THE MASK OF DIIJON (1946)
Article #462 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 6-20-2002
Posting date: 11-13-2002

A stage magician discovers that he has developed real powers of hypnotism, and decides to use them to seek revenge on those who he imagines have wronged him.

It’s always interesting to watch Erich Von Stroheim in action; he had the ability to imbue even the most mundane of phrases with sinister undercurrents of meaning. Unfortunately, not every role is right for him, and despite the fact that he is the most interesting thing here, there’s a limit to what he can do with the role. The movie works all right throughout the first half; it’s only after he mistakes an innocent moment between his wife and a friend of hers for philandering that the movie really becomes quite predictable; you can only watch Stroheim hypnotize people so many times before it becomes tiresome. And the ending –

SPOILERS
– in which he barricades himself in a magic shop and engages in a gunfight with the police is clearly not the sort of thing that was right for this actor. The ending is also far-fetched and a little too convenient. Stroheim really needed a role to match his talents.

THE MAN WITH TWO FACES (1934)
Article #435 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing day: 5-24-2002
Posting day: 10-17-2002

An actor uses his thespian abilities to protect his sister from the influence of her evil husband.

This is an entertaining version of a play called “Dark Tower,” written by George S. Kaufman and Alexander Woolcott, and it is quite witty and a lot of fun. Edward G. Robinson has a great time as Damon Wells (the actor), Mary Astor is his sister, and Louis Calhern is witty and sinister as the husband. Of course, as entertaining as it is, there is still the question as to why it’s included here; by normal standards, it certainly doesn’t qualify as fantastic cinema. The answer lies in the fact that the husband may be using hypnotism to secure the services of his victim, and Mary Astor’s somnambulent performance when she comes under his influence backs that up. Granted, this still makes this movie the most marginal one I’ve covered since NIGHT UNTO NIGHT, but I’ve always believed that to understand the definition of fantastic cinema, it always pays to look at the stuff hovering around the edges.

THE MISTRESS OF ATLANTIS (1932)
Article #390 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 4-9-2002
Posting date: 9-2-2002

Two soldiers on a mission in the Sahara desert are captured and held prisoner by the residents of Atlantis and their queen, Antinea.

I have never seen PANDORA’S BOX, but I am aware of the movie’s reputation and am looking forward to catching it one of these days. This has become even more true after watching this movie, directed by the same man, G. W. Pabst. I’d seen the 1922 version of the movie with Italian title cards, but I was never able to figure out the story; I’ll get back to it now that I’ve seen this one and have an idea of what’s going on.

When I’d reviewed the earlier version, I made the comment that it seemed similar to SHE. Seeing this one, I can say that it is similar in terms of plot, but the comparison ends there; though the various versions of SHE that I’ve seen have all been entertaining, not a one of them has been as compelling as this movie. There is a real sense of exotic mystery that never dissipates, and the breathtaking shots of the desert and the blowing sand are exquisite. This was one of three versions made concurrently in different languages, mostly with the same cast; I notice that one of the ways they made this work was to keep the dialogue to a minumum for certain characters; Brigitte Helm (who plays Antinea) has only a handful of lines in this version. Therefore, it relies on visuals and the commentary of certain key characters to tell its story. I found myself drawn into this world and totally caught up in the story, a rarity for lost civilization movies, most of which have a little too much silliness to them. This movie is a rare and somewhat unexpected treasure; it has proven to be one of the best movies to come up in my movie-watching project that I hadn’t already seen before.

THE MAN IN HALF MOON STREET (1944)
Article #389 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 4-8-2002
Posting date: 9-1-2002

A man who has been kept youthful by gland transplants for sixty years finds that the surgeon who performs his operations can no longer operate, and he tries to find a way to preserve his youth.

In many ways, this should be standard mad scientist fare, but it takes a quite different route. The emphasis is on character and literacy; there are several scenes in this movie that are individually very finely written, and even minor characters are given a greater degree of dimension than you would usually expect in this type of movie. What you get ultimately is a series of very nice scenes, but when you string them together, the end result is a movie that is talky and somewhat slow, and with a little too much time spent on talking about themes you take for granted in other horror movies, and not from particularly fresh angles, either. Ultimately, it may be a little too refined for its subject matter; nonetheless, if you’re interested in character, relationships, and crisp, well-written dialogue, this movie certainly has a lot to offer, though I myself find it’s a little easier to take in small doses than in one sitting.

