'Murder in the Museum' is a smokin' mystery

Murder in the Museum (1934)
Starring: John Harron, Henry B. Walthall, Phyllis Barrington, Donald Kerr, Steve Clemente and Joseph W. Girad
Director: Melville Shyer
Rating: Six of Ten Stars

When a city councilman is murdered while on a fact-finding mission to a local "museum of oddities", the police commisioner (Girard) emerges as the most likely suspect. However, crimebeat reporter Jerry Ross (Herron) sets out to prove his innocence in order to impress tthe commisioners niece (Barrington), a beautiful young lady he's taken an interest in.


"Murder at the Museum" is a nicely executed who-dunnit with an unusual and unpredictable setting of a Skid Row freak show. Everyone in the establishment has a dark history with secrets, but which of the them had enough darkness in their background to murder the holier-than-thou crusading councilman? And how was the crime committed?

In addition to its convincingly drawn seedy sideshow setting, the film is blessed with a fast-moving plot, well-crafted dialogue and a cast of talented actors. The characters are all engaging and interesting and the usual annoying traits of the stock character of the wise-cracking reporter who outsmarts the police are not quite as nerve-grating as they often are, both due to the writing and to the inherent charm of actor John Harron.

There is one odd bit in the film that made me curious about where Monogram Pictures might have received funding for the film. Smoking is a part of every day life, so characters smoking in a film do not cause me to throw hysterical fits the way it does some people, but there's a scene in the film that feels like it should be in a cigarette commercial. It is so strange and so out of place that I can't help but wonder if it's there at the demands of an investor. (I can't really say more about the scene without giving away part of the movie, but if you see the film you'll know exactly what I'm referring to.)

As far as I've been able to determine, "Murder at the Museum" is only available on DVD from Alpha Video, and the print they used had some unfortunate damage to it... like the key couple of seconds missing where a masked killer is throttling the life out of Jerry Ross. It's not unusual for old films from long-gone studios to be in bad shape, but it's something I feel obligated to point out when it disrupts the flow of the story.

Did America start going down hill when ukuleles stopped being cool?

The Giant Gila Monster (1959)
Starring: Don Sullivan, Fred Graham, Lisa Simone, Shug Fisher, Don Flournoy and Bob Thompson
Director: Ray Kellogg
Rating: Four of Ten Stars

A marauding lizard the size of a battleship starts wrecking trains and eating people in a small Texas town. Can the kindhearted but slightly inept sheriff (Graham) and the clean-cut, hardworking leader of the local gang of teenaged hot-rodders (Sullivan) stop the monster before it's too late? (Well, before it's too late for anyone NOT yet eaten by it.)


No one will mistake "The Giant Gila Monster" for even the "The Giant Claw", but as far as low budget 1950s monster flicks go, it's not that bad. In fact, I might even go so far as to say that it's gotten a bad rap to some extent.

The script and the film's pacing is tighter and the characters better developed than what you find in most films like this. The film gets straight to the point, and it moves through the story steadily until the climax, with no filler or pointless side trips. (Well, other than the three songs performed by our singing teenaged hero while strumming his ukulele. Those could have been shortened somewhat and the film would have been stronger for it.)

Actually, it's the more well-rounded characters that truly set this film apart for others similar to it. There's more to the film than a simple monster bash, as we actually have subplots and characters showing thoughts and emotions beyond what is necessary for a perfunctory monster bashing story. We have the obnoxious rich guy's concern for his missing son and the illustration of how he uses his power in a desperate attempt to locate and control him; we have the almost impossibly clean-cut teenaged hero's efforts to support his family and his polio-stricken sister while still maintaining his hot rod and being the cool kid with his friends AND trying to start a career as a singer; and we have the sheriff who struggles to balance law and order with a self-appointed role as shepherd of the small Texas town he serves.

There's also some very well done miniature sets used to create the illusion of a rampaging giant lizard, sets matched carefully to their real-world counterparts and filmed with great skill. The end result is actually better than what you find in many movies from this period and even up until recent years, prior to the advances in digital animation.

All the good parts of the film can't quite make up for its weaknesses, weaknesses born from the low budget and which are painfully obvious.

There is not a single scene where any character in the film is shown in a shot with the giant lizard--such trick photography or the cost of building a giant lizard tail, paw, or head was clearly beyond the means of director Kellog and his crew. And there is a train-wreck scene that begs to show panicked survivors scrambling away from the monster. Similarly, there are repeated references to nearby oil fields, but the monster never goes and trashes them, another sign of budget constraints, I assume. And these same budget problems lead to a very unimpressive demise for the creature, despite the fact it involves a car crash AND a fiery explosion.

All in all, not a terrible movie, but still one that doesn't quite live up to what it could have been.

A cautionary tale about inviting strangers to stay over

Guest in the House (aka "Satan in Skirts") (1944)
Starring: Anne Baxter and Ralph Bellamy
Director: John Brahm
Rating: Six of Ten Stars

Douglas (Bellamy) invites the ill fiance (Baxter) of his brother to spend the summer with him and his family at their house on the New England coast, so the fresh air and relaxation can speed her recovery. The twisted, mentally unstable woman is soon secretly manipulating everyone in the household, turning them against one another, all so she may possess the house and Douglas for herself.


"Guest in the House" is a slow-burn melodrama where the viewers watch one evil, mentally deranged woman gradually destroy the love between members of a happy home (where even the servants and employees are treated as though they are part of the family). Although some of her manipulations are so clumsy and should have been easy for the other characters to see through (and thus the believability of the story is strained a bit), it is engrossing to watch Baxter's character gradually poison the mood in the house and increasingly isolate Douglas from everyone else by sowing doubts and suspicion.

I did find myself wondering, however, if Anne Baxter had more than one facial expression and vocal intonation in her bag of acting tools. It seemed like she wore same expression for most of the film (except for the occasional smile) and it wasn't until the final scenes that she seemed to be doing anything but running lines.

Anne Baxter aside (and it's a big thing to set aside, as she's the film's co-star), the rest of the cast performed nicely. Bellamy seemed slightly miscast, but he played the part as the kindhearted, somewhat oblivious artist, husband, and father. The staging and lighting of the scenes was also nicely done. In fact, it's only the entirely too slow of the movie's first hour that lands the film at the low end of average as far as my rating goes.

Picture Perfect Wednesday:Merry Christmas from Kosuke Fujishima

This drawing originally appeared as a splash page for Japanese writer/artist's classic police comedy comic book "You're Under Arrest!"

"You're Under Arrest!" remains my favorite Kosuke Fujishima creation. Sadly, a complete English translation of the series was never published, and I doubt we'll ever see one. If we do, it will be a sloppily done one, since they've long since stopped doing proper translations of Japanese comics. (And a "proper" translation involves mirroring and rearranging the art... English is NOT read from right to left and comic book fans are letting themselves be ripped off by accepting the shoddy and lazy efforts being put forth by publishers. Can't blame the publishers, though... if readers are willing to pay for crap, then that's what they deliver.)

You can read all about the main characters of "You're Under Arrest!" by clicking here. The link goes to a section of my website where I posted an adaptation of the comic book to the "Big Eyes, Small Mouth" roleplaying game system.

