13 Demon Street Part Three

A GIFT OF MURDER
(1959)
Dir - Curt Siodmak
Overall: MEH

 

A nifty premise with a sub-par execution, 13 Demon Street's "A Gift for Murder" features a common motif of people casually and recklessly dabbling in black magic with of course disastrous results.  When a married couple receives a voodoo doll as an anniversary present, (as odd of a gift as that is), they decide to use it on Charles Nolte's co-worker as a goof since he was too touchy feely with his misses at the party, as well as being the boss's son who is getting promotions which Nolte feels he deserves.  Things go the way that the audience will predict and the characters do not, and because Nolte is a hypocritical scumbag who also cannot keep his hands off his secretary, he gets too comfortable with the doll's powers and starts using them more frequently.  Comeuppance is delivered in a flimsy enough manner, but Ib Melchior and Kenneth Hartford's script offers up few surprises, plus the performances leave something to be desired.

 

THE SECRET OF THE TELESCOPE
(1959)
Dir - Curt Siodmak
Overall: MEH

 

An odd choice was made to air the 13 Demon Street episodes "A Gift of Murder" and "The Secrete of the Telescope" back-to-back, since they not only contain similar premises, but they also both feature Charles Nolte in the lead, who was one of a handful of actors to show up in three different stories for the program.  Nolte basically plays the same unlikable character, which is to say that he is an asshole who wants a divorce from his innocent wife, recently acquires an antique of sorts with supernatural powers, and said antique in a roundabout way seals his doom.  Nolte also once again delivers a subpar performance, clumsily melodramatic in some instances and stiff in others.  As far as the otherworldly rules are concerned, they are as haphazardly delivered as they are in any other installment for the program, plus the simple premise of a telescope that can see the future is more odd than interesting.

 

NEVER STEAL A WARLOCK'S WIFE
(1959)
Dir - Curt Siodmak
Overall: MEH

 

Some more black magic meddling is afoot in 13 Demon Street's "Never Steal a Warlock's Wife", which opens with Alan Blair purchasing a feline "familiar" at a pet shop.  Apparently that is something that can be done in this universe.  Blair portrays a nebbish man with an openly gold-digging wife, (Lori Scott), except the only problem being that he is not rolling in enough dough for her liking.  Even when he does procure an obscene amount of cash through dubious means, Scott acts appalled and runs off with her lover anyway, somewhat understandably since Blair has the personality of a pathetic and timid wiener, which begs the question of why these two were ever wed in the first place.  Both actors appeared in three episodes of the series and neither are given likeable characters to work with here, but Scott Flohr's script hardly does anything interesting with its mystical premise anyway, plus the whole thing ends just as it gets going.

 

MURDER IN THE MIRROR
(1959)
Dir - Curt Siodmak
Overall: MEH

 

One of the poorest realized installments in the 13 Demon Street program was its penultimate one "Murder in the Mirror".  The show had hooked its supernatural angle on various objects depending on the episode, (a telescope, a book, a voodoo doll, etc), and mirrors have long held an unsettling pull in horror tales since it is always creepy to see something in them besides one's own undoctored reflection.  Here though, the script from director Curt Siodmak is half-baked and leads to an underwhelming conclusion, as Vernon Young hires Ben Breen to find a specific mirror regardless of the fact that Breen is hardly an expert in such matters.  This makes no difference since his antique dealer friend, (who Young should have went to in the first place), just so happens to have the exact wall decoration in question.  The hoopla surrounded said mirror is relatively interesting, but the plot hits a brick wall as far as what to do with it, and the finale is more unintentionally funny and abrupt than anything.

 

BLACK NEMESIS
(1959)
Dir - Jason Lindsay
Overall: MEH

 

The only 13 Demon Street episode not to have any involvement from Curt Siodmak who either directed or authored every other installment, "Black Nemesis" ends the series on a subpar note.  That is not to say that it is any worse or better than the bulk of the program, which started off strong yet quickly settled into a mediocre-at-best assortment of humdrum supernatural tales.  Here, a many runs into gambling debts, is given two weeks to come up with the money from the gangsters that he owes it too, and somehow phony seances and a disembodied ghost head play into things.  Screenwriter Ib Melchior penned two of these episodes, ("A Gift of Murder" being the other and comparatively better one), but his work here seems aimless and desperate, as if he had a deadline to catch and just threw something together on the fly.  In any event, it is immediately forgettable and void of spooky atmosphere, unless one counts the frequented horn blares on the soundtrack to signify when something extraordinary is happening.

13 Demon Street Part Two

THE GIRL IN THE GLACIER
(1959)
Dir - Curt Siodmak
Overall: MEH

 

An archaeologist falling in love with a frozen cave woman is the premise at hand in 13 Demon Street's fittingly titled "The Girl in the Glacier".  This one steers farther away from horror elements than usual for the program, almost exclusively presenting itself as a psychological musing on whatever spell said glacier lady seems to cast on the red-blooded men who unearth her.  It comes closer to sci-fi than anything as we eventually get more than just Frank Taylor spewing sweet nothings to the centuries-old frozen woman, raving about how he should have complete control of the operation, dismissing his wife and demanding a divorce, and even murdering those who get in his way.  In other words, a nice fella.  We can guess what is likely to happen from numerous shots of Sara Harts closed eyelids, leaving little sense of mystery to go along with the merely serviceable starting point.

