Corpse on vacation
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Corpse on vacation |
| Original title | What a carve up! |
| Country of production | United Kingdom |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1961 |
| length | 87 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Pat Jackson |
| script |
Ray Cooney , Tony Hilton |
| production |
Robert S. Baker , Monty Berman |
| music | Muir Mathieson |
| camera | Monty Berman |
| cut | Gordon Pilkington |
| occupation | |
| |
Corpse on Vacation is a British horror film comedy from 1961. It stars the two stars of the carry-on film series , Sidney James and Kenneth Connor . The film was based on the novel "The Ghoul" (1928) by Frank King.
action
Ernest Broughton is a scary creature. As a lecturer for a publishing house, he is supposed to read through penny books - dozen thrillers and horror stories - and search for punctuation errors. But Ernie sinks into his literature and soon feels at one with it, kneeling. His buddy Syd, a bookie Ernie shares his poor bachelorette party with, is of a completely different caliber: a sturdy guy with a butcher's dog mind. When the doorbell rings and a stranger with a black frilled beard, a bowler hat on his head and a piercing look stands in front of the front door, the fearful Ernie immediately fears the worst. The gentleman, a lawyer named Sloane, has only come to tell Ernie that his uncle Gabriel Broughton has passed away and that he has been invited to the opening of the will.
Ernest Broughton finally makes his way to Blackshore Towers Castle on the Yorkshire moor, hoping to return home a rich man. Buddy Syd accompanies him, because otherwise Ernie wouldn’t get over all this excitement. When we arrive at the train station, it's already night. There is no taxi, so willy-nilly the two board a hearse that is supposed to take them to Blackshore Towers. Once there, the castle portal opens as if by magic, and a man sits in the armchair in front of the fireplace, his right hand hanging lifelessly over the armrest. The first death in history? No not yet.
Ernie now gets to know the bizarre relatives who, like him, are waiting for a fat inheritance. There is Aunt Emily, as old as she is modern. She still lives in the Victorian Age and doesn't even know that World War II was long over. There is also cousin Malcolm, a weird owl with an artistic fool in his hair and a plastron in front of his chest. His whimsy is to live out his joy in spooks at night and to play on the castle's own organ. No less strange is ex-officer Guy Broughton, a thoroughly relaxed cynic who, with increasing joy over the course of history, notes the increasing number of relatives who are reluctantly dying with a gentle smile on their face and a whiskey in hand. Finally there is cousin Janet Broughton, of impeccable nobility and unsurpassable snobbery. Linda Dixon, who is actually not part of the family, has also arrived. The attractive, young woman cared for the deceased until the end and was therefore considered in his will.
The staff is actually just Fisk, the butler, who not only pulls a leg, but also spreads a dodgy atmosphere with his bedroom view. When Mr. Sloane is about to read the will, the light promptly goes out. As soon as it gets light again, the first potential heir, Dr. Edward Broughton, involuntarily different and the first surprise perfect: because according to Uncle's Last Will, the hunchbacked relatives should not inherit anything, while the caring Linda should get everything. She in turn finds this opening extremely amusing. Syd wants to call the police after the death, but the phone wires are cut. Given the tricky situation, Sloane suggests that everyone go to their room and lock themselves there. On the way there, first Ernest, then Syd accidentally ends up in Siren Linda's boudoir.
A little later, Syd escapes a knife attack by chance, while cousin Malcolm is not so lucky in the duet with Ernest at the piano and is stabbed from behind. One thinks of all people the fearful Ernie is the culprit and wants to lock him up. So buddy Syd doesn't leave his side. One soon finds out how the perpetrator was able to get through a closed door, namely by means of a secret passage. Therefore, it is considered better if everyone now gathers in the foyer so that everyone can keep an eye on everyone. That doesn't do much good, because Janet immediately becomes the next victim. She is hit from behind by a poisoned dart that shoots out of the painting hanging on the back wall. It is believed that only Butler Fisk could be the culprit, as he was the only one who was not present at the time of the attack. Notary Sloane doesn't want to wait any longer and decides to go into the village alone to inform the police about what has happened.
For those left behind, the whole thing becomes more and more mysterious. First Aunt Emily claims that she has just spoken to the deceased, Gabriel Broughton, but after a quick check by Syd and Guy, he is still where he belongs: namely in his coffin. Then Ernie also says that he saw the dead uncle wandering around. Ernest can find another secret passage that leads directly to the now empty coffin. When ex-officer Guy disappears with his pistol, the others start to worry. Suddenly a police inspector Arkwright appears and realizes that there has not yet been a single body. Ernest is looking for his buddy Syd, and they both find Sloane dead in a well. Obviously he never got as far as the village. But who then sent the policeman here?
Arkwright is none other than the (seemingly) dead Uncle Gabriel, who, with Guy's pistol in hand, keeps the greedy family in check. And he explains his motive, why he staged this farce of his own demise. In recent years, the family would only have contacted him to get wet and otherwise give a damn about him. He locks up Syd, Ernest, Linda and Emily and sets his hungry dogs on them. When Butler tries to pile up Fisk, Gabriel shoots him, but instead he hits a secret trap that causes the chandelier to fall on him and kills him. The “hungry” dogs, it turns out, had been well fed by Fisk beforehand. Gabriel, the “corpse on vacation”, is dead again in the end. But Ernest, who had hoped for the pretty Linda, is taught better than her friend Adam Faith , pop singer and teen idol the next morning 1960s, shows up to pick them up.
Production notes
Corpse on Vacation premiered on September 15, 1961. The German premiere took place on March 22, 1963.
The film structures were designed by Ivan King , Gerry Fisher directed the camera under head cameraman Monty Berman . Muir Mathieson conducted his own composition.
In 2008 the film was released on DVD.
Leiche auf Urlaub was a comedic (and very loose) remake of the old horror story The Ghoul with Boris Karloff in the title role.
synchronization
| role | actor | Voice actor |
|---|---|---|
| Syd Butler | Sidney James | Hans Wiegler |
| Ernest Broughton | Kenneth Connor | Georg Thomalla |
| Guy Broughton | Dennis Price | Friedrich Schoenfelder |
| Linda Dixon | Shirley Eaton | Maria Koerber |
| Fisk the butler | Michael Gough | Hans Walter Clasen |
| Aunt Emily | Esma Cannon | Elf tailors |
| Janet | Valerie Taylor | Friedel Schuster |
| Inspector Arkwright | Philip O'Flynn | Fritz Tillmann |
| Malcolm | Michael Gwynn | Erich Kestin |
| Edward Broughton | George Woodbridge | Paul Wagner |
Reviews
"... [an] apparent British farce ... The fact that a film with such a level of vulgarity and ineptitude managed to land in theaters around Manhattan for a week is testament to the shortage of film productions these days."
The Movie & Video Guide said: "A sometimes exhausting satire".
Halliwell's Film Guide found: "Eerie house farce, supposedly a remake of The Ghoul ".
"A little independent and for the time it was made, a lot of old-fashioned horror comedy, whose situation comedy and dialogues make you laugh, but whose accumulation of eerie effects rarely gives rise to a thrill."
Individual evidence
- ^ Leonard Maltin : Movie & Video Guide, 1996 edition, p. 940
- ^ Leslie Halliwell : Halliwell's Film Guide, Seventh Edition, New York 1989, p. 1103
- ^ Dead body on vacation in the Lexicon of International Films
Web links
- Corpse on vacation in the Internet Movie Database (English)