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When Winnie Layden discovers that a dilapidated
colonial tavern is for sale, she zealously offers to buy the property,
intending to turn it into a charming inn. The owner, Professor
Nathaniel Billings, agrees to sell it on the condition that he be allowed to
continue his experiments in the basement lab. Eagerly agreeing to his
terms, Winnie hires the professor's eccentric housekeeper, Amelia Jones, who
raises imaginary chickens, and his pig-loving handyman, Ebenezer, to help
run the place.
Retiring to his lab, the professor sets about
completing his latest experiment, the transformation of Johnson, an
itinerant peddler, into a superman. Unfortunately for Johnson, the
experiment fails and, rather than becoming a superman, the peddler becomes a
dead man.
Soon after, Dr. Arthur Lorentz, the town's
sheriff, doctor, banker, mayor and justice of the peace, arrives at the
tavern to close the sale. He is followed by Winnie's ex-husband Bill,
who has tracked down Winnie to tell her that he is to report to the armed
services in ten days. Bill, who is appalled by his wife's disregard
for money, tries to prevent the sale, but the wily Lorentz, who holds the
mortgage on the property, quickly closes the deal.
Soon after, J. Gilbert Brampton knocks at the
door and inquires about renting a room. At dinner that night, Brampton
is describing his work as a choreographer when a scream interrupts the meal.
Ebenezer leaves the table to comfort his friend, a ghost named Uncus.
Sensing that something is amiss, Bill sneaks into the professor's lab and
discovers Johnson's body. After grabbing Winnie, Bill runs to
Lorentz's house to report a murder. Pinning on his sheriff's badge,
Lorentz returns to the tavern to question the professor. When the
professor explains that Johnson's death was accidental and asks the
sheriff's help in depositing the corpse in cold storage with "the others,"
Lorentz accuses the professor of being a homicidal maniac. After he
realizes there is money to be made in supermen, however, Lorentz offers to
invest in the professor's experiments.
Later, when Lorentz tries to placate Bill by
telling him that Johnson was not dead but just unconscious, Bill begins to
believe that the talk of corpses and ghosts is part of a plot to frighten
Winnie into selling back the land cheaply. Several days later, a
salesman named Maxie appears at the door, peddling powder puffs.
Seeing him as a new subject for their experiments, the professor and Lorentz
buy his entire stock. When Maxie faints at the good news, they carry
him to the basement.
After he awakens, Maxie confesses that he
suffers from an inferiority complex, and the two offer to cure him and
eagerly place the professor's experimental helmet on his head. The top
of Maxie's head is ticklish, however, and when he is is no longer able to
tolerate the helmet, Lorentz sends him to his office to retrieve a box of
sedatives. As Maxie leaves, the professor and Lorentz observe
Brampton rattling the floorboards and, becoming suspicious, decide to search
his luggage. When the kitten that lives in Lorentz's pocket begins to
meow, he and the professor follow the animal to a new boarder's room and
there find the border's dead body. Lorentz and the professor
immediately call the police but, when Bill enters the room to see the corpse
for himself, it has vanished.
_NRFPT_02_small.jpg) _NRFPT_01_small.jpg) While driving to the tavern, the officers,
Starrett and Quincy, are stopped by a soldier for driving too close to a
munitions plant and are detained as spies. Meanwhile, Maxie returns to
the tavern with a box of sedative powder but, when his blocked sinuses
prevent the sedative from working, the professor and Lorentz inhale the
powder and pass out. Believing that he has killed them, Maxie summons
Winnie and Bill to the basement and, when they inhale the drug, they too
pass out.
Soon after, the professor and Lorentz awaken
and, when they find Bill's unconscious body, they decide to experiment on
him. Interrupted by the sound of someone breaking in, they hastily
hide Bill's and Winnie's bodies in the cold storage room with the other
corpses. The intruder introduces himself as facist Silvio Bacigalupi,
the human bomb, and announces that he plans to blow up the munitions plant.
When Maxie returns to the basement, Silvio hides, and the professor and
Lorentz decide to combat the human bomb by transforming Maxie into a
superman.
Meanwhile, Winnie and Bill awaken amid the
bodies and discover a secret passageway leading to Bill's room.
Proceeding to the living room, they find Brampton's body, a knife plunged
into his back. After Brampton regains consciousness, he explains that
his corset deflected the knife's blade and offers Winnie $20,000 for the
property, admitting that he is really a curator for a historical society.
When the officers finally arrive at the house,
Brampton accuses Amelia of stabbing him. She in turn shows the police a body
in the closet and Bill informs them of the five others downstairs. The
group descends into the basement just as the professor pulls the switch,
extinguishing yet another one of his subjects. As they argue over
Maxie's body, Silvio comes out of hiding and lights the fuse to the dynamite
that he carries in his knapsack. At that moment, the bodies come
parading out of the storeroom, causing the terrified Silvio to toss his bomb
at Maxie. When the bomb explodes, Maxie awakens and Lorentz announces
that the professor has inadvertently developed a state of suspended
animation. After the flabbergasted officers threaten to commit the
group, Lorentz assures them all not to worry because he is chairman of the
board at the asylum. |
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