 

THE BOOK OF GHOULS
(1959)
Dir - Curt Siodmak
Overall: MEH

 

Taking some bare-bones inspiration from the often-frequented W. W. Jacobs' short story "The Monkey's Paw", "The Book of Ghouls" fails to do anything interesting within such a framework.  Screenwriter Fred De Gorter would go on to write four episodes of the Batman series which is something that any author should be proud of, but his work here lacks both flare and imagination.  The book of the title is one that holds the power to bestow wealth upon those who follow its instructions, but of course these things always come at a detrimental price and this is no exception.  Things proceed in a formulaic fashion, (blood is shed, money comes in, the participants are both confused and troubled by such supernatural forces actually working, and a happy ending is nowhere to be found), and this renders the episode as merely a forgettable spending of twenty-three minutes.

 

THE PHOTOGRAPH

(1959)

Dir - Curt Siodmak

Overall: MEH

 

13 Demon Street's take on M.R. James' short story "The Mezzotint", "The Photograph" presents yet another tale of a heinous crime for us to judge in comparison to the one committed by host Lon Chaney Jr's, the latter's atrocity never divulged to the audience.  While John Crawford, (making his second of two appearances on the program), may not be the world's most despicable criminal, he is a relentless asshole who makes one illogical decision after the next that stretches plausibility in producer/director/screenwriter Curt Siodmak's James homage.  The outcome is preordained since we know that Crawford shall be doomed for his actions and that the seemingly haunted photograph of the title will somehow seal the deal, but the only surprises are in how moronic he acts at every opportunity until then.

 

THE VINE OF DEATH

(1959)

Dir - Curt Siodmak

Overall: MEH

 

Another scumbag gets his comeuppance in a 13 Demon Street installment with "The Vine of Death".  This time it is a ridiculously pushy handyman neighbor who appears to have cement in his ears as far as "no means no" is concerned, and his hair-brained scheme when a murder transpires is to bury the body in a patch of dirt that the victim had imported some ancient calcified bulbs from.  Besides the corpse being remarkably easy to find for anyone who comes investigating which they of course do, Lauritz Falk and Pat Clavin continue to behave irrationally which only raises more suspicions.  People on screen are generally terrible liars so this is nothing new, but Leo Guild's teleplay only offers a lone memorable set piece where the sprouting plants do their grisly business.  This leaves the rest of the presentation to merely linger on unlikable people doing idiotic things until they are busted.

13 Demon Street Part One

THE BLACK HAND

(1959)

Dir - Curt Siodmak

Overall: MEH

 

For episode one, the Lon Chaney Jr. hosted, English-langue, Swedish horror television anthology series 13 Demon Street kicks off with a variation of Maurice Renard's 1920 novel Les Mains d'Orlac, which had been adapted to the big screen numerous times.  As the title would allude to, it concerns an amputated appendage with a sinister mind of its own, one that a renowned surgeon decides to give himself after a car accident.  It becomes readily apparent that the story from screenwriter Richard Jairus Castle and director Curt Siodmak is not concerned with iron-clad logic as things rush along with glaring inconsistencies.  This would set the tone for the series though which would deal with otherworldly scenarios condensed to twenty-odd minutes for melodramatic consumption.  In this respect, it is a serviceable if still fragile under a microscope.

 

FEVER

(1959)

Dir - Curt Siodmak

Overall: GOOD

 

Writer/director Curt Siodmak concocts a unique tale for the second 13 Demon Street episode "Fever" where a demented painter becomes obsessed with a neighbor across the street that may or may not exist in a consistently corporeal sense.  The actual protagonist is not said artist but instead a doctor who visits him due to complaints of a fever, a fever which he too succumbs to after likewise becoming infatuated with the beautiful woman the smiles from a castle window on the other side of the road where there is no such castle to be found.  Specifics are kept vague, more due to the brisk running time that each of the program's installments dictated than any weak writing on Sidmak's part, and this gives the tale a fittingly eerie tone that is well-maintained.

 

CONDEMNED IN THE CRYSTAL

(1959)

Dir - Curt Siodmak

Overall: GOOD

 

The excellent and chilling "Condemned in the Crystal" was the only 13 Demon Street screenwriting contribution from Dory Previn, who works wonders within the framework of a stoic gypsy woman foretelling an unavoidable and tragic fate.  Director Curt Siodmak certainly favored such terrain as his most famous credit amongst several is for being the author of Universal's The Wolf Man, and while there are no lycanthropian elements to be found, the episode is a consistently tense musing on the inevitability of fate, if one is to believe in such a thing.  Of course our lead protagonist, (portrayed by usual Western man Michael Hinn, who looks like he could have been a close relative to René Auberjonois), does not believe in such supernatural mumbo jumbo, or at least persistently tells himself that as his analyst suggest that he visits a place from his childhood that has been giving him vivid nightmares.  Why do TV and movie therapists always suggest that their patients revisit a place of trauma in order to "conquer" it?  Does that ever work?

GREEN ARE THE LEAVES

(1959)

Dir - Curt Siodmak

Overall: MEH

 

Though it gets off to a fine start as an atmospheric if still bog-standard haunted house yarn, "Green Are the Leaves" goes through some clunky motions in its closing moments.  It immediately recalls the second season Tales from the Crypt episode "Television Terror" where a film crew sets up in a haunted abode in order to broadcast their otherworldly findings for some rating boosts.  Other stories have come down the pike with similar premises, and this one has less sleazy characters than usual, focusing on a small handful of them who seem generally if still cynically curious to uncover any supernatural mystery.  The spacious mansion setting is ideal, as is some brooding cinematography and a stark sound design that emphasizes a still tension until one particular room in the place makes good on its nasty reputation when midnight strikes.  Unfortunately, it hits a peak when it still has several minutes left in the running time, ending in a clumsy and melodramatic fashion that dilutes the previously established spooky mood.