This kicks off a series of 7 titles I intend to check out as a tribute to the recently-deceased horror icon Michael Gough (even if he is the lead in only 3 of them!). It is a sort of remake of THE GHOUL (1933), though having practically nothing to do with it, except that we get a number of people converging on a household – the reason for this is that author Frank King wrote both a novel and a play by that name and, while the Boris Karloff vehicle followed the latter, the film under review was based on the former! Indeed, it is very much a companion piece – in theme and style, but also quality-wise – to William Castle's THE OLD DARK HOUSE (1963), the Hammer remake of another Karloff classic (in its case dating from 1932).
Anyway, the film deals with that much-abused plot line of family members, who either hate each other's guts or are seen as interlopers, getting together at a large and remote estate for the reading of a will and, when someone realizes he is not getting what he had expected, begins to eliminate the others one by one (in fact, it was retitled NO PLACE LIKE HOMICIDE for the American market). Interestingly, when the makers hit upon the idea of making a spoof of this subgenre, they recruited two members from the "Carry On" gang – namely Sid James and Kenneth Connor – but the result still left much to be desired, perhaps because the trademark vulgarity of that series has been downplayed here and this, in turn, constrained the actors! That said, the rest of the cast is not to be scoffed at: future Bond Girl Shirley Eaton (she would play a similar role in yet another remake, TEN LITTLE INDIANS [1965]), Donald Pleasence (the best of the lot as the sinister-looking solicitor named, of all things, Everett Sloane!), Dennis Price (typically blasé) and Michaels Gough (the lame butler) and Gwynn (amusingly, he calls everybody mad when he is the one with the oddest behavior!), etc.
Though most of the murders occur off-screen, we do get to see a mysterious presence slinking about a number of times; the final twist revealing the identity of the killer would later also be adopted by another uneven genre lampoon, Pupi Avati's TUTTI DEFUNTI TRANNE I MORTI (1977). All in all, the film is undeniably mildly enjoyable but, at the same time, utterly forgettable...and, flawed though the original is, clearly inferior to it.
Anyway, the film deals with that much-abused plot line of family members, who either hate each other's guts or are seen as interlopers, getting together at a large and remote estate for the reading of a will and, when someone realizes he is not getting what he had expected, begins to eliminate the others one by one (in fact, it was retitled NO PLACE LIKE HOMICIDE for the American market). Interestingly, when the makers hit upon the idea of making a spoof of this subgenre, they recruited two members from the "Carry On" gang – namely Sid James and Kenneth Connor – but the result still left much to be desired, perhaps because the trademark vulgarity of that series has been downplayed here and this, in turn, constrained the actors! That said, the rest of the cast is not to be scoffed at: future Bond Girl Shirley Eaton (she would play a similar role in yet another remake, TEN LITTLE INDIANS [1965]), Donald Pleasence (the best of the lot as the sinister-looking solicitor named, of all things, Everett Sloane!), Dennis Price (typically blasé) and Michaels Gough (the lame butler) and Gwynn (amusingly, he calls everybody mad when he is the one with the oddest behavior!), etc.
Though most of the murders occur off-screen, we do get to see a mysterious presence slinking about a number of times; the final twist revealing the identity of the killer would later also be adopted by another uneven genre lampoon, Pupi Avati's TUTTI DEFUNTI TRANNE I MORTI (1977). All in all, the film is undeniably mildly enjoyable but, at the same time, utterly forgettable...and, flawed though the original is, clearly inferior to it.