User Reviews

With leads like Sid James and Kenneth Connor No Place Like Homicide could easily be classified as a Carry On film. It really isn't though because Carry On films were strictly comedy and this one does have a bit of a story to it albeit just one to display the characters.

Connor and James are best friends and roommates, Connor a proofreader for a publishing company and James is a bookmaker which a profession of a slightly higher social standing in the UK than on this side of the pond. In any event in that plot gimmick from a Zillion films on both sides of the pond Connor is an heir and he and the other heirs have to spend a long night in a creepy mansion to inherit his late uncle's estate.

Of course a lot of the night is spent by Connor with the lovely Shirley Eaton who's another heir. Another heir is Dennis Price with a rakish Terry-Thomas mustache which makes me think Terry-Thomas had been slated to be in this. Michael Gough is a sinister butler and Donald Pleasance a sinister lawyer.

Nothing sinister about Connor who's wondering if the inheritance is really worth it and James who's wondering how he got into this mess. The usual kind of gags are present here though nothing terribly original.

British pop star Adam Faith shows up at the end without billing and unless you knew the British music scene of 1961 it's not a gag you will get.

The cast looks like the're having fun and I think you will to.

What a great movie, laugh, jump with terror (ish) a classic story with a obvious ending but still funny. Sid James and Kenneth Connor are a great comedy pair.See how young Shirley Eaton is WOW. Nice film in the middle of the carry on's.

Spooky-looking Donald Pleasance visits Kenneth Connor to tell him that his uncle is dead and he must be present for the reading of the will. Out at the castle on the moor, there is the usual assortment of greedy relatives, Shirley Eaton, the cute nurse, and Michael Gough doing a Boris Karloff impression as the butler. Plus of course, Connor's pal Sid James, who figures he's on to a good thing. When Pleasance reads the will, however, only Miss Eaton is left anything: the pill bottles. They all settle in for the night, and then someone starts killing them all in this Old Dark House comedy.

There's long been a tendency of the Old Dark House genre to indulge in comedy, and this looks suspiciously like a feature-length version of THE LAUREL-HARDY MURDER CASE, with James and Connor playing a variation on the Boys. While the mystery aspect of the movie is pretty good, the comedy is fairly standard.... but very well executed.

When I first saw this film one evening, I only watched it because I had nothing to do. By the time it had finished, I was left raging with myself for not videoing it. Although it's not really a horror movie, the atmosphere is tremendous. Right from the first scene, the viewer is drawn in, and simply cannot stop watching. Although the ending is somewhat predictable, the movie does not really suffer from this, but rather the viewer can look out for all the clues that he/she may have missed the first time.

All in all, a film to be watched over and over again.

I often wonder if movies like this had the audiences of the time rolling in the aisles or did folk react in much the same way most people today would, with a certain cynical boredom? Personally, I'm a fan of all sorts of humour, and that includes the light silliness of movies like this. Few people, probably nobody in fact, will get belly-laughs from this film, but my girlfriend and I, and her sister, watched it together smiling and chuckling all the way through. We were entertained and we'd watch it again.

Part of the appeal, of course, for a thirty-something like me is that strange nostalgia for a time you never experienced and certainly never was. Even though it's an unrealistic spooky murder mystery, you'd still quite like to be there with the characters, enjoying this curiously innocent world where people die in a remarkable bloodless fashion.

There's a good cast, full of recognisable faces - there's fun to had from finally realising that you're looking at a very young Michael Gough and playing a butler long before Alfred in the first four Batman movies.

It's ultimately absurd, but it's a well-put-together little film, with a great cast, an atmospheric set and a light but entertaining plot, perfect for lazy Sunday afternoon viewing.

I caught the second half of this on TV over Christmas and had to track down a copy to see how it all began.

"...Carve Up" is an odd and fairly unique clash of different styles of film: the cheap, crass, misfiring humour of the Carry On films but set in an older, classic Ealing-style story, with a creepy atmosphere more like The Cat and The Canary, The Ghost of St. Michaels, or The Old Dark House, which the Carry-On films never even bothered to try to capture.

More's the pity, since this film feels almost like a signpost to a more interesting and better quality future for those movies, which never came about.