MURDER AT DAWN (1932)
Article #375 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 3-25-2002
Posting date: 8-18-2002

A scientist responsible for creating a new source of energy is kidnapped for his formula.

What we have here is another old dark house movie with slight science fiction elements, fairly common for this period. Some of these can be fun, but this one is crowded with too many characters that never really sort themselves out, and a plot that is muddled and annoying. If the comic relief was funny, it might salvage the movie, but alas, it doesn’t even work on that level. This one reminds us that some forgotten horrors have been forgotten for very good reasons.

THE MONSTER (1925)
Article #374 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 3-24-2002
Posting date: 8-10-2002

A mysterious disappearance near an old sanitarium prompts a clerk studying to be a detective to launch his own investigation.

Lon Chaney is given top billing in this one, but his screen time is fairly limited; most of the screen time goes to Johnny Arthur, the ambitious clerk. It’s an old dark house horror comedy, and it even predates THE CAT AND THE CANARY in making it to the screen, so it may well have blazed the way for the onslaught of such movies during the thirties. Lon Chaney fans may be a little disappointed; though he certainly does well enough, the movie offers no challenge to either his makeup expertise or his acting skills, and despite the fact that he could be considered a horror star, he seems a little out of place in a horror comedy. The movie itself starts off nicely, but I found it got a little tiresome once we reach the old dark house; the pacing seems a little too slow. I also noticed that the funniest bits of the movie are the title cards, and I wonder if the comedic thrust of the play was primarily verbal, which would present a problem in a silent movie adaptation. It might make it interesting to dig up the original script some time and see.

THE MERMAID (1904)
Article #373 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 3-23-2002
Posting date: 8-9-2002

There’s no plot to speak of in this Melies’ short; it’s just a series of setpieces that begins with a man filling up a fishtank of water and ends with him turning into Neptune, God of the Seas. It’s pretty much cinema as magic act, and clearly one of those movies in which the special effects are everything. It’s impressive to watch, but doesn’t really give me much to write about it.

THE MAN WITH THE RUBBER HEAD (1901)
Article #371 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 3-21-2002
Posting date: 8-7-2002

Yes, it’s true! The man in this Melies short does indeed have a rubber head. It’s not his own, mind you; well, actually it is, but it’s not the one he keeps perched on his neck, if you get my drift. He keeps this one in a box.

So what can you do with a rubber head? Well, you can inflate it with your trusty bellows, just like the monster’s head in THE BRAINIAC. And that is exactly what the man does. Once it’s full, he shows how you can deflate it by releasing the pressure, and it returns to its original size.

Having demonstrated how the head works, our hero than puts some clown in charge of this job (and when I say some clown, I mean some clown). And then…

Well, you don’t want me to give away the ending, do you?

Incidentally, this is the earliest movie I’ve covered to date.

THE MYSTERY OF THE MARIE CELESTE (1935)
(a.k.a. THE PHANTOM SHIP)
Article #325 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 2-3-2002
Posting date: 6-20-2002

This movie provides a fictional solution to the mystery of the Marie Celeste, a ship that was found floating in the ocean with no one on board.

I have to admit I was quite curious about this movie, based as it was on a true-life maritime mystery. The solution isn’t really mysterious, and could offer a possible explanation as to what happened. It’s somewhat dull in parts, but what really catches my attention is a unique and very interesting role that was given to Bela Lugosi; I really wouldn’t have expected him in this role, and am quite impressed at the dimension and genuine feeling he gives his role. There was a longer version of the movie than the one I’ve seen, which concerns the details of a maritime trial that frames the movie, though this footage appears to be lost. By the way, this is an early Hammer film.

THE MAD MONSTER (1942)
Article #324 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 2-2-2002
Posting date: 6-19-2002

A scientist experimenting with intra-species blood transfusions creates a werewolf-type monster that he uses to take revenge on those who mocked him.

Some of PRC’s poverty row horrors are quite creative if you take into account the lack of money or polish that went into them; this one, however, is just dull. Glenn Strange plays the monster, but he really doesn’t act much different when he’s the monster than he is when he’s not. This leaves George Zucco to carry the movie, and he gives it his best shot, but he doesn’t quite achieve that balance of “being mad while not seeming mad” that is necessary to make a movie like this work. I do like the inventive ways he finds to get his victims alone with the monster, though. I’d almost suggest that the movie needs some music to fill up the dead spaces (of which there are quite a few), but what music it does have is pretty weak, so I don’t think it would help much. Definitely one of the lesser of the poverty row horrors.