60's American Horror Part Twenty-Nine

FEAR NO MORE

(1961)

Dir - Bernard Wiesen

Overall: MEH

 

The only feature from television director Bernard Wiesen, Fear No More is an obscure gaslighting thriller that gets lost in its own contrived plot details, but it seems to be having fun while doing so.  An adaptation of Leslie Edgley's 1946 novel of the same name, the story leans into the whole "that lady must be crazy" gag harder than most.  Marla Powers' secretary is sent on an errand, a guy is waiting for her in her train cab, there is a dead body next to him, and then headache-inducing chaos ensues, particularly for Powers.  It turns out that her character did a stint in an insane asylum which provides the ideal opportunity for a number of people to pull a laughably convoluted con on her, all in order for a guy to inherent his now dead wife's fortune.  Wiesen and the lesser-known cast treat the material in a sincere and melodramatic fashion, with most of the suspense stemming from how off the rails the bad guy's scheme keeps getting.  There are so many details to it that can and do go awry that the movie becomes unintentionally funny to a point, but Powers actually points out how ridiculous such a villainous strategy is.  So on that note, maybe such silliness was not accidental.

 

THE LEGEND OF BLOOD MOUNTAIN

(1965)

Dir - Massey Cramer
Overall: WOOF

No.  Just...no.  The movie that was inexplicably hacked into the Big Foot "romp" Blood Beast of Monster Mountain, (The Legend of McCullough's Mountain), ten years later by low-rent producer Donn Davison, this original abomination was vomited forth by director Massey Cramer and screenwriter Bob Corley, and you are correct in having never heard of either of them.  The Legend of Blood Mountain, (Demon Hunter), fails on every level.  It makes the mistake of being a comedy that is as funny as termites sleeping, has an insufferable leading man in George Ellis who looks like Joe Besser crossed with Zero Mostel, the sound disappears completely at irregular intervals, eleven minutes of footage is missing, the rubber suit monster does not show up until nearly the end and looks as bad as you can imagine when it does, and of course this is the type of movie that wastes so much screen time on trivial nonsense as to constitute it as a hate crime.  There is an entire scene where Ellis sits in bed eating while listening to library cued music, followed by a dream sequence that feels nine years long, lots of driving, and unmoving dialog exchanges that will want to make anyone suffering through this want to shove hot pokers into their soul.  At least that would be over with quicker.

NIGHT OF BLOODY HORROR
(1969)
Dir - Joy N. Houck Jr.
Overall: MEH

 

For his first crack from behind the lens, actor-turned-director Joy N. Houck made a low-rent Psycho-adjacent bit of exploitation with the sensationally-titled Night of Bloody Horror.  Shot in New Orleans, this was also Gerald McRaney's first movie, who plays the mentally cuckoo and consistently unlikable lead.  Recently let go from an insane asylum, (oh how horror films from this era loved their insane asylums), women seem to be dropping like flies via brutal murder wherever he goes, prompting a police detective to deduce that McRaney must be a "fag" for hating women so much.  Of course the real killer is someone else, and most viewers will put two and two together before the actual reveal, but the film is an inconsistent watch at best.  There are psychedelic flashes whenever McRaney suffers a particularly unstable episode, plus we get a couple of shots of skulls and whatnot, but this is horrendously-paced stuff from beginning to end.  Being inexperienced, Houck Jr. lets the camera linger on redundant scenes that do not go anywhere and coupled with McRaney being a short-tempered asshole to everyone that he meets, there is little to recommend here.

50's British Horror Part Eight

ALIAS JOHN PRESTON 

(1955)
Dir - David MacDonald
Overall: MEH

Christopher Lee fans may rejoice at this obscure B-feature that he starred in for the American Danzinger brothers; pre-Hammer and in the title role no less.  Alias John Preston is a pedestrian affair from top to bottom, one that was clearly a rushed work and made on the cheap to slap on the bill of a comparatively more memorable A-production.  It runs a mere sixty-six minutes so one could hardly complain that it overstays its welcome, but it also represents an interesting historical footnote for Lee who had delivered few if any performances with this much screen time beforehand.  While his American accept slips regularly, he still proves himself to be an intimidating presence as a mysterious wealthy man who arrives in a small community, charms many of the locals, buys up property, gets himself on the city council, gets engaged to a bank lender's much younger daughter, and shows increasingly evidence that his mental facilities are on the fragile side.  The narrative loses its intrigue once Lee starts explaining his detailed and disturbed dreams to a therapist, at which point it crawls to an inevitable finish that everyone will see coming.  Also, director David MacDonald merely points the camera at his actors in order to get the job done, so there is no sense of style or agency anywhere to be found.

1984

(1956)

Dir - Michael Anderson

Overall: GOOD

The first theatrically released adaptation of George Orwell's famed novel, 1984 took its cue from the BBC production from two years prior.  Tweaking the ending of the source material while adhering to its nightmare-via-oppression tone, these are ideas that would continue to get expressed over virtually every other totalitarian sci-fi work going forward.  Not without its foibles, the relationship between Edmond O'Brien and Jan Sterling is abrupt and feels forced, intentionally to a point considering that the story exists in a world where feelings of love and personal closeness are foreign to everyone.  Still, their romantic bond is further hindered by O'Brien's oafish performance.  Once again though, it makes sense that his perpetually nervous Average Joe would stand out enough to Sterling, even if their chemistry is consistently lacking.  Besides that, director Michael Anderson handles the ever-imposing reach of Big Brother accordingly, providing only fleeting moments away from its all-powerful eye, or so our hapless protagonists are lead to believe.  The inevitable third act is when things kick into higher gear and doubles as the moment where O'Brien finally gets to let loose, all-in-all creating an agreeably paced and chilling cautionary tale of humanity's potential downfall.

