Bandleader Kay Kyser gets top billing over Karloff, Lugosi & Lorre in this classic RKO horror spoof.
Kay Kyser and his band travel with an heiress to a secluded mansion to celebrate her 21st birthday and get much more than they bargain for when they run into Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi and Peter Lorre.
It's a neat spoof of every old dark house picture ever made with every gimmick you ever saw- from seances and secret panels to giant stuffed gorillas.
Kyser gets a lot of screen time in the lead and does pretty well at comedy, although at times he does seem a little overmatched by the presence of three of the major horror icons of all time. There's some gimmicky music as well, including a tune called Bad Humor Man (which they really could have done without) and a song employing a device called the Sonovox, which sounds like a precursor to the guitar talk box of the '70s and even sounds a little like the auto tune they use today.
The version I saw recently looked very clean and sharp, like it had been restored with great care. I'd like to thank whoever is restoring these old films. I think it's important to preserve films like these for future generations.
Kay Kyser and his band travel with an heiress to a secluded mansion to celebrate her 21st birthday and get much more than they bargain for when they run into Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi and Peter Lorre.
It's a neat spoof of every old dark house picture ever made with every gimmick you ever saw- from seances and secret panels to giant stuffed gorillas.
Kyser gets a lot of screen time in the lead and does pretty well at comedy, although at times he does seem a little overmatched by the presence of three of the major horror icons of all time. There's some gimmicky music as well, including a tune called Bad Humor Man (which they really could have done without) and a song employing a device called the Sonovox, which sounds like a precursor to the guitar talk box of the '70s and even sounds a little like the auto tune they use today.
The version I saw recently looked very clean and sharp, like it had been restored with great care. I'd like to thank whoever is restoring these old films. I think it's important to preserve films like these for future generations.