20. The Comedy of Terrors (1963), dir. Jacques Tourneur, broadcast 6 May

[strange_complex]

This film came at the end of what had felt like a long week, so I was in something of a state of torpor on the sofa by the time it came on and don't think I really engaged with it very productively. But I also don't think the problem was entirely me - it just wasn't really up to much, and I'm afraid has only confirmed my existing view that few horror comedies really are.


20. The Comedy of Terrors (1963), dir. Jacques Tourneur, broadcast 6 May

Original tweet-along thread

Individual tweets:

It's Friday night at the #CellarClub, and tonight we have The Comedy of Terrors. I don't think I've ever seen it, so it's time to put that right. #TheFilmCrowd

Loving this classic melodrama music and speeded-up footage as they hastily fill the grave! #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd

This prolific thespian feline has already appeared on screen, and had his own credit in the opening titles as well. Quite the star it seems. He looks a lot like JortsTheCat.



It's a bit odd to see Vincent's character constantly swigging out of that bottle when the whole basis of every acting performance he gave was always biting wit delivered with razor-sharp precision. I don't think he's actually capable of playing drunk. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd

Indeed, just as in Tales of Terror, it's Peter Lorre who is klutzing it up, dropping things all over the place and making a noise. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd

OK, NOW Vincent actually seems to be drunk! Turns out he can do it. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd

Not that he's managed to keep it up, though. He is right back to his usual precisely eloquent self. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd

It's Orangey the Cat again! I'm pretty sure he's the best thing in this film. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd

Orangey not impressed with Peter Lorre's wall-climbing efforts there. He's trying hard not to offer a lesson in how to find proper grips in case he comes across as too patronising. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd

I too often lie in bed reading out loud from Macbeth in the evenings. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd

Vincent's line just then - "A fine mess you've made of things again!" - rather acknowledges the level of comedy on which this is operating. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd

Mr. Black is proving a most uncooperative corpse. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd

I'm not wild about this film overall but some of the photography is good, especially in these interior domestic scenes. Nice green / red contrasts. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd

I'd really like this film to move beyond the 'joke' of this woman being a bad singer now. 😩 #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd

This shot of Vincent coming up through the stairwell is another good example of its very competent cinematography. You could see almost any still from this film and be easily convinced it was a classic. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd

OK, Basil Rathbone refusing to relinquish the Shakespearean spotlight is quite amusing. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd

We're back to speeded-up melodrama, as we began. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd



And the credits roll. That was well-shot, had some great stars (not the least of which was Orangey / Rhubarb the cat) and gave them some decent individual lines. But overall it's confirmed my view that horror-comedy usually fails on both fronts. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd

Comments

[magister]

Would you count Theatre of Blood as horror-comedy?

[strange_complex]

Ooh, an excellent question, because of course it does quite deliberately set out to create humour, so you're hitting nicely on how the two genres relate. And I certainly think a bit of macabre humour can fit nicely into a horror film - e.g. Miles Malleson drumming on the coffin lid in Dracula or a crisp "Pass the marmalade" in Curse of Frankenstein. The emotional relief which those scenes create can help to keep the texture of the film varied, and stop its more serious scenes from tipping too far over into unrelenting grimness or (worse) melodrama.

It's perhaps a question of which is spliced with which. Theatre of Blood delivers real horror spliced with black humour, but The Comedy of Terrors seems to me primarily a farcical run-around which happens to be set in a firm of undertakers. Certainly, you could show a child The Comedy of Terrors without too much worry, because although it deals with death and murder it isn't very realist, but you'd be best advised not to do the same with Theatre of Blood.

[magister]

That's a very good point - genuine horror with humour rippling through it works better. Having something that's primarily comedy and then sticking a moment of horror in with no build-up is far less likely to work.

American Werewolf in London and Scream would be good examples. Both start with something quite gruelling, so that the director can put in moments of humour in the knowledge that the audience knows they're not safe. Any laughter is going to be nervous and laughing with the film rather than at it.

[strange_complex]

American Werewolf in London and Scream would be good examples

Yes, agreed. Again, you wouldn't show them to a typical child, but they are genuinely funny in between the horror.

[magister]

Yeah. Examples of the alternative approach that work - Whale's Old Dark House and What a Carve Up. Genuinely funny with maybe the odd moment of creep but nothing more.

[strange_complex]

Agreed. Though I think we're here touching on something else which we haven't yet articulated above, which is that as well as the balance between the two mattering, it also matters that both the comedic and the horrific aspects in the story are any good at all. I think my overall dislike of horror-comedies stems from there being far too many crappy comedies out there clothing themselves in horror's colours to bad effect, and just feeling like an insult to the genre as a result. Maybe it's all too tempting to think that sending horror up will in and of itself be funny, when in reality horror is already a pretty self-aware genre which is quite capable of poking fun at itself, so a little more effort than that is needed? So, as you've shown, there are examples of both horror spliced with comedy and comedy spliced with horror that work. But in either case, both sides of the equation need to pull their weight, and I think too often the comedy-first examples fall down on that.

[magister]

Yes, you're right. And I think you've hit on the reason why successful horror-comedies are so rare - it's hard enough succeeding at one genre of film. Succeeding at two at the same time is far more so.

I'm honestly struggling to come up with many more. The clichéd answer would be Shaun of the Dead, but I'd query whether it's ever actually scary or whether it really tries to be.

[sovay]

Maybe it's all too tempting to think that sending horror up will in and of itself be funny, when in reality horror is already a pretty self-aware genre which is quite capable of poking fun at itself, so a little more effort than that is needed

Agreed.

[sovay]

But overall it's confirmed my view that horror-comedy usually fails on both fronts.

I've seen several films I would consider successful horror-comedies, but most of them weren't spoofs.

Vincent Price failing to act a convincing drunk sounds delightful.

[strange_complex]

I've seen several films I would consider successful horror-comedies, but most of them weren't spoofs.

Yes. In fact, I think if your main joke is spoofing a genre or particularly popular film, it's really hard to sustain that joke over a film-length treatment. It's perhaps better suited to a sketch show.