Collections of Rumiko Takahashi short stories both delights and dissapoints

Japanese writer/artist Rumiko Takahashi has been referred as the 'Queen of Romantic Comedy.' This is a title that works such as "Ranma 1/2" and "Maison Ikkoku" proves that she richly deserves.

I've referred to Takahashi in articles as one of the greatest living comic book creators in the world. In this post, I review two volumes of short stories where she shows her range as a story-teller, especially when it comes to telling stories that aren't usually presented in the sequential art medium.



Rumic Theatre (American Edition published by Viz Media)
By Rumiko Takahashi
Rating: Ten of Ten Stars

Rumic Theatre is a collection of six of the finest Rumiko Takahashi stories that I've read so far. As always, the characters are likable and engaging, the tender moments touching, and the comedy top-notch. All of the elements that her fans love are displayed here, but we also find that she is capable of creating far more sedate stories than usually flow from her pen.

All the tales in Rumic Theatre are more down-to-earth than Takahashi's usual output, dealing primarily with the trails and tribulations of everyday people--all of whom are characterized in a believable and three-dimensional fashion--but that typical Takahashi magic is still very clearly evident on every page. What's more, the art in this collection is among the best she's produced.

My personal favorites in this collection are 'The Tragedy of P,' (which revolves around a pet penguin in an apartment building where animals are absolutely not allowed), 'Hidden in the Pottery (where reality, perception, and the dangers of gossip are examined), and 'Extra-large Happiness' (where a young wife sees her future happiness endangered by a gremlin that only she can see). The remaining stories are also of high quality, but the characters and situations in the three mentioned above are the ones that moved me the most.

Even those who don't typically appreciate the 'standard' style of Japanese comics should consider buying this book. If you appreciate the art of comic books for more than just slam-bang superheroics, you won't be dissapointed.



One or Double (American Edition published by Viz Media)
Story and Art: Rumiko Takahashi
Rating: Eight of Ten Stars

One or Double is a collection of short tales that don't fit into any of Rumiko Takahashi's ongoing series. Unlike the first volume, which contained mostly recent stories, this one seems to cover a range of years, judging from the art styles. They're not all winners, but over all this book is yet more solid evidence that Takahashi is a master of the graphic story telling medium. Whether you're a fan of "manga" or not, there's no denying that she's a skilled artist and writer who deserves the accolades and success she has enjoyed.

Most of the standout stories in the book are, sports-themed. 'Excuse Me for Being a Dog!,' (a young boxer turns into a dog whenever he gets a bloody nose) 'Winged Victory,' (the tale of a rugby team that's lost 999 games in a row and the ghost who watches over it), 'The Grandfather of All Baseball Games' (a young man plays hardball with his obnoxious grandfather), and the title story (in which a kendo instructor is put in the body of the club's pretty manager) all use sports either as the backdrop or motivation for the story and its characters. The characters in these stories are Takahashi at her most charming.

'The Diet Goddess' (about a girl who buys a dress with the intention of losing enough weight to look good in it) and 'Happy Talk' (about an adoptee who embarks on a search for her biological mother) are two slice-of-life stories ala the majority of the shorts from the first 'Rumic Theater' volume, and the 'Maison Ikkoku' series. Again, Takahashi presents us with charming characters the reader can't help but care about, in stories both funny and touching.

Dissapointments in the book include 'To Grandmother's House We Go' (about a pair of hardluck cases who try to collect the large birthright of a deceased friend for themselves) and 'Reserved Seat' (a curious tale about a rock singer who is haunted by his grandmother and Tarakazuka). The first story is simply too short and it feels rushed on every level--the ending feels particularly unsatifactory--while the second is the only Takahashi story I've read where I felt no sympathy or good will toward any of the characters present in it.

Finally, there's 'Shake Your Bhudda,' a tale that is to very early Takahashi. It's clear she was still mastering her craft when it was created, and there's very little to recommend this tale. In fact, I feel the book might have been better served if it had been left out all together.

If you need help surviving a zombie attack, read on.

In the Event of a Zombie Attack (2008)
Starring: Claire Cassidy, Telisa Steen, Dennis Hoffer, and Nicholas Stender
Director: W.L. Wittstruck
Rating: Six of Ten Stars

"In the Event of a Zombie Attack" is a cute short film made up of vignettes designed to look like old education films designed to inform the audience about how to survive should they find themselves in the middle of a "Night of the Living Dead"-type situation.

The first of these shorts features a stereotypical, droning 1950s educational film scientist (portrayed by Claire Cassidy) explaining why flesh-eating zombies exist, how they multiply, and how to avoid being attacked by them. The second has a survialist (portrayed with great zeal by Telisa Steen) explaining the ins and outs and proper etiquette of surviving as society crumbles under the onslaught of zombies. In both of these shorts, a pair of campers appear as object lessons to illustrate the points being made, along with a couple of animated segments drawn by the creator of the concept behind the film, Jeff Freels. All the elements add up to a very funny spoof of educational films and zombie movies alike.

Interspersed during and between the educational segments are advertisements for products from a certain well-diversified large company that may or may not also be the ones responsible for whatever toxic waste it is that is causing zombies to rise. Just because they're an evil megacorp that crossmarkets their cigarette brand during an ad their Zombie Chunks kid's cereal doesn't mean their sponsorship of the "In the Event of a Zombie Attack" educational films means anything other than their being responsible members of the community! (The ads for the various Ziggurat Chemicals products are almost funnier than the main features themselves.)

All the various bits that make up "In the Event of a Zombie Attack" add up to a unique and amusing viewing experience. Plus, the film conveys some very important information. (My favorite zombie survival tip? "Decent, Respectable Grooming Habits May Just Save Your Life!")

For more information about this film and tips on how YOU can survive a zombie attack, visit the website by clicking here.

'The Glass Tomb' isn't worth visiting

The Glass Tomb (1955)
Starring: John Ireland, Eric Pohlman, Geoffrey Keen, Sidney Taffler, Lian Redmond, Honor Blackman and Sid James
Director: Montgomery Tulley
Rating: Four of Ten Stars

A sideshow promoter (Ireland) comes under suspicion of being a killer-for-hire when the lover of a backer of his latest show is murdered. He is eventually cleared... but only because other murders occurr.


"The Glass Tomb" is a movie that feels like its script was the product of the writer combining material cut from other projects and then spending an afternoon or two doing some half-assed rewrites in an attempt to make a coherent whole.

It swings back and forth between being a thriller and a murder mystery. Is it a thriller about an innocent man caught in a love triangle he's not even aware of? Is it a thriller/mystery about an innocent man being set up by his best friend to take the fall for a murder he's planned? Is it a murder mystery about why third-rate British carnies and dance hall performers are being whacked?

Although the murderer's identity is revealed to the audience about halfway through the movie, some of the scenes proceed as if the murderer's ID is still supposed to be a surprise to us. (And even if we HADN'T known the killer's ID, the characters should have figured it well before we did, because it's not that hard if anyone in the film had been immune from Stupid Character Syndrome.)

"The Glass Tomb" has the further problem that none of the characters are well-developed enough for the viewer to feel particularly attached to anyone, nor even fully understand what role they play in the story. This causes the film to completely fail as a thriller and to fizzle as even a Columbo-esque mystery. This underdevelopment of characters is perhaps the film's greatest flaw, particularly when it comes to the central character and his family. He seems very interested in keeping them separate from his showbusiness and circus life, yet we never fully understand why. A little more insight in this area in particular could have helped up the tension when his wife comes under threat.

