(1953)
Dir - Hilton Edwards
Overall: GOOD
Made during a break from the filming of Orson Welles' Othello by Irish actor Hilton Edwards who founded the Gate Theatre along with fellow thespian Micheál Mac Liammóir, (and both of whom appear in the aforementioned Othello), Return to Glennascaul is a traditional and mostly successful retelling of the vanishing hitchhiker urban legend. Coincidentally, it is structured similarly to the radio play The Hitch-Hiker which was featured on The Orson Welles Show in 1941, Welles once again providing the narration here. Though it is a flawed offering with an obnoxious harp score that blares out of nowhere every fifteen seconds or so, (and systematically breaking all tension by doing so), there is nevertheless a creepy, understated tone in place by Edwards. Moments of humor do not truly emerge until the last minute or so, but the familiar story is just spooky enough elsewhere to carry it and seeing Welles in a rare horror offering in and of itself is rather a treat.
(1953)
Dir - Ted Parmelle
Overall: GOOD
The American version of Edgar Allan Poe's The Tell-Tale Heart released in 1953, (not to be confused with the British one, also a short), was this brief, highly stylized effort from animation studio UPA. The production is splendid from top to bottom with narration by none other than James Mason who does a more than competent job of conveying the appropriate madness. Bulgarian-born composer Boris Kremenliev's manic score deserves equal credit as does the primitive, heavily German Expressionism influenced animation and mostly blue, purple, and green color scheme by Paul Julian and Pat Matthews. The short has deservedly been well-regarded enough all of these decades later to be preserved in the Library of Congresses National Film Registry and out of the many cinematic versions of the Poe source material, this is easily one of the most memorable.
(1954)
Dir - Kenneth Anger
Overall: MEH
One of the more well known and influential of Kenneth Anger's avant-garde films was his explicit ode to Thelema, Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome. Filmed at actor, salon host, and fellow occultist Samson De Brier's home, Anger re-edited and re-released the movie three different times, the original 1954 print running for thirty-eight minutes and featuring a full performance of "Glagolitic Mass" by Czech composer Leoš Janáček. Featuring both De Brier, Anger, and a slew of other Aleister Crowley enthusiasts and actors playing another slew of random mythical gods, literary characters, and even Cesare from The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, it is little more than a dialog-less, highly colorful, hedonistic magik party. Unapologetically pretentious, monotonous, and slow, it still manages to be visually engaging at least and as fascinatingly bizarre as any of Anger's other works.
(1957)
Dir - Ed Wood
Overall: MEH
Terrible, odd Ed Wood films are to be expected and the failed television pilot Final Curtain, (meant to be part of a proposed series called Portraits of Terror which logically was never picked up), assuredly qualifies as such. From a technical standpoint, this is shot surprisingly competently with, (gasp), effective cinematography and an unflinching, spooky tone. Well, at least the latter element is what was attempted. One of the most prominent ingredients to any Ed Wood work is the man's obliviousness to pacing and the twenty-two minutes of Final Curtain feels like it is still going on. Wood regular Duke Moore simply walks around an empty, dark theater while another Wood regular Dudley Manlove ridiculously narrates every possible detail of how he is trying to find the endeavor terrifying. Of course nothing is remotely terrifying and virtually nothing at all happens the entire time either. The strangeness naturally comes in how clearly Wood fails at what he was trying to achieve, but a boring movie is a boring movie so it is only really worth witnessing for the most fanatical enthusiast of the man's work.
(1958)
Dir - Curt Siodmak
Overall: MEH
An interesting, unlikely collaboration between Columbia Pictures and Hammer Studios, Tales of Frankenstein was to be a television series of twenty-six episodes, thirteen produced by each studio. The deal fell apart even before the only entry was produced, with neither studio being able to agree on the look, tone, or direction of the proposed series. Columbia who had already acquired the Universal horror catalog for syndication with their Shock Theater package naturally wanted to capitalize on the style of those movies while Hammer was already planning to launch their own reboots and wished for this project to be more akin to those. The only result of the pairing was to be called "The Face in the Tombstone Mirror" and starts Anton Diffring as an effective Dr. Frankenstein to be sure, though he regrettably would never get to play the Baron again. While the pilot is certainly interesting and even essential for classic monster movie purists due to its inception, it is also nothing very unique and only manages to wet ones appetite for what could have came in its wake with its highly formulaic presentation.
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