Kenneth Connor is a little grating, and Sid James plays Sid James. Shirley Eaton is pretty and refined but gives a stilted performance. The rest of the supporting cast are quality, though, and mark it out above average. It's much too patchy to be a great film, or even a really good one, but it is a likeable one.

"What a Carve Up" is about the only time that Sid James appeared in a horror comedy. The tone of the film is a bit creepy and ghoulish but also very good in the laughter department. Kenneth Connor is summoned to this large Yorkshire mansion for the reading of his late Uncles will. Our Sid tags along for the journey, which is just as well, considering the events that unfold. Some of the dialogue doesn't quite work on occasion but the pace, the acting, the sets, the direction and photography are all great. The second half of "What a Carve Up" has a lot going on to keep the viewers glued to their seats. Donald Pleasence is suitably sinister as he is right at home. The supporting cast is a fine one. Dennis Price, George Woodbridge, Michael Gough, Michael Gwynn, Esma Cannon and Shirley Eaton. This is a low key film in that there are no extras employed just the essential cast and the film is based over a period of about two days. With comedies from this period, I sometimes expect the likes of Peter Sellers, Tony Hancock, Terry Thomas or Eric Sykes to appear. A masterpiece of comedy with horror elements blended in.

I've finally managed to get my hands on a copy of this movie, after searching websites, video stores, and many a failed bid on eBay. And although it's a while since I last watched it, this movie is as good, if not better, than I remember.

Sid James gets the best lines, and delivers them with the consummate ease of a true professional. Kenneth Connor is a bit like his roles in the early Carry On's - but he was very good in them. Throw in a wonderfully sinister Donald Pleasance, the typically statuesque and beautiful Shirley Eaton, and a host of other suitable strange and quirky characters, all locked in a creepy mansion where the guests begin dropping like flies one by one. It all adds up to a marvelous romp - not so much scary as very creepy, very suspenseful, and very, very funny.

An interesting murder mystery.

'What a Carve Up' makes for a satisfactory film. The relation between the characters helps string it together, with the mansion becoming a suitable setting. The comedy is decent, Sid James is amusing as Syd.

It's very much what you'd expect from a black-and-white production from 1961, but it's one that is worth a watch.

A lot of chuckles and sinister goings on. Unfortunately I found Kenneth Connor increasingly irritating as the film progressed. An ensemble of familiar faces and an uncredited appearance by Adam Faith, at the height of his pop fame, added to the interest.

A good film that borrowed on the 'mousetrap' plot, & rather predictable. Acted out at a fast pace with great enthusiasm by all. Sid James was his usual brilliant self & Ken Connor too. Shirley Eaton played her part well. Dressed in a shift over a nylon slip for much of the film, strange how, when running from room to room, she'd continually hold her shift together in an attempt to stop it falling open thus giving us a glimpse of her slip underneath. Naively prudish of her, & ironic in that 2 yrs later she would appear in a Bond film wearing nothing but a coat of paint! At the time Ken Connor was one of the most sought after comedy film actors.

If you are a fan of Abbott & Costello, then "What a Carve Up!" will seem very, very familiar. In many ways, this British film plays like "Who Dunnit", "Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer" and "Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein"....with Kenneth Connor playing the Lou Costello role and Sydney James the Bud Abbott one. And, over all, they did a pretty good job of recreating these older films.

When the story begins, Ernie (Connor) learns that he has, or should I say 'had', an uncle. The man has apparently just died...and Ernie didn't know him nor that the guy was very rich. The dead man's attorney (Donald Pleasence) informs him that he's in the uncle's will...and he should come to Yorkshire to learn what, if anything, he's inherited. Once there, however, folks start dying and it's apparent someone hates this family! Can Ernie and his buddy Syd (James) survive this ordeal?

This is an old dark house film--full of bodies that appear and disappear, trap doors and all the usual gimmicks. But they all work very well here and it's a most enjoyable film...a nice time-passer with decent acting and pacing. Well worth seeing.

It might look like a Carry On film. It is more Cat and the Canary.

What a Carve Up! is farcical murder mystery in an isolated country house.