There are actually plenty of good story ideas in "The Glass Tomb". If only the writer, producers and directors had picked one or two of them to focus on and left the rest for other projects, this might have been a decent film. As it is, it's a film that even the most ardent genre fan can ignore.

Should have been titled 'Ring of Terminal Boredom'

Ring of Terror (1963)
Starring: George E. Mather, Esther Furst, Norman Ollsted, Lomax Study and Austin Green
Director: Clark L. Paylow
Rating: 0 of Ten Stars

A dippy graveyard caretaker (Green) relates a deadly dull tale of a medical student (Mather) who experiences the ultimate terror... and offers the viewers the experience of ultimate boredom.


"Ring of Terror" is a film with NOTHING to recommend it. From its cast of "college students" (who are being played by actors in their late 30s or early 40s, yet who are talking and acting as though they are in the late teens or early 20s, and thus making the viewer feel deeply embarrassed on their behalf... the lover's lane make-out scene is particuarly painful) to the utter lack of talent shown by anyone in the film's cast or crew, there is simply nothing good here. It's as if a group of actors whose career pinnacle had been roles in those lame public health/educational films from the 50s wrote a script outline on a napkin from the strip-club they were working at, rented a camera, and ad-libbed an atrocity of movie-making.

I've seen better acting at the first rehearsals for high school plays, and I've written better stories on a moment's notice. Don't waste your time with this one.

If you want to check out this movie just to verify I'm not exaggerating, I suggest you get the DVD multipack I've linked to below. That way, you're not out much cash AND you've gotten yourself a couple of decent films at the same time.




Trivia: Director Clark Paylow was an associate producer on Steven Spielberg's hit sci-fi film "Close Encounters of the Third Kind."

'Murder on the Campus' is a mostly well-executed who-dunnit

Murder on the Campus (aka "On the Stoke of Nine") (1933)
Starring: Charles Starrett, Shirley Grey, Edward Van Sloan, Ruth Hall, and J. Farrell MacDonald
Director: Richard Thorpe
Rating: Six of Ten Stars

When a student is found shot to death high atop a locked bell tower at the center of a busy college campus, ace reporter Bill Bartlett (Starrett) is intrigued, but still thinks it's just another story. When his girl friend Lillian (Grey) emerges as the only suspect, however, he joins forces with criminologist and science professor Edwen Hawley (Van Sloan) to solve this perfect murder and find the real culprit.


After a shakey start (with some pretty lame acting by Starrett and Grey), "Murder on the Campus" comes together as a fine little murder mystery. It is particularly excellent, because it's one of those films that "plays fair" with the audience--if you're paying attention while watching, you can figure out Whodunnit as the hero does, perhaps even before.

Mostly decently acted and well-written, this film is a nice little gem that I recommend to fans of classic mysteries. The ending isn't quite what I would have expected--nor does it sit completely well with me--but it's in keeping with the rest of the film, so it's not all bad. (I guess this means that the film has a strong main body that starts and ends weakly. Still, it's worth checking out.)

Lugosi serves as a red herring in 'Night Monster'

Night Monster (aka "House of Mystery")
Starring: Don Porter, Irene Hervey, Ralph Morgan, Doris Lloyd, Fay Helm, Leif Erickson, Bela Lugosi, Robert Homans, Nils Asther Francis Pierlot, Frank Reicher, Lionel Atwill and Janet Shaw
Director: Ford Beebe
Rating: Seven of Ten Stars

A wealthy, embittered cripple (Morgan) invites the doctors he blames for his state (Atwill, Peirlot and Reicher) to his mansion in order to witness the miracle he hopes will cure him: A swami (Asther) has discovered a way to use mindpower to materialize matter from thin air, and he believes this method can be used to give him new limbs. Other house-guests include a mystery writer friend to the crippled man(Porter) and a psychologist (Hervey) visiting to help his troubled younger sister (Helm) with her mental problems. When a murderer that seems to materialize and dematerialize at will starts killing members of the household staff and guests, everyone one and anyone can be the next victim... or possibly even the killer.


"Night Monster" is a mystery film with horror overtones that is as crowded with plots as it is with characters. The writers and director do a better job keeping all the threads flowing than is the case in many films similar to this, making good use of all characters and managing to not tangle the plots too badly. The filmmakers even manage to throw in enough red herrings and plausible suspects that the true nature and identity of the killer isn't certain to viewers until the Big Reveal at the end of the movie. (The only suspect that never seems likely is the bulter played by Bela Lugosi, even if I'm sure the director was expecting viewers to automatically assume he was nefarious because it's Bela Lugosi.)

The film is also impressive for the dark mood that pervades it. While there are a couple of "comic relief characters" in the film, they are more subdued than is often the case if movies of this vintage, and their buffoonery is deployed to augment the darkness of the film rather than dispel or undermine it... like where they find the body of one of the victims. The expressions of cowardice are comical, but they enhance the grim mood of the film rather than lighten it.

Each of the murders (or close brushes with the killer) are also very expertly presented. As is to be expected, we never see any actual killings, or even dead bodies, but we don't need to because the scenes are so expertly staged. Even more powerful is when the mysterious killer prowls the marshes around the mansion--the otherwise ever-present sound of croaking frogs suddenly ceases. The silence is even more unnerving than the screams of the victim that soon follow.

This is not a perfect film, however, and the filmmakers don't quite manage to keep all the balls in the air for its full running time, as they stumble badly when it comes to the third act. As it comes to its fiery conclusion, the filmmakers start to lose track of the characters and subplots, with Bela Lugosi's character vanishing from the scene entirely and a bit of involvement of the deus ex machina that makes the attentive viewer wonder why a certain character could have let things get so far out of hand and/or didn't speak up sooner. However, these are problems that won't come to mind until after the film is over, and until they do, you will be in for a very enjoyable ride.

Reportedly, Alfred Hitchcock believed "Night Monster" was an important film as it was being made. If he was basing his opinion on footage as it was assembled into the final product, I can see why he might say that. It is a film made up of some very finely crafted parts, even if there ultimately seems to be a piece or two missing.

The gift is a curse for 'The Clairvoyant'

The Clairvoyant (aka "The Evil Mind") (1934)
Starring: Claude Rains, Fay Wray and Jane Baxter
Director: Maurice Elvey
Rating: Six of Ten Stars

A stage magician specializing in a mind-reading act (Rains) starts having real psychic visions whenever the daughter of a newspaper publisher (Baxter) is near him. Although his newfound true psychic visions initially bring him fame and fortune, the blessings soon turn into miserable curses.


"The Clairvoyant" is a rare British horror film from the 1930s that features an interesting story and a superb cast. It even has a couple of third-act twists that I didn't see coming, and I can't say that very often what with all the movies I've watched.

Although everyone in the film is good, its stars, Claude Rains and Fay Wray, shine especially brightly.

Rains is very likeable and sympathetic as a professional entertainer who struggles with suddenly becoming a real-life psychic and then watches what he thought was a blessing turn into a curse.

As good as Rains is, Wray is even better. This is partly due to her part being well-written, but even more credit should go to the fact that she was a damn fine actress. If you've only seen her in "King Kong", you really need to see this film to see that her talents as an actress went much further than just being very attractive and able to scream better than just about anyone else. is then later torn between ambition and love for his wife.

