Movie Review: Scared Stiff (1945)

The movie (which also goes by the name Treasure of Fear) stars Jack Haley, Ann Savage, Barton MacLane, Veda Ann Borg and Roger Pryor.

I started watching this classic movie a couple weeks ago but was only able to get through the first 15 minutes before having to turn it off. I had a little bit of time at lunch today so I decided to finish it up and, overall, I thought it was a decent movie.

When I started watching this film, I didn't realize it was going to be a comedy (though I probably should have considering it starred Haley). But, that was actually a pleasant surprise.

I loved how Haley played Jack Elliot. He was a likable guy and apparently a chess wizard. But, as the movie progressed, it was easy to see how his newspaper bosses got so frustrated with him, especially when he had a murder occur inches away from him and never realized it. He was also so nervous and jittery, it would be easy to think he was responsible for the crime and was trying to get away.

The murder mystery was also somewhat interesting. Since there was a big deal made over the escaped prisoner, George 'Deacon' Markham (MacLane) I (correctly) figured he would play some sort of role in everything. However, it was actually a lot more complex than that, with someone (who may or may not be involved with the murder) trying to steal a valuable chess set and a variety of potential suspects.

The suspect that intrigued me most had to be the woman in the room across the hall from his, Flo (Borg). Her story about just being on vacation seemed a little off and the way she took interest in Elliot, despite him being a murder suspect, made me think she was after something. I wasn't sure if she was involved with the murder. But, I did think she wasn't as innocent as she pretended to be.

Probably the only thing I wasn't a fan of when it came to this movie was the little brat, Oliver (Buddy Swan). As I've said in other reviews, I'm not really opposed to child actors in classic movies like this, but they rarely add anything beyond the cuteness factor. And, in this case, there really wasn't anything cute about him. Oliver was just annoying and, had the filmmakers chosen to leave him out, he wouldn't have been missed, even though I did, admittedly, enjoy it when he got his comeuppance at the end (in a way that wouldn't be allowed in today's movies).

It wasn't quite what I was expecting it to be, but it turned out to be a halfway decent mystery/comedy and I would recommend it for a rainy day.

My Grade: B