Is the best Halloween flick of all time on this list?    For those who like their scares punctuated with laughter, and their chills without graphic gore, it just may be.  If you haven’t seen any of the films on this short list, you should watch them all soon, and if you have seen them, but not in a while, it is time to ramp up the quality meter on your viewing and enjoy great story telling, outstanding performances, and fun films to enjoy now or any time of the year.

1. Arsenic and Old Lace.

Released in 1944, starring Cary Grant and Priscilla Lane.  A hilarious story, based  on the play by Joseph Kesselring, with outstanding performances by the full cast,  superb direction by Frank Capra,  plus the extra atmospheric bonus of taking place on Halloween night.  This motion picture ranks as one of the funniest films ever for many movie buffs,  and would be worth watching any time of the year.  With eccentric aunts, a murderous and deranged brother and his dubious doctor sidekick on the run from the law, a cousin who thinks he is Theodore Roosevelt, and a host of other characters, all richly portrayed  with superb comic timing, expert direction, and brilliant screenplay by Julius and Philip Epstein;  plus richly detailed and atmospheric sets,  Arsenic and Old Lace is a masterful motion picture that is full of laughs from beginning to end, while also providing some  genuinely chilling moments and a few surprises along the way.   With Peter Lorre, Raymond Massey, Edward Everett Horton, Jack Carson, Josephine Hull, Jean Adair, John Alexander, James

Gleason.

2. You’ll Find Out

This is a fun and music -filled film that features a trio of horror movie legends from the 1940’s:  Boris Karloff (the original Frankenstein monster),  Bela Lugosi (the most iconic Dracula), and Peter Lorre, perhaps most familiar for his role in a decidedly non-horror film, Casablanca.  The top billed name in this zany romp is big band leader Kay Kyser.    Besides fronting one of the most successful bands of the era, Kyser  made several motion pictures, and he and the orchestra had their own radio show.  Early in the film we are treated to a glimpse of a simulated live studio broadcast, including songs, gags, and audience participation.  This motion picture delivers a host of horror flick staples:  a creepy mansion with secret passages,  a howling thunderstorm, and objects that seem to glow and float through the air to name but a few.  Kyser and the band perform several musical numbers, there is nice singing, especially solos by the lovely Ginny Simms, and a duet with Ginny Simms and Harry Babbitt.  Karloff, Lugosi and Lorre are in top form, and the rest of the cast deliver for a scary, musical and funny Halloween movie treat.

You’ll Find Out 1940 Directed by Gordon Douglas.  Screenplay by James V. Kern.  Story by David Butler and James V. Kern. Special material by Monte Brice, Andrew Bennison, and  R.T.M. Scott. With Kay Kyser, Peter Lorre, Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, Helen Parrish, Dennis O’Keefe, Alma Kruger, The Kay Kyser Band featuring Ginny Simms, Harry Babbitt. M.A. Bogue  (Ish Kabibble), Sully Mason

3. Hold That Ghost

1941 with Abbott and Costello.

The comedy duo of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello made several comedy-mysteries in their long film career.  Along the way they managed to include many iconic Hollywood monsters in their films, such as Abbott and Costello meet Frankenstein, (in which they met not only the Frankenstein monster, but the Wolfman, and Dracula too!),  Abbott and Costello meet the Invisible Man,  Abbott and Costello meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and Abbott and Costello meet the Mummy.  These would all make fine Halloween viewing,  but Hold That Ghost arguably shows the boys at their best, and also gets a huge lift from the tremendous comic talent of actress Joan Davis,  the music of the Andrews Sisters, and one of the more clever scripts of the duo’s motion pictures.  Three Stooges fans will also get a kick out of seeing Shemp Howard in a brief role as a soda jerk. The film includes plenty of comedy-horror ingredients: a deserted, creepy house with the requisite hidden passages, a stormy night, people disappearing (and reappearing and disappearing again!), plus a host of silly and chilly sight gags that not many motion pictures could get away with, but that work just fine on screen with Bud, Lou and Joan.  Directed by Arthur Lubin.  Screenplay Robert Lees, Fred Rinaldo, and John Grant.  Story by Robert Lees and Fred Rinaldo. Also starring Richard Carlson, Evelyn Ankers, Mischa Auer, Marc Lawrence, Russell Hicks, William Davidson, Ted Lewis.

4. Murder He Says 

1945 Starring Fred MacMurray, Helen Walker, Marjorie Main.  Directed by George Marshall.  Screenplay by Lou Breslow.  Story by Jack Moffitt.

The last film on this short list of gore-free Halloween movies may not have the same Halloween atmosphere as the others, but like Arsenic and Old Lace it is an exceptional and funny movie,  any time of the year, and it does share most of the comedy-mystery ingredients.  For starters there is the creepy old house, with secret passages, plus mysterious hounds that “light up and make for the woods.” The  villains  are in the persons of the treacherous Fleagle family, headed by Marjorie Main, who will stop at nothing to find the hidden bank loot they believe is stashed on the premises.   For those who may remember Fred MacMurray mostly for his later Disney films and on television, he was quite a leading man earlier in his career, so be prepared to enjoy a much more deft and dynamic performance than those later roles demanded.  Murder He Says is filled with  laughs, surprises, and chills, and also in it Marjorie Main may  be the first person on screen to speak the line “Do you want to live forever?”

Also starring Jean Heather, Porter Hall, Peter Whitney, Mabel Paige, Barbara Pepper.

Full cast lists and crews can be found at: imdb.com.

If you like the zany, faced-paced feel of Abbott and Costello films like Hold That Ghost, you will probably love this quick, easy story that is also perfect to enjoy at Halloween:  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08L7YSP9V

Mystery at the River’s Edge is available in paperback and e-book formats and is pure fun!