(1932)
Overall: WOOF
The miserable and dull, old dark house outing The Monster Walks was a minimally budgeted one from forgotten Poverty Row studio Mayfair Pictures. It boils down to sixty-three minutes of a handful of characters slowly walking into rooms and asking if everybody in there is absolutely sure that an ape cannot get out of its cage, only for them to then slowly walk into other rooms and ask if everybody in there is absolutely sure that an ape cannot get out of its cage. The fact that the "ape" in question is actually a chimpanzee proves that they could not even get the primate details right. There is also some sprinklings of hilariously racist, zero-laughs humor that has dated about as well as anything else unintentionally offensive from the Pre-Code Hollywood era. The title is misleading, the plot is a poor man's, minimal effort version of The Cat in the Canary, the cast seem asleep at the wheel, and not a single murder or macabre bit whatsoever transpires until the movie has less than twenty-minutes left in it. So yes, this is a top to bottom waste of time in every detail.
Overall: WOOF
The miserable and dull, old dark house outing The Monster Walks was a minimally budgeted one from forgotten Poverty Row studio Mayfair Pictures. It boils down to sixty-three minutes of a handful of characters slowly walking into rooms and asking if everybody in there is absolutely sure that an ape cannot get out of its cage, only for them to then slowly walk into other rooms and ask if everybody in there is absolutely sure that an ape cannot get out of its cage. The fact that the "ape" in question is actually a chimpanzee proves that they could not even get the primate details right. There is also some sprinklings of hilariously racist, zero-laughs humor that has dated about as well as anything else unintentionally offensive from the Pre-Code Hollywood era. The title is misleading, the plot is a poor man's, minimal effort version of The Cat in the Canary, the cast seem asleep at the wheel, and not a single murder or macabre bit whatsoever transpires until the movie has less than twenty-minutes left in it. So yes, this is a top to bottom waste of time in every detail.
(1933)
Overall: MEH
Once again bringing scream queen Fay Wray together with Lionel Atwill, the resulting The Vampire Bat is unfortunately a boring B-effort from Poverty Row studio Majestic Pictures. While much of the other cast is strong and recognizable with Melvyn Douglas as the hero and Dwight Fry playing yet another variation of Renfield to the point of plagiarism, bit players go through the motions and Maude Eburne makes for a dull substitute to Una O'Connor's hysterical elderly woman from Universal's The Invisible Man which was released the same year. Even though it is barely over an hour in length, the film drags throughout almost all of its set pieces and the reveal of Atwill's evil scientist's intentions seems both lazy and baffling. They have something to do with hypnotism, creating life and fill in the blanks whatever. Director Frank R. Strayer, (who made a handful of conservatively budgeted horror films throughout the 1930s as well as a dozen Blondie! movies nearly in a row), hardly brings anything conceptually interesting to the table besides a few slow and shadowy shots right out of Universal's landmark monster movies, plus some unfunny closeups of a dog waking up a fainted woman. So besides having another one of Fry's typecast performances, this is skipable.
Overall: MEH
Once again bringing scream queen Fay Wray together with Lionel Atwill, the resulting The Vampire Bat is unfortunately a boring B-effort from Poverty Row studio Majestic Pictures. While much of the other cast is strong and recognizable with Melvyn Douglas as the hero and Dwight Fry playing yet another variation of Renfield to the point of plagiarism, bit players go through the motions and Maude Eburne makes for a dull substitute to Una O'Connor's hysterical elderly woman from Universal's The Invisible Man which was released the same year. Even though it is barely over an hour in length, the film drags throughout almost all of its set pieces and the reveal of Atwill's evil scientist's intentions seems both lazy and baffling. They have something to do with hypnotism, creating life and fill in the blanks whatever. Director Frank R. Strayer, (who made a handful of conservatively budgeted horror films throughout the 1930s as well as a dozen Blondie! movies nearly in a row), hardly brings anything conceptually interesting to the table besides a few slow and shadowy shots right out of Universal's landmark monster movies, plus some unfunny closeups of a dog waking up a fainted woman. So besides having another one of Fry's typecast performances, this is skipable.
(1934)
Overall: MEH
A by-numbers old dark house thriller with a deliberately light tone, The Ghost Walks is one of a handful of murder mysteries from director Frank R. Strayer that is shot as little more than a stage play. That is to say that cinematographer M.A. Anderson performs a thankless task, merely bouncing between either medium or wide shots to put the audience member in the seat of a theater goer. Visually stagnant then, the story has nothing to offer the frequented sub-genre, throwing several forgettable characters together in a spacious abode where they are just trying to get through the night without people disappearing. The police show up, suspicion is cast hither and tither, and of course it is proven that there are no supernatural elements transpiring. Instead, it is just a crazy guy from an insane asylum who decides to cause mischief because he thinks that he is a mad scientist or something. There are no familiar faces on screen and Chesterfield Pictures hardly produced any works from the era that anyone remembers, eventually merging into Republic Pictures shortly after the release of this bog-standard B-movie.
CONDEMNED TO LIVE
(1935)
Overall: MEH
(1935)
Overall: MEH
Though it cannot overcome an talky plot and the persistently flat direction from Frank R. Strayer, Condemned to Live is unique in some respects amongst Poverty Row cheapies. A vampire film that was made when there were only a handful of them, it takes a singular approach where Ralph Morgan's town doctor simply turns into a murderous mad man when the sun goes down, never spouting fangs, sleeping in a coffin, or even being aware that he is biting people once he snaps out of such a daze. Most of the dialog revolves around whether or not a young woman is actually in love with the much older Morgan or if she is just fond and grateful of him, that is until the second half when Morgan doubts his sanity and people discuss whether such a mild mannered and respectable man could be the culprit. As one could guess, there is no gloomy atmosphere or frightening set pieces anywhere to be found and the few times that Morgan does contort his face to become an imposing presence on screen, the moment is over just as quickly as it begins. Even some angry mobs, a hunchback, some sets that were allegedly borrowed from Universal, and a melancholic tone fail to elevate it above being merely competent.
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