PARANOIAC (1963)
Article #626 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 12/1/2002
Posting date: 4/26/2003

A woman thinks she is going crazy because she keeps seeing her dead brother. Then when a man who resembles her brother shows up, her mother and other brother become suspicious.

This is another variation on PSYCHO, and though it’s hardly terrible, it is very disappointing. One of the most striking things about PSYCHO is the performance of Anthony Perkins, who plays a character with a full range of human emotions; an equivalent character here is played by Oliver Reed, but the only emotion he seems to give his character is one of violent intensity, and though he is quite good at displaying this emotion, it becomes tedious over the full length of the movie. It’s also problematic in that it leaves the character with no real surprises, and that’s a problem that extends to almost everyone in this movie; you can pick out the people who are really mad, the one who only thinks they’re mad, and the one who is kind-hearted and compassionate easily, and though this would not be a problem in many movies, it short-circuits one that is trying to rely on unexpected plot twists and surprising developments. As it is, nothing in this movie surprises me, which is certainly something I could never say about PSYCHO. It’s also why I like PSYCHO so much better.

THE PENALTY (1920)
Article #624 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 11/29/2002
Posting date: 4/24/2003

A double amputee known as Blizzard seeks revenge on the doctor who crippled him for life.

I’m always a little amazed at how well Lon Chaney could act when he was hampered by costumes that must have been incredibly painful. He is such a malicious, malevolent, evil man here that he takes your focus away from the fact that he hobbles around on crutches for the length of the movie. The story itself is only slightly a horror story (basically, the fact that the villain is a double amputee and a certain air of degeneracy in the proceedings) and offers only the slightest whiff of science fiction (basically, part of the plot deals with transplants), so it remains largely marginal. It starts out with a Mabuse-like setup, but it ends up not really delivering in this regard; the ending seems doctored, artificial and pat, and is not very satisfying. This one is primarily of interest for Chaney’s performance.

PROJECT X (1968)
Article #623 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 11/28/2002
Posting date: 4/23/2003

In the future, a spy in possession of important information for national security has had his mind erased by a drug. Scientists are called in to try and help him recover the information.

The only other time I know of that William Castle flirted with science fiction was in THE TINGLER, a movie which was primarily horror. This one is closer to a pure work of science fiction, with an interesting premise and some great ideas, and though it has a couple of horror elements, it is not a horror movie. Unfortunately, Castle seems a little lost at what to do with it all; there are some moments that are poorly handled from a dramatic perspective, and the movie comes across as somewhat vague and incomplete, but the ideas and the concepts are actually intriguing enough to hold your interest. It’s worth a viewing, but I’m left wondering how much better the movie could have been, and I’m a little disappointed that it didn’t quite gel as well as it could have. It’s something of a failure, but it’s more interesting than some successes.

THE PREMATURE BURIAL (1962)
Article #622 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 11/27/2002
Posting date: 4/22/2003

A man is haunted by visions of himself being buried alive.

This is a rather dullish entry in Roger Corman’s series of movies based on the works of Edgar Allan Poe. One of the problems with this one is that the premature burial theme had been used in both HOUSE OF USHER and THE PIT AND THE PENDULUM before them, so it wasn’t particularly novel. The absence of Vincent Price is also sorely felt; not that Ray Milland isn’t a good actor, but the role seemed tailor-made for Price, and at the end, when the character flips out, Milland is simply not as much fun as Price would have been. Actually, there’s a nice revelation at the ending, but it just doesn’t seem worth going through the whole movie to see it. Hazel Court is also in the movie, as well as Dick Miller and John Dierkes as the gravediggers.

THE PIT AND THE PENDULUM (1961)
Article #621 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 11/26/2002
Posting date: 4/21/2003

A man tries to discover what caused the death of his sister, and uncovers a horrible tale of torture and infidelity.

The last twenty minutes of this movie are great and memorable; I just wish the hour that leads up to this part of the movie were as good. Since the story on which the movie was based is short and compact, I’m not surprised that it needed to be fleshed out to make a full-length movie; I just wish they hadn’t borrowed quite so much from “The Fall of the House of Usher” to do so, especially as Corman had just directed a version of that story the previous year. It also doesn’t help that the actor who plays the brother is singularly dull, generally delivering his lines in a slow monotone punctuated with “meaningful” pauses; unfortunately, it is his character that drives the story in the first part of the movie, so we see an awful lot of him and not near enough of Vincent Price or Barbara Steele. Still, that last twenty minutes is strong enough to make the wait worth it, and though this will probably not be my favorite of the Corman Poe movies, it is a worthy entry to the series.

PHANTOM OF THE OPERA (1943)
Article #619 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 11-24-2002
Posting date: 4-19-2003

An understudy of the Paris Opera must choose between her lovers (a baritone with a pencil-thin moustache or a policeman with a pencil-thin moustache) or a career as an opera diva. She is also being stalked by a phantom.