 

THE SPANIARD'S CURSE

(1958)

Dir - Ralph Kemplen

Overall: MEH

 

A bog-standard thriller without any oomph, The Spaniard's Curse also stands as the only directorial effort from editor Ralph Kemplen.  Kemplen also co-authored the screenplay along with Kenneth Hyde and Roger Proudlock, which is an adaptation of Edith Pargeter's 1958 novel The Assize Of The Dying.  Things begin promising enough with a likely innocent and ill-stricken man being convicted of murdering a young lady actor, the man going on to curse the lot of people responsible for his condemnation.  Once some curious younger people begin investigating the details, (including the wise-talking news reporter son of the Judge), the film settles into scene after scene of characters walking into rooms to ask other characters questions.  Kemplen has no sense of pacing from behind the lens, though there are one or two suspenseful sequences that finally arrive in the third act which indicate who the culprit has been all along.  The music is curiously inappropriate at times, as if taken from more cheerful melodramas. doing the opposite of creating a tense atmosphere in the process.  Performance wise it is fine, since British thespians were by and large able to adequately deliver even humdrum material such as this in a manner void of scenery chewing.  That said, some pizazz on the actor's parts would have actually helped matters since few things need more assistance than an uninteresting murder mystery.

40's Foreign Horror Part Four

LE CORBEAU

(1943)

Dir - Henri-Georges Clouzot

Overall: GOOD

 

His final work for the Nazi-run production company Continental Films, Le Corbeau, (The Raven), is renowned director Henri-Georges Clouzot's examination of French society's complex feelings towards the German occupation and the ensuing fear mongering and paranoia that goes along with it.  Set in a nondescript village that is deliberately labeled as "anywhere", poison pen letters become the talk of the town, all of which either directly target or eventually lead to Pierre Fresnay's emotionally detached doctor who engages in an affair or two while also performing maybe abortions on the down-low.  Though we eventually get an answer as to who the culprit is, Clouzot and co-screenwriter Louis Chavance's script is not structured or preoccupied merely with whodunit motifs.  It is a tale about what happens to people who are susceptible to gossip when such scandalous hearsay can push everyone to a point where few can be trusted and all can be suspected.  After the war, the movie garnished Clouzot a temporary ban from his home country due to his compliance with the German-controlled French film company, not to mention the anti-French slant that can be read into the material where compliance breeds turmoil.  Clouzot nevertheless proves himself here as a stylized expert in suspense, sly humor, and symbolism.

 

LA HERENCIA DE LA LLORONA

(1947)

Dir - Mauricio Magdaleno

Overall: WOOF

 

Writer/director Mauricio Magdaleno's Le herencia de la Llorona, (The Heritage of the Crying Woman), is easily one of the weakest takes on the La Llorona legend, but even calling this a "take" on it would be misleading.  Instead, we have a drab melodrama involving family squabbles, with one quasi-supernatural sequence occurring midway through.  Most Mexican genre film from the period were equipped with a comic relief character, and such a role is handled by Agustín Isunza who of course does nothing funny, yet he does come off as a coward in his small handful of scenes.  The film was likely done on a minuscule budget due to it all taking place at a single location, having no special effect shots of any kind, and Magdaleno maintaining a torturous pace that plays out almost entirely in wide shots where everyone either gets all of their uninteresting dialog out of the way or creeps around slowly while the stock music hints at something sinister going on.  No one on screen comes off as annoying, but the story is dull in every last one of its attributes, toiling around a patriarch dying, an asshole inheriting her estate, two people who want to get married and are then not allowed to get married after they were allowed to get married, and some other people trying to help solve a mystery that is fittingly anticlimactic.

 

NIJIOTOKO

(1949)

Dir - Kiyohiko Ushihara

Overall: MEH

 

A Western-styled sci-fi/old dark house hybrid, Nijiotoko, (The Rainbow Man), was the last movie from director Kiyohiko Ushihara who switched careers to become a film teacher for several decades following.  We have rivaling reporters of different sexes, a weird family headed by a mad scientist who studies rainbows because sure why not, an also mad son who is a painter, a mysterious house fire, the police suspecting the wrong person, and of course a guy going around with rainbow powers after an experiment went awry.  Even though there is no supernatural ingredients and it follows a standard murder mystery trajectory, it is all gothic spookiness as far as the atmosphere goes, largely taking place in a big ole house with faulty railings and wailing winds outside.  The pacing is dreadful and the odd elements like a family being cursed by rainbows and not even being allowed to talk about them are played straight, giving the film little intrigue to keep things going during larges sections where either nothing is happening or nothing of interest is happening.  Coming from Japan, it is a unique mix of Poverty Row tropes from across the Pacific, but it should be approached for historical curiosity only.

40's American Horror Part Eighteen

THE MAD DOCTOR OF MARKET STREET
(1942)
Dir - Joseph H. Lewis
Overall: MEH
 
Director Joseph H. Lewis and screenwriter Al Martin collaborate on another B-unit horror film, this time under the prestigious Universal banner with everyone's favorite mad scientist Lionel Atwill stepping outside of his comfort zone by playing...a mad scientist.  Released as a second feature along with The Wolf Man, the apply titled The Mad Doctor of Market Street struggles with misplaced comic relief and a preposterous plot where your typical megalomaniacal scientist is conducting rejuvenating experiments on unwilling subjects before he is able to briefly dupe some primitive natives into thinking that he is a life-giving god when he and some others are shipwrecked on an island.  Dopey and melodramatic in equal measures, Atwill cranks up the scenery chewing more than usual and meets a grisly, fitting end, but everyone else on screen are either broken English-speaking white people in brown face or cheery white people who do not seem to be taking their predicament seriously.  Neither should the viewer for that matter.