Ernest Broughton (Kenneth Connor) and his flatmate Syd Butler (Sydney James) go up to a mansion somewhere in the Yorkshire moors after the death of Ernest's uncle, Gabriel Broughton.

Ernest has been invited by his uncle's creepy solicitor. At the ancestral home he meets the various eccentric Broughton family and during the reading of the will, the family members get nothing.

During the night, creepy things happen and people end up dead. The remaining guests need to find the killer.

The shtick between Connors and James is very familiar as they act like an anglicised Abbot and Costello.

It is silly nonsense but a cast that includes Michael Gough, Dennis Price, Donald Pleasence and Shirley Eaton give the cliched script their very best. Look out from a guest cameo from a pop singer.

Novel proof reader Ernie is reading horror novels late one night when he has interrupted by a mysterious man claiming to be the lawyer representing Ernie's late uncle who has recently passed on. Ernie and his friend Sid travel up to his uncle's creepy mansion in Yorkshire to attend the reading of the will with the rest of the unhinged family. However a murder occurs within the group and anyone could be the suspect. Ernie and Sid try to avoid joining the body count while working out who is behind the killings.

The leads here made me think this would be a Carry On style film a la `Carry on screaming'. However it is more of a gentle spoof than a festival of innuendo and excess. The plot is the story `The Ghoul' rewritten for laughs, and it contains every horror cliché that exists! From the thunderstorm, the power cut right down to the inclusion of Donald Pleasance in the cast! Of course it's never going to be a great film, rather it's clichéd and played for gentle laughs without completely making fun of the material. Instead the story is the same but the characters are made fun of and exaggerated for humour.

The two leads are also given reign to make fun and operate outside of the clichés in the story. In fact Sid draws attention to them well and it helped me laugh along with him basically giving a nudge and a wink. James is always strong in the type of role where he gets to play himself and Kenneth Connor does well as the timid jumpy side of the duo.

Overall it isn't hilarious rather gently amusing. The plot is all cliché – but then that's the point. Sid James and Kenneth Connor deliver convincingly and do well where other performers may have struggled to be relaxed and enjoyable.

Some similarities with Abbot and Costello's Hold That Ghost, but less slapstick-y. I have to say I might enjoy this less slapstick version.

In this story, Ernie needs to go to spend the night in an ancestral home for the reading of the will of his Uncle Gerald. He meets relatives at the reading of the will with whom he hasn't met and he brings his friend and legal adviser Sydney with him.

Once the will is read they discover that they didn't inherit anything...and then people start showing up dead.

It is a fun little mystery with odd characters and lots of secret doors and passages.

"Sydney, This is no time for levity!"-Ernie

"There's danger here."-Butler "That's the understatement of the evening."-Sydney

"Why do I always have to stay with the women?"-Ernie "Because someone has to look after you."-Sydney.

What is it about these old black and white comedies which makes you want to watch them over and over again? I think that us brits have a real talent for the old spoof/comedy horror and this, in my opinion is the finest.

Kenneth Connor plays 'Ernest Broughton', a cowardly proof reader who finds he is a beneficiary to his late Uncle Gabriel's estate. Alongside him is Sid James who plays 'Sidney Butler' , his scheming, but tolerant flatmate. These two are excellent, playing the parts to their strengths as they go to 'Blackshore Towers' for the reading of Gabriels will.

The supporting cast of Shirley Eaton, Dennis Price and Esma Cannon are superb, each playing parts which are perfectly suited to their own individual styles, whilst Michael Gough gives a great portrayal of 'Fisk', the sinister old butler. There is also a great performance by Donald Pleasence as 'Everet Sloane' the solicitor acting on behalf of the deceased.

If you are a fan of this type of film then you won't be disappointed. It is up there with 'The house in Nightmare Park' and 'The old dark house', only better in my opinion. Sadly though, it is not available on DVD and has been deleted on VHS, but it does crop up on TV occasionally. If you haven't already seen it then keep an eye on your TV guide for it and set the video for, in my opinion, one of the most watchable britcoms of all time.

This is one of those films that, if you are of a certain age, holds fond memories for you. I clearly remember watching it as a kid and thinking it was one of the funniest films I'd ever seen but now, seen through adult eyes, I realise it is really just a mediocre farce indistinguishable from many of the British comedies coming out in the early 60s.

