What a Carve Up! (film) - Alchetron, the free social encyclopedia

To get his inheritance, a man must spend the night in his ancestral home, where guests soon begin to die.

What a Carve Up! is a 1961 British comedy horror film directed by Pat Jackson. It was released in the United States in 1962 as No Place Like Homicide. The film was loosely based on the novel The Ghoul by Frank King. A previous version titled The Ghoul was filmed in 1933 by Gaumont-British Pictures.

Ernie's Uncle Gabriel has just died but to claim his inheritance he must spend the night in the ancestral family home with the rest of his rather eccentric relatives. Ernie's imagination has been affected by his constant immersion in cheap horror novels, but his wildest fears turn out to be justified when the guests begin to drop dead.

Plot

The relatives of Uncle Gabriel are summoned to an old country house in the middle of moorlands in Yorkshire to hear the reading of his will. They all stay in the mansion overnight, and one by one the guests are murdered. The remaining guests must solve the mystery as to who is committing these murders before they too are killed.

Characters

Sid James as Syd Butler who acts as Ernests legal advisor

Kenneth Connor as Ernest Broughton. He is Syds best friend and is attracted to Miss Dixon

Shirley Eaton as Linda Dixon, a pretty nurse who likes Ernie

Dennis Price as Guy Broughton. He is Ernies cousin and a heavy drinker

Donald Pleasence as Everett Sloane, the zombie-like solicitor

Esma Cannon as Emily Broughton, a mad lady who believes the First World War is still on

Valerie Taylor as Janet Broughton, Guys grasping and hated sister

Michael Gwynn as Malcolm Broughton, a piano player who says everyone is "Quite mad"

George Woodbridge as Dr Edward Broughton who is the father of Janet and Guy

Michael Gough as Fisk, a creepy butler

Philip OFlynn as Gabriel Broughton, the deceased owner of Blackshaw Towers

Arkwright, a police inspector who arrives after most of the household have been murdered

Frederick Piper as the hearse driver

Timothy Bateson as the porter

Adam Faith in an uncredited role as himself

Reception

"At one point in No Place Like Homicide, a giggling maniac threatens to feed the rest of the cast to a pack of starving mongrels. Oh, blimey, smirks one of the victims, were going to the dogs. The rest of the humour in this ostensible British farce is on a similar level. The fact that a film of this degree of vulgarity and ineptitude should have managed a weeks booking at neighbourhood theatres throughout Manhattan demonstrates just how acute the motion picture product shortage really is." - New York Times, 13 September 1962.

The film was used extensively within Jonathan Coes satirical novel What a Carve Up!. The books protagonist, Michael Owen, becomes obsessed with the film after first watching it as a young boy. Additionally, the last part of the book follows the plot of the film.

Similar Movies

Shirley Eaton and Kenneth Connor appear in What a Carve Up! and Nearly a Nasty Accident. Kenneth Connor appears in What a Carve Up! and His and Hers. Sid James and Shirley Eaton appear in What a Carve Up! and A Weekend with Lulu. Sid James appears in What a Carve Up! and Dry Rot. Inn for Trouble (1960).

DVD release

What a Carve Up! was released on DVD in the UK on 11 August 2008.

References

What a Carve Up! (film) Wikipedia

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