Ernest Broughton (Kenneth Connor) is at home one night when Everett Sloane (Donald Pleasence) knocks at his door. Sloane is the attorney for Ernie’s uncle Gabriel. Sloane says that Gabriel has died and Ernie is in the will. He tells Ernie that in order to get his inheritance he must go to Gabriel’s creepy estate in the moors of Yorkshire for the reading of the will. Ernie, being a chicken hearted little guy takes his roommate Syd Butler (Sidney James) with him.
They are let into Gabriel’s large manor house called Blackshaw Towers by the butler Fisk (Michael Gough). At the estate are gathered all of Gabriel’s relatives. On hand are Gabriel’s brother Dr. Edward Broughton (George Woodbridge), Edward’s son Guy (Dennis Price) and his daughter Janet (Valerie Taylor), Malcolm Broughton (Michael Gwynn), Aunt Emily (Esma Cannon), Gabriel’s nurse Linda Dixon (Shirley Eaton), and of course Attorney Sloane.
Everyone gathers around the dining room table. Sloane opens the will and reads. To all his relatives Gabriel bequeaths nothing. The only one who gets anything is the nurse Linda Dixon. She gets Gabriel’s syringes, pills and pill bottles. When the lights go out Fisk, Ernie and Syd go out to the shed and find that the generator has been sabotaged. In the house the phone lines have been cut. Outside on the moors it is dark and dangerous. Everyone is stuck in the mansion for the night. With no way out they decide the only thing they can do is lock themselves in their rooms until morning.
One by one the inhabitants of the house begin to meet their end.
“No Place Like Homicide” (US title) AKA “What a Carve Up” (British title) was released in 1961 and was directed by Pat Jackson. It is a British made comedy/horror film loosely based on the novel “The Ghoul” by Frank King. It is a remake of the Boris Karloff film “The Ghoul” 1933 by Gaumont-British Pictures but there are enough differences between the two movies to give each of them their own flavor. It is an Old Dark House mystery more than it is a horror film with the normal haunted house accoutrements of sliding panels, hidden staircases and secret passages.
British sixties pop star Adam Faith makes a cameo appearance at the end of the film. Also featured in the film was Michael Gough. Gough starred in many horror movies but his main claim to fame was as the butler Alfred Pennyworth in several of the “Batman” movies done in the late eighties and the nineties. Gough is wonderful as the decrepit yet sinister looking butler. Also on tap is Donald Pleasence from the John Carpenter “Halloween” movies. His performance was also well done.
The comedic interplay between Connor and James is slightly reminiscent of the American comedy style of Abbott and Costello.
Both Sidney James and Kenneth Connor are well known British comedic actors. They were both in many of the “Carry On” films done in Britain. The Carry On films were a string of thirty or so British comedy films mostly from the late fifties to the late seventies, plus a few Christmas specials and a short lived television series and a few stage plays. There was one additional movie done in 1992. The humor tended to include slapstick, innuendos and double entendres.
The film is typical sixties humor. Although not especially scary it is an easy and fun to watch film of the comedy/horror genre. Some of the humor may be more obvious to British viewers but it still has enough universal charm and humor for anyone to enjoy. If you are a fan of Kenneth Connor, or Sidney James you will appreciate this film as well. Fans of the “Carry On” movie series may find it a little tame but still enjoyable.