Panamint 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.

mark.waltz So new Innkeeper Jeff Donnell must do when she purchases a Revolutionary War era inn from the wacky scientist Boris Karloff who has more cobwebs in his brain than the inn's attic does. Boris is trying to create an army of supermen to battle Hitler and Mussolini, and this leads behind a trail of corpses, so when he gets the opportunity to stop focusing on running the inn and work on his patriotic goal, he takes it on. The local sheriff/D.A./notary public (Peter Lorre) is equally as nutty, keeping a Siamese kitten in his pocket which can smell a corpse in another room. This feline Charlie Chan stumbles upon a body with a knife in it, and the presence of a series of other wackos (macho powder puff salesman Maxie Ronenbloom, housekeeper Maude Eburne and Donnell's paranoid fiancée amongst them) keeps things popping'.What could have been a very enjoyable "B" comedy turns out to be a cheap rip-off of "Arsenic and Old Lace" with Karloff and Lorre taking over the roles of the two old ladies who poisoned their gentlemen callers with elderberry wine. Karloff, who played a villain in that play on Broadway, wasn't able to do the movie, so he got this second feature instead, and while there are some enjoyable moments, it's all pretty silly stuff, a comedy horror spoof which focuses on juvenile style gags for laughs and seems more suited to the likes of Columbia's other comic talents, Joe E. Brown and the Three Stooges. This doesn't make much of an impact in the career of its two horror icon stars, so the result is something you can take or leave, but like certain foods, will leave you hungry for more only a short time later.

Michael_Elliott Boogie Man Will Get You, The (1942) *** (out of 4) A nutty doctor (Boris Karloff) plans on creating supermen but his experiments continue to fail. With the help of another man (Peter Lorre) the two start kidnapping folks from the hotel being ran above their basement. This is a pretty entertaining comedy/horror film from Columbia that works best thanks to the performances by Karloff and Lorre. The two work very well together and their comic timing is right on the mark. The supporting players are fine as well in this cash in on Arsenic and Old Lace.

MARIO GAUCI 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!