"The Clairvoyant" is a film I wish they made more like. Despite its fantastic elements, the characters in it and their relationships seem very real, particularly that shared by Rains and Wray's characters. Theirs is a marriage that faces several challenges during the film, but the love they share for one another lets it survive and helps them overcome. It's the sort of relationship that should appear on screen more often.

The only pairing of Lee and Fisher that was a disaster?

Sherlock Holmes and the Deadly Necklace (1962) 

Starring: Christopher Lee, Thorley Walters and Hans Söhnker 

Director: Terence Fisher 

Rating: Two of Ten Stars 

 Sherlock Holmes (Lee) and his arch-nemisis Professor Moriarity (Söhnker) matching wits over an Egyptian necklace owned by Cleopatra, as it is stolen, recovered, and re-stolen.

  This 1962 German film, with its two British stars and a British director, has surprisingly little to recommend it. The script is like a reject from the Universal Pictures series starring Basil Rathbone (with everything I don't like about the weaker efforts among those amplified ten-fold here, most notably Watson being portrayed as a bumbling, retarded simpleton), with an unbearably bad score. 

 It's amazing that a film with so much potential--Christopher Lee as Holmes and Terence Fisher directing... should be a sure winner!--could go so wrong. While Christopher Lee is absolutely right in his opinion that he and Thorley Walters more closely resemble the literary Holmes and Watson than any other on-screen pair, and there's no question that Lee gives a good performance as Holmes and that Walters does as good a Watson as he can given what has to work with, there is very little else that works in this movie. 

 There are a couple of interesting moments between Holmes and Moriarity (who is played by the appropriately sinister German actor Hans Söhnker), but the downside is that they feel like they belong more in a hard-boiled, pulp fiction detective novel than a Holmes adventure.

 

Something old, something borrowed makes 'Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid' an effective spoof

Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid (1982)
Starring: Steve Martin, Rachel Ward, Carl Reiner, Reni Santoni, Ava Gardner, and Humphrey Bogart
Director: Carl Reiner
Rating: Six of Ten Stars

Hardboiled detective Rigby Reardon (Martin) takes on the case of a lifetime when an investigation into the seemingly accidential death of a cheese-loving philanthropist leads to romance with his beautiful client (Ward) and run-ins and shoot-outs with a whole host of suspicious characters who are either Friends of Carlotta or Enemies of Carlotta... and many of whom seem eerily familiar.


"Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid" is an amusing spoof of the detective movies of the 1940s and early 1950s. There are a few touches of absurd humor here and there, but it developes most of its jokes from taking tropes from those films and taking them to extremes. Some of the humor also arises from strange actions taken by Steve Martin's character in order to make the film's main gimmick flow effectively through the story: Clips from real movies of the genre being spoofed are spliced into this movie, and Martin is seen interacting with the likes of Cary Grant, Ava Gardner, Humphrey Bogart, Kirk Douglas, and many, many more. In fact, just about every film that is "borrowed" from for this movie will eventually be featured in this space.

Technically, this is an excellent movie. The clips from the classic films are matched to modern footage to a spectacular degree and it's only because there seems to be no way of overcoming the fact that the actors are truly acting in different movies that the gimmick doesn't really work. (There are only two segments that don't have an unnatural, forced feel to them in the film--the one where Rigby calls Marlowe and wakes him up in at two in the afternoon ; where Martin and Cary Grant interact in a train compartment .) But, because the inter-cutting of the old footage so rarely feels completely natural, the film doesn't quite work.

(I also found myself wondering why Rigby kept dumping on Marlowe if he admired him so much.)

That said, Rachel Ward plays a great 1940s-style leading lady and Steve Martin is hilarious as the detective so hardboiled his shell has cracked.


"Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid' is a film that's worth checking out if you're a fan of Steve Martin, of if you love old detective movies.

The overall blandness is spiced up by the exteme sadism of the bad guy

The Monster Maker (1944)
Starring: J. Carroll Naish, Tala Birell, Wanda McKay, Ralph Morgan and Terry Frost
Director: Sam Newfield
Rating: Five of Ten Stars

A mad scientist (Naish) goes to extreme measures to force the daughter (McKay) of a celebrated concert pianist (Morgan) to marry him.


"The Monster Maker" is a sadistic little horror film about a maniac with a talent for epidemiology, the young lady he wants to possess no matter what, and her father that he infects with a horrible disease to make it happen.

The movie is a little on the slow side, the acting is uniformly bland and the camera work is even more so. However, the absolute and pure insane evil that is represented by J. Caroll Naish's character of Dr. Markoff will make you stick with the film. His plan to force the lovely Patricia to marry him can't possibly work, but he proceeds with the unwavering certainty that only a complete lunatic would display... and the film gets increasingly sadistic toward its various characters as it unfolds.

Dr. Markoff may well be one of the most evil mad scientists of the first decade of horror cinema, not to mention one of the craziest. (I can't comment on the full reason why I say he's the evilest and craziest as it ruins one of the film's shocking revelations, but take my word for it: You haven't seen the final word in an evil mad scientist until you've seen "The Monster Maker".

The film is also noteworthy if you're interested in following the trail of the obviously fake gorillas that were so common(and possibly even proscribed by some sort of cinematic code) among low-budget film studios in the 1940s. Perhaps it was the same fake gorilla? It shows up again here and it's just as unintentionally hilarious as every other time it shows up.

(Has anyone tried to catalogue the number of times these fake gorillas showed up during the 1940s? If not, there might be an article in that idea....)

"The Monster Maker" is worth checking out if you're into mad scientists and/or fake gorilla suits. I highly recommend the version available from Alpha Video as the DVD transfer was made from a virtually prestine print of the film. Click here to read more about, or to order a copy, it at Amazon.com. (There are some minor scratches, but it's in far better shape than what is typical for films from long-bankrupt minor studios like PRC.)

The Office Christmas Party in Hades

'The Mad Monster' isn't mad enough to bother with

The Mad Monster (1942)
Starring: George Zucco, Johnny Downs, Glenn Strange, and Anne Nagel
Director: Sam Newfield
Rating: Three of Ten Stars

After being mocked by his collegues and pilloried in the press for his outlandish theories, Dr. Lorenzo Cameron (Zucco) retreats to an isolated estate to continue his experiments. Unfortunately, Cameron's theories--that if he injects a serum created from wolf's blood into a human, that human will turn into a violent wolfman--were workable, and he he uses them to turn his simple-minded gardener (Strange) into a tool of revenge against those who destroyed his career.


"The Mad Monster" has one of the strongest openings of the many old-time mad scientist movies that I've seen. The complete and utter madness of Cameron is established effectively as he discusses his scientific discoveries in an increasingly heated fashion with four men who appear and dissapear from chairs around the table he is at. It's a scene that's well-written, well-staged, and well-acted.

Unfortunately, everything that follows is badly written, poorly staged (with the exception of where the wolfman kidnaps and kills a little girl (!)), and over-acted--even George Zucco who often hammed it up in films like, this is so far over the top that one can't help but groan at the performance. (Only Anne Nagel, who plays Cameron's daughter, doesn't embarrass herself... but that might be due to the fact that she her role really doesn't require much in the way of acting from her.)

