Find Out What, That's the Question
Today's review: You'll Find Out.
What really drew me to You’ll Find Out was the names of three of the actors; Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff, and Peter Lorre. Having two actors who played iconic horror roles working together was intriguing enough, but throwing Lorre into the mix just made me even more interested (especially since the last movie I watched that starred both Karloff and Lorre, The Raven, had been a lot of fun). And since the movie is listed on IMDB as being comedy, horror, and a musical, I was intrigued to see how it all fit together. The answer is, relatively well.
The main character in the movie is Kay Kyser (playing himself), a band leader and radio personality who tends towards more humorous material. He seems to be pretty popular, so Kay’s manager, Chuck Deems (Dennis O’Keefe) arranges for him and his band to play at the twenty-first birthday of Chuck’s girlfriend, Janis Bellacrest (Helen Parrish). Shortly before heading to the party location, Janis admits to Chuck that she’s been in a series of near-fatal accidents that she suspects aren’t accidents. Things get worse (or weirder) when the whole group arrives at their destination, a spooky old manor house presided over by Janis’ aunt Margo (Alma Kruger). Not only is Margo convinced that she’s communicating with the spirit of her brother (and Janis’ father) with the aid of a psychic named Prince Saliano (Lugosi), but a lightning bolt (or is it?*) destroys the bridge that allows people to reach the manor. Even so, the house is pretty full, with Margo, Saliano, Janis, Chuck, Kay and his band, eight or so of Janis’ female friends, the family adviser Judge Spencer Mainwaring (Karloff), and a psychic debunker named Karl Fenninger (Lorre) that Janis hired to prove that Saliano is a fraud. Over the course of the night, more attempts are made on Janis’ life, and Kay and Chuck wind up working together to get to the bottom of what’s going on. All this and we get some musical numbers too.
Overall, I’d say the movie tends more towards the “comedy” genre than the “horror” or “musical” genre. There are a few musical numbers, but they mostly interrupt the action, and don’t tie into the plot besides being the setup for Kay and his group to come to the manor. As for the horror, while we get a lot of the usual horror clichés (creepy mansion, ominous lightning, etc.), very little is actually scary. Most of the movie is instead taken up with Kay bumbling around, sometimes making things worse, but just as often accidentally finding something important. This is a classic comedy trope, and I’d say it’s generally well executed. Sure, you’ve got the familiar beats of the oblivious hero, slapstick (often involving hidden passageways), and misunderstandings, but the script doesn’t just tread the old familiar ground. Kay isn’t always bright and does sometimes trust people he shouldn’t, but a) he doesn’t what we know about the character(s), and b) he makes up for it by being smart in other situations. Not only is he able to think rationally even in high-stress situations, he avoids a lot of the “idiot plot” pitfalls and comes up with a fairly clever plan during the climax. So while a lot of things play out just as you’d expect and there are scenes (especially during the musical/comedy routines) where Kay and his band are kind of hamming it up, there’s just enough that deviates from the norm that the material feels somewhat fresh. Or at least, it won’t bug you if you’re sick of comedy that relies on miscommunication.
The comedy is the biggest talking point here, but there are a lot of little things worth discussing. First, I found the opening credits interesting. Not only were they displayed in an interesting way (the names appeared on a big radio screen, and were changed by a wipe whenever a finger pressed a button to change stations), but they included two unusual lines. One was the line “Special sound and music effects by Sonovox”, which isn’t something you see every day (especially in 1940, when talkies were fully established). The other is on the screen for writing credits, where in addition to the usual “story” and “screenplay” job titles, you also get “special material by”. I have no idea what that was referring to, but it made me more interested in what was to come. It was also during the credits that I found out that one of Kay’s bandmates and a supporting actor with a relatively large role worked under the name Ish Kabibble, which is what he’s called in the movie too. Somewhere along the line he changed his name to M.A. Bogue (according to IMDB, at any rate), but I’m surprised that he was willing to go by that name for so long. The 40’s were a very different time, apparently.
