Reviews

The story is kind of a muddle and doesn't always make sense: Both Ronald Reagan and Viveca Lindfors are damaged, brooding people. She's obsessed with her dead husband. He has epilepsy and thinks his life will end soon. But they fall in love -- and somehow must overcome their personal problems to find happiness. Her 'turn' to the good side really is contrived, with no reason behind it. His is almost as bad. Plus Reagan is totally miscast and comes across as about as emotional as a block of driftwood. Lindfors, Osa Massen and Broderick Crawford all try hard. But the man who tries the hardest is director Don Siegel. He dismisses this movie in his autobiography (though he later romanced leading lady Lindfors) but he works his butt off on it with constantly interesting camera moves and shot compositions -- some amazing dolly-work and beautiful black-and-white cinematography. So I'm giving this high marks because Siegel makes it seem so much better than it actually is. And that's the mark of a first-rate director.

Yes, this is a poor man's ISLAND OF LOST SOULS -- it can only afford ONE lost soul. But J. Carrol Naish is so amazing as the Ape-Man and he has such a marvelous supporting cast (including the always-solid George Zucco and Mike Mazurki) that it's absolutely watchable and compelling. Plus director Harry Lachman takes such care in creating each shot -- beautiful shots, every single one -- that it looks far more expensive than it must have been. They play the Man-Beast as more sympathetic and Pitiful than Frightening, which is a very good choice. So this doesn't have Big Scares but it has emotion and tenderness and care and wonderful attention to detail. I liked it quite a bit.

This movie is a treat: a beautifully-shot, well-acted little horror film in the tradition of Val Lewton. Admittedly, it's very preachy and didactic with a load of pretentious spiritual dialogue, but it's far more advanced than any of the "Monsters jumping out at you" brand of horror that most studios were doing in the 40's. George Macready (always great) is a dying surgeon whose wife pleads with the forces of darkness, or any forces, to save him. Enter Rose Hobart, a mysterious woman who somehow brings him back from death's door. But Macready is now a changed man: moody, vicious, mean, distracted. He eventually leaves his wife and goes to live with Hobart. His friends try to save him, but he nearly kills one of them, then allows another to die when he could easily have saved him. This is all shot in a dreamlike style that takes place in a nightmarish night-world where every action seems to be a choice between life and death, every thought is about salvation and damnation. It's not perfect, but it's very unusual and very worth catching. Wish it were out on DVD.

One wonders at the producers who OK'd the script that centers on a will that could be 'reversed' if certain things aren't done properly. That's only the first of many things that stretch credibility to the breaking point. I know, I know: it's a comedy. But in order for good comedy to work, it has to take place in a realistic setting. And why would the villain, after dispatching two people already in a straightforward fashion, decide he has to take the heroine and climb up on the roof with her 'to make it look an accident'? Surely the writers could come up with something better than that, no? Anyway, it's a mildly amusing film in which the usual heirs to a fortune have to spend a night in a spooky mansion (this one with an observatory on top). Jack Haley is an insurance salesman who is mistaken for a private detective. Bela Lugosi is the butler (so many times he's cast in these useless roles -- producers didn't seem to know how to use his talents properly)who is supposedly offering everyone poisoned coffee (the one gag that works in the film). Lugosi seems to be having a good time. You will have one, too. But I found that Haley's antics wore thin after too long.

Richard Fleischer makes this by-the-numbers police procedural interesting. One wishes the script had better twists and turns -- you'd think they'd make the villain someone our hero knows or at least has met. But not a chance -- he's some unknown, not very threatening guy whose motives are never explored. But Fleischer makes it dark and taut, especially all the stuff with the dummy. Cop Lundigan is out to catch "The Judge", a psycho who strangles his victims. One method he uses is to create a dummy that looks like "The Judge" from whatever evidence he has. Director Fleischer saw that the dummy was his only chance to make this movie different -- so he seizes on it as an icon of evil and plays with it throughout the film. The scene where Lundigan talks to the dummy is great. Otherwise, the banter between Lundigan and Patrick is rather trite; and the typical 'montages of police looking for clues' are rather clichéd. Thank Fleischer for those moments of magic that lift this fun film above the norm.

This movie puts forth the idea that men can love dogs and they can love (or at least prefer the company of) other men -- but don't trust those women! They'll ruin you! One woman makes a lifelong commitment to our hero (later played by Ronald Colman)which she quickly breaks when they meet as adults. The other is a prostitute who is ignorant and mean -- and ruins his greatest painting. So the only proper thing for our hero to do is go back into battle and end his life with MEN! Fighting other MEN! Only there can life be pure and true! Anyway, this is about painter Ronald Colman who is injured in a battle in a Sudan (the opponent natives are rather racistly called 'fuzzies') but makes a friend of Walter Huston (in one of his more mannered, annoying performances). He becomes a big, successful artist but is arrogant about it -- so it's telegraphed that he's going to have a big fall. And he does -- he goes blind from the war injury and that darned prostitute (Ida Lupino in a lively performance) destroys his masterpiece. Still, he has the love of his dog... and he can go back and die bravely in battle. What else would you want? Way too talky and precious and sentimental for me. But Colman is good, no denying that. The scene where he finally goes blind still retains its power.

I'm a big Terence Fisher fan, so as a completist, I wanted to see this one. But it's only a fair film. Fisher was a few years away from making his classic CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN and HORROR OF Dracula, but he was still capable of some fine work in the early 50's (THE FOUR-SIDED TRIANGLE, for example). But this one is pretty much by-the-numbers. Even leading man George Brent looks bored throughout. He runs a bookstore where employee Marguerite Chapman is in love with him. And good-looking Diana Dors is the 'bad' employee -- because she's late a few times. Brent has an invalid wife who needs an operation abroad. He cashes in an insurance policy to pay for the operation. Meanwhile, Dors has caught weaselly Peter Reynolds trying to steal a book but doesn't turn him in. They strike up a relationship. He gets her to try to blackmail Brent after a late night when he kissed her briefly (tho' it looks more like she kissed him). He won't pay, so Reynolds has Dors write a letter to the invalid wife. She dies after reading the letter (in one of a string of incredible plot coincidences). Reynolds makes Dors harass the grieving Brent again for the money. He angrily gives her all the insurance money. Then Reynolds sneaks into the bookstore and kills Dors, taking the dough, but leaving the body so that Brent will be blamed. Brent's soon on the run and Chapman is trying to save him. It all works out in a fiery climax. And it's all competently done, but the script doesn't make a lot of sense. Dors, however, gives a fine, restrained performance and is probably the best thing in it. Worth noting that later Hammer Producer/Director/Exec Michael Carreras is here credited with Casting. And Hammer Writer Extraordinaire Jimmy Sangster is credited as Assistant Director. Really this is just for Hammer and Fisher fans like myself. Or Diana Dors fans, who will be pleased with her work here.