 

CRAZY KNIGHTS

(1944)

Dir - William Beaudine

Overall: MEH

The second pairing of Shemp Howard and Billy Gilbert, Crazy Knights, (Ghost Crazy), is a barely watchable Abbott and Costello knock-off from the ever-busy Poverty Row studio Monogram Pictures.  As a pair of shifty carnies, (Shemp is the one in the gorilla suit because you gotta have one of those), they decide to take a vacation and in-turn pick up some hitchhikers who lead them to a haunted house that is of course not really haunted.  While Howard was delightful and more famous for his tenure in The Three Stooges, he basically does the same shtick here except with a comparatively higher IQ at his disposal.  Unfortunately and unlike other comedy duos or tropes, he and his side-kick Gilbert have indistinguishable personalities, both stuttering, stammering, and falling down at the slightest thing that is meant to spook them.  The gags almost exclusively revolve around one of them being slow on the draw as to something unusual happening, cue leaping in the air, widening their eyes, and squealing like children.  This would be fine if any of the gags were funny and/or not so derivative of better comedic players who behave the same way, namely Lou Costello whose mannerisms these guys are clearly channeling.  With such a dopey script to work with, forgettable supporting players, and flat direction from William Beaudine, it just becomes a sixty-three minute waste of potential giggles.

THE GHOST AND MRS. MUIR

(1947)

Dir - Joseph L. Mankiewicz

Overall: GOOD

A renowned supernatural romance from the also renowned filmmaker Joseph L. Mankiewicz, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir expertly morphs from a lighthearted comedy into a poignant melodrama about the allure of companionship amongst those who passively accept an existence of solitude.  Screenwriter Philip Dunne adapts R.A. Dick's 1945 novel of the same name, (which would later be turned into a sitcom at the turn of the 1970s), but the source material's first cinematic interpretation here tiptoes around the inherent love story as much as it does its melancholy.  Gene Tierney's protagonist is open to fall in love from the onset, at first being uncontrollably drawn to a dead sea captain's house just as she is to the sea captain himself, who miraculously appears to her as a bitter curmudgeon yet is quickly won over by Tierney's relentless charm.  Rex Harrison's gruff demeanor works against Tierney's graceful innocence, until a more tangible love interest dashes her hopes yet leaves her spirit intact for the eventual afterlife.  Mankiewicz spends little time on spooky set pieces and instead lets the story's sensitive themes play out gradually, with Bernard Hermann's perpetual score smoothing things over even further.

40's American Horror Part Seventeen

THE LIVING GHOST
(1942)
Dir - William Beaudine
Overall: MEH

The fourth of many Monogram Pictures movies from journeyman director William Beaudine, The Living Ghost, (A Walking Nightmare, Lend Me Your Ear), has a whole lotta rapid-fire dialog amongst a whole lotta people, as bodies pile up, a banker turns into a walking "zombie", and a mystery unfolds.  An old dark house whodunit, it has James Dunn playing a wise-cracking ex-detective who fancies himself a regular Sherlock Holmes.  As usual, Beaudine's direction is pedestrian at best, plus the ultra-cheap production affords no visual flash, simply playing out like a stage play where everyone is in wide to medium shots while talking, and talking they do.  Worse yet, the screenplay by Joseph Hoffman, (based on a story "Money for What" from Howard Dimsdale), pretends to be clever, yet its grasp out-reaches its means.  The film cruises along while nothing interesting is happening, which is a sure-fire recipe to lose any audience member who will have a hellova time keeping up with such convoluted silliness in between all of the involuntary yawning.

 

CRY OF THE WEREWOLF

(1944)

Dir - Henry Levin

Overall: MEH

A sluggish B-movie from Columbia Pictures, Cry of the Werewolf tries and fails to capture some Cat People menace, instead coming off with a whimper instead of a roar, nyuck nyuck.  The correct ingredients are inherent in Griffin Jay and Charles O'Neal's story at least, which follows an exotic Romani princess who turns into a werewolf due to a cursed bloodline before she starts murdering people that have uncovered a tomb with her mysterious tribe's secrets possibly buried inside of it.  The presentation by director Henry Levin even affords one or two bouts of atmosphere, as well as some set pieces that specifically recall the aforementioned RKO film, with shadowy cinematography and a woman's high heels turning into paws as she is stalking one of her victims.  What goes wrong though is everything else, from uninspired performances, flat characters, and a drab pace that does nothing exciting with its cliches.  Also, (as was the case with Universal's equally lousy She-Wolf of London), there are no monster money shots, instead just ladies who are ladies in one shot and then dogs in another.  The power of suggestion can worth, but only within an overall more agreeable presentation than here.

THE SOUL OF A MONSTER

(1944)

Dir - Will Jason
Overall: MEH

Some quasi-horror/noir from Columbia Pictures, The Soul of a Monster takes on the theme of what happens to a man who so unknowingly has his soul sacrificed in order to cheat death.  Edward Dein had and would continue to work on screenplays within the genre, but his work here is too pretentious to justify the humdrum plotting.  When on his deathbed, George Macready's frustrated wife Jeanne Bates reaches out to "other" supernatural forces to save her husband, which brings in the mysterious Rose Hobart who somehow manages to revitalize him as a humorless husk of what he once was yet is now hypnotically inclined to do her bidding.  Unfortunately, little happens in the way of action, pluw there is no mystery for the audience to uncover, leaving the burden of the story for the flat characters to figure out.  This creates a dull watch that ends with a cop-out and everyone seemingly learning their lesson not to cheat fate, no matter how cruel.  Burnett Guffey's cinematography is better than the film deserves, but veteran director Will Jason shows little enthusiasm for the weak material, and the less than recognizable cast seem to be merely going through the motions.

