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The Boogie Man Will Get You: 6 out of 10: If Ma and Pa Kettle ever did Arsenic and Old Lace it would be this movie. Very very silly and occasionally quite funny the Boogie Man has a couple of big faults. The supporting cast is mixed at best and the ending is a mess.

It also has two great assets, Boris Karloff and Peter Lorre. Karloff is spot on as the bumbling well meaning murdering scientist. Whose experiments on traveling salesman to create super-soldiers for the war effort are both well meaning and quite homicidal.

Peter Lorre is hilarious as the Mayor, Police Chief, Undertaker, Notary, excreta. He dresses in a three piece suit with a Siamese kitten in his pocket to which he coos in German.

Watching these two together is pure entertainment and certainly worth a viewing. The rest of the movie is light, frothy, derivative, and occasionally irritating. Just watch the stars at work and forget the rest.

Though conceived as a quickie ripoff of "Arsenic and Old Lace," "Boogie Man" now seems more like a weird precursor of "Green Acres," featuring (Miss) Jeff Donnell as a sort of young female Eddie Albert, and Boris Karloff in what might be called the Eva Gabor position, spoofing his kindly old mad scientist roles as a semi-senile inventor attempting to create a race of electrically enhanced supermen in the basement of a crumbling colonial inn while Miss Donnell joyously appraises all the charming old antiques upstairs. Peter Lorre, of all people, gives a rare comic performance as the local version of Mr. Haney, running around dressed like Robert Mitchum in "Night of the Hunter," with a cute little Siamese kitten in his pocket that he periodically coos to in German. This is the sort of movie you used to catch one night on the late late show, and wonder for years afterwards if you'd actually seen it or just dreamt it.

A curious film which weaves satirical comments about World War Two into a modified "Arsenic and Old Lace" theme, together with an implicit weakness of technology and what passes for science. The strongest satire revolves around nutty Professor Nathaniel Billings (Boris Karloff), a mad but seemingly harmless scientist, whose attempt at creating a superman is so close to Hitler's expressed plan for a superman race that the parallel cannot be ignored. The film was produced during a time of military victories for the Axis powers, at a point in World War Two when the Allies were all but powerless to resist. Satire seemed the only sure weapon. As a movie, it's great fun, with a cast much too sophisticated for both the plot and the script. In effect, the acting skill of both Karloff and Peter Lorre (as Dr Lorenz) are the film's salvation. As wacky as the characters are, they seem plausible representations of real folks, which makes one wonder who, indeed, is really in charge of the asylum.

This film was quite enjoyable for what it was. A cockeyed optimist(Miss Jeff Daniels) buys a rundown colonial era inn with high hopes and decides to allow the current inhabitants, among them a scientist working on a device that will help the Allies win the war(Boris Karloff)and an old woman who obsesses about chickens, to stay on. Her bumbling ex-husband has followed her. The scientist is soon joined by the sheriff/coroner/justice of the peace (and purveyor of baldness cures),played by Peter Lorre. The big question is: Is there are or aren't there a room full of corpses in a secret room off the wine cellar? They have been experimenting on travelling salesmen who happen by the house,using the standard bulb- and- helmet type of contraption that should be familiar to moviegoers. Lorre's character packs a huge pistol and keeps a Siamese kitten in his pocket, claiming that "she has a incredible sense for crime and corruption." Good thing.

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.

The title, "The Boogie Man Will Get You" should give you an idea of the sort of film you're going to see. Its basically a minor horror/comedy played out more or less like a Three Stooges comedy with a budget. For stars Boris Karloff and Peter Lorre, it was probably a welcome change of pace from the roles both had been playing. The story is similar in many ways to "Arsenic and Old Lace" a hit Broadway play of the day in which Karloff had been starring.

Two eccentrics, Professor Nathaniel Billings (Karloff) and Amelia Jones (Maude Eburne) live in a run down old Colonial Inn which they have put up for sale. A young lady Winnie Layden (Jeff Donnell) comes to look over the place and decides to buy it. As a condition of the sale Billings asks that he, Amelia and handyman Ebenezer (George McKay) be allowed to stay so that Billings can complete his experiments in the building's basement.

