The Raven (1935)

THE RAVEN (1935)
Article #212 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 10-14-2001
Posting date: 2-27-2002

A surgeon is denied the love of the woman he desires and gets revenge by devising horrible tortures for his victims.

This is something of a companion piece to the earlier THE BLACK CAT, also featuring both Karloff and Lugosi. For the most part, it lacks that movie’s style, wit, and sense of poetry, though it does a nice job of defining some common horror themes. Karloff certainly has a less interesting role, though it doesn’t start out that way; unfortunately, after the operation, the character just becomes rather predictable, and if you took away his dialogue, Tor Johnson could have played him. Lugosi’s Dr. Vollin is better, but still not as interesting as his Vitus Verdegast in THE BLACK CAT. In fact, I find THE RAVEN to be rather humdrum and immemorable, though it actually has more to do with Poe than THE BLACK CAT. There is, however, one really great moment for Lugosi when he tries to explain what Poe means to him; this soliloquy is one of Lugosi’s finest moments and shows just how wonderful an actor this man could be.

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The Monster Maker (1944)

THE MONSTER MAKER (1944)
Article #211 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 10-13-2001
Posting date: 2-26-2002

A doctor falls in love with the daughter of a pianist, but she denies him. He tries to force her hand by injecting her father with germs that cause acromegaly.

One thing that came to mind while watching this movie is that whatever you can say about the cheapness of the production, PRC certainly cared a lot more about their horror product than Monogram. I found you can take their movies quite seriously, where all too often the Monogram movies were jokey and campy. The acromegaly angle makes this movie tasteless to some, but I quite like it; the story and the performances hold my interest throughout. The cast features Ralph Morgan, J. Carrol Naish, and Glenn Strange. Incidentally, acromegaly was the real-life ailment that distorted the features of actor Rondo Hatton.

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The Monster and the Girl (1941)

THE MONSTER AND THE GIRL (1941)
Article #210 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 10-12-2001
Posting date: 2-25-2002

A woman marries a man involved with gangsters who disappears after their wedding night. When her brother tries to locate him, he is framed for murder. A scientist puts his brain in the body of a gorilla.

The first half of this movie is a mess; it’s a complicated, confusing story about a woman who marries a gangster, and trying to sort out the characters is a pain; you really start wondering why it’s considered a horror movie. Had I seen only this part, I would have hated it. However, something very strange happens in the second half; once the brother’s brain is in the body of the gorilla, it becomes almost another movie and a memorable one at that. Part of the reason for the improvement is Charles Gemora, who gives what may well be the best performance ever by a man in a gorilla suit; his eyes actually express real emotion; you can see that the gorilla has a human brain. And the haunting shots of the gorilla hunting down his enemies by following his faithful dog through the streets of the city is a sight to behold. George Zucco (as the scientist who performs the brain transplant) is on only briefly and not given much to do; the emphasis is very much on the man in the gorilla suit in this one.

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The Man Who Laughs (1924)

THE MAN WHO LAUGHS (1924)
Article #209 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 10-11-2001
Posting date: 2-24-2002

A boy is mutilated by gypsies as a child so that his face is permanently set in a hideous smile. When he is abandoned by them, he saves the life of a child and ends up staying with a man who runs a circus and makes him a clown. Eventually, the Queen discovers he is of royal birth, and tries to reinstate him to the nobility.

This one is a classic. The first half hour of this movie is absolutely stunning; I love Gwynplaine’s trek through the snow and his discovery of the child, which I consider one of the great scenes of silent cinema. I also love Conrad Veidt’s performance throughout; it’s amazing the range of emotions he projects despite the fact that his mouth is restricted to one expression. I also like Brandon Hurst as the cruel jester Barkilphedro; this was the first time I really noticed him, and soon discovered that he appeared in several key roles in horror films throughout the years. The movie also features Mary Philbin as the blind girl who loves Gwynplaine, and Olga Baclanova (most famous for playing the trapeze artist in FREAKS) as the Duchess Josiana. This is one of the joys of working on this project; the discovery of a new favorite that I may never have taken the time to look at otherwise.

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The Lodger (1926)

THE LODGER (1926)
Article #208 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 10-10-2001
Posting date: 2-23-2002

Blondes are being murdered by a Jack-the-Ripper type stalker. When a new lodger arrives at a boarding-house and acts suspicious, the owners of the house begin to suspect that he is the murderer.

This very early Hitchcock film already has a lot of the touches for which he would become famous. His dark sense of humor is in evidence throughout, and there are a number of striking visual moments, such as watching the lodger turn all the pictures in the room with their faces to the wall, and some interesting shots of him with the heroine in which they are both looking in different directions and then switch to the direction in which the other person was looking. What I really liked was how well he kept the sense of mystery as to whether the lodger was indeed the murderer or not; keeping this revelation a secret until the end of the movie helped to build the tension nicely. This was a very satisfying movie, and a very good indication of how quickly he honed his talents.

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Just Imagine (1930)

JUST IMAGINE (1930)
Article #207 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 10-9-2001
Posting date: 2-22-2002

A man struck by lightning in 1930 is resurrected in 1980 to take in the wonders of the future. He helps a man to win the hand of the woman he loves by getting him to perform a brave feat: taking the first trip to Mars.

