (Jameson) and it's hilarious at every turn.  Price is wickedly funny and he's having the time of his life doing it, too.  Boris Karloff surprised the hell out of me in that I didn't recognize him until halfway into the picture.  Like Price, he's showing off his skills as an actor and he completely transformed his usual horror persona into something completely different and funny.  The final scene between him and Price is one for the books.  This has got several laugh out loud moments even if you don't dig the broad comedy approach to some of the situations.  Sometimes the comedy bits were too much for me but I found so much to love with everything else.  And what's cooler (besides the playful and fun Les Baxter score) is that it was directed by the gifted Jacques "CAT PEOPLE (1942)" Tourneur and I belted out a big laugh when his name appeared during the closing credits with Rhubarb the Cat walking across the screen.  Nice touch.