The mortgage holder Dr. Lorentz (Lorre), who is also the sheriff, the coroner and the Justice of the Peace, among other titles, arrives. Billings gleefully pays off his mortgage and Winnie takes title to the property just as her former husband Bill (Larry Parks) arrives to try for some unknown reason to prevent her from buying the Inn.

Meanwhile Billings continues his experiments to try to perfect a super human, but his test subject apparently dies. Bill discovers the body in the basement and he and Winnie report the crime to Lorenz in his role of the town sheriff. On investigating, Lorenz learns of Billings plans and wants in on the action. He also discovers that there are also four other "test subjects" laid out in the next room.

A "ballet master", J. Gilbert Brampton arrives at the Inn and begins to snoop around. A traveling powder puff salesman (Maxie Rosenbloom) arrives and Billings and Lorentz plan to make him their next "test subject". An escaped fascist prisoner (Frank Paglia) also drops in and threatens to blow everybody up. Two cops (Frank Sully, James Morton) arrive to investigate a reported murder.

Everything manages to get sorted out in the end.

The film leaves a few unanswered questions such as "Where did Winnie get all of the cash?, Why were Bill and Winnie divorced?, Who was really making the Indian whooping noise? and What was the "arrangement", if any between Billings and Amelia? And beware of the typical Hollywood Production Code ending. This was Karloff's final film on his Columbia contract and he would be off the screen until 1944's "The Climax" while he continued to appear in "Arsenic and Old Lace", which by the way prevented him from getting a part in the 1944 film version.

The two leads seem to enjoy all of this nonsense and both would appear in comedic parts over the years for the rest of their careers.

It surely is a cosmic snicker that Henry Pratt supported himself as a piano mover while appearing in the French version of a Laurel & Hardy film! (Pardon Us.) Perhaps Henry, or Boris Karloff as he began calling himself, gave the boys some tips on the fine art of cajoling a balky music box up a few flights of stairs. We'll never know for sure, but that helpful, neighborly, attitude was always with him, even at his most darkly sinister or bizarre. Monster, mummy, mandarin, or daffy doctor, Karloff always seemed truly puzzled and not a little grieved at the mayhem and horror that swirled around him in every film. In Boogie Man he is simply trying to support the War effort with a little harmless electricity. His slight lisp, and polite British accent, gave his utterances a benign tone. Even his evil grimace (and only Lugosi could match those melodramatic facial convulsions) somehow seem less menacing than mildly complaining, as if he were telling you about a pesky toothache. In this film he's playing for laughs, of course, but even in his starkest horror roles you can sense just a touch of amusement at himself as he chews up the scenery (or a victim.) One feels that if he were still around to spread his arms in menace at us, he might pause & sniff, just to make sure his deodorant was still working. A thoughtful murderer -- that was Boris Karloff.

Mainly viewable for fine work by Boris Karloff and Peter Lorre (in charming, comedic-style roles) and an outstanding performance by the talented miss Jeff Donnell. I wish Donnell's work could become more widely known, she was outstanding in a number of obscure and little-seen films like this one. Another good example of her work in a fun role in a relatively obscure b-film is the Tim Holt western "The Stagecoach Kid".

"The Boogie Man Will Get You" features a great cast, energetically done and generally well performed and staged in a horror-comedy format popular in the 1940's, but one thing is missing: they forgot to make it funny. It is relentlessly packed with comedy set-ups and bits, none of them funny but some are sort of goofy. Unfortunately, whoever wrote the humor gags really dropped the ball. The high level of talent by everyone involved cannot overcome this one big flaw with the project.

Can't recommend that you view this film unless you are a big fan or completist of the actors involved, or you have an hour to kill with lightweight, inoffensive fare.

Horror King Boris Karloff seems to be having a good time here spoofing his own mad doctor image in this light-hearted black comedy which was probably inspired by ARSENIC AND OLD LACE. As a kindly (but naive) old inventor, the wacky Karloff wants to "aid the war effort" by creating his own homegrown superman. Boris teams up in this one with the offbeat Peter Lorre as another "scientist" and "jack of all trades" to bop unsuspecting subjects over the head for usage in their daffy experiments. One of their dimwitted victims is even Max "Slapsie Maxie" Rosenbloom. Karloff and Lorre make a good comical duo in the first of a few films where they'd eventually share the spotlight together, and there are some light chuckles to be had in this good natured, if uneven, diversion. **1/2 out of ****

I couldn't wait to see this film. After all, it starred Boris Karloff and he's one of my favorites. Imagine my surprise, then, when instead of the typical horror film it turned out this was supposed to be a screwball comedy. I say "supposed to" because the film just wasn't funny.