There are definite reasons for science fiction fans to catch this forgotten movie; the sets are absolutely stunning, and watching past visions of the future are always highly entertaining, even when the future in question is now the past. 1980 was never like this, at least not where I come from, though they did get the bit about the automatic hand driers right. However, it’s a little disconcerting to realize that the first science fiction epic produced by the United States was a romantic musical comedy, with really bad music and really lame comedy. Most of the comedy revolves around liquor having been replaced by pills, thereby getting around prohibition (remember, it was still in place at the time the movie was made); there’s even a whole song about it. The sequence on Mars manages to sneak in a bunch of humor that would have never gotten past the censors after 1934, especially in the matter of the sexual preferences of one of the Martian guards. Ultimately, it’s the curiousity value that makes this movie fascinating; it’s so surreal and bizarre it’s hard to believe this movie was actually made, and you find yourself glued to the screen despite the comedy and music (and the fact that the print was in such poor condition). I bet this movie is just waiting to be rediscovered. And it is one of the few science fiction movies of its time to give us a full-blown vision of the future on Earth AND a full-blown look at Martian life.

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Jungle Captive (1945)

JUNGLE CAPTIVE (1945)
Article #206 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 10-8-2001
Posting date: 2-21-2002

A mad doctor decides he needs the body of Paula Dupree, the ape woman for his experiments.

When I saw this lame little movie many years back, my first reaction was to observe that Rondo Hatton was not much of an actor; like Tor Johnson, he was a human special effect. Seeing it again recently, I haven’t really changed my opinion as much as amended it a little; at least I get the feeling that he was actually putting forth some effort and expending a little energy, which is more than I can say for some of the others involved in this one. The story is dull and never picks up any steam. I’ve also never had more of a feeling that someone is just walking through his role as I do from Otto Kruger here; I don’t get the impression he cared for the role at all. And though Acquanetta wasn’t a great actress, she did a far better job than the somnambulent Vicki Lane in this one. All in all, I consider it far and away the weakest of the Universal horrors I’ve seen to date.

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J’Accuse (1938)

J’ACCUSE (1938)
Article #205 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 10-7-2001
Posting date: 2-20-2002

A man is the only survivor of a suicide mission performed on the eve of armistice. He vows to do all he can to prevent another war, but twenty years later, the winds of war are blowing again.

As anti-war films go, this is pretty good, though it pales next to ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT. However, the real question for this column is how it qualifes as a fantastic film. I could argue that it was the slight science fiction content in the middle of the film where the protagonist creates a new type of glass/metal that is going to be used for the war despite his attempt to prevent it, but that’s not the main reason. But in order to discuss the real reason, it requires that I put up a

SPOILER WARNING

before continuing. If you’ve seen the film, you know what’s coming; in fact, most summaries of this movie can’t resist giving away the ending, where the protagonist raises the dead from World War I to stop the next war. This sequence is stunning, and I highly recommmend it to horror fans; it is a gripping and terrifying sequence, and it makes most horror movies of the period seem puny. In fact, the only horror movie from that time that achieves this pitch of terror is probably ISLAND OF LOST SOULS. The movie is definitely worth catching, even if the middle section is fairly dull in comparison to the good opening and the great ending. Incidentally, Victor Francen, who plays Jean Diaz in this movie, would later pop up as the pianist in THE BEAST WITH FIVE FINGERS.

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Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe (1940)

FLASH GORDON CONQUERS THE UNIVERSE (1940)
(Serial)
Article #204 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 10-6-2001
Posting date: 2-19-2002

A strange plague that is ravaging the earth turns out to be the work of the evil Emperor Ming. So Flash and his friends return to Mongo to do battle with him.

The third of the Flash Gordon serials does a little recasting in some of the roles; new actresses play Dale Arden and Princess Aura, and a new actor takes the role of Prince Barin. They’re not bad by any means, but I did find that they didn’t look anywhere as distinctive as their predecessors in the series; therefore, I have a lot of trouble telling the characters apart in this outing. There’s still plenty of variety in the story to keep each episode from looking exactly like the others, but it really does feel like a rehash of the first Flash Gordon serial to me; nevertheless, this is still one of the better serials out there, and the opening plot summary crawls show that this serial had a clear influence on STAR WARS.

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Indestructible Man (1956)

INDESTRUCTIBLE MAN (1956)
Article #203 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 10-5-2001
Posting date: 2-18-2002

A criminal is brought back to life after his execution, a process which causes his body to become impervious to bullets. He vows revenge on his cohorts who betrayed him.

When I saw this movie as a kid, I couldn’t help but notice its similarity to MAN-MADE MONSTER; since I haven’t seen the latter film in years, I can’t attest to how similar they actally are. This one is a fairly clunky movie, with endless narration, some long pointless scenes (the detective taking the ex-girlfriend of the murderer out for hamburgers), plot points that are never developed (Paul Lowe acquires the map that shows the location of the hidden money, but never goes out to look for it, and he hires a safecracker for a job that never happens and is never mentioned again), and too many closeups of Lon Chaney, Jr.’s eyes for this time in his life. I also wonder whether or not “Butcher” Benton originally had lines after his return from the dead which were removed because of Chaney’s inability to remember dialogue at this point (he had lots of mute roles). I also wonder whether the indestructible angle was added later; overall, the story feels like a standard crime-revenge story with a science-fiction gimmick tossed in to make it more commercial. These are just speculations, of course. Nevertheless, despite its many problems, I enjoy the movie well enough, and there is something quite compelling about the outdoor footage in the city; you get a sense that it’s all happening in a very real place with lots of people milling around.

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