(1933)
Dir - Kurt Neumann
Overall: MEH
Universal's version of the German film Geheimnis des blauen Zimmers would get the remake treatment from the studio two more times in the following decade and some change, with horror regulars Lionel Atwill and Gloria Stuart showing up here. Secret of the Blue Room has a rudimentary, old dark house premise of a handful of people staying at a spacious manner and daring each other to sleep in the infamous blue room of the title; a room that three people had previously perished in at one o'clock in the AM. The Old Dark House element is even more prominent since portions of the set where allegedly utilized on the James Whale-directed classic the previous year, which also starred Stewart of course. Though silly in some respects with plot holes galore, it is handled with melodramatic professionalism from its cast and director Kurt Neumann maintains a stead pace. The spooky atmosphere proves to be a red herring as things quickly reduce to a typical whodunit scenario of a police inspector conducting interviews and various characters who are withholding pivotal information, but it gets in and out agreeably.
(1934)
Dir - Roy William Neill
Overall: MEH
A precursor to Agatha Christie's famed, 1939 novel And Then There Were None, The Ninth Guest from Columbia Pictures features an identical plot of several people trapped in a mansion, getting picked off in dramatic fashion one at a time as their unseen host psychologically torments them. Unfortunately though, it is less tightly-scripted than it pretends to be and suffers from forgettable characters and insufficient pacing from director Roy William Neill, who had been making movies since the 1910s. The cast of working character actors go through the motions sufficiently enough and there are some grisly deaths in Garnet Weston's script; a script that was based on the Owen Davis' play of the same name, itself an adaptation of Bruce Manning's book The Invisible Host. An electric gate and acid-tainted alcohol do away with several characters, yet it happens with pinpoint procession from the man on the radio who of course is actually one of the guests and turns on the evil mugging once exposed. The first act sinks the proceedings before they even get going though, hilariously showing us everyone's telegrammed invitation about seven dozen times just in case theater patrons from the day were late getting to their seats.
(1939)
Dir - Vincent Sherman
Overall: MEH
Notable as the only horror movie to star Humphrey Bogart, The Return of Doctor X is a sequel in name only to the Lionel Atwill/Fay Wray-starred Doctor X from six years prior. Bogart's performance is minor and it was done at a time in his career when he was typecast as heavies for the Warner Bros. B-unit, but he easily stands as the most interesting aspect here. Donning a limp, spectacles, a pale completion, and a white streak in his hair, he remains unsettling throughout and easily outshines the rest of the stock and forgettable characters that he has to work against. On that note, the movie is an uninspired yawn, mostly focusing on Wayne Morris' golly-shucks news reporter who makes a bland, top-billed protagonist to say the least. Based on the short story "The Doctor's Secret" by William J. Makin, it concerns the usual pseudoscience nonsense of reviving dead tissue, a noble cause that has to run into some hick-ups or else there would be no tale to tell. Though hardly a conventional vampire yarn, Bogart's resurrected doctor of the title does need to kill and garnish human blood in order to prologue his artificial existence. Sadly, exciting set pieces are non-existent and everyone prattles on and on instead, but it is almost a passable curiosity due to Bogie's involvement.
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