I MARRIED A MONSTER FROM OUTER SPACE (1958)
Article #1192 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 6-19-2004
Posting Date: 11-16-2004
Directed by Gene Fowler Jr.
Featuring Tom Tryon, Gloria Talbott, Peter Baldwin

A woman slowly begins to suspect that the man she married is actually an alien from outer space.

Don’t let the schlocky title throw you off; there’s a lot more to this one than campiness. It’s one of those rare science fiction movies that relies on character. In fact, not only are the human characters given dimension, so are the aliens; unlike so many movies of its type, the aliens are not all of one mind. The movie is helped by fine acting, particularly from Gloria Talbott as the wife who is trying to cope with the situation, but from Tom Tryon and all the other actors as well. I hardly recognized him, but that’s Maxie Rosenbloom as the bartender, and he does a fine job as well. It’s not a perfect movie, as there are a few minor errors here and there; for example, if the aliens can see in the dark, why does the alien possessing Bill turn on the lights when he goes downstairs to deal with the dog? Nonetheless, it’s a unique and subtle movie, and one that even leaves you feeling a little sad about the fate of the aliens. Highly recommended.

INNER SANCTUM (1948)
Article #1149 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 5-7-2004
Posting Date: 10-4-2004
Directed by Lew Landers
Featuring Charles Russell, Mary Beth Hughes, Dale Belding

A man kills his fiance and disposes of her body by leaving it on the rear end of a train, an action that is seen by a young boy. He then finds himself trapped in the small town where he committed the murder due to flooding, and finds himself staying at the boy’s home.

Despite the title, this movie is not part of Universal’s Inner Sanctum series even if Fritz Lieber’s head resembles that floating head in the crystal ball that usually opened those films. This oddball, almost comic film noir stands on its own. Actually, I’ve never seen a noir quite like this; you know that the murderer is fated to be caught, but fate seems to have decreed here that he must deal with a bewildering array of somewhat comic characters in the process. There’s the boy who is afraid to say what he knows, not so much because he’s afraid of being murdered by the killer, but because he’s afraid of being walloped by his mom. There’s the doting mother herself, a cheerful and talky newspaper editor, and two eccentric old men, one of whom goes down to the flood waters and lays claim to a hoard of beer that he found in the water. The movie has some great lines and tense moments as well, but it’s the comic undertone that really makes this one rather unique. The fantastic aspect of the movie is found in the framing device in the character of the aforementioned Lieber, an oddly prescient character who is telling this story to a woman on a train.

INTERNATIONAL HOUSE (1933)
Article #1008 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 12-18-2003
Posting Date: 5-16-2004
Directed by A. Edward Sutherland
Featuring Peggy Hopkins Joyce, W.C. Fields, Stuart Erwin

Several people converge on a hotel to bid for rights to a new invention.

W. C. Fields, George Burns and Gracie Allen, Rudy Vallee, Bela Lugosi, Franklin Pangborn, Cab Calloway; what do all these performers have in common? The answer is twofold; first of all, they’re all performers fully capable of stealing any movie they’re in, and secondly, they’re all in this movie. It’s a comedy-musical, fast-moving and outlandish, with energetic musical numbers, a plethora of great comic moments, and no real plot to speak of. The invention is an early form of television; the inventor keeps trying to tune in on the six-day bicycle race, but ends up zeroing in on, among other things, a talking cow, an invention display by Colenel Stoopnagle, and Cab Calloway and his band performing ‘Reefer Man’. Bela Lugosi is the jealous villain who thinks Fields is sleeping with his ex-wife, and Franklin Pangborn is stuck with the endless task of sorting keys. Fields and Allen have the best comic moments, and even have a scene together. They don’t make them like this anymore, so if it comes around, you may well want to catch it before you’re stuck with a litter of kittens.

INVASION OF THE ANIMAL PEOPLE (1959)
(a.k.a. TERROR IN THE MIDNIGHT SUN/RYMDINVASION I LAPPLAND)
Article #948 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 10-19-2003
Posting Date: 3-17-2004
Directed by Virgil Vogel & Jerry Warren
Featuring Barbara Wilson, Sten Gester, Robert Burton

A meteor that crashes in the snow-covered wilds of Lappland turns out to be a spaceship, and a giant hair-covered animal is on the loose.

