Cheesy Fun

It seems odd to do three posts about movies in a row, but it’s really been too hot to do much else.

So I watched a movie that I thought wouldn’t be cheesy and I was right. Then I watched another movie that I thought wouldn’t be cheesy and I was wrong. Then I watched a movie that I thought would be cheesy and I was half right.

One Body Too Many (1944) starring Jack Haley was in Steven’s collection of 50 Horror Classics, but like The Fatal Hour (previously reviewed in this blog), it is more of a murder mystery. According to the DVD box, Bela Lugosi stars, which probably explains the horror designation. Haley gets billed over Lugosi in the credits, and he is the hero of the picture. Lugosi is window dressing as the creepy butler. He adds more to the atmosphere than the plot, but that’s a mere quibble. Lugosi is always a welcome addition to the cast.

I loved the title of the movie, and the plot description sounded promising: an insurance salesman arrives to sell insurance to an rich eccentric but finds the guy already dead and the greedy relatives gathered per instructions in the very eccentric will. The salesman stays to guard the body and protect the beautiful niece.

That’s not a quote; it’s just what I remember from the collection insert. Plus a few descriptive terms of my own. I’m sure you get the idea.

Jack Haley, in case you didn’t know (I had forgotten), played the Tin Man in The Wizard of Oz. I couldn’t quite picture him with the silver face, but once I realized who he was, I remembered the farm hand who looked like that. In this movie he’s my kind of leading man: not arrogant, treats his love interest with respect, makes with the wise cracks, and get comically funny at appropriate moments. I know, a lot of women love the strong, handsome, fearless sort — like Sir Walter Raleigh in The Virgin Queen. I think they are at best a little dull and at worst, big fat jerks (again, like Sir Walter). Give me the funny one every time.

The set up for the movie is utterly ridiculous. I like an eccentric will as well as the next movie goer. But even I can only suspend my disbelief so far. The dead guy wants to be buried in a clear mausoleum so he can view the stars. OK. His heirs must stay in the house till said mausoleum is completed. OK. Then the rest of the will can be read, delineating who gets what. O…K. If in the meantime he gets buried in the ground, everything is reversed and the people who were supposed to get a lot will get a buck and a half and vice versa. Excuse me, what? Is he just trying to cause trouble from beyond the grave? Who thinks of these things, anyways?

The only will I’ve ever actually read was my own, which was drawn up for me in the army. It didn’t say much. Then again, I don’t have eight million dollars. I don’t even have any fancy stuff my relatives might fight over other than, perhaps, my grandmother’s skeleton (not as creepy as it sounds). I suppose the crazy will is just another time honored fictional technique (I wonder if I could do a whole blog post on time honored fictional techniques). Just the same, perhaps I ought to add a codicil or so to my own last testament…

So we’re off on a very silly ride, some of which doesn’t make a whole lot of sense even while you’re watching it (as opposed to the movies that you watch, mesmerized, and only later say, “Waaait a minute!”). For example, at one point Jack Haley is hiding in the coffin and the bad relatives steal it and dump it in the fish pond. Haley can see perfectly well what is going on and, although he cannot get out of the coffin, fish can get in. Steven said there was a window in the coffin. I guess that makes sense, given the clear mausoleum thing. Only, why didn’t the bad relatives notice it wasn’t the old man in the coffin? Perhaps it was explained and I was not paying enough attention. The scene manages to be both funny and scary, so that was good, and the beautiful niece saves him, so that was even better. I do love a movie female who is not useless.

I’m not sure which body is the one too many, because there are a couple of murders as we go on. Haley gets to wander half naked through some secret passages, with which the house seems to be liberally provided, and he gets to save the day in the end.

The movie was cheesy, without a doubt, but I think it was meant to be. It was definitely meant to be funny, and it was. I enjoyed it and may even watch it again. Maybe I can figure out that window in the coffin thing.