One Body Too Many

 

(1944)
Directed by Frank McDonald
Written by Winston Miller, Maxwell Shane
Starring Jack Haley, Bela Lugosi, Jean Parker, Lyle Talbot, 
IMDB Entry

Sometimes a cast list surprises you, and I was delighted when I stumbled upon One Body Too Many.

Albert Tuttle (Jack Haley) is an insurance salesman who goes to sell a policy to Cyrus Rutherford, an eccentric millionaire. Problem is, Rutherford is dead and the family is gathered for the reading of the will. It lives up to eccentric:  there is no listing of who gets what until Rutherford in buried in a special glass-domed crypt. The family will be getting different bequests, at smaller and smaller amounts, but, if Rutherford is not buried as designated, the one with the smallest bequest getting the largest, and vice versa.

Haley stumbles on this crew and is stuck there overnight as a storm rages. And people start getting murdered by people who think they were going to be stiffed by the will. Rutherford's niece (Jean Parker) asks the timid Tuttle for help, and he reluctantly agrees.

Haley, of course, is primarily known as the Tin Man of The Wizard of Oz and you can see that in this role, along with a hint of the cowardly lion. Bela Lugosi -- billed third -- is there as the butler, a role that gives him nothing to do but act vaguely sinister.

Also in the cast it Lyle Talbot, who was a familiar face in movies and TV.

The film is a mildly amusing programmer, with more smiles than laughs.