30's American Horror Part Eleven

THE BAT WHISPERS
(1930)
Dir - Ronald West
Overall: MEH

The second film adaptation of Mary Roberts Rinehart and Avery Hopwood's 1920 play The Bat, (both of which were directed by Ronald West), The Bat Whispers is notable for its flashy visual style which elevates an otherwise convoluted old dark house mystery.  West utilized two different cinematographers for two different film stocks, (35 and 65 mm, respectfully), and shot it in widescreen, plus a smaller and more agile camera was brought in to create flowing panning sequences that glide through elaborate miniatures and full-sized sets.  We also have flashy cut scenes, close-ups, zooms, and inventive camera angles throughout, making this a striking early talkie and probably the best cinematic version of the source material.  Sadly, that source material is hokey pulp for the most part, which is burdened by too many characters and unsuccessful comic relief. Maude Eburne is particularly intolerable as a frumpy maid who outrageously over-reacts to the slightest breeze, plus the addition of Charles Dow Clark's second detective is pointless and only provides the movie with yet another character to to indulge in goofy mugging.  Streamline the narrative and remove the more annoying portrayals, and this would be a stand-out for its era.

 

DRUMS O' VOODOO

(1934)
Dir - Arthur Hoerl
Overall: WOOF

While it is fortunate that various race films from the 1930s still exist in some form, many were of a uniformly poor quality, and Drums O' Voodoo, (Louisiana, She Devil), is no exception.  Little information exists on the movie, which was allegedly adapted from actor J. Augustus Smith's own play, Smith credited with the script as well as appearing here as a benevolent yet disgraced preacher who once worked on a chain gang before turning steadfast to the lord.  Director Arthur Hoerl had a vast career as a  screenwriter, (this marking his last of only four directorial efforts), but his work here is unwatchabley dull. There is a clear lack of funds at his disposal since the entire thing is staged as a theater production, with minimal sets and scenes going on for ages without the camera making any adjustments.  Most of the performances are atrocious and borderline surreal in their melodramatic scenery chewing, (Laura Bowman as a wailing voodoo practitioner auntie is particularly irksome), but the movie's major misgiving is its unbearable pacing.  It is also incomplete in its current form, with scenes abruptly ending and starting in mid sentence.  Also despite its title and subject matter, the only horror element is a pimp spontaneously going blind when he causes too much trouble amongst his community, no doubt on account of a voodoo hex.

 

AIR HAWKS

(1935)

Dir - Albert S. Rogell

Overall: MEH

Featuring the only film appearance of famed pilot Wiley Post, Air Hawks is a unique aviation themed B-movie with a sci-fi angle thrown in.  A Columbia production that was based on an unpublished story by Ben Pivar, it features an easy-to-follow sabotage plot where Ralph Bellamy's independent airline becomes the target of a bigger corporation that wants to buy him out to no avail.  Enter in Universal's go-to distinguished thespian Edward Van Sloan as a wacky German scientist who invents a destruction ray for some reason, a ray which is then used to thwart Bellamy's business by way of crashing a series of his planes.  Director Albert S. Rogell had already done a few air travel movies and he keeps up a surprisingly agreeable pace for a film that is as talky as the lot of them.  Post is granted less than two minutes of screen time, so his involvement comes off more as a half-assed marketing ploy than anything.  It contains a fine performance by Bellamy, a happy conclusion for all things considered, charming flirtation amongst its male and female characters, a stock news reporter who annoys everyone by trying to get a scoop, and it is also ultimately forgettable.

American Silent Horror Part Five - (D.W. Griffith Edition)

THE AVENGING CONSCIENCE

(1914)

Overall: MEH

Immediately proceeding the landmark, one-two punch of D.W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation and Intolerance was his loose adaptation/hybrid of Edgar Allan Poe's The Tell-Tale Heart and "Annabel Lee".  The Avenging Conscience, (Thou Shalt Not Kill), spends a scant couple of minutes indulging itself in macabre and nightmarish visuals, most of which come near the finish line.  It qualifies as a horror film in a lax context, but despite Griffith's noticeable ability to stage a few moments of tightly-wound tension here or there, it is mostly a bore.  Two lovers are initially thwarted to marry each other by the one's domineering uncle, (as was the style at the time), and for the most part, it is just a back and forth melodrama with people being in love and then being sad and being in love.  We have some intertitles of Poe's writings thrown in, and the structure just repeats itself until some ghosts and ghouls finally show up.  Though Griffith's eye was sharp and he was at the cusp of his creative peak at this point in his career, his powers are just utilized in a less compelling fashion than would be preferable.

 

ONE EXCITING NIGHT
(1922)
Overall: MEH

One of if not the first surviving old dark house movie, One Exciting Night is D.W. Griffith's entry into the sub-genre, and it bare several of the filmmaker's hallmarks for both better and worse.  Griffith concocted the story himself, which closely adheres to the framework that was laid out in the stage plays The Bat and The Cat and the Canary, (both of which would get cinematic treatments around the same time), pitting his mystery around a family fortune that is hidden in a mansion where a masked killer is also roaming around.  Being a Griffith movie, it is both laborious in length and prominently features white actors in black face playing unflattering African American stereotypes.  We even get derogatory words and jive speak in the intertitles, just to make this age as poorly as any of Griffith's other works in his filmography from such an unfortunately racist perspective.  Elsewhere, it is impressive in its fleshed-out narrative which while not the most engaging out there, at least spends more time than is necessary in emphasizing its barrage of characters who are more than just red herring fodder.  It is also quickly edited, light in tone, and features fun things like a full-blown hurricane in its finale and elongated fingers casting their shadow on a house miniature in a few shots.

 

THE SORROWS OF SATAN

(1926)

Overall: MEH

D.W. Griffith's first film for Paramount Pictures, The Sorrows of Satan is an adaptation of Marie Corelli's 1895 novel of the same name, which had already been brought to the screen two times before.  This also features the final screen performance from Griffith regular Carol Dempster who retired the same year and portrays the distraught love interest of Ricardo Cortez, a man who willfully sells his soul for money, power, and a taste of the good life.  While Dempster is appropriately melodramatic when such things are called for, Cortez turns in a more wooden performance until the end, reacting as if his miraculous good fortune is about as exciting as rearranging his sock drawer.  Speaking of which, Griffith was allegedly uninspired by the project as well, and his lack of enthusiasm shows since most of the film is flatly staged and cinematically sterile, save for an atmospheric finale and an impressive opening shot where Lucifer is banished from heaven by a swarm of angels and turned into his bat-winged form.  Still, as far as silent era Faustian movies go, this one is too routinely bland to recommend, but at least Bauhaus got a memorable single cover out of it.

