(1954)
Dir - Roy Del Ruth
Overall: MEH
Serving as a companion piece to the previous year's House of Wax, Warner Bros. made another Technicolor, 3D, updated version of a story that was already brought to the screen two decades earlier. Here, it is Edgar Allan Poe that is tapped into with Phantom of the Rue Morgue, an adaptation of the famed 1841 shorty story The Murders in the Rue Morgue which gets a flashier treatment than the 1932 version with Béla Lugosi. Flashier does not equal better of course and the lack of horror star power is yet another differentiating quality, though the cast is hardly made-up of nobodies, with Karl Malden for one taking over the Lugosi part in a lively manner. Director Roy Del Ruth and cinematographer J. Peverell Marley stage some showy shots for the 3D gimmick, but the film does not move at an agreeable enough quip. Part of this is due to the mystery that is hardly a mystery for those who are familiar with the story and a lot of screen time is spent with Claude Dauphin's police inspector interrogating the wrong man and everyone discovering things that have already been explained to us in previous scenes. We do not get any killer, "man in a gorilla suit" action on screen until the last act as well, but despite the movie's less-than-memorable presentation, it is a classy and well-performed production. 
SHE DEVIL
(1957)
Dir - Kurt Neumann
Overall: MEH
A bog-standard B-movie from 20th Century Fox, She Devil utilizes its femme fatale meets pseudo-science scenario as well as can be expected. One of the later features from prolific director Kurt Neumann who worked in a handful of genres throughout his several decade-long career, it does not boast much star power besides Mari Blanchard in the lead who gets her meatiest role here as a mysterious woman that is interjected with an experimental serum when she is on her death bed, only to miraculously recover with superpowers and a temperamental attitude. Usually cast as a bombshell of some sorts, most of the male characters here fall instantly in love with Blanchard, which is fitting to her newfound take no prisoners lease on life as a, (literally), strong woman who is going to get what she wants come hell or high water. It is ridiculous that she appears unrecognizable to people merely by changing her hair color and she only does a small handful of diabolical things anyway since the movie is instead padded with Jack Kelly and Albert Dekker talking doctor stuff, particularly about what should be done about the title vixen's newfound, reckless ways. With a dopey script and little action, it does not achieve any zany or memorable heights the way that Neumann's The Fly from the following year did, per comparison.
(1958)
Dir - Alex Nicol
Overall: MEH
Though great it certainly is not, the infamous cheapie The Screaming Skull from American International Pictures is hardly the world's most boring and inept B-movie to emerge during the 1950s. Actor-turned-director Alex Nicol takes his first crack at something from behind the lens and though he struggles to keep the pace from stalling, he pulls off a couple of campy and macabre moments, including a hectic finally where the screaming skull of the title flies at the screen and chases around John Hudson. Producer John Kneubuhl's story is pedestrian and predictable for the most part and anybody who has seen a movie where a guy's wife dies mysteriously and his new wife is gaslit while being tormented by supernatural tomfoolery will easily put together who the bad guy is. Best of all is Floyd Crosby's cinematography which is more atmospheric than the hokey material deserves. If not for the dragging nature of the plotting as well as the uninspired script, this would have had a better chance at being a memorable bit of psychological spookiness. Instead, it falls short of the William Castle aura that it sets out to achieve, down to the gimmicky opening where it promises free burial services for any audience member who dies of fright. A promise that was likely never taken up upon.
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