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."