The final blow to this movie is the wolfman make-up, as the creature looks more like a beatnik or a hippie than a menacing monster. Rediculous is too mild a term to describe what it looks like.

While "The Mad Monster" is worth seeing by fans of the "mad scientist on a rampage" horror subgenre for its opening scene, there really isn't enough here to make it worth seeking out on its own. However, it's included in a number of those low-cost DVD multi-packs, and if there are other movies in a set that interest you, then this makes for a nice bonus.

'Sabotage' is a fine adaptation of Conrad novel

Sabotage (1936)
Starring: Oskar Homolka, Sylvia Sidney, John Loder, and Desmond Tester
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Rating: Nine of Ten Stars

Verloc (Homolka) is a secret agent of a foriegn power who plans devestating acts of terrorism and sabotage In London from behind a facade as a harmless operator of a small movie theater. Verloc is devoted to his cause, but how firm will his wife (Sidney) stand?


"Sabotage" is one of Hitchcock's early films, and it is one of his best. The sequence where Verloc sends his wife's young brother, Stevie (Tester), to deliever a package that, unbeknownst to the brother, contains a time bomb, remains one of the tensest sequences ever put on film: Stevie, a mere child, takes every detour, is distracted by every interesting scene and event, and is slowed down in a hundred different ways during his trek across London... all while the bomb is ticking toward its detonation. Will the boy survive, or will Hitchcock violate what has been a standard from the earliest days of cinema... the cute young child is NEVER killed! (If you've read the Joseph Conrad novel "The Secret Agent", you know the fate of Stevie even before Verloc decides to use him as a courier, but the sequence is so fabulously put together that you will be on the edge of your seat.)

With great pacing, perfect casting (the actors seem as though they've lept from the pages of Conrad's book) and some playful crossovers between the events of the story and the movies showing at Verloc's theater, "Sabotatge" ranks among one of Hitchcock's most thrilling films.

'A Day at the Races' was a crazy time!

A Day at the Races (1937)
Starring: The Marx Brothers, Maureen O'Sullivan, Margaret Dumont, Allan Jones, Douglass Dumbrill and Esther Muir
Director: Sam Wood
Rating: Eight of Ten Stars

A crooked businessman, J.D. Morgan (Dumbrill), threatens to foreclose on a sanitarium operated by young Judy Standish (O'Sullivan). Her fiance (Jones), friends (Chico Marx and Harpo Marx), and a horse doctor-turned-conman (Groucho Marx) launch a variety of schemes to save her business, ranging from attracting new clients, securing investments from a rich patient (Dumont) to winning a horse race that is being fixed by the greedy Morgan.


"A Day at the Races" is a great film featuring a comedy team that I feel has never gotten quite the degree of recognition they should have. The Marx Brothers were making anti-establishment comedies thirty years before they became all the rage and they were doing it with more wit, grace, and insanity than just about anyone has been able to match. (I think that only Mel Brooks has come close.) What's even more remarkable is that they were making their movies in an environment that was becoming increasingly friendly to fascist and authoritarian ideals, a move that was only halted when Americans woke up to the truth about Hitler and the like. (Too bad current mass-media and politicians seemed to have forgotten that lesson, what with their increasingly obvious love for totalitarian regimes and philosophies that like the color red.)

The story of the film isn't really that spectacular, but then it's just there to serve as a platform for the Marx Brothers to throw spears at authority figures (and whether it's doctors, bankers, lawyers, or business magnates, they all get poked during the course of this film) and as a vehicle to get us from one excellent comedic set-piece or musical number to another.

Highlights of the film include the craziest medical exam ever caught on film a perfectly timed Vaudeville-style routine where Groucho's fast-talking character is conned by Chico's deceptively simple immigrant salesman of ice cream and racing tips; a scene where Chico and Harpo use extreme measures to stop Groucho's hormones from leading him into a trap laid by the bad guys and baited with the sanitarium's and a fun musical routine where Chico and Harpo demolish a piano by simply playing in, transforming it into a harp for Harpo to play; and a great jazz routine that showed African Americans in a way that they weren't often seen in 1930s cinema.

"A Day at the Races" is a true comedy classic that is as funny today as it was seventy years ago. If you enjoy well-made satire, razor-sharp dialogue, and perfectly executed physical comedy, this is a film you need to check out.

'Nightmare' is great psychological thriller from Hammer Films

Nightmare (1964) (aka "Here's the Knife, Dear: Now Use It")
Starring: David Knight, Moria Redmon, and Jennie Linden
Director: Freddie Francis
Rating: Seven of Ten Stars

When Janet, an emotionally unstable teenaged heiress (Linden) returns from boarding school to live in her ancestral home, she quickly descends into psychosis when the restless ghost of her mother seems to haunt the place.


"Nightmare" is a rarely seen gothic/psychological thriller from Hammer Films, a studio known mostly for its Frankenstein and Dracula films. This film is on par with the best of their monster movies, and is made even stronger by the fact that for the first half, it seems like a typical gothic thriller--with the standard real reason behind why the emotionally frail protagonist in the story is being haunted/going insane --but just where other movies like this would be wrapping up, "Nightmare" takes a sudden, sharp turn into new and unpredictable territory.

If you've seen alot of movies of this type--like I have--it might be tempting to give up on this one after Janet's suicide attempt because it will feel like you've seen it all before and you know exactly where the movie's going... but stick with it. You won't be sorry.

'The Tomb' is a great read with weak art

The Tomb (Oni Press, 2004)
Writers: Nunzino DeFilippis and Christina Weir
Artist: Christopher Mitten
Rating: Seven of Ten Stars

When disgraced archaeologist Jessica Parrish is asked to lead a team into the long-abandoned mansion of mentally unstable Egyptologist Mathias Fowler, she had expected to encounter portions of the house reconstructed to resemble the ancient tombs of the pharaohs, complete with deadly traps. What she didn't count on was that some of those traps were mystical in nature, and that Fowler was far more than just another turn-of-the-century tomb robber.


"The Tomb" is a solid adventure tale in the tradition of the "Indiana Jones" films, and the earlier pulp fiction adventures that inspired it. It's a well-paced, solidly told tale that fans of high adventure and horror will enjoy in equal measure. It's main characters--Jessica and tabloid reporter Max Kelleher are such an entertaining and likable pair that I finished the book hoping for a sequel.




The one weak point of the great book is the artwork. While Mitten has a great style that is almost cinematic in nature, he doesn't have a good a command of the black-and-white medium. Many of this pages feel empty due to a near-total lack of shadow, and on others heavy blacks pull the eye away from what should be the main focus in individual panels. Mitten seems to be one of those comic book artists who need color (or a talented inker) applied to make his artwork complete, something the very eye-catching cover on the book highlights.

Still, he is a competent artist, and the story keeps moving. Despite my complaints, I think this is a book worth seeking out.

'Bringing Up Baby' is chaotic ride worth taking

Bringing Up Baby (1938)
Starring: Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, Charles Ruggles, May Robson, Fritz Feld, George Irving and Walter Catlett
Director: Howard Hawks
Rating: Eight of Ten Stars

When paeleontologist David Huxley (Grant) goes to schmooze a lawyer representing a wealthy widow who is considering making a donation of $1 million to the museum he works at, he instead finds himself drawn into the chaotic life of socialite Susan Vance (Hepburn). Before he knows it, he's hunting leopards in Connecticutt.