American Silent Horror Part Four

THE DEVIL

(1921)

Dir - James Young

Overall: MEH

 

Despite what its title The Devil may allude to, this cinematic version of Ferenc Molnár's 1908 Broadway play of the same name bares few hallmarks to any future horror tropes, even with the Great Deceiver being the main character.  Played by veteran stage actor George Arliss in his screen debut, he portrays Satan as a charming gentleman of mischievous deeds, pitting two lovebirds against each other in an attempt to prove that evil can triumph over good.  He does this by gaining people's trust, putting his hands on their shoulders, and telling them whatever he needs to in order to implant his bothersome scheme.  Arliss widens his eyes and creeps around fiendishly at times, but nothing of dramatic importance happens throughout the entire affair, and the Devil's deeds are more long-winded and pointless than outright diabolical.  It is only within the closing two minutes that he is discovered for the prankster that he is, pathetically thwarted by Lucy Cotten who prays to god and simply walking away, at which point Arliss' hairline resembles horns and he bursts into flame as the sign of the cross is superimposed over him.  Lost for decades, the film was eventually rediscovered in the 1990s, but it suffices as a historical curiosity only.

 

THE MYSTIC

(1925)

Dir - Tod Browning

Overall: GOOD

 

Once again revisiting the circus life from which he was accustomed and would frequently dip into for inspiration, director/co-writer Tod Browning's The Mystic has flown under the radar in his oeuvre, at least compared to his more celebrated works with collaborator Lon Chaney.  Chaney is absent for this round, (though he would appear in the same year's similarly veined The Unholy Three), so instead we have a cast of less A-list thespians in a tale of capitalist greed corrupting those who are indoctrinated in such ways.  As always, Browning paints his gypsies and carnival employees in a sympathetic light, even as they become consumed by suspicion and avarice.  That is because it is an American business man who intrudes on their Hungarian operation overseas, bringing them back to the states to perform elaborate cons on the upper class.  Yet as opposed to later Browning films such as The Unknown and Freaks, this one takes on an optimistic tone in its closing moments since everyone's cold, money-grubbing hearts are won over by love and the irresistible influence of naive gentleness.  Supernatural elements are toyed with and more than likely existing in a psychological sense, but it still has some of the more memorable seance scenes from the silent era, with white-sheet ghosts and disembodied hands emerging out of pure darkness while Aileen Pringle's title character does the customary, melodramatic, spiritual medium shtick.

 

THE BAT
(1926)
Dir - Ronald West
Overall: MEH

The earliest surviving cinematic adaptation of Mary Roberts Rinehart's 1908 novel The Circular Staircase and the first to be directly interpreted from Rinehart's 1920 play The Bat, the film of the same name helped to establish whodunit motifs that would be reinforced for years to come.  Director Ronald West would remake the material yet again and only four years later as The Bat Whispers, plus one more arrived from filmmaker Crane Wilbur after several decades starring Vincent Price.  West's two takes on it bare few differences between them, following an identical plot with the same comedic beats in place.  They also both feature impressive set design, and while the ambitious and gliding camera work would be front and center in the next version, this still has impressive wide shots of rooms with eighteen-foot doors that make everyone look like tiny insects trapped in a spooky old house.  We also get a literal bat signal, so it is no wonder that Bob Kane would later go on record by admitting the inspiration from here that he took in creating Batman thirteen years later.  On that note, the title criminal looks more ridiculous than frightening with his big Mickey Mouse-esque ears/rodent-faced mask on, but even if the film is hardly essential since everything here would be later improved upon, it is still an adequate production.

American Silent Horror Part Three

THE LOST WORLD

(1925)

Dir - Harry O. Hoyt

Overall: MEH

 

A historically important Hollywood spectacle from the silent era, The Lost World was the first full-length film to utilize stop-motion animation, which set the course for King Kong eight years later as well as several other movies that utilized such special effects to depict over-sized monsters doing over-sized monster things.  Based off of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's 1912 novel of the same name, the author himself appears on screen to introduce a tale that would be told in variations for decades to come.  Doyle's Professor Challenger character ventures into the Amazon to prove the existence of prehistoric beasts roaming freely there, eventually ending up back in London with a Brontosaurus to silence the haters.  Special effects man Willis O'Brien would later and even more famously work on King Kong, and while the creature design and execution here is primitive by later standards, (plus we get some actors in primate costumes, for what it is worth), this was impressive for its time and holds up well enough as a curiosity.  Sadly, the rudimentary story cannot withstand the long stretches where dinosaurs are not duking it out with each other, plus Wallace Beery is the only actor here who exudes any sense of charisma as the fearless adventurer/ridiculously-bearded Challenger.

 

THE BELLS

(1926)

Dir - James Young
Overall: GOOD
 
Notable for being one of the few surviving silent films to contain a billed performance from Boris Karloff, The Bells is an adaptation of the original French stage play Le Juif Polonais, as well as its English translated version which had both been brought to the screen four times before.  Featuring heavyweight Lionel Barrymore in the lead, it features a familiar variant of psychological guilt manifesting itself as the supernatural, this time concerning Barrymore's newly-appointed burgomaster who murdered a Jewish traveler in order to steal his gold so that he could repay a debt, allow his daughter to marry the man of her choosing, and to further his own political ambitions.  Barrymore's doomed character is painted in a sympathetic light since he resulted to violence out of alcohol-infused desperation, plus he is also immediately tormented by "the bells" that his victim rattled at the time of death.  Karloff's role is small yet significant as he dons a garb and persona that is deliberately close to Werner Krauss's in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, playing an intimidating hypnotist that boasts of being able to get any criminal to confess their secrets.  Speaking of Caligari, director James Young and cinematographer L. William O'Connell indulge in some German Expressionism here or there, making this a striking enough Hollywood alternative to the usual type of Edgar Allan Poe-styled, conscience-ravished melodrama.

