Well, yes, Shakespeare it ain't, and yet... Anyone who has read reviews on this film will have a pretty good idea that it isn't a world beater. Aside from that though, there's something gorgeously, exuberantly sweet about it. The dialogue when it isn't odd, is quite funny, and delivered by all with a straight conviction that subverts the silliness of it. This gives the film a kind of odd charm."If I were announced, I doubt I would be received anywhere" and "In short sir, I think you're a cop", or "Lorette, Lorette, I'll make a bet, the man in green, will get you yet..." Somehow Bela Lugosi gives these incongruous lines a life that is at once humorous, gentlemanly,comically sinister and well, intriguing. It's the incongruity of suggested supernatural drama, the vaudeville cop, charmingly played by Nat Pendleton, and the simultaneously wild and wacky Joyce Compton, in short, the odd mixture of affability, nuttiness and mysteriousness that makes this movie fascinating. It's one of the few films whose quality of oddness alone really made me enjoy and watch it a few times. I've often wondered how this film ever got made, who approved the budget after reading the script? for which audience demographic was it intended? and so on. However it got through, I'm glad it did, the world's a better place for the inclusion of odd, good natured films like this. It's like the hairless cat breed, it's not a crowd pleaser, but it makes the cat family more interesting by its very existence. Anyone with a broad sense of humour will love this film. It simply exists, defying all logic and explanation. That's it's charm.
Review of Scared to Death
