Jacques Tourneur

Today, we're diving into The Comedy of Terrors.

The Comedy of Terrors, directed by Jacques Tourneur and written by Richard Matheson, is a delightful blend of comedy and horror that showcases the talents of some of the most iconic actors in the genre.

Released in 1963, this film brings together Vincent Price, Boris Karloff, Peter Law and Basil Rathbone in a story that is as much about laughs as it is about scares.

Set in Victorian-era New England, the film follows the misadventures of Waldo Trumbull, played by Vincent Price, a down-on-his-luck undertaker who resorts to murder to drum up business.

Exempted from military service due to a back injury suffered during his acting training, he became a very in-demand actor during World War II, performing in a total of 50 plays, including three Broadway productions, five road tours, and also summer theatre.

He made his big-screen debut in 1944 in Days of Glory, directed by Jacques Tourneur, but rather than enter the studio system, he decided to remain freelance and signed non-exclusive contracts with the four major studios.

In 1944, he made his second feature, The Keys of the Kingdom, for which he was nominated for an Oscar, and a year later starred in the highest-grossing American movie of 1945, The Valley of Decision.

In the same year, he made his first film with Alfred Hitchcock, playing an amnesiac opposite Ingrid Bergman in Spellbound.

It is the second movie they made after Cat People.

And Jacques Tourneur is directing again.

The deal with Lewton had with the studio is basically keep it under $150,000, keep it under 75 minutes, and you have to use whatever title our marketing guys have already tested on the public.

And then they handed him I Walked With a Zombie.

... than that.

Um, so yeah, spooky season rolls around, and I'm the... [laughs] Everyone's talking about their favorite horror movies, and I'm Martin Scorsese mode, being like, "Have you checked out the Jacques Tourneur films from the '40s? They're-

[laughs]

... pretty frightful." [laughs]

So we mentioned Robert Z. Leonard taking over for Jack Conway at some point.

But here we actually saw Jacques Tourneur take over along with Val Luton.

Val Luton.

Val Luton of Cat People.

She did not exist in real life.

The movie was directed by French-born director Jacques Tourneur.

It was written by a prolific Western screenwriter named Daniel Ullman.

So Christopher, take me through Vera Miles' involvement in Wichita.

Yeah, I Walked With A Zombie is...

Jacques Tourneur, but is it

a Jane

Eyre

Like, like, I can't even fathom it.

It's got that classic Tourneur feel where it's like, it's talking about so much with so little time-

It's so dense, yeah

... and you're like, you're, you're just left, like, thinking a lot after it's over.