Talk:Scared Stiff (1945 film)

Plot section and influences

I'm afraid the Plot section was copied from somewhere else. In any case, it has editorial remarks such as "Accidents rarely come alone" and generally has a professional and un-encyclopedic sound. Although we should have professional-sounding writing here, this seems like more than that, more like a studio summary.

I just watched this after I got it from archive.org. As a chess player, I found the parts of this relating to chess amusing. The chess problems help to establish the characters. Some of the chess references are purely gratuitous. The MacGuffin, the item (a chess set, historically impossible) that is incomplete without both parts, is a gimmick that's been used many times up to the present day. The influence of the Three Stooges seems obvious to me. Some of Jack Haley's lines sound like what Curly would say: "I was hit by a bishop" etc. with a subsequent misunderstanding. For a while he comically wears the Moe toupee without realizing it. The chase sequences through the maze of the wine cellars and the rotating wall are also Three Stooges devices, but they might be common to a lot of comedies. The "sinister shadow on the wall" that is used in noir is overused for comic effect. All in all, I was entertained more than usual. Oh, Ann Savage is fantastic. Wastrel Way (talk) Eric