Sid James and Kenneth Connor play the two bumbling friends who visit a remote country mansion to claim Connors' inheritance following the death of an uncle. Once there they meet various members of Connors' dotty family, who begin to be picked off one by one during the course of a dark and stormy night.

Sid James is always enjoyable to watch, and his crumpled face is as familiar to Brits as the Queen's. He's always good in whatever role he plays – and he appeared in some truly dire films – simply because he plays the same role over and over. Connor did pretty much the same, but his timid coward act was more irritating than enjoyable, as it is here. Donald Pleasance also appears in a creepy role, and it is he and James who provide the film's better moments. The film itself is pretty uneven, starting off brightly enough but then becoming mired down, reaching its lowest point during a protracted and desperately unfunny sequence which sees our heroes trying to sleep together in a four-poster bed.

If your over 40, watch this one only if you're prepared to have your childhood memories crushed.

When Uncle Gabriel dies, all his relatives are summoned to an old country mansion in the middle of nowhere to hear the reading of his will. Once there, tho, somebody starts murdering them one by one and the remaining group must solve the mystery or expect not to see the night out.

What a Carve Up! is adapted from Frank King's novel The Ghoul and stars Sid James, Kenneth Connor, Donald Pleasence, Shirley Eaton, Dennis Price, Esma Cannon and Michael Gough. Basically this fine and amusing film is a sort of British version of genre pieces like Scared Stiff, The Cat And The Canary and The Ghostbreakers, or a spoof of its source material if you like. All the elements are in place, a bunch of eccentric and odd characters land at a ghostly mansion, greeted by a limping scary looking Butler {Gough}, and they then promptly spend the night trying to stay alive. Set to a backdrop of a thunderstorm, creaking floorboards, revolving secret doors and "what was that?", did the eyes just move on that painting? There's nothing new here of course in terms of creepy house formula, it is however a premise that never grows old if it is done right. Either seriously or as a comedy. Thankfully, What a Carve Up! does everything it possibly can to make it work as a creepy house mystery spoof. The gags are excellently written by Cooney & Hilton, which in turn are delivered with comic agility from the cast. Who rightly are having a blast with the material to hand. The "who done it?" reveal is a good one after the red herrings have been and gone, and a nice cameo at the finale feeds Sid James another in a long line of fine gags within the piece.

Finally getting a DVD release in late 2008, this film has now started to pick up newcomers and the revisit crowd alike. Which is real nice to see. Because as long as you are a fan of the creepy house comedy mystery then you shouldn't be disappointed in this one. 8/10

"What A Carve Up!" plays as if it was based on a script long-forgotten inside a drawer, designed for Bob Hope or Lou Costello in the early 1940's at the latest; it runs through the spooky-old-mansion clichès (creepy butler, secret panels, money-hungry relatives, lines cut off, black cats, etc.), without putting much of a comic spin on them - so they remain clichès. There are some clever moments, but most of the film is unfunny. ** out of 4.

Well being a Sid James fanatic, I'm bound to say this film is good. What I can add to that however, is that it's the best film of over 140 he made. Sid is at his very best in this enchanting comedy/horror. Kenneth Connor also gives his finest performance in my opinion, and the two play off each other superbly. Add a great plot and fine work by the rest of the cast which includes Denis Price and Shirley Eaton and I can guarantee you'll thoroughly enjoy it. I've watched it hundreds of times over the years, and strangely each of my girlfriends over the years also thought it was brilliant - my current girlfriend and I watch it whenever we feel down to cheer ourselves up! Sids biographer said it was probably the best kept secret in his comedy career, adding the film as a whole is an under-valued masterpiece. I couldn't agree more. I won't go into the plot - all I'll say is if you haven't seen it, buy it, watch it, and I know you'll agree with me.