The film takes place in a rotting old Colonial home that's being turned into an inn. The lady who just bought the place knows nothing about running a hotel and she agreed to let the old owner (Karloff) continue to live there and conduct his experiments in the basement. However, she does not know that the experiments have already killed four traveling salesmen and Karloff doesn't seem particularly alarmed about this. Later, the town's big-shot (Peter Lorre) finds out about it but instead of arresting him (since he's, among other things, the sheriff), he quickly goes into business with Karloff. Then, unexpectedly, other people start to die and disappear and all sorts of kookiness ensues.

In so many, many ways this film is a bad knockoff of ARSENIC AND OLD LACE--which had been a very successful play for several years and was wonderfully filmed in late 1941 (though shelved until the play ended in 1944). In fact, both Karloff and Lorre were associated with the production (Lorre was in the film and Karloff was in the Broadway play). In many other ways THE BOOGIE MAN is a blatant ripoff of ARSENIC AND OLD LACE--such as the dead bodies in the basement, the disappearing body, Lorre being a doctor (in addition to being a sheriff and several other jobs), etc.. The big difference, however, is that THE BOOGIE MAN is totally unfunny from start to finish due to having absolutely no pacing or decent writing. Instead of subtle or clever (like ARSENIC), the film just comes off as very abrasive and loud and more like a Three Stooges film than anything else. Considering it was made by Columbia Pictures (home of the Stooges), this isn't all that surprising. What is surprising is that Karloff would allow himself to be in such a dreadful film. In fact, I might go so far as to say that this is possible Karloff's worst film of the 1940s--though a few of his later films are significantly worse (if that's possible), such as GHOST IN THE INVISIBLE BIKINI and CAULDRON OF BLOOD.

Watch only if you have a very strong stomach and a very, very low sense of humor. If you like the Stooges' shorts, this film might still not be sophisticated enough for you as the average Stooge short is like Shakespeare compared to THE BOOGIE MAN. Wow that's one hour of my life I'll never be able to get back--thanks Columbia!

Karloff and Lorre attempt to make superhuman zombies for the war effort. Its far from the best horror comedy ever made but if you click into its loopy silliness you're in for a breezy hour plus.

What can I say I found it charming and sweet even as seemingly ghoulish things were going on. Some people I know find it dumb, and to be honest, it is dumb, but the chance to see Lorre and Karloff being silly together years before Roger Corman brought them together again is a joy.

Should you run across this film, by all means see it, you may not laugh but you will smile from start to finish is a goofy sort of way.

(Miss) Jeff Donnell (yes, that's how she's billed) plays a woman who loves the charm of anything antique and buys a rundown old inn to renovate, much to the dismay of her ex-husband, Larry Parks. These two are fine in their roles as the squabbling exes, but honestly those parts are secondary to the real stars of the picture, Boris Karloff and Peter Lorre.

Karloff owns the place, but is being evicted and needs Donnell's cash. He asks only to stay on to finish his 'experiments' in the basement: Karloff, as sweet and grandfatherly as can be, has created a machine he's sure can turn a mere mortal into superman and win the war..unfortunately, glitches in the procedure have produced nothing except the five bodies in the wine cellar. Also staying are the chicken-obsessed housekeeper (Maude Eburne) and a handyman who likes to carry his piglets about the house.

To make the sale legal, they call in Peter Lorre..the local mayor/coroner/sheriff/seller of insurance and hair tonic. Lorre's character is terrific--dressed all in black with a cute little kitten in his pocket. Parks sees bodies (that vanish) and Donnell thinks he's just trying to scare her, and she continues to believe the loony characters are just dears. When Lorre finds out about the bodies, he doesn't make an arrest--he suggests Karloff cut him in on the invention, and they are thrilled when Maxie Rosenbloom knocks on the door selling powder puffs (all the 'subjects' were salesmen) so they crank up the machine one more time. Things go from wacky to full-blown chaos to tie up all the loose plot strings.