I think I saw this movie for the first time when I was 10 or 12. It was was funniest thing I'd ever seen, and I've been touting this film as one of my favorites for the past three decades.

I recently watched it again, and I found myself not amused so much as annoyed by Katharine Hepburn's obnxiously dippy character and the way Cary Grant's Dr. Huxley was incapable of avoiding her, not just because he was a gentleman but because he was milquetoast in the extreme.

"Bringing Up Baby" is still a hilarious movie, even if it didn't quite live up to my memories of it. Cary Grant puts on a great show--even with my being annoyed at his character. It's also interesting to notice that while Hepburn interacts with the leopard (panther?) co-star, Grant never gets closer to the cat than a couple of feet. I wonder what the story is behind that? Was Cary Grant too big a star to run the risk of him getting mauled?

'Woman on the Run' is worth chasing after

Woman on the Run (1950)
Starring: Ann Sheridan, Dennis O'Keefe, Robert Keith and Ross Elliot
Director: Norman Foster
Rating: Eight of Ten Stars

When artist Frank Johnson (Elliot) witnesses a gangland slaying and is subsequently target by the killer, he panics and goes on the run. When the police detective (Keith) in charge of the case contacts his wife, Eleanor (Sheridan) he finds an imbittered woman who is strangely uninterested in helping to locate him. But, once the police are gone, Elanor sets about tracking down her husband herself, first alone, then with the help of scoop-seeking reporter Danny Leggett. But, as Elanor draws closer to finding Frank, she unknowing leads the killer to him as well... a killer who is desperate to eliminate anyone who might identify him.


"Woman on the Run" is a well-scripted, perfectly paced film-noir style crime drama. The dialogue is particularly well-crafted, as is Elanor's gradual transformation from a surly film-noir dame to a wife who discovers that she and her husband still have a marriage worth saving. The way the film reveals the identity of the killer--who is much closer throughout the film than anyone suspects--and the casual way it demonstrates exactly how murderous and coldblooded he is, are also stellar examples of quality screen-writing and filmmaking.

With fine performances by all actors featured, an excellent script, great photography that takes full advantage of the black-and-white film medium, and a perfect music score to round out the package, "Woman on the Run" is a film that's undeserving of its obscurity... and it's a film that makes the 50-movie DVD collection "Dark Crimes " (which is where I saw it) worth the purchase price almost all by itself--another reason why it's such a shame its going out of print.

A cautionary tale about mixing up your meds....

The Vampire (aka "Mark of the Vampire") (1957)
Starring: John Beal, Kenneth Tobey, Lydia Reed, Coleen Gray, Dabbs Greer, and James Griffith
Director: Paul Landres
Rating: Six of Ten Stars

A kindhearted small-town doctor and single father (Beal) accidentally takes an experimental drug in place of his migraine medicine. Each night around 11pm, he now transforms into a hideous manbeast whose bite infects victims with a virus that causes the cells in their bodies to disintegrate. Will he find a way to stop the transformations before he attacks and kills his pretty nurse (Gray) or, worse, his little daughter (Reed)?

"The Vampire" is a somewhat misleading title. There really aren't any vampires in the film, and the story draws more from "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" than from any vampire legends.

That aside, this is a neat little flick where horror meets mad science. John Beal plays a very sympathetic main character who is as much a victim as the people he attacks--and unlike many other movie characters in his stead, he actually tries to take action to stop himself but fate or disbelief on the part of those he asks for help always steps in to keep the movie going until it's inevitable conclusion.

Although there are few moments of horror in the film, it does manage to deliver many tense moments. It is also structured in such a way that I was starting to wonder if the film would take the unusual step for movies from this period of having the precocious young daughter of our hero/monster (played with better-than-average skill for a child actor) be attacked or even maimed. It film doesn't go down that road, but it's an illustration of the how well the script is put together that I even thought it might. (Actually, this is one of those rare movies that could do with a remake. What if Beal had bitten his daughter or the nurse but not killed them? The race to swiftly develop a cure before their bodies start to break down would have made for a great end to the film.)

"The Vampire" is one of those films that can feed the imagination if you're in the right (twisted) frame of mine, and that makes it worth seeking out. Entirely too few movies do that.

'House on Haunted Hill' is home to campy fun

House on Haunted Hill (1959) Starring: Vincent Price, Carol Ohmart, Elisha Cook, Carolyn Craig, David Long, Alan Marshal, and Julie Mitchum 

Director: William Castle 

Rating: Seven of Ten Stars 

 Eccentric millionaire Frederick Loren (Price) and his wife Annabelle (Ohmart) invite five cash-strapped strangers to spend the night with them in "the world's only truly haunted house"; if they stay locked in house from midnight to sunrise, they (or their heirs, should they not survive), will earn $10,000 each. Once the seven people are sealed in the house, the killing starts. Is it the ghosts, or are the visitors to the House on Haunted Hill being stalked by someone of flesh-and-blood?

"House on Haunted Hill" is a movie that scared the bejeezus out of me when I first saw it as a little kid... and as a kid, the twist-ending seemed like the coolest thing ever. When I saw it again as an adult, I didn't find it scary anymore, but I did find it entertaining and fun. This may not be much of a horror movie, but it is great fun to watch, particularly since the film is self-consciously cliched and over-the-top--with the aforementioned twist-ending being the most spectacular example of this. 

 The five principal players in the film all portray stock horror/thriller characters--Price is the suave yet slightly batty millionaire; Ohmart his scheming, two-timing, greedy wife; Long is the heroic, square-jawed man of action; Craig is the damsel who is always screaming in terror and always in distress; and Cook is the doom-saying coward--and they all seem to be having lots of fun with their parts. The ghostly activities in the house don't make a whole lot of sense--nor are any of them even possible in the light of some facts we learn at other times in the film--if you think about them, but there's a sort of wink-and-nod atmosphere throughout that it really doesn't matter.

"House on Haunted Hill" is good, cheesy fun...and that seems to be exactly what the filmmakers were shooting for when they made it. If you like haunted house movies, you may enjoy this one. Just realize that it doesn't take itself all that seriously. (It's a film that young kids may find thrilling and scary--the giant vat of acid in the basement seemed particularly cool to me as a kid--but adults will spend their time viewing it smiling.)

 

A couple of intense moments highlight the otherwise boring 'Dementia 13'

Dementia 13 (1963)
Starring: Luana Anders, William Campbell, and Patrick Magee
Director: Francis Coppola
Rating: Four of Ten Stars

After her husband dies of a heart attack, Louise (Anders) covers up his death and travels to Castle Halloran, his family's ancestral estate in Ireland, where her strange inlaws live. Here, she enacts a scheme to gain the trust of her mentally unstable mother-in-law and get a piece of the family fortune. Her plan is working well...until the crazed axe murderer shows up and starts hacking people to bits. Which member of the creepy family in Castle Halloran has an axe to grind with the rest of them?


Much like "Psycho" starts out seeming to be one kind of crime drama and then veers suddenly in another direction and turns into a completely different sort of crime drama, so does "Dementia 13" transform from a slow-moving, mildly interesting gothic thriller into a precursor for slasher-flicks like the "Halloween" and "Friday the 13th" series. (The scene where the axe murderer is after Lady Halloran, and virtually demolishes a shack to get at her, would fit right into just about any slasher flick.)