THE THIRTEENTH CHAIR
(1929)
Dir - Tod Browning
Overall: MEH

Initially released in both sound and silent versions, The Thirteenth Chair was the first of three films that director Tod Browning and actor Béla Lugosi made together.  As was the case with other early whodunits from the era, it was based on a stage play, namely Bayard Veiller's of the same name which was brought to the screen two other times as well.  Besides Lugosi's involvement in the story's meatiest role as the famed inspector that arrives on the scene in order to crack the mystery, this is formulaic and talky stuff that is handled with no flare from behind the lens by Browning.  The only moment that comes close to being visually enticing is when Margaret Wycherly's Irish medium, (reprising her stage role), insists on the lights being turned off during a phony seance, a seance which results in yet another murder after the one that she was already brought in to help solve.  This happens again during the finale when the culprit is at last revealed, but the plot is equally convoluted and sterile.  It is nothing more than competent actors melodramatically talking on some fancy-decorated sets, with no action, no atmosphere, and little humor.  Still, Lugosi fans would be wise to check it out since he goes hard in a dialog-heavy performance that represents one of his precious few before he was typecast in horror throughout the rest of his career.

Foreign Silent Horror Part Seven

LEAVES FROM SATAN'S BOOK

(1920)

Dir - Carl Theodor Dreyer

Overall: MEH

The third full-length from Denmark's most celebrated filmmaker Carl Theodor Dreyer, Leaves from Satan's Book, (Leaves Out of the Book of Satan, Blade af Satans bog), is his more fantasy-laced version of D.W. Griffith's Intolerance, yet was also inspired by Marie Corelli's 1895 novel The Sorrows of Satan.  Broken up into four chapters which are told in a linear fashion as opposed to Griffith's more ambitious style to increasingly cut between as many narratives, Dreyer and co-screenwriter Edgar Høyer focus on Satan's divine assignment to temp mankind through the ages.  For ever person who succumbs to his scheming, the Devil is delegated to spend another century on Earth.  Yet if any of his victims resist, a thousand years are reduced from his sentence.  The first story concerns Judas betraying Jesus, the second takes place during the Spanish Inquisition, the third during the French Revolution, and the last is set in Finland during the Russo-Finish War of 1918.  At a hundred and fifty-seven minutes in its original length, this is a challenging watch in such a respect since the pacing is arduous at best.  The performances are less melodramatic than usual from the time period, but besides some intense close-ups, the film is visually flat and does not match its sprawling aspirations.

 

DESTINY
(1921)
Dir - Fritz Lang
Overall: GOOD

One of many striking works in the filmography of Fritz Land, Destiny, (Der müde Tod: ein deutsches Volkslied in sechs Versen, Behind the Wall, Between Two Worlds), was considered by the director to be one of his most personal, inspired both by a fever dream that he remembered having when he was a child, as well as the recent loss of his mother.  The Indian folk tale of "Savitri and Satyavan" provides the basis for Lang and wife/collaborator Thea von Harbou's script where a woman loses her lover to a mysterious stranger, standing in for Death itself.  Three other tales are introduced, all with similarly bleak outcomes where Lil Dagover tries in vain to save other doomed souls in order to be reunited with her better half.  Though the camera stays stationary, Lang still evokes a haunting mood with excellent set design that recreates an unassuming German village, Jerusalem, Italy, and China, as well as a staggeringly high wall surrounding a cemetery and a hall of candles which represent living souls on their way to being extinguished.  As the personification of Death, Bernhard Goetzke makes an equally melancholic and intimidating figure, but as a whole, the film overcomes its sense of tragic fable and is more of an uplifting saga of love overcoming death.

GHOST TRAIN

(1927)

Dir - Géza von Bolváry

Overall: MEH

 

Besides the 1925 American film The Phantom Express baring narrative similarities to it, Ghost Train, (Der Geisterzug, Le train fantome), was the first official cinematic retelling of Arnold Ridley's stage play of the same name.  A German and British co-production, it would go on to be adapted in various mediums well over a dozen times in the ensuing decades, this one being the only surviving silent version.  A comedy-crime hybrid that teases supernatural elements, it holds up a bunch of people in a train station overnight, where the local legend is that a unearthly locomotive comes barreling down the tracks on the regular, and also, there may or may not be some ghosts wandering about.  Most of these things are talked about instead of shown, as women melodramatically faint or nearly faint, and everyone mildly bickers with each other until a twist reveals that the group's unlikable and dopey foible is actually a police detective who has been tracking down a criminal in their midst.  It is silly business that manages to never be amusing, but this could be due more to the dated sensibilities than any fault of the long-winded plot.  The movie at least runs a mere fifty-three minutes, plus director Géza von Bolváry and cinematographer Otto Kanturek utilize some flashy shots and camera movements that keep things less stagnant than they otherwise would be.

The Bad Ben Series Part Two

BAD BEN: THE MANDELA EFFECT
(2018)
Dir - Tom Fanslou
Overall: MEH

Four titles in and the Bad Ben series seems to be deliberately taking one step forward and two steps back as Bad Ben: The Mandela Effect ignores everything that was established in the previous and often hysterical Badder Ben.  As the title would suggest, the film has a déjà vu premise where Tom Fanslou seems stuck in a loop, buying the series' haunted house at a sheriff sale, filming himself arriving there, and then freaky stuff starts happening that varies in how similar it is to what happened in the first movie.  The fact that it feels as if you have accidentally pressed "play" on the initial Bad Ben from 2016 is no accident then, but patient viewers will notice the subtle differences which give way to a handful of scenarios that all get Fanslou into the basement so that the screechy demon kid or whatever thing can attack the shit out of him.  The premise works to a point, and Fanslou squeezes some more mileage out of simple found footage gags where our eyes dash around lingering shots waiting for something unnerving to spring into action.  It succeeds in this respect, delivering some chills as well as laughs, especially by the end where even our humble and lone character seems to be picking up on the fact that he has been down this road before.  On that note, the movie does have a scraping the barrel feel to it and proves that you can only make the same film so many times, even if you are making fun of the fact that you are making the same film so many times.