This movie was a Swedish/American co-production; the Swedish version was called RYMDINVASION I LAPPLAND; the American version was supposed to be called TERROR IN THE MIDNIGHT SUN, but was never released here until Jerry Warren got his mitts on it, editied in his own footage, and called it INVASION OF THE ANIMAL PEOPLE. IMDB treats all three versions as a single entity; since I have both the Jerry Warren version and the one known as TERROR IN THE MIDNIGHT SUN, I decided to watch them both for this entry in the series. The original version is no classic, but it has some wonderful moments; if the spaceship looks animated in the opening sequence, it nonetheless looks great when it plows through the snow for its landing. The shots of the monster are amazing for what was no doubt a low-budget movie; the twenty-foot monster actually looks that size, even in scenes where he is paired with the normal size humans. The motivations of the aliens never become clear, but the movie is coherent (if somewhat padded) and the Lappland footage is beautiful. It’s worth a look.

The Warren version is largely worth a look only to see just what kind of damage he could wreak with his horrible editing. He loved removing exposition from the movies he edited and replacing it with his own; the trouble is that exposition was his weakest point, as it usually involves a couple of people sitting and talking endlessly and vaguely about whatever it is they’re talking about. The end result is that very little information is conveyed to the viewer, since this directorial style causes the interest level in following the story to plummet and the desire to take a nap to rise dramatically. The Warren version is almost fifteen minutes longer than the original version, and the only thing that was added to the mix was the desire to not watch the movie at all; this is not a good thing.

A recent DVD version of this movie offers you both choices. From the comments above, you should have a good idea which one to opt for.

I MARRIED AN ANGEL (1942)
Article #947 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 10-18-2003
Posting Date: 3-16-2004
Directed by W. S. Van Dyke II
Featuring Nelson Eddy, Jeanette MacDonald, Edward Everett Horton

A womanizing Count is urged to marry in order to make the bank investors feel secure, and then dreams that he marries an angel from heaven.

All it takes is one look at the names of Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald, and you should know what you’re getting into here; lots of operetta-style warbling. I’m no fan of this kind of thing, so I was very grateful for the presence of Edwart Everett Horton, who manages to brighten anything he appears in. Though I can’t exactly say it was dull, the sickly sweetness of the first half of the movie was hard to bear, but somewhere at the halfway point, it starts to get satirical when the Count holds a dinner party and the angel’s propensity for always telling the truth causes her to inadvertently insult all the guests. From here it then spirals into such utter weirdness that I can understand why this would prove to be the last time Eddy and MacDonald would work together. Other familiar faces include Reginald Owen (who played both Sherlock Holmes and Ebenezer Scrooge) and Douglas Dumbrille.

I EAT YOUR SKIN (1964)
(a.k.a. ZOMBIES/VOODOO BLOOD BATH)
Article #946 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 10-17-2003
Posting Date: 3-15-2004
Directed by Del Tenney
Featuring William Joyce, Heather Hewitt, Betty Hyatt Linton

A writer, his boss, and his boss’s wife land on a Caribbean island to get a story, and encounter a scientist and zombies.

When producer Jerry Gross decided he needed a companion movie for his gory thriller I DRINK YOUR BLOOD (it sounds like it should be about vampires, and it’s actually about rabid hippies), he dredged up this Del (HORROR OF PARTY BEACH) Tenney movie and slapped its new title on it (it sounds like it should be about cannibals, and it’s about crusty zombies). This title is more exploitable, but inaccurate; no flesh-eating goes on in this movie. It’s a tad livelier than it might have been, thanks to an energetic soundtrack, but it doesn’t really cover up the fact that the dialogue is awful, the plot is hackneyed, and the acting is at a fairly low level. Those looking for some of the gore of HORROR OF PARTY BEACH will be disappointed; except for an unexpected decapitation, it’s a pretty bloodless affair.

It’s a strange movie in some ways; it seems to be somewhat influenced by the James Bond movies, as the hero surrounds himself with beautiful women and recites passages from his books (they’re supposed to be adventure stories, but the adventures never seem to leave the bedroom). In fact, the opening leads you to believe this is a comedy, but the comedy element vanishes once they reach the island.

