(1932)
Dir - Richard Oswald
Overall: MEH
Of interest to German film scholars for featuring Paul Wegener's first speaking role, Unheimliche Geschichten, (Uncanny Stories), is the second such movie directed by Richard Oswald to bare said title. The first was from 1919 and starred Conrad Veidt, which also utilized a less comedic framework and was comprised of five different stories instead of the mere three seen here. Oswald's directorial output was quite prolific though he was never seen as a maverick filmmaker for his time period. That said, his work here is highly expressionistic, with off-kilter camera angles, shadow-drenched lighting, and some elaborate sets thrown into the mix. While the movie is impressive to look at during regular intervals, the pacing is a bit sluggish and the humorous tone is neither consistent or convincing. For his part, Wegener makes a fun villain though and the structure is unique for an anthology film as it also manages to follow a singular narrative while fusing its different source material stories together.
(1934)
Dir - Fernando de Fuentes
Overall: GOOD
A notable, supernatural horror offering from Mexican filmmaker Fernando de Fuentes, El fantasma del convento, (The Ghost of the Convent, The Phantom of the Convent), is straight-forward yet still largely successful at what it attempts. Fuentes had co-written La Lorona from three years prior, which was historically important yet unremarkable. Switching the concept from Mexican folklore to one revolving around a mysterious monastery and the out-of-time monks who dwell there, the movie makes splendid use out of its location which was filmed in Tepotzotlán. Wonderfully atmospheric with subdued performances all around, the most possible mileage is gotten out of the imposing, dimly-lit, cobweb-ridden, labyrinth-like setting. A couple of convincing, mummified corpses make their way into the proceedings as well. Though the story is clever enough in its simplicity, it does not quite have enough juice to remain as engaging as it should. The small cast of characters spend the entire movie discussing how strange everything is and a large expository dump midway through does very little to break up the monotony afterwards. Still, it is as fine a foreign export from the period as there gets and thankfully one that has survived all these decades later.
(1937)
Dir - Ma-Xu Weibang
Overall: MEH
In many ways a traditionally Western-style horror film with the added ingredient of practically comical levels of the kind of melodrama that is inherent in Asian cinema, Song at Midnight, (Yèbàn gēshēng, Midnight Song, Singing at Midnight), also serves as the first Chinese horror movie and one of if not the first proper horror musical ever made. A purposely political film that was tailor made to skirt past Kuomintang censorship, it was a considerably popular work for its time as it was released only a few months before the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War. Melding such left-wing, revolutionist leanings with what is essentially a remake of The Phantom of the Opera is a curious and interesting move, particularly for the time period. Decades later though, the movie shows its age due to its sluggish pacing and exasperatingly over the top dramatics. There is some horror window dressing like a closed down theater which looks like it belongs in Tod Browning's Dracula and a final showdown involving an angry mob right out of James Whale's Frankenstein, but the story itself feels enormously padded and the nearly two-hour running time is quite unforgiving. It would be remade a number of times yet for historical significance, (dated flaws and all), this is certainly the most noteworthy interpretation.
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