This was obviously a take on "Arsenic and Old Lace"..Parks is no Cary Grant and this is not on a par with that classic comedy, but it is just silly enough to be charming, and worth seeing if only for Lorre and Karloff in a comic/satirical take of their usual frightful roles.

This viewer wouldn't consider "The Boogie Man Will Get You" to be a horror comedy, really, but more of a screwball farce. It does send up the horror genre to a degree, what with some macabre things going on. What director Lew Landers succeeds at doing is creating a breakneck pace. The actors are very lively in the classic farcical tradition and step all over each others' dialogue, and gags come at you pretty fast. Some of the dialogue is rich and amusing, and the assortment of odd duck characters helps to make this a pleasant if not great entertainment.

Boris Karloff plays Nathaniel Billings, a scientist attempting to create "supermen" out of door-to-door salesman, all in the name of the war effort. To rid himself of his mortgage problem, he sells his run town tavern to enterprising young woman Winnie Slade (Jeff Donnell), who thinks it has potential. Other people on the scene include wacky jack-of-all-trades Lorencz (Peter Lorre), whose occupations include, among other things, being the local sheriff, notary public, and quack doctor, dotty housekeeper Amelia Jones (Maude Eburne), eccentric "choreographer" J. Gilbert Brampton (Don Beddoe), Winnie's perpetually agitated ex-husband Bill (Larry Parks), and affable salesman Maxie (Max 'Slapsie Maxie' Rosenbloom).

There are some thoroughly engaging situations in this likable little movie. The best belong to Karloff and Lorre, who prove to be a wonderful team, especially as Lorencz decides to help Billings with his experiments. Before the story has ended, furniture will have toppled over, characters will have taken pratfalls, and dead bodies will need to be moved around. Things build to the expected frantic finish where one wonders how everything is going to be resolved.

Fans of the actors are sure to have a good time with this one.

Seven out of 10.

From the very beginning, during the opening credits, you already know what you are dealing with, despite Boris Karloff and Peter Lorre. It's not my cup of tea, but that's a movie from Lew Landers,, a grade B movies provider whose I have already tried not to miss any movie available; many are not anymore. Fortunately for me, this feature is not too long, so it was not too hard for me to really focus on the plot. It is definitely fun, enjoyable. Impossible to say the least harm about this film. Made during the war, 1942, it is obviously destined to help audiences to forget, at least for more than one hour, the nightmare of the conflict.

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.

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.

One would hope that in combining the talents of Boris Karloff and Peter Lorre in a horror comedy styled after Karloff's current Broadway sensation ARSENIC AND OLD LACE it should result in a better film than "The Boogie Man Will Get You," last of the five 'Mad Scientist' vehicles for Boris at Columbia from 1939 to 1942 (all were included in SON OF SHOCK). Producers Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse would not allow Karloff to reprise his cherished Jonathan Brewster opposite Lorre in the Frank Capra movie version (Warners nixed their idea of borrowing Humphrey Bogart to temporarily replace him!), so Boris remained in New York as Raymond Massey essayed the part instead. Columbia's attempted cash in arrived some nine months later, and must have seemed a pretty poor crumb indeed by comparison, despite offering the actor a more lighthearted rendition of his stock mad scientist as Prof. Nathaniel Billings, merely trying to preserve life by transforming unwary salesmen into supermen who will never age and be able to fly on their own as perfect weapons against the Axis. He conducts these experiments in a basement laboratory in the old Billings lodge dating back to 1775, with a housekeeper who imagines herself an egg laying hen (Maude Eburne), and a handyman who lives with pigs (George McKay). Among this menagerie arrives pretty Winnie Slade (Jeff Donnell) and her ex-husband (Larry Parks), trying to adjust to a new career running this old tavern as a hotel; add a would be choreographer (Don Beddoe), a powder puff salesman with an inferiority complex (Maxie Rosenbloom), and an inept anarchist (Frank Puglia), all the ingredients for cinematic disaster. Only Peter Lorre provides the saving grace as Dr. Arthur Lorencz, who performs all the functions of this tiny New England community, terminating the Billings mortgage with Winnie's unlikely cash payment before playing sheriff when he looks into the professor's murderous activities (it's all right so long as he can turn a profit by it). All ends well for everybody in a way, as none of the corpses actually stay dead, the whole soufflé collapsing in a heap after an hour of cloddish behavior. Karloff proves a delight though Lorre's improvisational style suits the nonsensical surroundings best, it's just the other characters that wear out their welcome in no time. '(Miss) Jeff Donnell' was an underrated actress who brightened a number of the studio's pictures over the following decade, but Boris was now finished with Harry Cohn, not returning to Hollywood until ARSENIC's run concluded in the spring of 1944 (my rating is 2 stars, one for each chuckle).

