(1942)
Dir - Harry Lachman
Overall: MEH
The last film to be directed by Harry Lachman whose career went back to the silent era and included little if anything in the realm of conventional horror, Dr. Renault's Secret is a brisk yet unimpressive one for 20th Century Fox. Part bog-standard murder mystery and part kind-of monster movie, its production values are unassuming yet acceptable, with cinematographer Virgil E. Miller actually moving the camera around and getting some expressive shots. Genre regulars George Zucco and J. Carrol Nash play a mad scientist and his dim-witted assistant respectfully and they are the only two characters with unique personalities, particularly Nash who has a soft-spoken and eccentric charm as one of Zucco's unnerving and now love-smitten, walking experiments. A tragic character, Nash pulls off an occasionally intense yet mostly sympathetic performances as a less interesting stand-in for Universal's Frankenstein monster or Larry Talbot. He also does not have any gnarly make-up to wear, which is unfortunate for genre fans yet also what probably allows for actors Shepperd Strudwick and Lynne Roberts to treat him benevolently.
(1945)
Dir - Lesley Selander
Overall: MEH
Stylistically akin to the Val Lewton productions from RKO, The Vampire's Ghost stems from Republic Pictures and has a couple of tricks up its sleeve to elevate it above what could have been just a forgettable Poverty Row B-movie. For one, this marks the screenwriting debut of Leigh "The Queen of Space Opera" Brackett, who along with John K. Butler, churned out something that fuses singular vampire motifs with voodoo island films, all in a contemporary setting no less. Large-eyed, proper Englishman John Abbott's undead nightclub owner is never shown spouting fangs or partaking of human blood, (at least on screen), he can roam freely around in the day time, and he can heal his wounds by laying in the moonlight. At the same time though, he promises Peggy Stewart's heroine eternal life, can hypnotize people with ease, and has an aversion to crosses, mirrors, and silver. The plot line is hardly exciting and routinely drags even though the whole thing clocks in at under an hour, plus Brackett and Butler fail to meld much of any tribal mysticism into the proceedings besides some beating drums. Still, director Lesley Selander manages to stage one or two atmospheric moments and the whole thing is historically important for being one of the earlier Hollywood products to strip the Gothic romanticism out of cinematic vampires.
(1946)
Dir - William Beaudine
Overall: WOOF
One of many genre offerings from Poverty Row studio Monogram Pictures, The Face of Marble scores John Carradine in the mad scientist lead as well as everyone's favorite scardey cat black guy Willie Best to provide some embarrassing political incorrectness, except minus the comic relief part this time. In fact there is nothing funny to the proceedings here either unintentionally or otherwise, which is ultimately the film's downfall. Yet another lazy tweak on the Frankenstein concept of revitalizing dead tissue, somehow it all ends up with a house servant conducting voodoo rituals and then a dog and another woman being able to walk through walls while getting mind controlled into murdering people. The film is only seventy-two minutes yet feels twice as long since again as always, it is padded with emotionless banter between stock characters who lack any distinguishing personality traits. Even Carradine, (who was occasionally hired to ham things up), just comes off as dull as everything else going on. There is a continuous dramatic score that plays arbitrary over dialog scenes, flat direction from the prolific yet never remarkable William Beaudine, and a plot that is so boring that one can hardly remember it once it all wraps up.
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