My birthday movie! I was thinking about watching something I knew I would (probably) like, or something I really wanted to see. But since the ultimate plan was to watch the MST3k Pumaman, I decided to just take it easy and make it short. And One Frightened Night certainly had that going for it, at least. 65 minutes I think?
And honestly, that's being unnecessarily harsh - it isn't a bad movie by any means. It's just tough for a 1935 screwball murder mystery to resonate much with me 80 years later. (But in an "interesting" coincidence that I just now realized, it's from 1935 and I turned 35 today! Crazy!)
One Frightened Night is about a cantankerous old rich man that gathers a bunch of his "friends" on a dark and stormy night. I say "friends" because he seems to be really mean to them. But at least it's usually in an amusing way. Apparently, a new inheritance tax will come into law at midnight, and he wants to get rid of his fortune before then. Since he cannot track down his only living relative (a granddaughter from his estranged daughter), he promises to give each of his six (or so) friends one million dollars! So I guess it's okay that he's kind of a dick. Everybody is obviously pretty stoked, but then who should show up at the door - his missing granddaughter! The friends' joy turns to disappointment. Then a few minutes later a second woman shows up, also claiming to be the granddaughter! Then *someone* murders the first granddaughter! Everyone is a suspect... who is the killer? Who is the real granddaughter? Tune in to find out!
So it's not all bad - One Frightened Night is really more of a comedy than anything, and I definitely did laugh a couple of times. It's got a whole vaudeville-esque feel to it - one of the characters is a magician and he never hesitates to do some fancy sleight of hand tricks for everyone to marvel at. The hammy/broad acting that typifies the screwball comedy of the era is alive and well here - characters verbally joust, put up their dukes, and use corny/cliched lines ("why I oughtta..." complete with a shaking fist). With such a dated style of comedy, it's hard to look at it as anything other than a relic of it's time - like watching comedy as a museum display, you know? But still, it's charming enough, and the short runtime ensures you don't get too sick of it. Our magician friend often crosses the line into being too annoying, but ultimately he isn't around enough to drag the whole thing down.
The horror elements are pretty much non-existent. There's the one murder (unseen, of course) and then there is lightning crashing and thunder, as well as the occasional power outage. But this film is never really going for tension. It's probably the least terrifying of the 50 Tales of Terror budget set that I've come across. But it looks/sounds better than most on the set - all the more impressive considering its age.
So One Frightened Night is all right. It moves along quickly, is inoffensive, and enough of the jokes land to make it mostly enjoyable. You probably know if your prone to liking these sorts of things or not - if you are in the "old movies are boring" camp this won't change your mind. But it's an okay watch.
I would probably recommend this film.
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