Karloff and Lugosi are back together again, and this time, they aren't on opposite sides, but along with Peter Lorre, plotting the hopefully perfect crime. There's no vampire chaser or torch-carrying townspeople after them, just a wacky bandleader (Kay Kyser) and his assorted group of nutty band members. Helen Parrish is the heir to her aunt Alma Kruger's estate, but Aunt Alma is into the occult, under the spell of evil swami Lugosi and devoted to her attorney Karloff. Peter Lorre arrives at a party to celebrate Parrish's birthday as an investigator of fraudulent occult leaders where Parrish is in danger from someone trying to murder her.
The corny Kay Kyser had a hit radio show in the late 1930's and 1940's. He made one film a year at RKO from 1939 to 1943, and here, he gets to spoof the old dark house genre. The three villains are all appropriately creepy, and Kruger, usually cast as a stern dowager, is closer to the type of roles Billie Burke was playing. Dennis O'Keefe, who appeared in another similar film the same year ("Topper Returns"), is again the handsome hero protecting the endangered heroine. A cute little pup with a glow-in-the-dark waggedy tale also gets to steal a few scenes and even ends up a hero.
Musically, there are some good things here, with pretty Ginny Simms singing the Oscar Nominated "I'd Know You Anywhere". Two comical numbers are presented with some truly corny visual and verbal gags, including "Like the Fella Once Said" and the totally silly "The Bad Humor Man", giving mop-topped Ish Kabibble (the name says it all) his opportunity to take silliness to a new level of eye-rolling groans. When the film focuses on the supernatural elements of the script, it gives out a few goose-bumps, especially Lugosi's sound-altered voice coming from an instrument attached to his windpipe. That instrument, used for a musical finale, may not have altered the shape of American music, but it does provide both chills and amusement here. Corny humor may not have aged gracefully as we got more cynical, but in small doses, it can be amusing.
The corny Kay Kyser had a hit radio show in the late 1930's and 1940's. He made one film a year at RKO from 1939 to 1943, and here, he gets to spoof the old dark house genre. The three villains are all appropriately creepy, and Kruger, usually cast as a stern dowager, is closer to the type of roles Billie Burke was playing. Dennis O'Keefe, who appeared in another similar film the same year ("Topper Returns"), is again the handsome hero protecting the endangered heroine. A cute little pup with a glow-in-the-dark waggedy tale also gets to steal a few scenes and even ends up a hero.
Musically, there are some good things here, with pretty Ginny Simms singing the Oscar Nominated "I'd Know You Anywhere". Two comical numbers are presented with some truly corny visual and verbal gags, including "Like the Fella Once Said" and the totally silly "The Bad Humor Man", giving mop-topped Ish Kabibble (the name says it all) his opportunity to take silliness to a new level of eye-rolling groans. When the film focuses on the supernatural elements of the script, it gives out a few goose-bumps, especially Lugosi's sound-altered voice coming from an instrument attached to his windpipe. That instrument, used for a musical finale, may not have altered the shape of American music, but it does provide both chills and amusement here. Corny humor may not have aged gracefully as we got more cynical, but in small doses, it can be amusing.