Plot

Dishonest undertaker Waldo Trumbull and his sidekick Felix Gillie are creating their own customers when they cannot find willing ones.

Waldo Trumbull, an undertaker who hasn't had any 'customers' in a long time is forced the pay one year's back-rent. To get money he starts to kill people in order to get new clients.—Mattias Thuresson

The alcoholic director of the Hinchley & Trumbull Funeral Parlor Waldo Trumbull is a cheater that has married Amaryllis Trumbull in a marriage of convenience to get control of the business of her father Amos Hinchley. Trumbull has been using the same casket for more than thirteen years, dumping the corpses in their graves to resell the coffin. He also blackmails his only employee Felix Gillie that had robbed a bank and is an abusive husband, threatening to poison his father-in-law and not allowing Amaryllis to sing. Gillie has a crush on Amaryllis and loves to hear her singing. Trumbull owes more than one year of rental of his premise to Mr. John F. Black and he has no client. So he decides to improve his business killing Mr. Phipps to get a new client. However his wife Mrs. Phipps flees to Europe with all her possessions and does not pay for the funeral service. When Mr. Black duns his debts, Trumbull decides to kill him to make some money and resolve his financial problem. But Mr. Black is epileptic and his family wants to keep his body in a crypt instead of burying him in a grave. During the night, the Cemetery Keeper hears a cry and releases Mr. Black from the coffin in the beginning of a tragic night.—Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

In nineteenth century small town New England, Waldo Trumbull married Amaryllis née Hinchley solely to become partner in her father Amos Hinchley's business, a funeral parlor, something that generally unaware Amaryllis is becoming increasingly aware. It is also in her unawareness that she would never have made it as an opera singer, something she would have pursued if she didn't marry Waldo. The one thing Amaryllis protects is Amos, who Waldo always threatens to poison to gain full control of the business and Amos' inheritance. What Waldo, a drunkard, has done is drive the business proverbially into the ground in not having enough business to put literally underground. Able to lord his assistant Felix Gillie's criminal past over him, Waldo and Felix have resorted to cutting corners, including reusing the same coffin client after client. The most criminal of their activities for the business in the leanest of times is to create their own customers by killing people. After a murder gone wrong, Waldo believes they can kill two birds with one stone by murdering John Black, their landlord who is threatening to evict them if they don't pay their back rent. What Waldo and Amos find is that it's not killing Black that is the problem, but keeping him dead.—Huggo