Scared Stiff
by Frank McDonald
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Ann Savage, Barton MacLane, Jack Haley, Roger Pryor, Veda Ann BorgDirector: Frank McDonald
Cinematographer: Fred Jackman Jr.
Editor: Henry Adams
Producer: Maxwell Shane
Writer: Maxwell Shane
Producer: William C. Thomas
Producer: William H. Pine
Writer: Daniel Mainwaring
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Black & White, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 65 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2003-10-07
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Alpha Video
Movie Reviews of Scared Stiff
Movie Review: FOR JACK HALEY FANS...
Summary: 3 Stars
This 1945 film stars Jack Haley as Larry Elliott, a chess editor for a newspaper. Unfortunately, when he has to pinch hit as a reporter, he couldn't spot a breaking news story if it were to hit him in the face. He is given a last chance dance to go and cover the crowning of Miss Muscadet at a winery in Grape City. The winery just happens to be the newspaper's biggest advertiser. With admonitions ringing in his ears not to screw things up this time, Larry promptly gets on a bus bound for Grape Center, where he ends up at another winery with an inn for guests. Unfortunately, the person who sat on the bus next to Larry is found dead, still in his seat, and even though Larry realizes the big mistake that he made in boarding the wrong bus, he is made to wait for the sheriff, as guess who the number one suspect is.
While at the inn, Larry enters into a comedy of errors and manages to get involved in a mystery involving a very valuable, jeweled chess set rumored to have been the very chess set that Kublai Khan gave to Marco Polo centuries ago. It is a chess set for which some have been known to kill. While at the inn he runs into a seemingly forward and aggressive blonde (Veda Ann Borg), the Waldecks, twins brothers who own the inn and the chess set in question, an escaped killer and his accomplice, a mysterious professor with an agenda, an obnoxious child prodigy, and a host of others. Of course, there is a love interest, an antiques dealer (Ann Savage) whom Larry already knew and for whom he carries a torch.
The film, which was originally released under the title, "Treasure of Fear", runs a scant sixty-four minutes. It is quite funny, at times. Sometimes, however, it tends to drag and its humor palls. The best moment in the film arrives at the end, when the obnoxious child prodigy gets what's coming to him, although in today's world such a scenario would be unthinkable. As I am a fan of Jack Haley, he does not disappoint, and I enjoyed the film, overall, but more as a curiosity rather than on its merits. The quality of the DVD is bargain basement, as the transfer was made from a dirty and grainy print with its fair share of visual blips, blots, and skips. The audio varies in quality, with just a few inaudibility patches here and there or the loss of a word.
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