Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		3.0
Overall		3.0

The Comedy of Terrors Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov November 3, 2021

Jacques Tourneur's "The Comedy of Terrors" (1963) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber. The supplemental features on the disc include exclusive new audio commentary by critic Tim Lucas; archival featurette with writer Richard Matheson; and vintage trailer for the film. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".

The undertakers

Considering the hugely impressive cast, The Comedy of Terrors should have been a very special film, quite possibly one of the best of its kind. Vincent Price, Boris Karloff, Peter Lorre, and Basil Rathbone trying to outdo each other before the camera? You just have to expect perfection -- maybe even more. But The Comedy of Terrors isn’t that kind of a special film. It does have a few rather striking moments, but the rest is instantly forgettable. What is really odd, however, is that you can’t point a finger at Jacques Tourneur and speculate that he should have done a better job directing the stars. Indeed, The Comedy of Terrors is one of those unusual films where the director actually gets just about everything right and yet the final product feels off. How could this be? Well, it isn’t easy to explain because if you carefully deconstruct the The Comedy of Terrors you won’t identify any significant flaws. Rather, you will realize that there are a lot of small issues that cause all sorts of serious problems.

Price is Waldo Trumbull, a very shady character who owns and operates a small funeral home with former bank robber Felix Gillie (Lorre). Trumbull was able to take over the business after marrying the daughter (Joyce Jameson) of the previous owner, Amos Hinchley (Karloff), who has gone senile. Not having to answer to the old man has been great, but for quite some time Trumbull has been trying to figure out how to completely remove him from his life.

Now, Trumbull has an even bigger problem. His landlord, John F. Black, Esq. (Rathbone), has just informed him that he has twenty-four hours to pay all of the back rent he owes, and if he fails to do so yet again, he is going to get evicted. Since there isn’t any business on the horizon that can generate the large sum of money needed to resolve the problem, Trumbull and Gillie immediately go to work to ‘find’ some stiffs, and while ‘exploring’ different options end up at the home of the pushy landlord. Shortly after, plenty that could go wrong goes terribly wrong, and Trumbull as well as his trusted assistant are repeatedly served a dose of their own medicine.

Tourneur worked with a screenplay by Richard Matheson, who previously had been used for Master of the World, House of Usher, and The Pit and the Pendulum. Unfortunately, but perhaps rather predictably, The Comedy of Terrors has a similar varying quality which appears to be directly related to Matheson’s screenplay. Indeed, it is very easy to tell that the screenplay produced a series of situations where the stars were likely expected to invent the dark humor through brilliant improvisations, rather than produce it while following an excellent blueprint. As a result, there is quite a bit of material that simply looks and feels too loose, lacking the crucial wit and rhythm the film obviously needed in order to be special.

Price works the hardest to perk up the entire film. However, he routinely sticks out like a sore thumb because his chemistry with the rest of the stars is very unconvincing. The best that Lorre can offer for instance is a fine look or one-liner, while Karloff is practically wasted as the unresponsive old-timer. While she looks gorgeous, Jameson never really figures out how to make her singing character likeable.

The prolific cinematographer Floyd Crosby, who lensed the classic western High Noon, produces bits of magic that occasionally infuse the film with proper Gothic atmosphere, but it very much feels like his talent was mismanaged as well.

The Comedy of Terrors Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, The Comedy of Terrors arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber.

The release is sourced from an old and pretty rough master that was supplied by MGM. The biggest strength of this master is the lack of compromising digital adjustments. It is why while virtually all of the visuals tend to look somewhat dated, they still have quite nice organic qualities. For example, delineation and depth range from decent to good and occasionally even very good, while clarity is mostly pleasing. Plenty of the darker visuals have decent shadow definition and nuances as well. I'd say that even color balance is pretty good, though it is quite easy to see that this is an area where plenty of significant improvements can be made. (If properly restored, for instance, the entire film will look a lot lusher and more vibrant). However, grain exposure is pretty uneven, so you should expect to see plenty of mild to moderate density fluctuations. Also, there are all kinds of different nicks, blemishes, and scratches that eventually become a tad annoying. Some minor instability issues can be spotted as well. All in all, while the current master has a fine organic appearance, its age definitely shows. My score is 3.25/5.00. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free player in order to access its content).

The Comedy of Terrors Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature. When turned on, they appear inside the image frame.

On my system the lossless track sounded very nice. This does not surprise me at all as older masters that emerge from MGM's vaults typically have solid audio tracks -- simply because they were done right at the time -- so to be honest, I am unsure if there is any room for significant improvements. If I was forced to guess, I would say that at best a new remaster may introduce some minor cosmetic adjustments. Right now, clarity, balance, and stability are very good.

The Comedy of Terrors Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Commentary - this exclusive new audio commentary was recorded by critic Tim Lucas.

• Richard Matheson: Storyteller - in this archival featurette, writer Richard Matheson discusses the screenplay he produced for The Comedy of Terrors as well as its key characters, the overall tone of the film, and the production process. In English, not subtitled. (10 min).

• Trailer - vintage trailer for The Comedy of Terrors. In English, not subtitled. (3 min).

The Comedy of Terrors Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

In soccer, but in other team sports as well, having a group of big stars playing together does not mean that you automatically have an unbeatable team. These stars must build a proper chemistry and feed off of each other's energy in order to consistently outperform their opponents. Well, believe it or not, there is a very similar problem in The Comedy of Terrors. It has an incredible cast of stars -- Vincent Price, Boris Karloff, Peter Lorre, and Basil Rathbone -- but isn't great. Why? The chemistry between the stars, the individual and group improvisations, the wit of the screenplay, and all kinds of other things are just not good enough. Yes, there are a few bits of magic here and there, but this film most definitely isn't the impressive team project that it should have been. Kino Lorber's release is sourced from an older and rather rough master that was supplied by MGM. If you need to have in your collection, my advice is to try to pick up your copy during a sale.