"Dementia 13" is about average for a Roger Corman-produced low-budget quickie. The acting is pretty bad all around, although Magee is fun as the creepy family doctor, and Anders has an interesting look about her and is good at seeming sinister without trying. (She also has some of the creepiest scenes in the flick. The sequence of her in the pond is very well done; it is actually the film's highpoint.)

The attempts at scares are pretty feeble and universally badly executed, and aside from the aforementioned scenes with the axe murderer hacking his way into a shack, and the one where the scheming daughter-in-law is diving in the castle's pond, virtually no suspense or tension ever really gets going in the flick. To some extent, the bad soundtrack music can be blamed for that, as it is overly loud and dramatic at all wrong times, distracting more than adding to the film. However, the fault lies mostly with the fact that there simply is nothing scary about the scenes.

"Dementia 13" is worth watching if you're out of other things and interested in seeing the building blocks that led to the slasher flicks of the 1980s, or if you're a huge Francis Ford Coppola fan. This was his directorial and scripting debut, and it was before he became so huge a sensation that only three names could properly describe him!

Another cancer cure worse than the disease....

Atom Age Vampire (1960) 

Starring: Alberto Lupo and Susan Loret 

Director: Anton Giulio Majano 

Rating: Three of Ten Stars 

 Professor Levin (Lupo) has developes a cure for cancer that also regenerates cells to remove scar tissue. Unfortunately, the effect is short-term, and he has not yet found a way to quickly make more of his wonder drug. So, in order to keep a one-time horribly disfigured ex-dancer (Loret) whom he helped from reverting to her former state, he drinks another of his inventions and turns into a hideous, super-strong killer and runs around ripping glands out of young women and implanting them in the stripper as a stop-gap measure.

 

I'm not sure where the vampires enter into "Atom Age Vampire" as this weak Italian mad scientist movie is more of a "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" tale... just it's Dr. Hyde and Mr. Hyde, as Levin is a pretty repulsive character even before he starts downing the Mad Science Potion. 

 This movie is a nice addition to a Bad Movie Night line-up, but otherwise isn't really worth your time.

 

'The Vampire Bat' is early horror film that still entertains

The Vampire Bat (aka "Forced to Sin" and "The Blood Sucker") (1933)
Starring: Melvyn Douglas, Lionel Atwill, Fay Wray, Dwight Frye and Maude Eburne
Director: Frank Strayer
Rating: Six of Ten Stars

As a series of vampire-murders plunge a German village into superstitious hysteria, only Karl Brettschneider (Douglas), the local police inspector, refuses to believe in the undead. However, when one of the murders take place in a house where he is visiting with his girlfriend Ruth (Wray) and her boss Dr. Niemann (Atwill), even Karl starts to believe in vampires. But what is Niemann hiding behnd that locked door from his study... and how did Ruth come into possession of a cruxifix that belonged to one of the victims?



"The Vampire Bat" is part mystery film and part horror movie. It features a fairly simple script that is elevated by an excellent cast who all give fine performances--even the bit players put on great shows. Douglas and Wray are particularly good in the film, and they have an on-screen chemistry that makes the romance between their characters seem real. (In fact, the garden scene feels like one of the most realistic romantic exchanges of any film I've seen from this period.)

This is another minor classic from the formative years of the horror genre. It's no "White Zombie" or "Frankenstein", but it's a decent movie and it's made all the more interesting because the filmmakers didn't necessarily try to adhere to genre conventions because they didn't exist yet. I might have given this film a Seven rating if not for the underwhelming appearance of Ruth and Niemann's labs--the film's small budget shows more on that set than anywhere else in the picture--and for a structural issue with the story that ends up weakening the film's Big Reveal vis-a-vis the vampire murders.

'The Wasp Woman' won't give you a buzz

The Wasp Woman (1960)
Starring: Susan Cabot, Michael Mark, Anthony Eisley, Barboura Morris, and William Roewick
Director: Roger Corman
Rating: Four of Five Stars

Cosmetics industry queen and aging "glamor girl" Janice Starlin (Cabot) undergoes an experimental treatment developed from the jelly of queen wasps. She regains her youth, but transforms into a marauding, flesh-eating wasp woman when the sun goes down.


"The Wasp Woman" is a film that the word 'tedious" was invented to describe. There isn't a scene or a shot that drags on, and, although the pace is picked up in the film's final 15-20 minutes, getting there is an experience almost as boring as watching wasps build a nest.

The film does features decent acting and a few genuinely scary moments (such as the transformation scene that leads into the climax), but its first and second acts are in so desperate need of trimming that this movie can't be considered worth your time.

(Trivia: Susan Cabot retired from acting after making this film and became the mistress of the King of Jordan. He dumped her when he discovered she was Jewish. She was later beaten to death by her midget son. Yes... truth can be stranger than fiction.)

Picture Perfect Wednesday: It's funny because it's true.

A cop gone bad is 'The Man Who Cheated Himself'

The Man Who Cheated Himself (1950)
Starring: Lee J. Cobb, John Dall and Jane Wyatt
Director: Felix E. Feist
Rating: Six of Ten Stars

Homicide detective Ed Cullen (Cobb) puts his skills to use to cover for a killer when his married girlfriend, Lois (Wyatt), guns down her husband. But will he be able to keep the deceit hdden from his new partner, a bright rookie detective who also happens to be his brother (Dall)?


"The Man Who Cheated Himself" is a very well-done movie. It's got a nice, dramatic script of the film-noir variety that unfolds in a mostly believable fashion and at a perfect pace; it's got well-crafted dialogue being delivered be competent actors giving believable performances; and it's got a detective who actually works a mystery without the aid of plot-aided leaps of logic. It might be worth an 8-rating if the set-up didn't feel a bit forced.

Perhaps it's misplaced gallantry on the part of Cullen, but given the cirucmstances of the killing he witnesses, the smart (and even the only rational) thing for him to have done was to report the shooting Yes, there would have been scandal, but even as soon as immediately after the shooting, Cullen could provide all the evidence a competent lawyer would need to get Lois off scott-free: The husband was planning to kill her and the shooting was a cross between accidental and self-defense... and Cullen should have been smart enough to let things stand as they truly were.

But, if Cullen didn't try to disconnect Lois from the crime, there wouldn't be a movie (or, at least, there would have been a very different movie). Despite its shaky foundation, "The Man Who Cheated Himself" delivers plenty of entertainment for fans of film-noir and classic crime dramas. (The cat-and-mouse sequence near the Golden Gate Bridge--and the use of San Francisco as a backdrop in general--goes a long way to make up for the main character's odd behavior to get the story going.)

"The Man Who Cheated Himself" is one of a couple dozen classic thrillers and detective films included in the "Dark Crimes Collection," a box of 50 black-and-white movies. It has, sadly, been discontinued by the manufacturer, so if you know someone who's just recently discovered the magic of old films, you might want to give him or her an instant collection of them before it's completely off the market.


