What a Carve Up! – 1961 | 84 mins | Comedy | B&W

Plot Synopsis

Ghoulish satire that combines The Ghoul and The Old Dark House into a story containing Carry-On regulars Sid James and Kenneth Connor, a splendidly funny film deftly handled by Pat Jackson.

The squabbling relatives of Uncle Gabriel are invited to an isolated haunted house to hear the reading of his will. The eccentric family members include a manuscript reader Ernie (Kenneth Connor), who along with his friend Sid (Sid James) are summoned to attend the family gathering by sombre Everett Sloane (Donald Pleasence). When they get there, they meet other the family members who include spongers Janet (Valerie Taylor) and Gay (Dennis Price), also innocent young Linda (Shirley Eaton).

Ernie’s imagination has been affected by his constant immersion in cheap horror novels, but his wildest fears turn out to be justified when several murders take place and soon only Sid, Ernie and Linda are remaining. They come face to face with the supposedly deceased nutty uncle in a series of hidden passages. He threatens to unleash his pet dogs – Dobermans, starved to savagery – upon them, and it’s only Sid’s scheming that saves them, as uncle is dispatched by the dogs in a bleak and black finale that does jar slightly against the rest of the film. One of the few horror comedies to match the thrills and laughs well, it was a triumph for those concerned.