A young divorcée (Jeff Donnell) tries to convert a historic house into a hotel despite its oddball inhabitants and dead bodies in the cellar.

Apparently this film was an attempt to cash in on the success of "Arsenic and Old Lace", and if that is true, it shows. Besides having Karloff and Lorre, both faces associated with that story, you have the wacky residents of an "old dark house" and fun with corpses.

I enjoyed this, despite its being a knockoff, because it is fun and I can never get enough of Karloff or Lorre, two great actors we should all miss (who can match them today?). Unfortunately my copy was from Sony's print-on-demand system that offers movies on DVD-R, so I am not confident it will last all that many years... when a film like this deserves special treatment!

This is my absolute favorite horror comedy of the 40's. I am amazed it doesn't have a higher rating. Perhaps it's because it was originally billed as a straight horror film, which it isn't at all. I find it even funnier than Arsenic and Old Lace, another great comedy Horror from that period. While Arsenic and Old lace is very, it's not really all that rewatchable. Most of the jokes deal with your surprise at the unexpected situations. With The Boogie Man Will Get You, however, the humor is from the charisma of the actors, and the zany situations. I have personally watched this movie over 50 times, at least. It's very rewatchable.

Personally, this has my favorite performances of Boris Karloff, Peter Lorre, and Jeff Donnell, out of any of their films. Others might not agree, considering the number of great films that Karloff and Lorre have been in. Jeff Donnell hasn't been in as many, in fact I've only seen her in one other. Still she is great here. Another standout performance is Slapsie Rosenbloom. He is quite hilarious as a dummy traveling salesman.

So, very good movie. I definitely recommend it, if you can find it. It's out there if you know how to look. ;)

Obviously inspired by (but certainly no match for) the theatrical success of the legendary black farce, ARSENIC AND OLD LACE (co-starring Boris Karloff) - whose film version, featuring Peter Lorre(!), had been shot but not yet released - the film can also be seen as a spoof on Karloff's "Mad Doctor" cycle of films (which, unfortunately, I've yet to sample myself!) he had just finished for the same studio, Columbia; the film also touches upon the wartime situation by having Karloff's mysterious experiments emerge as a crackpot attempt to aid the war effort!

At first I wasn't particularly enthused with it, but gradually the film settled into being a pleasant diversion, with the two stars making a truly wonderful team (a surprisingly bemused Karloff still manages to retain his dignity while Lorre, typically shady and nervy at the same time, gives it his all as the jack-of-all-trades of a remote small town); Lorre has a tiny but intuitive Siamese cat for an assistant, which he carries along in the inside pocket of his coat!

Still, the film is more silly than funny: there is, of course, a bland romantic couple (the male half of which is Larry Parks, later to achieve short-lived fame portraying Al Jolson in the two Columbia biopics of the great entertainer!) and the rest of the cast play either goofy or eccentric characters but, alas, none is all that engaging!! Besides, given the low-budget which must have been afforded the production, the laboratory design and the special effects are pretty shoddy!

My husband and I watched this while in a vacation rental with four other relatives - we did not have streaming available, and it was either this or some early Stooges shorts. Should have gone with the Stooges!!! We unanimously agreed that it was NOT FUNNY. The only reason I rated it as high as 4 is because of the cast. It IS mercifully short at 1 hr. and 6 min., but there are better ways to spend the time...