Peace of Mind GmbH

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Movie
German title Peace of Mind GmbH
Original title The Comedy of Terror
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1963
length 83 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Jacques Tourneur
script Richard Matheson
production Anthony Carras ,
Richard Matheson
music Les Baxter
camera Floyd Crosby
cut Anthony Carras
occupation
synchronization

Ruhe Sanft GmbH (original title: The Comedy of Terrors , also: Komödie des Grauens ) is a horror comedy from 1963. With his last Hollywood film, director Jacques Tourneur filmed the screenplay by Richard Matheson with the triumvirate of horror , Vincent Price , Peter Lorre and Boris Karloff , in the lead roles.

action

New England in the 19th century. Waldo Trumbull runs the Hinchley and Trumbull funeral home. Business is so bad, however, that Trumbull has to use the only neat coffin over and over again. He solves the problem with his assistant Felix Gillie. The two of them roll the corpse out of the coffin into the open pit when the mourners have left the place of the burial and pack the coffin back into their carriage. Trumbull also has family problems. His deaf, idiot father-in-law, Amos Hinchley, has to be fed, and he is constantly arguing with his wife because there is no money in the house and she keeps reproaching him for preventing her from pursuing a career as an opera singer. Meanwhile, Felix Gillie has already had an eye on Amaryllis Trumbull. After an argument with his wife, Trumbull leaves the house only to meet his landlord, John F. Black. Trumbull owes Black an annual rent and Black is no longer willing to wait for his money. He gives Trumbull an ultimatum of 24 hours.

In the evening, Trumbull returns from his pub crawl and reveals to Gillie his plan how he wants to get customers and thus money again. He met the richest shipowner in Boston in a bar and wants to bring him around the corner that same night. Gillie initially refuses, but when Trumbull explains to him that it would be easy to call the police and divulge Gillie's little secret, Gillie finally agrees. The harmless-looking Felix Gillie is wanted by the police after breaking out of jail where he was serving a sentence for a bank robbery. On the run, he finally went into hiding with Trumbull. Trumbull and Gillie make their way to Mr. Phipps' house. The two break into the house without waking the residents, although they make a lot of noise. Gillie, who feels sick at the thought of killing someone, remains seated in the hallway while Trumbull presses a pillow on the sleeping Phipps's face. A short time later it is done and the two leave the house and wait in their carriage until the body is discovered. Trumbull offers the young widow his help. Mrs. Phipps agrees, and Trumbull and Gillie take care of the funeral. During the memorial service, however, it turns out that Mr. Phipps' widow has dismissed the staff and ran away with all the belongings and property of the deceased. Trumbull stands empty-handed and gets drunk again. After all, Trumbull has the idea that his next victim will be his landlord, the unmarried Mr. Black.

At night, Trumbull and Gillie sneak up to Black's house and with a lot of effort Gillie can finally gain entry. Black is lying in his bed, loudly reciting Macbeth . Overwhelmed by his monologue, Black jumps out of bed, pulls a saber from the wall and begins to thrash invisible opponents while he continues to recite Macbeth. When Gillie and Black face each other, Black is so startled that he has a heart attack and falls over. A doctor summoned declares death. Trumbull is saved, the funeral brings him a lot of money, but the company is rid of their only coffin, which has served them faithfully for thirteen years, as Black is buried in his family's mausoleum .

Gillie, Trumbull's wife and Amos Hinchley celebrate the happy event, Waldo Trumbull counts his money and the seemingly dead John F. Black wakes up in the Black family's mausoleum. He had previously awakened from his rigor mortis, but Trumbull and Gillie forced him back into his coffin, in which he simply did not want to stay. Finally, Trumbull supposedly put an end to Black's life with a courageous blow on the back of the head.

Black seeks revenge and gains entry to Trumbull's house, not without first taking a hatchet. Trumbull sleeps off his intoxication in the house itself; Gillie and Amaryllis want to escape together and Amos Hinchley is lying in his bed and sleeping. Trumbull is woken up by his wife's screams and manages to stop Amaryllis together with Gillie Black at the last second. Black now goes for the two of them, but they can escape. Gillie falls down the stairs and lies there, Trumbull grabs his pistol and shoots Black several times until he finally breaks down. Amaryllis sees her new friend Gillie lying on the floor and pounces on Trumbull. Trumbull, whose weapon is empty, strangles Amaryllis until she goes limp in his arms. Satisfied, Trumbull sits down in his chair and takes another sip when Black's servant rushes in through the front door, sees the three people, including his master, lying on the floor and runs away screaming for the police.

