THE HYPNOTIC EYE (1960)
Article #569 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 10-5-2002
Posting date: 2-28-2003

An investigation into a rash of self-mutilations by beautiful women leads a policeman to suspect a stage hypnotist.

It’s a public service film! To warn us against the dangers of non-medicinal hypnotism! Though these dangers are as immense as those that you can face going against giant Killer Shrews (a threat which Dr. Radford Baines warns us about in an ad for the movie of the same name), they’re also about as substantial; hypnotism in the movies has very little in common with hypnotism as used in real life. Thus, with the message aside, I feel free to say that the movie works to some extent; the whole theme of women mutilating themselves does have a way of getting under your skin on a gut level, and the actual scenes where these things happen do have a kick to them, but it tries a little too hard to shock us with the faces of the victims at times. Some of it is shot quite creatively, but it ends up spending far too much time on the hypnotist’s stage act, particularly in the latter part of the movie, where it almost turns into an audience-participation type of affair, which would probably work better with a live hypnotist rather than a filmed one. This one’s a mixed bag.

THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME (1939)
Article #568 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 10-4-2002
Posting date: 2-27-2003

The deformed bell-ringer of the cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris becomes enamored with a beautiful gypsy woman.

Whatever one can say about the charm of low-budget movies, there’s something about the sweep of a full-blooded Hollywood spectacle at its best that cannot be denied. I don’t just enjoy this version of Victor Hugo’s classic tale; I get swept up in it, especially by the masses of crowds that fill the screen in this movie; I get the sense that this is a very real world indeed, and the story that we follow is just part of a vast parade of many stories. The story itself is quite engaging, too, and a good deal of this is due to the fine acting by everyone concerned, especially from Charles Laughton as Quasimodo; he is unforgettable. It also features Sir Cedric Hardwicke as the villain, as well as Maureen O’Hara, a very young Edmond O’Brien, George Zucco, Rondo Hatton (if you watch closely) and a vast array of familiar character actor faces. This is one of my favorites, and it always leaves me somewhat speechless, and despite the fact that it makes significant changes to Hugo’s novel, it remains the version of this classic tale that I prefer.

HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL (1958)
Article #567 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 10-3-2002
Posting date: 2-26-2003

An eccentric millionaire invites five strangers to spend the night in a haunted house for ten thousand dollars each.

For my money, this is William Castle’s masterpiece (as a director, that is, which is just my way of saying that ROSEMARY’S BABY belongs to someone else). Granted, it isn’t the type of masterpiece that bears close scrutiny; if I wanted to, I could poke plot holes in this one all day if I wanted to. The fact is, however, I don’t want to; I just enjoy the darn thing so much. William Castle set out to scare, and here is where he pulls it off the best. It doesn’t have his best extended scare sequence (that honor goes to THE TINGLER and the nightmare of the dumb lady), but it does have the best single scare (the old lady in the cellar), and it is consistently fun even when it doesn’t make sense. Good work from Vincent Price, Carol Ohmart (who would later pop up in SPIDER BABY) and Carolyn Craig, though Elisha Cook Jr. steals the movie for me; I just love the fact that almost every single line he utters is some variation on “The ghosts are going to get us and we’re all going to die!” (My favorite is “It won’t do any good to say ‘Good Night'”). I will warn those who want to play the Elisha Cook Jr. pool game (see my review of THE HAUNTED PALACE) that they should proceed with caution on this one.

HOUSE OF DRACULA (1945)
Article #566 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 10-2-2002
Posting date: 2-25-2003

A doctor finds himself treating both Dracula and the Wolf Man for their respective illnesses, and also encounters the Frankenstein monster.

I’ll openly admit that I blow hot and cold on this movie; on some days, I can’t help but admire the way it experiments with some of the concepts, even going so far as to posit that Dracula’s vampirism may be a disease rather than a supernatural manifestation (though it doesn’t explain his ability to transform into a bat, but I will say this movie handles those transformations very well indeed). The story certainly takes some interesting twists, and Onslow Stevens gives a strong performance in what is essentially the main role in the movie. Other days, the movie simply bores me; for all its interesting ideas, the story never really gels into a whole and seems to randomly wander its way to the ending, and the first half of the movie is very dull. The ads trumpeted that it had five monsters, but you really can’t count Jane Adams (playing the most beautiful hunchback in cinema history); she never becomes evil in any sense of the word. The Frankenstein monster is just along for the ride, really; he revives only long enough for the big ending. One monster has a happy ending; notice how they make sure he never attacks anyone during the course of the movie. This would be the last stop for the classic Universal monsters before their encounter with Bud and Lou.

HEAVEN CAN WAIT (1943)
Article #565 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 10-1-2002
Posting date: 2-24-2003

A newly-dead womanizer explains to the devil why he should be admitted into hell.

