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.

It was a dark and comical night... this movie turned out to be a very pleasant surprise! I knew it was a comedy-horror but it was funnier than I expected. This flick is worth watching if you like old school comedy films. I have to say this movie is underrated!! The movie has all the ingredients for a good old fashioned comedy-horror: we have a dead man, a will, greedy & goofy inheritors, a murderer on the loose, a big spooky mansion, secret passages, a stormy night, Bela Lugosi & COFFEE.I think the best parts of the film were: the insurance man in a towel in the secret passageway, the wicker basket, the coffin in the water and COFFEE! LOL. You will have to watch the film to get the scenes I am referring to. COFFEE is peppered throughout the entire film! This is a great afternoon film and would make a great double feature with a film like: The Comedy of Terrors (1963). I highly recommend skipping the COFFEE while watching these films. ;) 9/10

"Leave this house at once if you value your life."Insurance agent, Tuttle, is to sit with the body of a wealthy millionaire while his greedy ancestors await their inheritance from his will. The relatives must stay three days in their wealthy benefactor's mansion or else be disinherited. The contents of the will are not to be read until after the three days are concluded. If the corpse of Cyrus Rutherford is moved, put away successfully, the will be reversed and those who were to get much will get little and vice versa. Rutherford was big on astrology, the stars, and his casket was open-faced with glass so "the stars could shine upon him". Bela Lugosi gets top billing, but he's basically a butler always trying to get the guests of the mansion to drink his coffee(the question is whether or not his coffee is poisoned as he too stands to inherit an allowance for his services to his recently deceased employer). It's actually Jack Haley's movie, as he's a comic foil, bumbling around the mansion, getting himself in trouble unintentionally. The mansion has dead bodies turning up(such as Cyrus' lawyer), secret passageways(Tuttle, in a towel as he was about to bathe, gets lost in the house after walking into one of them located in his closet), and trap doors(the killer uses one to send pursuers after him into the kitchen). Jean Parker is Carol Dunlap, one who stands to inherit if she can stay alive, also Haley's love interest. Played entirely as a comedy with Haley the center of activity, although his Tuttle just wanted to sell Cyrus some insurance.

The biggest reason I watched this film is because it co-stars Bela Lugosi. Sure, he made a lot of totally wretched films during his long career (there are too many to list, but would include BELA LUGOSI MEETS A BROOKLYN GORILLA, PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE and BRIDE OF THE MONSTER). However, even his bad films are usually fun to watch--sometimes because they are so bad!! However, I was greatly disappointed to see that Lugosi's part was so small and undeveloped. He played a butler and had NOTHING to do other than to keep offering people coffee! That's really it!! Despite this, the film is pretty good because it doesn't take itself seriously and there are many deliberately funny moments. Now this isn't the most sophisticated humor (as evidenced by its star being Jack Haley), but it has a certain charm that help it to transcend the genre and make it more than just another murder mystery or scary old house film. Not great, but still it's an agreeable time-passer.