The Boogie Man Will Get You (1942)

The Boogie Man Will Get You marks the first joint appearance of Boris Karloff and Peter Lorre in the same film. Both certainly could qualify as Boogie Men for the title, both frightened movie goers for generations. This was their first joint screen appearance and the first film where they spoofed their own images.Karloff is a scientist of the mad kind who boards in an old colonial type inn that is run by an equally screwy couple George McKay and Maude Eburne. Lorre is the county sheriff and kind of a Grand Pooh Bah of the region, he's everything else official. When he discovers Karloff is experimenting on making zombie like supermen for the war effort, rather than arrest him Peter's intrigued even though five fatalities might be traced to Karloff's experiments.There's also quarreling couple Jeff Donnell who wants to buy the old inn and Larry Parks her estranged husband who says no. Add to that Maxie Rosenbloom who plays Lorre's amiable lunkhead retainer and you've got a first rate spoof of horror pictures.Certainly Karloff and Lorre showed they had a flair for comedy which would pop up every so often in their credits midst all the fiendish parts they did play. Very funny film, should not be missed by fans of either Karloff or Lorre.

Well--as big a fan as I am of Boris Karloff and Peter Lorre--this was one of their few features that I had never seen, until getting Karloff's "Icons of Horror Collection." Anything featuring Karloff and Lorre together has promise, so this was the first feature I viewed & I can say despite the mixed reviews here, I thoroughly enjoyed it. I see many have brought up "Arsenic and Old Lace" & I guess I can see some similarities between the two.I think this works best if you view it as a wild farce--which it is, sending up what had to be many of Karloff's "mad doctor" roles & Peter Lorre is quite the hoot as the town sheriff/coroner/justice of the peace/mayor, hell, whatever title you can think, Lorre is all of them.Maxie Rosenbloom provides some great laughs as well as one of the unwitting subjects of Mad Boris' experiments in trying to create a race of "Super Soldiers." And if you're a longtime Three Stooges fan like myself, you may get a kick out of seeing James C. Morton and Frank Sully appearing as 2 fumbling policemen late in the movie.Overall, I enjoyed it immensely.9 stars

Only afterward did I realize this must have been inspired by the screwball farce ARSENIC AND OLD LACE, but the script, unfortunately, lacks the comic finesse and wit of that film. This might have looked good on paper--take an old, crumbling Colonial inn, have a woman purchase it, fill it with odd characters and a mysterious doctor who keeps his secrets in a cellar, and lo and behold you've got another hit.Alas, none of the humor is even remotely adult. You almost expect the Three Stooges to show up at any moment. Instead, we have Larry Parks show up to play the only slightly sane character in the cast. The sprightly Jeff Donnell is his ditsy ex-wife and she manages to keep her poise while playing the comedy with a few deft touches of her own.Boris Karloff and Peter Lorre do what they can to inject some vitality and humor into a witless script but everything is so overdone that by the time Maxie Rosenbloom shows up I had to throw in the towel. Too much for me.Summing up: Unless you don't mind the sophomoric humor, watch it at your own peril.

While the film fails to offer any actual "Boogieman", it does offer up a variety of decent chuckles, courtesy of its then all-star cast. With a goofy set up, likable characters, and some great slapstick, The Boogie Man Will Get You is a decent, fun little romp from yesteryear.The plot follows a young woman who decides to purchase an old Colonial mansion in the middle of nowhere with the hopes of turning it into a hotel, even though it is barely standing. Her ex-husband finds her only seconds after she has made the purchase (a plot device never fully explained) and tried to convince her she's been swindled. She doesn't care, having become fond of the eclectic cast of characters that inhabit the house... but little does she know, the old man who works in the basement is actually trying to create a race of electric supermen! Bodies begin piling up (or do they?), Peter Lorre shows up playing the town mayor/sheriff/notary with a kitten in his coat pocket, and general Hollywood hijinks ensue. The ending is a mess, but it ends up being so convoluted, it somehow finds charms in all of its lunacy. While far from intelligent entertainment, you could do a lot worse for 66 minutes of your life.If you're a Karloff or Lorre fan, its well worth seeing. Others, its hit-or-miss.