Moving on from there, I’d say the acting is overall decent. Parrish and O’Keefe fade into the background as the romantic leads, and Kay and his band are presumably playing their radio personas. The ones to really watch are Karloff, Lugosi, and Lorre, who take different approaches. Karloff plays his role fairly straight and seriously, Lugosi chews the scenery (though given the role he’s playing, this isn’t surprising), and Lorre is somewhere in-between the two, depending on the scene. If you like any of these three actors, or like watching familiar faces hamming it up, you’ll probably get a kick out of it.
Finally, some truly miscellaneous observations. One of the band’s numbers, “The Bad Humor Man” is bizarre but fun. The movie ends with a fourth wall breaking PSA by Kay telling the audience that Bela Lugosi is actually a nice man in real life, so don’t take what you just saw seriously. I don’t know how I feel about this; if the PSA was directed towards children, I could kind of understand it, but it can feel kind of condescending to the adults in the audience. Perhaps it was meant to be a humor beat, but in that case, I think the joke fell flat. And lastly, while I said earlier in the review that the movie generally isn’t scary, there is one exception. Twice during the movie, Saliano holds a séance, and in addition to the usual floating objects and spooky ambient noises, there are some really eerie sounding voices and disembodied heads (of particular note is the faint chanting of “I killed Bellacrest” that mixes with a low bass drum). It made me unsettled, so it would probably be even scarier to young children. Just a word of warning if you’re considering this movie for a family film night.
That caveat aside, I’d probably recommend this movie. It’s not a classic, but it’s entertaining, and there’s plenty of material to appeal to a wide range of moviegoers. So if you’re interested, track down a copy and find out if it’s up your alley.
CAT ALERT, sort of: While it doesn’t play any role in the plot, there is a prominent leopard head on the wall of Kay’s room. There’s also a lion statue that a character peers through, so I guess those two add up to one point.
*In all seriousness, it’s very difficult to tell if the destruction of the bridge is an accident or not. There had been plenty of lightning before the bridge gets struck, but given some of the other events in the movie, it’s also possible it was deliberately rigged to blow. I don’t recall hearing whether it was on purpose or not, though, so it’ll just have to remain a mystery.
What really drew me to You’ll Find Out was the names of three of the actors; Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff, and Peter Lorre. Having two actors who played iconic horror roles working together was intriguing enough, but throwing Lorre into the mix just made me even more interested (especially since the last movie I watched that starred both Karloff and Lorre, The Raven, had been a lot of fun). And since the movie is listed on IMDB as being comedy, horror, and a musical, I was intrigued to see how it all fit together. The answer is, relatively well.
The main character in the movie is Kay Kyser (playing himself), a band leader and radio personality who tends towards more humorous material. He seems to be pretty popular, so Kay’s manager, Chuck Deems (Dennis O’Keefe) arranges for him and his band to play at the twenty-first birthday of Chuck’s girlfriend, Janis Bellacrest (Helen Parrish). Shortly before heading to the party location, Janis admits to Chuck that she’s been in a series of near-fatal accidents that she suspects aren’t accidents. Things get worse (or weirder) when the whole group arrives at their destination, a spooky old manor house presided over by Janis’ aunt Margo (Alma Kruger). Not only is Margo convinced that she’s communicating with the spirit of her brother (and Janis’ father) with the aid of a psychic named Prince Saliano (Lugosi), but a lightning bolt (or is it?*) destroys the bridge that allows people to reach the manor. Even so, the house is pretty full, with Margo, Saliano, Janis, Chuck, Kay and his band, eight or so of Janis’ female friends, the family adviser Judge Spencer Mainwaring (Karloff), and a psychic debunker named Karl Fenninger (Lorre) that Janis hired to prove that Saliano is a fraud. Over the course of the night, more attempts are made on Janis’ life, and Kay and Chuck wind up working together to get to the bottom of what’s going on. All this and we get some musical numbers too.
