Dark and Stormy Night

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Okay... "Dark and Stormy Night" is my new favorite movie. It's written and directed by Larry Blamire ("Lost Skeleton of Cadavra", "Trail of the Screaming Forehead") and it's a satire of Old Dark House horror movies. This movie is ten times funnier than "Murder By Death". I loved the movie version of "Clue" (sue me). This is better. I can't even begin to count the strange quotes you're going to be getting from me. The dialogue is rapid-fire and brilliantly off-the-wall. There is a love of and dexterity with language and a dearth of fart jokes. It has the goddess Jennifer Blaire (Animala in "Lost Skeleton") as wise-cracking reporter Billy Tuesday. As far as I'm concerned, she's right up there with the goddess Jane Lynch. This also has the goddess Fay Masterson (Betty in "Lost Skeleton") as a British ingénue so helpless she can't sit in a chair on her own and the amazing goddess Susan McConnell (Lattis in "Lost Skeleton") as a mad Scotswoman with the greatest heavily-accented vituperation this side of John Cleese as the French guard in "Monty Python and the Holy Grail". If you like the Christopher Guest style of ensemble casting, you're going to love this movie. Andrew Parks (Kro-Bar in "Lost Skeleton") is the standard issue tuxedoed British fop. His mom, Betty Garrett (from "Laverne & Shirley") pops in and out of the story with her gorilla (Bob Burns. If you've ever seen a gorilla in a 1960s sitcom, it was Bob Burns.) Jim Beaver (Ellsworth on "Deadwood") is great as the deceased millionaire's safari guide ("Some of the toughest four days I've ever spent.") Actually, there isn't anybody in this movie who couldn't be singled out – which of course is what you're shooting for with an ensemble. I completely love Larry Blamire. In a Non-Threatening, Manly American sort of way, I mean. I watched the film again with the commentary track on. His frame of reference is so like mine, it's frightening. Who else bases a character on William Demarest in "All Through the Night" (a Bogart comedy that flopped because it was marketed as an action film)? This is a movie for anyone who ever wished the "Carol Burnett Show" had hired the writers from "Your Show of Shows". Quotes: "I'd LIKE a ducky." "Hi everybody my name's Ray Vestinhaus – a stranger – and my car just happened to break down just outside, can I stay for the reading of the will? (BEAT) Oop." "I am Dr. von Vandervon. Dr. Van von Vandervon." "Let the puppy go!" – "Come to Nana!" "Let the puppy GO!" – "Come to NANA!" "LET THE PUPPY GO!" – "COME TO NANA!" "Let us leave this room of death and mounted heads who once were friends."

There's some really good stuff in the Old Dark House parody Dark and Stormy Night. A fortune teller is wonderfully strange and funny, a cab driver beautifully captures the cadences of a '30s actor, director Blamire does a pitch perfect impression of a terrible actor, and the movie really captures the look of its inspiration. Unfortunately, it's not nearly as funny as the two Skeleton of Cadavra films. I think a lot of the problem is that the Old Dark House genre was generally comedic; the movie the genre was named after was a comedy. The movies feature wise cracking reporters and detectives, offbeat characters, inane plot twists, in-jokes (in one, a character asks Basil Rathbone his opinion on what's going on and he replies "who do you think I am, Sherlock Holmes?), and purposefully broad performances. The Cadavra movies parodied humorless incompetence, but how do you parody something that is already funny? The result is a movie pretty close to the movies it's a take-off of, and I think the director might have been better off simply attempting to create a real ODH movie rather than a mock-up. Since it's hard to parody comedy, the movie drifts, even further than Blamire's previous films, into absurdist theater, and the movie is best and funniest when it throws non-sequitors at the audience with like darts. Dark and Stormy Night is funny, and Blamire's usual cast gives their usual fine performances (Blamire's wife does an excellent job as a wise- cracking reporter), but this is not Blamire's best.

"The reading of the will, on a dark and stormy night!" so the song goes. This is one of the many fun things in this B offering from Larry Blamire, he of Lost Skeleton of Cadavra and Return of the Lost Skeleton of Cadavra fame. It's a nice little spoof of the 1930s mystery-in-an-old-dark-house genre. It also appears to be hiding in plain sight but is, happily, available on DVD. Mr. Blamire is interviewed by John Skerchock in Scary Monsters issue no. 79 and the subject is Dark and Stormy Night. I encourage you to find a copy and read. This is a charming little film, my favorite of the Blamire productions. The performers seemed to be genuinely enjoying themselves as we wait anxiously for the resolution to the mystery which is straight out of the 1930s. We have the rich man's will, a gloomy mansion, a couple of goofy reporters and a dysfunctional family full of cheats with at least one of them a sadistic murderer. Of course, they are banded together in a house they cannot leave because of a washed out bridge. This is a great spoof and tribute to the "Old Dark House" genre and is very enjoyable. View it with a cold drink on a lazy summer afternoon or with hot chocolate on a cold winter night. It would be best, of course, if the weather is dark and stormy with heavy rain pounding your windows. The bonus features on the DVD are great. You may view the film in color or black and white and the behind the scenes production is fantastic. There is also a gag reel and audio commentary by Mr. Blamire and members of the cast. Don't expect a classic, that's not what B films are about, but don't miss this one!

Blamire's Lost Skeleton film is one of my all time favorite films. So on a lark I decided to pick this other film up. I am so glad I did. I think Lost Skeleton is probably the more interesting work-there is a rawness to it that makes it feel found not made that fits the parody-but Dark and Stormy Night is wonderfully realized. It is as funny and delightfully kooky as Lost Skeleton. It again utterly captures the essence of genre it is riffing on-in this case the old dark house mysteries of the 30's. Best the film is more technically polished, with a livelier shooting style and a more sure footed screenplay. Lost Skeleton is utterly in the mode of the genre it is riffing on but it is hard to tell how much of the humor is intentional. Here everything in Dark and Stormy feels much more thought out and structured. Really this is good film. It is not the sublime awfulness of Lost Skeleton but it is the more accessible work and more easily enjoyed.