Incidentally, the writer’s boss’s wife is played by Betty Hyatt Linton. It’s her only screen role, and once she opens her mouth, you can hear why; she has one of those voices that is guaranteed to cause migraines.

I MARRIED A WITCH (1942)
Article #885 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 8-17-2003
Posting Date: 1-14-2004
Directed by Rene Clair
Featuring Fredric March, Veronica Lake, Susan Hayward

A witch and her warlock father emerge from an oak tree where their souls were imprisoned after they were burned, and seek revenge on the descendant of the man who condemned them.

It’s interesting to combine the wild comedy of Thorne Smith (author of ‘Topper’), who started but did not finish the story on which this was based (it was completed by Norman Matson) and the light-as-air comic touch of Rene Clair. The result is somewhere in between; not quite as light as some of Clair’s other work and not quite as wild as some other Smith tales, but a bright cast and some interesting characters make for an enjoyable viewing experience. The always-enjoyable Robert Benchley is on hand to add his touch to the proceedings, but the movie is stolen by Cecil Kellaway as the witch’s father, who reveals he has an agenda of his own in a memorable scene involving a gun. However, the biggest laughs I found were during a funny election sequence, and an opening scene where the witch-burning undergoes a short intermission. The special effects and fantasy elements are quite effective, as they usually are in Rene Clair films.

INAUGURATION OF THE PLEASURE DOME (1954)
Article #842 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 7-5-2003
Posting Date: 12-2-2003
Directed by Kenneth Anger
Featuring Marjorie Cameron, Sampson de Brier, Curtis Harrington

Plot description: Huh?

Title check: Ditto.

Basically, this is film as abstract art. I don’t consider this automatically bad, by any means, as I find that on occasion a movie like this can really fascinate me. However, I’m at a loss usually to explain why I like (or don’t like) movies like this, because I usually just let them wash over me, and they either strike a chord or they don’t. Sadly, this one doesn’t. It apparently has something to do with opera (the background music is definitely operatic), and it involves various people in bizarre costumes and makeup against nondescript backgrounds gesturing and posing. I think there are several scenes where jewelry is eaten, and there’s a lot of drinking of some unknown substance in the second half of this short movie. Much of the imagery is vaguely grotesque, pagan and Satanic, and it all feels like some sort of rather sacriligious ritual. I really don’t know much about Kenneth Anger, but Curtis Harrington would go on to direct several horror and science fiction movies later on in life, and Anais Nin is also in the movie somewhere. It seems foolish to write about something like this when you don’t really know what to make of it, but I have no intention of skipping a movie for this series just because I don’t get it. File this one with the question marks.

THE INVISIBLE MAN RETURNS (1940)
Article #835 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 6-28-2003
Posting Date: 11-25-2003
Directed by Joe May
Featuring Sir Cedric Hardwicke, Vincent Price, Nan Grey

A man about to be executed for the murder of his brother becomes invisible in order to get free to prove his innocence.

Title check: The title is a bit misleading, as the invisible man in this one is a different person than the one in the original, but I don’t see how they could have come up with a title that reflected that concept that wouldn’t have been pretty clumsy.

This sequel to the original THE INVISIBLE MAN has some nice points and some weak points. I’m a little disappointed with the cast; Sir Cedric Hardwicke never really develops a character (the script really doesn’t give him much of a chance), and Vincent Price is only so-so in the title role, though I think at later stages in his career after he had more experience under his belt, he would’ve been excellent. As it is, the scenes of his madness are never as convincing or enticing as Claude Rains’s scenes in the original; in fact, overall, I think this movie is largely better when it follows its own path and ignores the original movie than when it tries to emulate that one. On the plus side, the police investigation shows that the police have learned a thing or two from having dealt with an invisible man in the past (the policeman’s trick with the cigar smoke makes for a very effective scene), and there are at least two other memorable sequences here, one involving a fight on a track hauling bins of coal, and another in which the invisible man borrows the trappings of a scarecrow (Price’s most effective scene here). All in all, a fairly uneven sequel to a classic.