Overall, I’d say the movie tends more towards the “comedy” genre than the “horror” or “musical” genre. There are a few musical numbers, but they mostly interrupt the action, and don’t tie into the plot besides being the setup for Kay and his group to come to the manor. As for the horror, while we get a lot of the usual horror clichés (creepy mansion, ominous lightning, etc.), very little is actually scary. Most of the movie is instead taken up with Kay bumbling around, sometimes making things worse, but just as often accidentally finding something important. This is a classic comedy trope, and I’d say it’s generally well executed. Sure, you’ve got the familiar beats of the oblivious hero, slapstick (often involving hidden passageways), and misunderstandings, but the script doesn’t just tread the old familiar ground. Kay isn’t always bright and does sometimes trust people he shouldn’t, but a) he doesn’t what we know about the character(s), and b) he makes up for it by being smart in other situations. Not only is he able to think rationally even in high-stress situations, he avoids a lot of the “idiot plot” pitfalls and comes up with a fairly clever plan during the climax. So while a lot of things play out just as you’d expect and there are scenes (especially during the musical/comedy routines) where Kay and his band are kind of hamming it up, there’s just enough that deviates from the norm that the material feels somewhat fresh. Or at least, it won’t bug you if you’re sick of comedy that relies on miscommunication.
The comedy is the biggest talking point here, but there are a lot of little things worth discussing. First, I found the opening credits interesting. Not only were they displayed in an interesting way (the names appeared on a big radio screen, and were changed by a wipe whenever a finger pressed a button to change stations), but they included two unusual lines. One was the line “Special sound and music effects by Sonovox”, which isn’t something you see every day (especially in 1940, when talkies were fully established). The other is on the screen for writing credits, where in addition to the usual “story” and “screenplay” job titles, you also get “special material by”. I have no idea what that was referring to, but it made me more interested in what was to come. It was also during the credits that I found out that one of Kay’s bandmates and a supporting actor with a relatively large role worked under the name Ish Kabibble, which is what he’s called in the movie too. Somewhere along the line he changed his name to M.A. Bogue (according to IMDB, at any rate), but I’m surprised that he was willing to go by that name for so long. The 40’s were a very different time, apparently.
Moving on from there, I’d say the acting is overall decent. Parrish and O’Keefe fade into the background as the romantic leads, and Kay and his band are presumably playing their radio personas. The ones to really watch are Karloff, Lugosi, and Lorre, who take different approaches. Karloff plays his role fairly straight and seriously, Lugosi chews the scenery (though given the role he’s playing, this isn’t surprising), and Lorre is somewhere in-between the two, depending on the scene. If you like any of these three actors, or like watching familiar faces hamming it up, you’ll probably get a kick out of it.
Finally, some truly miscellaneous observations. One of the band’s numbers, “The Bad Humor Man” is bizarre but fun. The movie ends with a fourth wall breaking PSA by Kay telling the audience that Bela Lugosi is actually a nice man in real life, so don’t take what you just saw seriously. I don’t know how I feel about this; if the PSA was directed towards children, I could kind of understand it, but it can feel kind of condescending to the adults in the audience. Perhaps it was meant to be a humor beat, but in that case, I think the joke fell flat. And lastly, while I said earlier in the review that the movie generally isn’t scary, there is one exception. Twice during the movie, Saliano holds a séance, and in addition to the usual floating objects and spooky ambient noises, there are some really eerie sounding voices and disembodied heads (of particular note is the faint chanting of “I killed Bellacrest” that mixes with a low bass drum). It made me unsettled, so it would probably be even scarier to young children. Just a word of warning if you’re considering this movie for a family film night.
That caveat aside, I’d probably recommend this movie. It’s not a classic, but it’s entertaining, and there’s plenty of material to appeal to a wide range of moviegoers. So if you’re interested, track down a copy and find out if it’s up your alley.
CAT ALERT, sort of: While it doesn’t play any role in the plot, there is a prominent leopard head on the wall of Kay’s room. There’s also a lion statue that a character peers through, so I guess those two add up to one point.
*In all seriousness, it’s very difficult to tell if the destruction of the bridge is an accident or not. There had been plenty of lightning before the bridge gets struck, but given some of the other events in the movie, it’s also possible it was deliberately rigged to blow. I don’t recall hearing whether it was on purpose or not, though, so it’ll just have to remain a mystery.