"One Body Too Many" October 30, 2009

"One Body Too Many" (1947) Jack Haley, Jean Parker, Bela Lugosi. In the 1940s, Paramount studios busied itself creating scripts for Bob Hope, but they found Hope was often too busy to appear in the pictures. As a result, they had funny scripts sitting around and, rather than wait for Hope, they'd cast someone else in the part. Sometimes that was Fred MacMurray (as in "Murder, He Says" [1944), but in this case it was Jack Haley, best remembered today as the Tin Man from "The Wizard of Oz" (1939). This is a delightful haunted-house comedy/mystery with Haley playing an insurance salesman who comes to an old dark mountaintop house, only to find that his client has expired, and not from natural causes. Of course, everyone is a suspect and, as usual, no one calls the police or leaves the building. Jean Parker is the lovely female lead, and Bela Lugosi has another of his, well, let's not give away what he does here... see for yourself.

PLUS: Chapter 2 of "The Phantom Empire"(1935) with Gene Autry, the only science fiction western musical ever made!

AND: a vintage cartoon

The film will be briefly introduced by film historian Eric Grayson. All original film prints, not DVDs!

Official Website: http://www.attheirving.com