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First British talkie was Hitchcock movie ahead of its time

Blackmail (1929)
Starring: Anny Ondra, Sara Allgood, Charles Paton, and John Longden
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Rating: Nine of Ten Stars

In "Blackmail", Alice (Ondra) kills a man as he attempts to rape her. A unscrupulous witness (Paton) tries to blackmail her, as she wants to keep the incident secret for the obvious reasons. Matters are complicated even further by the fact that she is in a relationship with a police detective (Longden).

"Blackmail" is recognized as Britain's first "talkie." It started as a silent flick, but director Alfred Hitchcock reworked it in midshoot to take advantage of the new technological advancements. What's truly remarkable about "Blackmail" is that it seems more modern in nature that some films that started as talkies yet still seemed stuck in the silent movie era (such as the Lugosi-starring "Murders in the Rue Morgue" from Universal, which I review here).

The acting in the film is excellent, and actually rather unusual for the time. Further, the use of sound is fantastic. Hitchcock does far more than simply add voices to his actors... he uses sound to advance the story and the mood of the film. (There's a particularly impressive breakfast scene where the traumatized Anna hears only incoherent babble--except the words that remind her of the murder she committed standing out with crystal clarity).

Visually, the film is also worth seeing for its climax. There's a chase scene in a library that is so stylistically impressive that I'm surprised it hasn't been mimicked more. It's on par with the famous "steps scene" from "Battleship Potemkin".

"Blackmail" is a thrilling movie that was well ahead of its time. I think it's worth seeing for any movie buff.

'Essential Monster of Frankenstein' ranges from excellent to excrement

The Essential Monster of Frankenstein (Marvel Comics, 2005)
Writers: Gary Friedrich, Doug Moench and Bill Mantlo
Artists: Mike Ploog, John Buscema, Val Mayerik, et.al.
Rating: Seven of Ten Stars

I suspect that most people reading this first came to Frankenstein's Monster through the movies, be they the Hammer films or the ones from Universal Pictures. Myself, my first exposure to Frankenstein's Monster was in the pages of a comic books where in one issue I read about him fighting a giant spider while looking for the man who created him, and then later fought vampires and ultimately did come face-to-face with his maker.

These two issues helped fuel my love of comics, as random as they were in the overall placement of the Marvel Comics' version of Frankenstein's Monster, so when I saw Marvel was collection ALL the stories in one big fat book, I had to have it, so I could read the rest of the story, even if it was three decades later.

This mammoth black-and-white reprint volume features some of very best comics published by Marvel... and some of the very worst. It collects all the early of Frankenstein's Monster as seen through the prism of the House of Ideas, presenting material that original appeared in "Monster of Frankenstein," "The Frankenstein Monster," Legion of Monsters," and "Monsters Unleashed."


The tales within its pages that have Gary Friedrich credited as writer are true gems of comic story-telling. From the fabulous adaptation of Mary Shelley's novel, to the inevitable battle between gothic horror titans Dracula and Frankenstein's Monster, through the tragic conclusion of the monster's quest to find the Last Frankenstein, the first 11 issues of the Monster of Frankenstein comic book are indeed "essential" reading. Friedrich's stories are well-crafted, the 19th century setting refreshing, the characters all interesting, and the illustrations for those tales, primarily by Mike Ploog and John Buscema, are also among some of the finest work those artists ever did.

The same is true of the first few reprints featuring Frankenstein's Monster from the pages of Monsters Unleashed. The saga of Frankenstien's Monster is moved into the modern day as an obsessive mad scientist discovers the inert creature in a traveling sideshow and revives him with bizarre and tragic consequences. The first few of these stories were written by Gary Friedrich and illustrated by John Buscema, and these, again, are true comic-book classics. But once Friedrich leaves as writer, the quality goes down the drain.

With the exception of the final story in the collection, the episodes penned by Doug Moench are just plain awful, with Frankenstien's Monster facing off against a silly secret criminal organization and even sillier by-products of the efforts of modern-day monster-builders. I hate to say that Moench turned in bad work for the series, as he has written some of my favorite comics ("Master of Kung-Fu," "Six From Sirius," his run on "Catwoman"), but there is just nothing redeeming about his efforts on the Frankenstien series. (Except the very last story reprinted from "Legion of Monsters". Moench and the artist he was teamed with on the strip, Val Mayerik, do their only decent work for the entire series on that one.)

In the final anaylsis, about 1/3rd of this book is trash, but the good parts are really good and this makes "Essential Monster of Frankenstein" a worthy addition to any fan of horror comics' bookshelf. Just skip the material that originally appeared in The Frankenstein Monster issues 12-18 and Monsters Unleashed issues 6-9.

Unfortunately, Marvel Comics has chosen not to keep the book in print. It's too bad, because, although flawed, It's worth seeking out, and I recommend getting a copy from some source before "collector prices" truly start kicking in.

Excellent thriller from the Britain's Premiere House of Horror

Scream of Fear (aka "Taste of Fear") (1961)
Starring: Susan Strasberg, Ronald Lewis, Ann Todd and Christopher Lee
Director: Seth Holt
Rating: Eight of Ten Stars

Wheelchair-bound Penny (Strasberg) returns to her wealthy father's house for the first time in ten years, only to be told by his new wife Jane (Todd) that he has gone away suddenly on a business trip. When her father's corpse starts to appear and disappear around the property, Penny enlists the help of hunky chauffeur Robert (Lewis) to help her prove her sanity.


"Scream of Fear" is a plot any fan of suspense and horror movies has encountered at least twice--a vulnerable woman seems to be losing her mind but in truth someone is trying to drive her insane--but it's rarely been done as well as it is here. This is truly one Hammer Films' great films and it's a crime that it took so long to get it on DVD.

Extremely well-acted and brilliantly cast, every performer and every line they deliver in the film plays into the fact that no one in the household is quite who they seem and everyone is keeping at least one secret. Take Christopher Lee for example. He plays a French doctor who is a very insensitive cold fish, but is he cohoots with the bad guys or is he just a jerk? Or is there something going on under the surface that has yet to be revealed? With Lee, who split his screen time evenly between playing heroes and villains, it's impossible to guess until the Big Reveal at the end.

The film is also very well constructed and finely paced from a story perspective. From the opening scene to the twist-laden climactic final few minutes, "Scream of Fear" builds the tension and terror not with the "gotcha!" scares that are so popular with filmmakers these days, but through storytelling methods that are almost entirely relegated to the written medium these days; it builds its tension through character development and by continuially deeping the film's mysteries and by reversing, double-reversing and triple reversing the audience's expectations about exactly what is going on in the film. (I've seen a dozen or so movies built around the same formula as this one, so I thought I had the story figured out fairly early on, but then a twist made me doubt my conclusion... the a little seemingly throwaway detail made me think I'd been right... and another twist showed I was completely wrong... but then a third twist got me thinking I had been right from the outset... and so on, right up to the point where various plots, schemes and deceptions of the film's characters are revealed. (Although even after that, the film has one more twist to deliver....)


Too many writers these days are turning out suspense and horror scripts with "twist endings" that they think show how clever they are. Instead, all they end up showing is how little talent or how lazy they are, because their twist endings are hardly ever based in the story and their stories are weak and badly structured. Perhaps, if these hacks would use "Scream of Fear" instead of simply "Scream" as the film to emulate, they might be able to turn out decent work.

"Scream of Fear" is only available on DVD as part of the "Icons of Horror: Hammer Films" four movie pack, a collection of excellent movies that is well-worth the asking price.