Amos Hinchley finally woke up to the noise and comes down the stairs. He sees Trumbull destroyed on the ground and wants to help him. To do this, he takes the bottle of medicine from Trumbull's vest pocket and pours it into him. However, the bottle does not contain medicine, but poison, with which Trumbull tried several times to kill Amos. Amaryllis and Gillie wake up from their unconsciousness almost simultaneously and leave the house. Amos sits helplessly on the stairs, Trumbull is dead and Black's nose starts twitching again.

background

Vincent Price , Peter Lorre and Boris Karloff had previously starred in Roger Corman's horror film The Raven - The Magician's Duel . In this film, the so-called Triumvirate of Secrets receives further support from Basil Rathbone , who takes on the role of landlord Black. The four old stars had already passed the zenith of their careers in the early 1960s, but were still known and loved by the public through their old films. In a mixture of nostalgia and theatricality, they take their image self-ironically in Ruhe Sanft GmbH . First, Rathbone was scheduled for the senile father-in-law and Karloff for Mr. Black. When shooting began, however, the 75-year-old Karloff asked to swap his role with Rathbone, as he was unable to cope with the physical exertion that Black's role required.

For Jacques Tourneur it was the last directorial work in the United States, after which he only staged City in the Sea in Great Britain in 1965 . Some critics reproached the renowned director Tourneur for directing a seemingly unpretentious horror comedy. Tourneur defended himself by pointing out that the film contained satire and was perfectly suitable for an adult audience. He wanted to make a "cynical, cynical comedy, a bit in the old tradition of René Clair ". It was the last film role for comedian Joe E. Brown , who played the supporting role of the cemetery guard. For Peter Lorre, too, Ruhe Sanft GmbH was one of the last films before his death in 1964, because of his flagging health, Lorre had to be doubled to a large extent during the chases.

The film premiered on December 25, 1963. The film was first shown in German cinemas on October 15, 1964.

synchronization

The German dubbed version was created for the cinema premiere in 1964.

role actor German Dubbing voice
Waldo Trumbull Vincent Price Friedrich Schoenfelder
Felix Gillie Peter Lorre Alfred Balthoff
Amos Hinchley Boris Karloff Robert Klupp
John F. Black, Esq. Basil Rathbone Klaus W. Krause
Amaryllis Trumbull Joyce Jameson Margot Leonard
Cemetery keeper Joe E. Brown Tilo von Berlepsch

Reviews

“[…] As a genre parody and horror grotesque average, more remarkable is the parodic performance of the actors. (Rating: 2½ out of 4 possible stars = above average) "

- Adolf Heinzlmeier and Berndt Schulz : Lexicon "Films on TV".

"Tourneurs inability to parody was evident in the much more recent horror satire" Comedy of Terrors "[...], which in Tourneur's hands became a cumbersome burlesque."

- William K. Everson : classic horror film.

“This amusing cinema festival was conceived and staged in 1963 by Jacques Tourneur and Richard Matheson. […] Another decisive factor for the film was the collaboration of two other experts in their field: cameraman Floyd Crosby, the most important co-creator of many of Roger Corman's horror films, also helped to make this film a masterpiece, as did Les Baxter, whose music almost every one of them Movement accompanied by contrapuntal and deepened in its absurdity. "

- Christian Rost : film observer .

"Tourneur's last Hollywood film: a shrill, amusing horror grotesque with many borrowings from the Poe films by Roger Corman - right through to the cameraman, the composer, the actors Price, Lorre, Karloff."

“In this extremely black-humored comedy, director Jacques Tourneur brought together three great mimes of the horror genre in front of the camera: Vincent Price, Peter Lorre and Boris Karloff. All three provide an excellent parody here. "

- Prisma online film database.

DVD release

  • Peace of Mind GmbH. Legend film distributed by Universum Film 2004.

literature

  • Lucy Chase Williams: The Complete Films of Vincent Price. Citadel Press (Carol Communications), New York / Secaucus 1995, ISBN 0-8065-1600-3 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. The Comedy of Terrors at Turner Classic Movies
  2. The Comedy of Terrors at Turner Classic Movies
  3. The Comedy of Terrors at Turner Classic Movies
  4. Ruhe Sanft GmbH ( Memento of the original dated November 5, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. at the synchronous database @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.synchrondatenbank.de
  5. ^ Adolf Heinzlmeier, Berndt Schulz: Lexicon "Films on TV". (Extended new edition). Rasch and Röhring, Hamburg 1990, ISBN 3-89136-392-3 , p. 694.
  6. William K. Everson: Classics of Horror Films. (OT: Classics of the Horror Film ). Goldmann, Munich 1982, ISBN 3-442-10205-7 , p. 192.
  7. ^ Christian Rost 1980 in the film observer
  8. ^ "Lexicon of International Films" (CD-ROM edition), Systhema, Munich 1997.
  9. Ruhe Sanft GmbH at prisma-online.de; Retrieved November 1, 2008.