HOUSE OF USHER (1960)
(a.k.a. THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER)
Article #1189 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 6-16-2004
Posting Date: 11-13-2004
Directed by Roger Corman
Featuring Vincent Price, Mark Damon, Myrna Fahey

Philip Winthrop arrives at the home of Roderick Usher to talk with Usher’s sister to whom he is engaged. He discovers that Roderick wishes to keep his sister from leaving the home as they live under a curse of hereditary madness.

After having watched one movie about necrophilia and another about cannibalism, it’s a bit of a relief to watch something a little less controversial (though it does have a subtext of incest in it). I’ve been a little bit hard on Corman’s Poe movies up to this point, but that’s because they largely came across to me as attempts to recycle this movie. As this was the movie that set the mold, however, it feels much more of an organic whole. It’s somewhat faithful to the source story; its primary change is to make the visitor a fiance of Madeline Usher rather than an old friend of Roderick’s. This was a wise move, in that it gives rise to a number of new conflicts that help to keep the movie interesting until the big finish; as written, the story doesn’t really lend itself to expansion to a full-length movie. Vincent Price is somewhat restrained here, and this is due to the role itself; as Roderick Usher’s supersensitive hearing requires him to keep his voice in a somewhat hushed tone throughout. Price is wonderful here, but the rest of the cast also performs well. The use of sound is very effective; the creaking, crumbling house makes its presence known consistently, and hearing these noises is more unnerving than the more obvious horrors that pop up on occasion (coffins falling over and skeletons falling out). It was a gamble for Roger Corman, but it paid off beautifully, and remains one of Corman’s best Poe movies, even if the 1928 French version of the story remains my favorite adaptation of this work.

HORRORS OF THE BLACK MUSEUM (1959)
Article #1187 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 6-14-2004
Posting Date: 11-11-2004
Directed by Arthur Crabtree
Featuring Michael Gough, June Cunningham, Graham Curnow

A series of gruesome murders baffles Scotland Yard while a writer makes a big profit from his coverage of the murders.

I remember having seen this one on my local Creature Feature as a kid, and whatever flaws I may perceive in it nowadays, I would be selling the movie short if I didn’t recognize that three of the murder scenes had a tremendous impact. The night I first watched it, I checked very carefully above my bed before I laid my head down on the pillow, and to this day I always look through binoculars from a safe distance before I put them up to my eyes; fortunately, I’ve never run into anyone carrrying ice tongs. Nonetheless, I do have problems with the movie. It’s crudely obvious at times when I think it would benefit from subtlety, I think Michael Gough’s performance would have been more effective if he had underplayed more, and at times I find myself appalled at the stupidity of some of the characters; just as an example, if you’re going to blackmail someone you believe to be a murderer, you should do so at a time when you haven’t just handed your intended blackmail victim a potentially lethal murder weapon. Still, I did find myself musing on the presence of some of the themes that are common to the works of Herman Cohen; the presence of a younger male who is under the control of an older (and quite misogynistic) authority figure is very prominent here. I also found it quite interesting that Cohen managed to adapt that theme to many of the classic movie monsters; werewolves, (I WAS A TEENAGE WEREWOLF), the Frankenstein monster (I WAS A TEENAGE FRANKENSTEIN), vampires (BLOOD OF DRACULA), King Kong (KONGA), and here, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. It certainly makes his entire oeuvre more interesting as a whole.

THE HORRIBLE DR. HICHCOCK (1962)
(a.k.a. L’ORRIBILE SEGRETO DEL DR. HICHCOCK)
Article #1185 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 6-12-2004
Posting Date: 11-9-2004
Directed by Riccardo Freda
Featuring Robert Flemyng, Barbara Steele, Harriet Medin

A necrophiliac doctor’s first wife dies from an overdose of an anasthetic that the doctor used on her to simulate death. 12 years later, the doctor returns to his ancestral home with a new wife. However, strange things are happening…

How horrible is he? There’s certainly no doubt that the doctor’s main fetish being necrophilia adds a truly perverse and unsettling touch to the proceedings. Oddly enough, the theme of necrophilia isn’t really used as mere exploitation. It’s not only essential to the plot (in particular as it plays a part in the death of the first wife), but it’s also the factor that gives Dr. Hichcock a more complex character than he might otherwise have. Without that element, this movie would largely be just another example of the standard Italian horror plot; newly married wife returns home with new husband and is terrorized for the length of the movie. As it is, I find this movie a lot more interesting than NIGHTMARE CASTLE, for example.

THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES (1939)
Article #1183 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 6-10-2004
Posting Date: 11-7-2004
Directed by Sidney Lanfield
Featuring Richard Greene, Basil Rathbone, Wendy Barrie

Sherlock Holmes is called in to investigate a curse on the house of the Baskervilles that may have caused the death of the current lord of the manor.

