The Comedy of Terrors

The Comedy of Terrors is a 1963 American International Pictures (AIP) horror comedy film directed by Jacques Tourneur and starring Vincent Price, Peter Lorre (in his final film released before his death), Basil Rathbone, Boris Karloff and Joe E. Brown (in a cameo performance that also serves as his final film appearance). It is a blend of comedy and horror that features several cast members from Tales of Terror, a 1962 film also released by AIP.

The film is set in a New England town named after the region of Gilead. The corrupt owner of a funeral parlor murders clients to increase his business and tries to bury his landlord alive.

In the New England town of New Gilead during the late 19th century, unscrupulous drunkard Waldo Trumbull runs a funeral parlor that he acquired from his former business partner Amos Hinchley. Trumbull is unhappily married to Hinchley's daughter Amaryllis.

Trumbull enlists fugitive picklock Felix Gillie as his assistant. They repeatedly reuse the firm's only coffin to save money and murder wealthy residents to increase business. Trumbull is abusive to Amaryllis while unsuccessfully trying to poison her senile father to hasten an inheritance, by telling him the poison is his medicine. Gillie is in love with Amaryllis and ineptly tries to seduce her, but she remains faithful to Trumbull, who wastes money on alcohol while his business is dwindling.

When threatened with eviction by his landlord John F. Black for overdue rent, Trumbull murders a wealthy shipping magnate and offers the heirs funeral services. However, following the funeral the magnate's wife absconds with her husband's fortune without paying Trumbull's fees.

After a final demand for the rent, Trumbull sends Gillie to murder Black. Gillie flees when he finds Black awake and haphazardly swinging a sword while reciting texts by William Shakespeare, but Black is startled and suffers a heart attack. A physician pronounces him dead, despite a servant's warning him that Black has previously suffered bouts of death-like sleep.

Trumbull and Gillie transport Black to the mortuary, where Amaryllis' cat Cleopatra awakens Black. They prevent him from escaping, but Black suffers another heart attack. While returning him to the coffin, Black revives and Trumbull knocks him unconscious. The funeral proceeds without anyone else aware that Black is alive, and he is placed in his family crypt.

Trumbull gets drunk and counts his profits from the funeral. Following another of Gillie's crude seductions, Amaryllis tries to attract Trumbull's attention but is rebuffed. She relents and decides to run off with Gillie. Black awakes, escapes his tomb, enters the parlor, and grabs an axe. Amaryllis faints. Black chases Trumbull and Gillie around the house. Gillie falls down a flight of stairs and is rendered unconscious. Trumbull shoots Black, who delivers a final Shakespearean monologue before dying.