One Body Too Many (1944) starts out strong, but peters out with the appearance of some ill-considered farce. Cyrus J. Rutherford, mogul, has died, and his heirs have gathered for the reading of the preamble of his Will. Through this useful mechanism, we learn his opinions of, and probable motivations for, various relations and servants. My favorite was of his niece: “I despised your father as a fool, but you appear to have rather better intelligence and regard for your uncle …”
It’s a nice setup, as he stipulates that he be buried “under the stars,” as he is astrologically inclined, and if this fails to occur, then the bequests that are contained in his Will, unrevealed as yet, “will be reversed.” We have hints of motivation between family members and a pair of servants who may have put rat poison in the coffee, and even a lawyer who suppresses Rutherford’s opinion of himself, a good situation for conflict, all in a big old house with secret passages. Perhaps not a classic for the ages, but a good old romp. Just to sharpen the setup, the lawyer calls a detective agency to provide a guard over Cyrus’ body, but the guard is ambushed at the front door and put out of the way.
Into this stumbles Albert Tuttle, insurance salesman, who’s initially mistaken as the guard. Set on selling life insurance to Rutherford, terrified of dead bodies, bad weather, beautiful women, and being sunk into ponds full of koi, he’s the farcical, romantic element which spoils the beginnings of what could have been a good whodunit.
Not that there were no other problems. Characters are a little too cut and dried, and alternatives to good old greed are not really considered, and this particular print had a number of technical problems. Still, the addition of farce was a poor idea, and makes it hard to do much more than acknowledge that we sat through this jarring little shadow thrower.