This wasn’t the first version of the classic Sherlock Holmes novel; I have several other versions on my hunt list that predate it. However, it’s the earliest one I’ve been able to find at this point, and it may be one of the most significant, as it introduced us to the actors who would become the most famous for the roles of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson; Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce. It’s also one of the most horror-oriented of the Sherlock Holmes movies, partly due to the fact that the ancestral curse storyline is the stuff of horror, and partly due to the moody scenes on the moor. It’s also fairly faithful to the novel, though that does create one frustrating situation, and that is that Holmes himself is missing from the story for a good stretch of the running time; this may explain why Richard Greene got higher billing as Sir Henry Baskerville. Horror fans will also want to note the presence of Lionel Atwill and John Carradine in significant roles. I also took note of the name of Eily Malyon, who plays Mrs. Berryman; I’d never known her name before, but I distinctly remembered her face, and a quick note of her credits shows that she appeared in DRACULA’S DAUGHTER, THE UNDYING MONSTER and SHE-WOLF OF LONDON. Bruce and Rathbone aren’t quite as relaxed with each other here as they would be in later entries of the series, but that’s to be expected in the first of what would prove to be a successful series.

HANDS OF A STRANGER (1962)
Article #1181 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 6-8-2004
Posting Date: 11-5-2004
Directed by Newt Arnold
Featuring James Stapleton, Paul Lukather, Joan Harvey

When a pianist’s hands are crushed in a car accident, a surgeon decides to replace them with the hands of an unidentified murder victim.

Though the source is not credited, this is for all practical reasons another take on “The Hands or Orlac”; whether the resemblance is the result of plagiarism or coincidence is open to question. I do know that the most memorable scene in the other versions of the story (in which Orlac is confronted by a man with mechanical hands) is not present in this one. Actually, this results in an interesting ambiguity; the murder victim who supplies the hands is not identified; though it is speculated that he may have been a murderer, there is no confirmation of this. In fact, the movie does play with some interesting ideas; for example, it remains somewhat ambiguous on the subject of the moral questionability of transplants, and one senses that there is some intelligence at work here. The movie also has a strong opening, and a nice final scene (though the replacement of “The End” with the phrase “The Past is the Prologue” does leave me scratching my head). However, the movie has some major problems. The acting is horribly uneven, and the dialogue is painfully overwritten; instead of talking with each other, the characters make speeches at each other and every idea is regurgitated up again and again ad nauseum. Still, I can’t help but like it a little; each of the versions of the Orlac story have gone in different directions, and it’s fascinating to compare them.

HOP HARRIGAN (1946)
(Serial)
Article #1086 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 3-5-2004
Posting Date: 8-2-2004
Directed by Derwin Abrahams
Featuring William Bakewell, Jennifer Holt, Robert ‘Buzz’ Henry

A pilot is hired to deliver a scientist’s secret invention to the man who financed the experiment, but ends up running afoul of crooks who are also after the secret.

Every once in a while I run into a serial that helps me to identify why it is that I find many serials somewhat unsatisfying. Most serials are so geared towards nonstop action that all other considerations are thrown out the window, including character and plot development; generally, they do nothing more than establish the good guys, establish the bad guys, set up the McGuffin, and let them fight it out. I suspect those that love that type of structure will be somewhat disappointed by this one, which has more talk and less action than usual, but I really enjoyed this one because it added one element that made it work; namely, a sense of mystery. The mystery lies in the existence of certain characters who can’t be easily established as good guys or bad guys from square one. The scientist here is a loose cannon; he spends most of the serial being kidnapped and rescued, but he is such a paranoid, quick-to-anger, and resourceful personality, that you’re never sure who he will side with ultimately. Furthermore, the character of Ballard who is trying to cut a deal with the scientist for his invention is playing a game of his own that fits in with no other agenda. Both characters are mysterious and somewhat unpredictable, and trying to figure out how things would pan out in the end was actually more fun than obvious. I also found the characters likeable and interesting; even the little kid who is Hop’s fan isn’t merely a helpless pawn to be rescued; he is resourceful, smart and useful, and that’s also somewhat unusual for the child characters in these movies. The way the various elements of the plot unfold over the length of the serial also has a smoothness about it that I enjoyed; I never got the feeling they were continually rehashing the same situation repeatedly. I’m sure many serial fans will disagree, but I have to rank this one as one of my favorites.

THE HOLE IN THE WALL (1929)
Article #1071 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 2-19-2004
Posting Date: 7-18-2004
Directed by Robert Florey
Featuring Claudette Colbert, Edward G. Robinson, David Newell

A woman joins a phony medium racket and plots to take revenge on the woman who falsely sent her to prison.