The last time the name of Ernst Lubitsch received mention in this series was when I covered his somewhat anomalous horror offering THE EYES OF THE MUMMY; this offering is much more typical of his style, and consequently of less interest to fans of fantastic cinema. The conversation with the devil is only a framing device used to bookend a romantic comedy with Don Ameche recounting the story of his life and his inabliity to keep away from women. It’s very funny at times, and maintains that lightness of touch necessary to ensure that we like the characters, but it’s the character roles that steal the movie; Charles Coburn is great as the crotchety cynical grandfather who sees quite a bit of himself in his grandson, and the parents of his eventual wife are played by Marjorie Main and Eugene Pallette. Furthermore, the devil is played by Laird Cregar, though he has very little screen time, and his son is played at one point by Tod Andrews, who would later appear in several horror films such as VOODOO MAN and FROM HELL IT CAME. It does help if you have a taste for this sort of thing, and I’m not even sure this is the best place to start; at almost two hours I think it’s a little too long. Nevertheless, fans of fantastic cinema should be warned that the fantastic elements are very marginal here.

HILLBILLYS IN A HAUNTED HOUSE (1967)
Article #564 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 9-30-2002
Posting date: 2-23-2003

Three country music singers spend the night in a haunted mansion that is actually a hideout for spies.

Someday I may make a list of the least promising plot descriptions I’ve encountered; if this one isn’t a top contender, I’m not sure I want to know what is. It’s pretty awful, but just how excruciating it is may well depend on two factors: 1) your tolerance for country music, and 2) the degree of your affection for the familiar faces of John Carradine, Lon Chaney Jr., and Basil Rathbone. Actually, I have to admire these three guys; despite being saddled with what is most likely the worst script that any of these three luminaries have ever encountered, they all manage to avoid embarassing themselves; in fact, Rathbone maintains so much of his natural dignity that he seems anomalous in this context. That’s the benefit of actually having a certain amount of acting craft to fall back on; unfortunately, our putative stars (Ferlin Husky and Don Bowman) don’t have that advantage. Joi Lansing comes off a little better than these two, but she has certain advantages of her own to help her compensate. Actually, the plot is inconsequential; the movie is largely an excuse for a series of country songs, including a couple with Merle Haggard (who only appears in this movie in a singing capacity).

Scariest line: “Prove to me you’re entertainers.”

Warning: The movie is purported to be 88 minutes long. If you’re a fan of country music, this is true. If you’re not, the movie is 73 minutes long, and you should feel free to switch it off at this point.

Trust me on this.

HERCULES AGAINST THE SONS OF THE SUN (1964)
Article #563 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 9-29-2002
Posting date: 2-22-2003

Hercules helps some Incan rebels defeat their tyrannical usurper king.

You wouldn’t believe my surprise when I checked the original Italian title of this sword-and-sandal flick and saw the name of Ercole rather than Maciste; this is actually a Hercules movie. Only, what is he doing in Peru at the time of the Incas? All I can say is that he must have gotten really lost. Actually, this movie doesn’t have a lot of the conventions I know and love from these movies; no evil queen attempts to seduce him, he doesn’t fight a single fanged beastie (looking at some llamas doesn’t count), he doesn’t lift one large rock over his head and throw it at anyone (he just barely lifts a couple of large rocks a few inches off the ground, but this hardly impresses me), and not once does he bend any iron bars to escape from a prison. So what does the movie have in place of this? Talk. Endless talk. A couple of tepid action sequences and then some more talk. You’re grateful for the big fight scene at the end of the movie, but by then it’s too late to make up for the fact that the first eighty minutes emphasized costume design and dance choreography over fight choreography. Mark Forest plays Hercules; his great talent was in making it look like his every act of strength was really, really hard.

THE HAUNTED PALACE (1963)
Article #562 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 9-28-2002
Posting date: 2-21-2003

A couple visits the town of Arkham to visit a palace they inherited, but the man is possessed by the spirit of his warlock ancestor.

Roger Corman’s “Poe” films ran the gamut from those that more or less followed the story that it was based on to those that merely quoted a few lines from one of his poems at some point and slapped his name onto it somewhere. This is one of the latter; the story is actually based on a work by H.P. Lovecraft (who is given story credit, incidentally). Admittedly, THE HAUNTED PALACE is a catchier title than “The Case of Charles Dexter Ward”. Actually, this is perhaps my favorite of the few cinematic attempts at Lovecraft from the sixties; it actually has some moments that give me that sense of queasy horror that I always felt was a hallmark of Lovecraft; the scene where the couple are approached by several deformed people in the town is the most striking example. I also like the familiar cast of faces; Vincent Price and Lon Chaney Jr., of course, but also Debra Paget, Leo Gordon, John Dierkes, Bruno Ve Sota, and Elisha Cooke Jr. I always thought you could have a fun little game with the latter actor; whenever he shows up in a movie, have everybody make a guess as to how many minutes you will be into the movie before his character dies. You can even guess that he won’t die, but you’ll probably lose.