Scared to Death (1947)
1h 8m | PG-13
A woman is married to the son of a doctor, the proprietor of a private sanatorium, where she is under unwilling treatment. Both the son and the doctor indicate they want the marriage dissolved. Arriving at the scene is a mysterious personage identified as the doctor's brother who formerly was a stage magician in Europe. He is accompanied by a threatening dwarf...
Director: Christy Cabanne
Studio: Golden Gate Pictures
Genre: Horror, Mystery, Thriller, Comedy
Video: 720p
Cast
Bela Lugosi
as Prof Leonide
George Zucco
as Dr. Josef Van Ee
Nat Pendleton
as Bill 'Bull' Raymond
Molly Lamont
as Laura Van Ee
Joyce Compton
as Jane Cornell
Gladys Blake
as Lilly Beth
Reviews
It's only an hour long, but this still manages to involve a couple of the worst performances I've seen in a long, long time. Bela Lugosi and George Zucco - who can normally be relied upon to deliver well enough in these short horror/thriller features are just not on form together at all here. The dialogue is unsure in what genre the film wants to sit - a suspenseful thriller with the odd bit of comedy, or a comedic thriller with the odd, well, thrill. It appears to, reluctantly, settle for the latter but by then the somewhat irrelevant story of a murdered woman who relates the events leading up to the crime no longer really matters. It has way too many daft sub-plots and by the time we do approach the end you've almost forgotten what/who or, more importantly - why?