This movie is well-directed by Robert Florey and features two performers who were both on their way to stardom; Claudette Colbert and Edward G. Robinson. Colbert does a fine job, but it’s Robinson’s performance that sucks me into the movie; he was a great actor even at this stage of the game, and he had the ability to imbue some very ordinary lines with an emotional depth that adds immensely to the proceedings. It’s a good thing this movie has some strengths going for it, because the story is sometimes howlingly bad; at least one major plot contrivance has one character performing an act that is so supremely stupid that you’ll find it hard to believe. As for Donald Meek and Barry Macollum, I can’t decide which actor is saddled with the more degrading nickname, Goofy or Dogface. The fantastic aspects are minor initially; the phony spiritualism racket is one and the character of Dogface is a subhuman character that could have been considered a monster if they had given him something to do. As it is, I do like the talk about returning him to the carnival from which he came because it would save them money on raw meat. However, the movie does momentarily move clearly into the realm of fantastic cinema late in the game via a plot twist that I can’t give away here.

HENRY ALDRICH HAUNTS A HOUSE (1943)
Article #1070 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 2-18-2004
Posting Date: 7-17-2004
Directed by Hugh Bennett
Featuring Jimmy Lydon, Charles Smith, John Litel

A teen tries to impress a girl by taking a large dosage of a medicine that is supposed to give him the strength of three men. He loses consciousness from the drug while passing a haunted house. The next day, he wakes up in his bed and discovers that the principal of his school (who was in the haunted house last night) has vanished.

I didn’t expect too much from this movie; it seemed to be your basic example of the “haunted house” episode of any series comedy at the time. However, much to my surprise, I ended up enjoying this one thoroughly. Part of the reason may have to do with the fact that this was my introduction to the Aldrich characters; I’d heard about them for years, and was familiar with parodies of the characters (the comedy album by the Firesign Theatre called “Don’t Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me the Pliers” is in part a parody of the series), but this was my first direct experience with them, and there is something rather archetypal about them . Another thing I like is that some of the gags are quite inventive, including two mirror gags; one is of course the classic one-person-imitating-the-movements-of-another (they’re wearing suits of armor), and a second in which a character talks to his reflection. It also helps that the haunted house is actually a bit scary, and gives us a real “monster” despite the fact that the ending is all too typical for this sort of movie. It also manages to fit a mummy’s curse into the mix. All in all, this is actually one of the better haunted house comedies I’ve seen.

HERCULES AND THE CAPTIVE WOMEN (1961)
Article #1001 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 12-11-2003
Posting Date: 5-9-2004
Directed by Vittorio Cottafavi
Featuring Reg Park, Fay Spain, Ettore Manni

Hercules accompanies Androcles on an expedition to discover the source of a threat to the safety of Greece, and ends up in Atlantis, the domain of Uranus.

If you think about it, the attraction that Hercules seems to have for evil queens makes it only logical that he would eventually end up in Atlantis and deal with Antinea, that most evil of queens. This is actually one of the best of the non-Steve Reeves Hercules movies, with some great sets and an exciting (if sometimes strange and confusing) story. Of course, there are a number of distractions here; the occasional use of stock music from CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON calls undue attention to itself (and it does so no matter which movie they use it in), the movie is packed with bizarre, dreamlike sequences that leave you scratching your head, the constant reference to the god Uranus conjures up punny visions that makes you wish they worshipped Neptune instead, and Reg Park’s neck. Especially Reg Park’s neck. In fact, Reg Park would be a lot of fun to watch if it weren’t for that neck. And it all goes to show that when it comes to body-building, there are some muscles that should just be ignored.

HANGOVER SQUARE (1945)
Article #990 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 11/30/2003
Posting Date: 4/28/2004
Directed by John Brahm
Featuring Laird Cregar, George Sanders, Linda Darnell

An overworked composer suffers blackouts during which he becomes a homicidal maniac.

Laird Cregar was an excellent character actor who, much to his disdain, ended up playing psychotic murderers towards the end of his short career; he tried to lose weight in an effort to get other types of roles, but ended up dying of a heart attack at the age of 28. One can easily see why he ended up with these roles; he is wonderful here, particularly in the sequences when he goes into his blackouts. There are other strong aspects to this movie; John Brahm’s direction is wonderful and audacious, and the staging of some of the murders is memorable. What is interesting is the way he uses crowd scenes as a backdrop to some of the murders, particularly the opening one which occurs in a pawn shop on a crowded street. I also like the way that each murder is punctuated by a scene that involves fire; three separate conflagrations occur at various points in this movie, including a memorable one during Guy Fawkes day. Also excellent is Bernard Herrman’s score, which is crucial to the proceedings since music plays such an important role in the movie, particularly during the final moments of the film. For those who’ve never seen one of Cregar’s classic psycho performances (in this movie and in THE LODGER), I highly recommend them.