When Basil Rathbone, John Carradine, and Cameron Mitchell go south of the border to make a Mexican horror comedy, you know you’re in for… well… something. Things kick off with a truly impressive puppet show opening credits sequence. Sadly, it’s all downhill from there.
Rathbone stars as a ghost named Canuto who has spent the last four hundred years living in a basement talking to his own wisecracking skeleton. The devil (Carradine) appears and makes Canuto a bargain: If he can make a woman fall in love with him to the point of sacrificing herself for love, he’ll let Canuto go to Heaven. Things get complicated when an absentminded inventor (Mitchell) and his family move into the mansion.
Autopsy of a Ghost would’ve been okay if most of the movie revolved around Basil trying to break his curse. Unfortunately, the bulk of the running time is devoted to the B plot of a wimpy bank teller who embezzled a bunch of money. A lot of people are out to get the loot for themselves, which leads to a bunch of annoying bullshit that gets in the way of ghostly shenanigans.
When the film focuses on the three gringo stars, it’s only slightly better. The scenes of Basil (in his final role) acting alongside his talking skeleton aren’t bad. (In fact, the effects are well done.) There’s just not a lot for him to do the rest of the time. Carradine (who filmed this in Mexico around the same time as much better The Vampires) hams it up as the Devil, but the material he’s given to work with is woefully unfunny. It especially pains me to say I don’t like a movie in which Cameron Mitchell plays an inventor who creates a robot nanny, but here we are.
Honestly, what can you say about a movie when a puppet show is far and away the best part?
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