Haunted Honeymoon

In the opening scene of this comedy chiller, a sinister spectre, seen only from his white spats down, kicks a loveable family dog. After which it's familiar formula: stick a group of loonies in a draughty mansion, kill one of them off, and kill the lights, with honeymoon couple Wilder and Radner - 1939 stars of radio's Manhattan Mystery Theatre - present because he's set to inherit if he can survive the night. Wilder, of course, is playing with genre here, and unlike Mel Brooks with Young Frankenstein, gets his fingers burnt. It's flat, unfunny, and full of slavish borrowings.