If the above description spends more time on the soap opera aspects of the story rather than the horror content, there’s a reason for that. In fact, to further labor the point, I’m going to eschew my usual habit of capitalizing movie titles in their entirety to make a point; whereas the silent version of the story could be titled “PHANTOM of the Opera”, this version could be titled “Phantom of the OPERA”. The movie seems to want to avoid letting on it’s a horror movie; most of the running time is taken up with the above silly soap opera plot, tepid comic relief and opera (admittedly, the opera is pretty good for what it is, but you still have to be a fan of it); most of the time spent on the phantom is in his backstory rather than his haunting of the opera. Which is not to say that Claude Rains doesn’t do well; he’s easily the most compelling character in the movie, particularly during the backstory sequence. However, you’ll notice he only received third-billing; Nelson Eddy (as the baritone) receives top billing, and he sings quite a bit. The movie gives me the feeling that Universal was more than a little embarrassed by its horror roots and tried to become a class act by emphasizing opera; after all, what could be classier? Give me the Lon Chaney version, please.

THE PHANTOM OF CRESTWOOD (1932)
Article #615 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 11-20-2002
Posting date: 4-15-2003

A woman trying to blackmail several men is murdered during a party, and a man under suspicion by the police must solve the mystery before the police arrive, or else be arrested himself for the murder.

This enjoyable mystery thriller (with some distinct horror elements; in particular, the method of murder and the existence of a possible ghost of a man who committed suicide) has an interesting story behind it; it was apparently the final episode of a radio serial and those who were following the serial had to come to the movie to see the solution to the mystery. Those who did not follow the serial need not worry about coming in the middle of the story; it pretty much holds up on its own as a movie, though I do sense a more elaborate framework of story than I see here. Nonetheless, it’s a very entertaining mystery; the horror elements are solid and satisfying, the investigation takes an impressive number of twists and turns, and there are a lot of fun character roles to keep the interest level high. The flashbacks in particular are well-handled and sharp. The movie isn’t particularly well-known today, but it’s worth a look for anyone interested in hunting it out.

THE PSYCHOPATH (1966)
Article #587 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 10-23-2003
Posting Date: 3-18-2003

A series of murders are committed in which dolls that resemble the victims are left on the scene.

The title of this movie clearly harks back to PSYCHO and there are certain story elements that resemble the ones in that movie, but since the script is by none other than Robert Bloch (who wrote the original story for PSYCHO), this is more acceptable. In fact, the movie has its fair share of surprises in line; though you might figure out the identity of the murderer, you’ll never really know for sure until late in the movie. At first, it doesn’t even seem much like a horror movie, the first half playing out as it does more like a crime movie than anything else, but when the murders really get going in the second half, it swings into horror. The only real fly in the ointment here is Margaret Johnston’s performance; I found it strident and unconvincing; however, the script is strong enough to overcome this problem. And it does have a nice creepy ending to it all.

PORT SINISTER (1953)
Article #553 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 9-19-2002
Posting date: 2-12-2003

An island submerged for hundreds of years rises from the ocean, and scientists trying to investigate it are at odds with crooks who want to steal treasure from it.

Though it has some interesting ideas, I found this action-oriented adventure yarn more dull than thrilling, partially because of lack of funds (though they use an intriguing idea of using a parachute as a sail to transport a stranded airplane at sea, we only hear about it and never actually see it being used), part of it because the script is weak (some scenes have silly over-the-top dialogue, especially when the crook waxes philosophic about treasure, and some scenes were rather confusing) and finally because the copy I found was so dark that it was hard to tell one character from another. In fact, I’m not sure whether that was the primary problem I had with the movie, but I somehow doubt that a good print would reveal a classic. As it is, I found myself a lot more interested in what was sitting in my refrigerator than what was taking place on the screen, and needless to say that after five minutes of foraging in the former, I didn’t feel obliged to rewind and catch the five minutes I missed. This may mean that if I talk about it as having been confusing, it may have been my own damn fault; however, if the movie had caught my interest to begin with, I would have rewound. I’ll probably give it another shot when I upgrade.

PILLOW OF DEATH (1945)
Article #540 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 9-6-2002
Posting date: 1-30-2003

When a murder is committed, a detective finds himself reckoning with several suspects, including the woman’s husband, the crabby matriarch of an old house, and a medium.

This is the fourth of the Inner Sanctum mysteries that I’ve seen so far. At their best they are mildly entertaining; unfortunately, this is the worst of the batch so far. Though it dispenses with the usual premise of the series (most of the others concern a single suspect accused of a murder that he himself thinks he may have committed) as well as the opening introduction with the floating head in the crystal ball, it doesn’t put much in its place. It simply throws together an uninteresting murder mystery with an only slightly less uninteresting “old dark house” story. It doesn’t even try to make the two work together; the haunted house aspect of the story never dovetails with the murder, and this smacks of laziness. Another sign of laziness is the complete lack of atmosphere in the seance sequences; it was almost as if no one could be bothered to spice up this movie at all. About all this movie really has going for it is a nice set and some decent performances, and one moment that is actually quite funny involving an old man’s musing on another “character’s” resemblance to a deceased Uncle Ben. And couldn’t they have also come up with a better title?