 

THE CRESCENT MOON CLOWN

(2018)

Dir - Tom Fanslou
Overall: WOOF

 

For any viewers that have stuck around with the Bad Ben franchise five entries deep, we are proven with The Crescent Moon Clown that it is best to ignore words like "continuity" and "logic".  Series creator and usual lone actor Tom Fanslou restricts himself to an appearance in the last set piece which is when the movie finally takes the piss out of itself, instead dedicating the rest of it to one unfortunate evening for Jhetta Tionne Anderson to endure.  Playing a college student that has the entire haunted house to herself, Anderson exclusively exhibits "stupid people in horror movies" behavior that is bound to make every audience member yell at the screen.  A sometimes ghost/sometimes flesh and blood person in a Spirit Halloween clown costume lurks around, a sometimes ghost/sometimes flesh and blood person in a Spirit Halloween grim reaper costume also lurks around, lights turn off and on, doors open and close, things make noise, bloody messages get left on the kitchen floor, and Anderson goes about her night saying "Hello?" about a billion times while only seeming mildly concerned.  The pacing is dreadful, (at one point we get an extended sequence where clown man gives us a tour of the entire house on Anderson's cell phone; an entire house that we have explored every nook and cranny of by this point), and the final goofy bit at the end is embarrassing.  Fanslou seems to be having fun churning these out one or two a year, but at this rate, some of them are bound to hit a brick wall.

 

BAD BEN: THE WAY IN
(2019)
Dir - Tom Fanslou
Overall: MEH

 

Making a "Here we go again..." joke when another Bad Ben movie comes out is kind of like complaining about a new Mountain Dew flavor; they are inevitable and many people will try them despite other's eyeball rolls.  Bad Ben: The Way In continues the mostly linear path of the series and serves closest as a direct follow-up to 2017's Badder Ben, which ended with Tom Fanslou/Nigel Bach/Tom Riley's schlubby protagonist getting a second wind in battling malevolent supernatural forces and deciding to launch his own paranormal investigator business.  Tasked by the new owners with ridding his own former house of the now nine official entitles that dwell there, (though there are bound to be some more added before this series wraps up, if it ever does), Fanslou is once again the only guy on screen save for that stupid Spirit Halloween clown that is still lurking around.  Outside of the first movie which worked as both a parody and an unsettling entry into the found footage genre, the rest of the Bad Ben franchise is at its best when it takes the piss out of itself, and thankfully this is the case here.  The most intentionally humorous installment yet, there are laugh-out-loud moments and jump scares aplenty, even if the lore is getting more nonsensical and the shtick is unwavering and bordering on stale.

The Bad Ben Series Part One

BAD BEN
(2016)
Dir - Tom Fanslou
Overall: GOOD

 
The first in a to-date fourteen deep movie franchise, (plus a short film and a video game), the initial Bad Ben is a hilarious and creepy work in found footage that acts as both a parody of and a legitimate installment in the sub-genre.  Tom Fanslau, (under the pen and screen name of Nigel Bach), shopped his concept around to potential producers with no bites and ergo decided to make it himself, shooting the entire project for only $300 in his own home.  Equipped with a cell phone, security cameras, and a couple of convincing effect shots, the DIY results are commendable in and of themselves.  Thankfully though, Bach's efforts are engrossing besides their practicality.  As the only fellow on screen, he has a shlubby charisma ala Brian Posehn while he endlessly talks to himself, poking fun at the "Why do I feel the need to document my whole life?" trope in such movies.  The subtle yet undeniable comedic angle allows for his character's behavior to be questionable in one sense, but his stubborn and humorous determination to not be driven out of his newly purchased home by unfriendly entities gives the plot just enough plausibility to work.  Best of all though, the simple and familiar set up does not get in the way of some hair-raising spookiness.

 

STEELMANVILLE ROAD

(2017)

Dir - Tom Fanslou

Overall: WOOF

 

While Nigel Bach aka Tom Fanslou is a likeable bloke and his initial Bad Ben film was one of the best micro-micro-budgeted found footage movies perhaps ever made, its follow-up Steelmanville Road, (Bad Ben: Steelmanville Road), is an almost exclusively embarrassing work.  A prequel that leads right up until when the first installment begins, it has a promising opening where a newlywed couple moves into the series' haunted abode to experience a few subtle paranormal episodes, some of which the cameras catches yet the characters do not.  Right from the get-go though, we are given some flimsy reasons for the events to be filmed in the first place, and this becomes more sloppily handled throughout, including close-ups and wide-shots being edited together from the same wall-mounted security cameras.  Yet this is only one of many blunders, since Fanslou regrettably chooses to show physical manifestations of ghosts this time in the form of a backwards talking kid in heavy eye-shadow who looks like he is right out of a nine year-old's YouTube video.  The story is a laughable cliche-fest, made much worse by atrocious acting and a need for Fanslou to explain almost every ambiguously creepy detail from the first movie.  Instead of making for some engrossing mythology, this only messes up what was already a spooky scenario.  In other words, it "fixed" something that was not broken, falling down the stairs in the process.