Timid proofreader Ernie (Kenneth Connor) travels with his best pal Syd (Sid James) to Blackshaw Towers on the Yorkshire Moors for the reading of his Uncle Gabriel's will; also present at the reading are Ernie's eccentric relatives (played by Dennis Price, Michael Gwynn, Valerie Taylor, George Woodbridge, and Esma Cannon), plus Gabriel's sexy nurse Linda (Shirley Eaton), creepy butler Fisk (Michael Gough) and sinister solicitor Everett Sloane (Donald Pleasance).

As a thunderstorm rages outside, trapping the beneficiaries in the creepy house for the night, someone begins to bump off the visitors in variety of gruesome ways. Will Ernie and Syd make it through the night?

As a big fan of both the Carry On series and the 'Old Dark House' horror sub-genre, I was very keen to see What A Carve Up!, which is apparently based on the classic 1933 chiller The Ghoul and features Carry On regulars James and Connor, as well as occasional Carry On players Eaton and Cannon. Sadly, although the film exploits every creepy cliché in the book in an effort to reap the laughs, the film as a whole doesn't deliver, the gags being as creaky as the huge wooden door of Blackshaw Towers. Connor's familiar nervous wimp routine and Sid James's trademark cackle are no substitute for decent jokes, and the whole affair soon becomes rather tiresome.

Still, I guess it's no worse than the official Carry On attempt at mixing comedy with horror, Carry On Screaming, which also failed to impress despite the combined talents of Jim Dale, Joan Sims, Kenneth Williams, Fenella Fielding, Harry. H. Corbett, Charles Hawtry, Peter Butterworth, Jon Pertwee, Bernard Bresslaw and Angela Douglas (but no sign of Sid James or Kenneth Connor—a case of 'once bitten, twice shy', perhaps?).

This kicks off a series of 7 titles I intend to check out as a tribute to the recently-deceased horror icon Michael Gough (even if he is the lead in only 3 of them!). It is a sort of remake of THE GHOUL (1933), though having practically nothing to do with it, except that we get a number of people converging on a household – the reason for this is that author Frank King wrote both a novel and a play by that name and, while the Boris Karloff vehicle followed the latter, the film under review was based on the former! Indeed, it is very much a companion piece – in theme and style, but also quality-wise – to William Castle's THE OLD DARK HOUSE (1963), the Hammer remake of another Karloff classic (in its case dating from 1932).

Anyway, the film deals with that much-abused plot line of family members, who either hate each other's guts or are seen as interlopers, getting together at a large and remote estate for the reading of a will and, when someone realizes he is not getting what he had expected, begins to eliminate the others one by one (in fact, it was retitled NO PLACE LIKE HOMICIDE for the American market). Interestingly, when the makers hit upon the idea of making a spoof of this subgenre, they recruited two members from the "Carry On" gang – namely Sid James and Kenneth Connor – but the result still left much to be desired, perhaps because the trademark vulgarity of that series has been downplayed here and this, in turn, constrained the actors! That said, the rest of the cast is not to be scoffed at: future Bond Girl Shirley Eaton (she would play a similar role in yet another remake, TEN LITTLE INDIANS [1965]), Donald Pleasence (the best of the lot as the sinister-looking solicitor named, of all things, Everett Sloane!), Dennis Price (typically blasé) and Michaels Gough (the lame butler) and Gwynn (amusingly, he calls everybody mad when he is the one with the oddest behavior!), etc.

Though most of the murders occur off-screen, we do get to see a mysterious presence slinking about a number of times; the final twist revealing the identity of the killer would later also be adopted by another uneven genre lampoon, Pupi Avati's TUTTI DEFUNTI…TRANNE I MORTI (1977). All in all, the film is undeniably mildly enjoyable but, at the same time, utterly forgettable...and, flawed though the original is, clearly inferior to it.

This movie is definitively one of the best movie I've ever seen. So much funny, but such finest humor you couldn't meet elsewhere. Everything is quite perfect in the movie : actors, plot and especially the haunting castle atmosphere. I will recommend, and it belongs to my 10 favorite movies. The location is tremendous. Kenneth O'Connor perfect. I would like to see a remake to be done. It's a pity french channels never play this one, It is as funny as Louis De Funes. It's very hard to find it in french movie shops. The atmosphere reminds me 1930s movies but it is a very good comedy. I don't know if Kenneth O'Connor's others movies are so delightful than "What a carve up"