(1940)
Dir - Ernest B. Schoedsack
Overall: MEH
Dr. Cyclops is a technically impressive, Hollywood-produced bit of sci-fi silliness which was the first American horror film to be made in three-strip Technicolor. For 1940, it very successfully pulls off a multitude of convincing special effects. Unfortunately that is all that the movie has going for it. Directed by Ernest B. Schoedsack, (King Kong), based off a short, pulp story by Henry Kuttner, and scripted here by Tom Kilpatrick, it is a generic, mad scientist set up and then reduces itself to a cat and mouse chase as the title character's enemies get reduced to doll-sized people and he continues to spout ridiculous dialog at them. He also leisurely takes naps and kind of assumes that his prisoners are just going to cooperate with him as he does a couple of bad guy laughs and goes on and on about how important his "work" is. So in other words, nothing to take seriously in the least. The movie is rather dull though and besides Albert Dekker as Dr. "Cyclops" Thorkel, the cast is as unremarkable as the effects are solid.
(1943)
Dir - Arthur Lubin
Overall: MEH
Universal Studio's only lackluster "classic monster" character movie, (and also the only one made in Technicolor and only one that did not get a sequel), was the remake of the 1925, iconic Phantom of the Opera staring Lon Chaney. While Claude Rains is as fine a choice as any, (and had triumphed as Dr. Jack Griffin ten years previously in The Invisible Man and in a supporting role in The Wolf Man), this version of Phantom lacks all of the eerie, German Expressionism of the silent one and Rains is left with very little to do in his own staring vehicle. The story is reworked considerably and though it is nice to see Rains' pre-Phantom stage in the first act, the rest of the movie feels both rushed and overly padded with musical numbers and weak, out of place comic relief revolving around Christine DeBois, (Susanna Foster) and her two suitors. It barely works as a horror film until the last nine or so minutes and the finale gets undermined by not only an underwhelming de-masking, (nothing as memorable as Chaney's two decades earlier), but also a magical bullet that makes an entire, underground cavern collapse upon itself.
(1946)
Dir - Robert Florey
Overall: MEH
Though it stars Peter Lorre who is as exceptionally unsettling as always, was directed by Robert Florey, (Murders in the Rue Morgue), was scripted by Curt Siodmak, (The Wolf Man, The Invisible Man Returns, Black Friday, I Walked with a Zombie, and a whole lot more), and had a lasting impact on the horror genre with its killer hand motif, The Beast with Five Fingers comes off just shy of being a successful entry. Things mostly fall apart at the ending, which oddly botches its attempt to rev up the tension. While the music is blaring and Lorre is having a complete mental collapse before our eyes, the pacing is dreadfully boring and it seems more ridiculous than anything that he simply stares wildly and sweaty as the mutilated hand slowly, slowly crawls towards him. There is a final, forth-wall breaking tag to the film as well that is absolutely clashing with the rest of the movie's tone and rather derails everything further. Before all of that though, it has plenty of moody moments and nearly gets by with Lorrie, as well as on its familiar and ghastly premise.
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