Producers: Bill Pine, Bill Thomas. A Pine-Thomas Production, filmed at Fine Arts Studios, for Paramount release.
Copyright 17 October 1944 by Paramount Pictures, Inc. New York opening at the Rialto: 24 November 1944. U.S. release: Not recorded. Australian release: 28 June 1945. 6,840 feet. 75 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: An insurance salesman gets himself waylaid as a bodyguard (literally!) in a spooky old house filled with expectant heirs.
COMMENT: From The Old Dark House to One Body Too Many is neither a great jump in story or characters. Once again the setting is the spooky, many-roomed mansion of an eccentric millionaire type and once again the plot contrives to fill the place with a whole gallery of fascinating people. Where the two films part company lies in the degree to which they command an audience's attention.
Although One Body actually runs only four minutes more than Old Dark House, it still seems about twenty minutes too long. The main problem is that Jack Haley is no Bob Hope. Following Hope's successes in The Cat and the Canary (1939) and The Ghost Breakers (1940), this role was obviously crafted with the ski-nosed comedian firmly in mind, but Haley just can't quite bring it off. Furthermore, Frank Blondie McDonald's direction is somewhat on the slow and heavy-handed side, lacking the skill and polish that a Sidney Lanfield or George Marshall would have brought to the production.
So what we actually have here is an imitation Bob Hope vehicle made by a second-string unit with a second-string cast. Second-string? So what's Lugosi doing in the movie? At this stage of his career, he was already acting along Poverty Row. If anything, One Body Too Many represented a distinct step up the ladder. Mind you, the role is nothing more than window-dressing or, put another way, a red herring. Nonetheless, Bela gives it a good shot. Partnered by Blanche A Tale of Two Cities Yurka of all people, he is certainly mildly amusing. The rest of the players are okay so far as they go. But shrill-voiced Jean Parker is no Dorothy Lamour, nor heavy-on-the-bluster Douglas Fowley a budding Claude Rains. Our chief problem, however, is Jack Haley. He simply tries too hard to impersonate Hope, yet not nearly hard enough to develop his own character. By the humble standards of Pine-Thomas, production values are pretty good with fine moody photography by the junior Jackman and reasonably spooky sets by F. Paul Sylos.
Copyright 17 October 1944 by Paramount Pictures, Inc. New York opening at the Rialto: 24 November 1944. U.S. release: Not recorded. Australian release: 28 June 1945. 6,840 feet. 75 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: An insurance salesman gets himself waylaid as a bodyguard (literally!) in a spooky old house filled with expectant heirs.
COMMENT: From The Old Dark House to One Body Too Many is neither a great jump in story or characters. Once again the setting is the spooky, many-roomed mansion of an eccentric millionaire type and once again the plot contrives to fill the place with a whole gallery of fascinating people. Where the two films part company lies in the degree to which they command an audience's attention.
Although One Body actually runs only four minutes more than Old Dark House, it still seems about twenty minutes too long. The main problem is that Jack Haley is no Bob Hope. Following Hope's successes in The Cat and the Canary (1939) and The Ghost Breakers (1940), this role was obviously crafted with the ski-nosed comedian firmly in mind, but Haley just can't quite bring it off. Furthermore, Frank Blondie McDonald's direction is somewhat on the slow and heavy-handed side, lacking the skill and polish that a Sidney Lanfield or George Marshall would have brought to the production.
So what we actually have here is an imitation Bob Hope vehicle made by a second-string unit with a second-string cast. Second-string? So what's Lugosi doing in the movie? At this stage of his career, he was already acting along Poverty Row. If anything, One Body Too Many represented a distinct step up the ladder. Mind you, the role is nothing more than window-dressing or, put another way, a red herring. Nonetheless, Bela gives it a good shot. Partnered by Blanche A Tale of Two Cities Yurka of all people, he is certainly mildly amusing. The rest of the players are okay so far as they go. But shrill-voiced Jean Parker is no Dorothy Lamour, nor heavy-on-the-bluster Douglas Fowley a budding Claude Rains. Our chief problem, however, is Jack Haley. He simply tries too hard to impersonate Hope, yet not nearly hard enough to develop his own character. By the humble standards of Pine-Thomas, production values are pretty good with fine moody photography by the junior Jackman and reasonably spooky sets by F. Paul Sylos.