Scared to Death starts in the 'Central City Morgue' where a pathologist (Stanley Andrews) is about to begin his gruesome work on a dead woman named Laure Van Ee (Molly Lamont), as the corpse of Laura lies there it begins to tell the tale of how she ended up dead... Cut to Dr. Josef Van Ee (George Zucco) & his son Ward (Roland Varlo), they discuss Laura & how she won't give Ward a divorce & how she is generally a moody paranoid b*tch. Laura thinks that someone is trying to kill her & she suspects everyone, from Lilly Beth (Gladys Blake) the maid to the private patrol officer Bill 'Bull' Raymond (Nat Pendleton) to a creepy stranger Professor Leonide (Bela Lugosi) to her husband Ward & Dr. Josef. No one is safe from her accusations & moods, women eh!? However it seems Laura may have a point, she receives a decapitated dummies head, the feeling that she is being spied upon & mysterious letters that appear to unsettle her. Then a tipped off reporter named Terry Grant (Dougles Fowley) & his bird Jane Cornell (Joyce Compton) turn up, invite themselves in & start sniffing around for a story. Before the night is over they will get one...
Directed by Christy Cabanne this is a pretty poor film whichever way you look at it I'm afraid. The script by Walter Abbott plays much more like a murder mystery than a horror film that the title may suggest. The murder plot is confused, it tries to cram as many stupid red-herrings as it can. Every character in Scared to Death acts so suspiciously it becomes both irritating & distracting, I mean do these people want to be suspected of murder even though it hasn't even happened yet?! I quite liked the idea of a corpse narrating it's own murder but for some bizarre reason the film likes to concentrate on the comedy relief supplied by the dim-witted Raymond. The ending might have been effective if not preceded by such a lame, confused & boring hour of badly written comedy, mystery & character's who don't need to be there, I mean what was the purpose of the dwarf Indigo (Angelo Rossitto) as to my eyes he contributed NOTHING to the film? The story doesn't grip like any good murder mystery should & just ends up becoming tedious.
Director Cabanne does nothing to add any suspense, tension, scares or excitement & instead piles on the lame comedy. Scared to Death might have been decent it if were set in a spooky old mansion but Cabanne decided on an bland ordinary looking house which hardly generates any atmosphere, in fact it doesn't generate any. There is only one murder if you can call it that, refer to the title to understand what I mean.
Scared to Death was another poverty row effort for Lugosi who comes & goes but doesn't do much. This was one of only two colour films he appeared in, the other being Viennese Nights (1930). The acting isn't great but it's better than some of these early horrors.
Scared to Death is a poor murder mystery, has no horror elements in it & is stuffed with annoying comedy that is anything but funny. Do yourself a favour & give this one a miss, there are much better films out there. One more thing, the IMDb cast listing on the Scared to Death main page gives away the identity of the killer if you look down it. A case of the IMDb breaking their own rules?
Directed by Christy Cabanne this is a pretty poor film whichever way you look at it I'm afraid. The script by Walter Abbott plays much more like a murder mystery than a horror film that the title may suggest. The murder plot is confused, it tries to cram as many stupid red-herrings as it can. Every character in Scared to Death acts so suspiciously it becomes both irritating & distracting, I mean do these people want to be suspected of murder even though it hasn't even happened yet?! I quite liked the idea of a corpse narrating it's own murder but for some bizarre reason the film likes to concentrate on the comedy relief supplied by the dim-witted Raymond. The ending might have been effective if not preceded by such a lame, confused & boring hour of badly written comedy, mystery & character's who don't need to be there, I mean what was the purpose of the dwarf Indigo (Angelo Rossitto) as to my eyes he contributed NOTHING to the film? The story doesn't grip like any good murder mystery should & just ends up becoming tedious.
Director Cabanne does nothing to add any suspense, tension, scares or excitement & instead piles on the lame comedy. Scared to Death might have been decent it if were set in a spooky old mansion but Cabanne decided on an bland ordinary looking house which hardly generates any atmosphere, in fact it doesn't generate any. There is only one murder if you can call it that, refer to the title to understand what I mean.
Scared to Death was another poverty row effort for Lugosi who comes & goes but doesn't do much. This was one of only two colour films he appeared in, the other being Viennese Nights (1930). The acting isn't great but it's better than some of these early horrors.
Scared to Death is a poor murder mystery, has no horror elements in it & is stuffed with annoying comedy that is anything but funny. Do yourself a favour & give this one a miss, there are much better films out there. One more thing, the IMDb cast listing on the Scared to Death main page gives away the identity of the killer if you look down it. A case of the IMDb breaking their own rules?