BADDER BEN

(2017)

Dir - Tom Fanslou

Overall: MEH

 

Three entries in and Tom Fanslou made the wise choice to lean into the more comedic angle that he displayed in his first Bad Ben installment, with Badder Ben, (Badder Ben: The Final Chapter), being more intentionally ridiculous than its awful predecessor Steelmanville Road.  It is still a mixed bag though.  This time we meet some chipper paranormal investigators who have seen the first two movies and decide to find out what all of the hullabaloo is about, bringing along Fanslou for the ride who is back to do battle unwillingly against the force or forces that have taken over his would-be flipped home.  The unsettling scare tactics are jettisoned for more of a lampoon-heavy approach where no one on screen seems to be taking things seriously, with many laugh-out-loud results along the way.  Each of the four characters, (particularly Fanslou's who has an understandably hilarious chip on his shoulder now), provide some knowingly goofy moments, plus the franchise's lore becomes officially convoluted, which is appropriate in this more lighthearted context .  Everyone also behaves like an idiot at regular intervals, the plotting is flimsy, and there are some abysmal digital effects that are not played for chuckles, but it is still an enjoyable entry that is introduced as being "for the fans" so in that respect, it is difficult to hate.

The Blackwell Ghost Series Part Two

THE BLACKWELL GHOST 5

(2020)

Dir - Turner Clay

Overall: WOOF

The first major misstep in Turn Clay's mico-budgeted faux documentary series, The Blackwell Ghost 5 makes the faux pas of dragging things out to redundant and unwatchable levels.  Continuing the arc of the previous two installments, (neither of which has anything to do with the Blackwell Ghost of the title), Clay jumps right back into the same Florida haunted summer house and also right back into the same ghostly shenanigans, as well as his way of trying the audience's patience.  What little information arrives could have easily been given to us in the two movies that proceed this one, (let alone the ones that follow), and Clay fails to come up with any interesting new bumps-in-the-night sequences on top of the narrative brick wall.  The phone still rings at 2:47 for nothing decipherable to ever happen on the other end, the banging on the walls is incessant, and the revelation from the last movie leads to nothing but another revelation before we are given a "to be continued..." tag.  Again.  A shower faucet turning on and a hole in a closet is hardly enough to warrant the seventy-two minutes that we spend here, plus Clay keeps piling on more scary music to break verisimilitude with each release, probably because he realized that nothing frightening is happening otherwise.

THE BLACKWELL GHOST 6

(2022)

Dir - Turner Clay

Overall: MEH

 

A much needed break was taken in Turner Clay's Blackwell Ghost series to drop the arc of the previous three films which even though were left on yet another cliffhanger, are thankfully jettisoned to only partially reference them here.  The Blackwell Ghost 6 takes a bold move by killing off Clay's wife, leaving him with two toddlers to take care of and because ghosts, also gives him a new haunted house angle.  This time it is his own home that starts experiencing unexplained occurrences around his wife's old keyboard which randomly pops back into his life.  Though it is comparatively better than its skippable and immediate predecessor, it still suffers from the usual ailments.  The use of scary music was and is always a problem in found footage, and Clay indulges in it more than most, actually layering it over the naturally captured audio of the supernatural things going down.  Another persistent issue is the monotonous feel and dragged-out randomness of those supernatural things that are dished out maybe one or two a night, disappearing entirely for weeks, and then repeating themselves later while itching to a reveal at a snail's pace.  Clay's ethereal wife, (presumably), sure is taking her sweet time trying to convey whatever it is that she is conveying from the beyond, but at least the emotional hook is more prominent this time, plus it all seems to be heading somewhere that may be interesting if Clay would only trim the fat already.

THE BLACKWELL GHOST 7

(2022)

Dir - Turner Clay

Overall: MEH

In the mockumentary framework that filmmaker Turner Clay has used throughout his Blackwell Ghost series, he has so far created enough plausibility to warrant each new installment as something that his fictionalized self would offer to the masses.  That all changes with The Blackwell Ghost 7, which takes a hard left turn and ups the ante with few if any supernatural occurrences, but instead has a masked serial killer who toys with our do-good narrator.  Which poses the immediate question; why in the hell would Clay's on-screen persona cinematically edit and then release a finished film about a psychopath harassing him and his kids?  It is a ridiculous pill to swallow and despite some gasp-worthy reveals, (as well as some predictable ones), as well as arguably Clay's best performance on screen to date, the entire thing collapses under its very premise.  The franchise is still keeping its toes wet in the found footage genre, but Clay's penchant for continuous scary music and more shots than ever which scream "Who is filming this?" interrupt the otherwise realistic agenda.  It is as if we are watching a fully-formed, professionally made true crime documentary done by the victim of the person committing the crime, as it is happening.  If one can ignore such an elephant in the room though, it is compelling enough stuff.

THE BLACKWELL GHOST 8

(2024)

Dir - Turner Clay

Overall: WOOF

Continuing in the about face taken in the previous installment, The Blackwell Ghost 8 pushes plausibility further than ever, which is saying something since this is coming after several entries where ghosts banged doors, made phone calls, and played with balls.  All of the issues that were front and center with 2022's The Blackwell Ghost 7 which ushered in a new serial killer angle are intensified here.  Not only is Turner Clay still making a documentary about the psycho who is sending him clues to where bodies are being delivered while simultaneously terrorizing his house, (which is absurd enough), but he, the killer, and the police all behave like buffoons.  Some could question the choices made by Clay and those whom he interacted with before, but in trying to tingle the spines of the viewer and deepen the lore here, he insults the audience.  Why would a guy put himself in constant danger of an admitted murderer?  Why would the police refuse to have his back at every step of the way with armed guards?  Why would the killer stand right behind the hapless dope in his own house, just counting on him not turning around, (which of course he fails to do)?  In addition to these narrative blunders, Clay bizarrely continues his trajectory of making sure that the viewer is questioning where each of the shots are coming from.  In one sequence, we have drone footage of him driving his truck, getting out of his truck, and walking up to a clue out in the middle of nowhere.  Good thing that he decided, (while terrified), to operate said drone on his investigation just to make sure that we have some cinematic scenery to enjoy.