"Dark and Stormy Night" is my second encounter with the work of writer/director Larry Blamire; following "The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra". Both films establish the same fact, namely that Blamire is a devoted and fanatically enthusiast fan of old-fashioned cheap and cheesy B-movies. "The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra" was the ultimate tribute to nonsensical Sci-Fi movies from the 1950's and 60's, complete with all the clichéd story lines and campy alien monster designs you could ever imagine, whereas this "Dark and Stormy Night" is a parody of all those typical old dark house movies and Agatha Christie mysteries. In good old "And then there were none…" tradition, a whole bunch of seemingly unrelated individuals arrive at a creepy isolated estate during a … well, dark and stormy night! The estate belonged to the rich but recently deceased Sinas Cavinder and everyone there gathered for the reading of his will. Moments before a giant revelation, however, the lights go out and lots of turmoil can be heard. When the lights are back on, the attorney has been stabbed to death and the invitees have to figure out the secret of the testament, knowing one of the group is a murderer. The rest of the night is filled with assassination attempts, dark corridors and secret passages, random gorilla encounters and a competitive battle between two freelance journalists. Personally, I think it's truly praiseworthy how Larry Blamire exclusively wants to bring comedy through substantial jokes, stereotypical characterizations and subtle references towards old movies. There are numerous spoofs and parodies being made nowadays, but they always revert to crude and vulgar sex jokes. "Dark and Stormy Night" doesn't feature any infantile humor like that. You won't hear me claim that all gags and references are successful and laugh-out-loud hilarious (far from it…), but at least the nature of the jokes never becomes embarrassing. The acting performances are decent, especially Larry Blamire himself who portrays one of the invitees in a deliberately wooden and amateurish fashion. There are some nice decors and the man in the gorilla suit is a delightful detail, seeing so many of those old haunted house movies had a gorilla locked up in the basement.

Writer-director Larry Blamire has a very distinctive comedic talent - genius, really - for spoofing movie genres not by throwing in everything but the kitchen sink (a la the great AIRPLANE!, the mediocre SCARY MOVIE, or the awful DATE MOVIE) but by recreating those movies, and all their endearingly dated conventions, in a manner so precise you could have a hard time telling them from the real deal. THE LOST SKELETON OF CADAVRA was a dead-on parody of grade-Z Ed Woodian sci-fi, and one of the funniest movies of recent years. THE LOST SKELETON RETURNS AGAIN added cheesy jungle adventures into the mix. And this wonderful picture, DARK AND STORMY NIGHT, heads into an entirely new direction for Blamire: 1930's and 40's murder mysteries (a la THE OLD DARK HOUSE, THE CAT AND THE CANARY, and AND THEN THERE WERE NONE) that were inevitably set in a spooky old mansion on a rain-soaked night where a motley assortment of characters are gathered for the reading of a will. Most of Blamire's brilliant cast of players from the two SKELTON movies (as well as the hilarious web series TALES FROM THE PUB) return, and they are deliciously in tune with each other and with Blamire's unique comedic sensibilities. Jennifer Blaire (aka Mrs. Larry Blamire) is particularly at home with the stylized, lightning-paced wisecracking written for her reporter character; in another era, Blaire could have been another Jean Arthur or Rosalind Russell. If you loved LOST SKELETON OF CADAVRA, if you're a fan of old movies, or you're just looking for 90 minutes of clever, rib-tickling fun, this one is a must.

I don't know about you, but I've become bored with the big budget Hollyweird movies that promise everything and deliver nothing. DARK AND STORMY NIGHT was such a refreshing change. I caught the movie at a premiere and laughed throughout. The acting was first rate. The sets were very well done, and the story never failed to deliver. Every time you thought Larry Blamire had packed all that he could into the movie, he surprises you by adding more. Bob Burns as Kogar was genius. Daniel Roebuck as the intrepid reporter hit the mark. Mark Refield as the diabolical attorney was fantastic. If this movie doesn't give you loads of belly laughs then you must be dead. Hollywood could take a lesson or two from Larry Blamire.

This is not a movie. It might be a Groundlings Theater exercise. Or a practice for an SNL sketch. Or a junior high school play. But whatever it is, this ain't a film, no way, no how. Doing a spoof of an old movie requires a certain belief in the genre, an understanding and respect for the source material. It also, and perhaps most importantly, means having actors who believe in what they're doing, believably inhabiting the characters they're portraying and the universe in which the story is set. There is not a single moment in "Dark and Stormy Night" where anybody watching this misfire will ever mistake the caricatures and cartoon figures presented here for real people... or even real movie characters. The acting is all of the overblown, wink-wink, nudge-nudge variety, as if presented on stage and pandering to the audience's reactions. Shooting on HD and converting to black and white is also no substitute for the rich 35mm film look of the movies this is supposed to satirize. "Mad" magazine used to do hilarious movie and television spoofs, and they always worked - for the simple reason that the characters believed what they were doing, interacting in their own peculiar universes and never alluding to the fact that it was all a sendup. Mel Brooks knows this. So does Carl Reiner... and Woody Allwn... and whoever wrote "Austin Powers." This is exactly why "Stormy Night" does not work: every single second, we're acutely aware the actors are doing a sendup... as if they're constantly trying to TELL us it's all a big joke. It's like comedians laughing at their own jokes. That, of course, never works. And neither does this.