1940s American Horror Part Nineteen

THE BLACK RAVEN

(1943)

Dir -  Sam Newfield

Overall: MEH

 

The whodunit The Black Raven from Poverty Row studio PRC, (Producers Releasing Corporation), may be of interest to genre fans for featuring two of Universal's go-to horror bad guys George Zucco and Glenn Strange, the former as the proprietor of the remote inn of the title which is on the border of US and Canada, the latter as his dim-witted employee.  Oh, Zucco also goes by the name "The Black Raven" in the criminal underworld where he has a side-hustle of being able smuggle people out of the country.  Conveniently for the plot, a number of shady characters arrive at his establishment during a dark and stormy night when the bridge goes out, leading to a murder, another murder, and culprits plural being discovered in a lackluster finale.  Director Sam Newfield has abysmal pacing sense under such cheap conditions, but he does manage to decorate the proceedings as if it is in the horror camp, utilizing menacing shadows, violent thunder storms, and eerie interiors.  Fred Myton's script is cliche-heavy and relies on lazy contrivances to move thing along, but the sixty-one minute running time at least does not overstay its welcome.

 

THE WOMAN WHO CAME BACK

(1945)

Dir - Walter Colmes

Overall: MEH

 

A condemned witch possessing the ancestor of her accuser and a woman being gaslit by men are the two steadfast motifs that join forces in The Woman Who Came Back, one of Republic Pictures' B-level horror movies from an era with its fare share of them.  It plays the psychological game throughout where Nancy Kelly becomes increasingly convinced that she is succumbing to diabolical influence from centuries past, and even though people keep telling her that she is imagining things, (Since what else do you tell upset females in genre movies?), eventually the locals are also convinced once Kelly is openly accused during a church service.  Though the opening scene is promising and points directly towards the supernatural, things eventually shift the other way where logical answers are given to things that were more unsettling when otherworldly elements were squarely at play.  Director Walter Colmes and cinematographer Henry Sharp also do not have much of a keen eye when it comes to spooky visuals or atmosphere and in any event, it is a tame watch since the most sinister things that happen is a little girl getting sick and some goldfish being poisoned, so the film hardly delivers any white-knuckled tension.

 

MIGHTY JOE YOUNG

(1949)

Dir - Merian C. Cooper/Ernest B. Schoedsack

Overall: GOOD

 

While it is not an official sequel, Mighty Joe Young was made by the same creative team behind 1933's seminal King Kong, with producer, (and here co-director), Merian C. Cooper, screenwriter Ruth Rose, actor Robert Armstrong, special effects man Willis O'Brien, and director Ernest B. Schoedsack all returning to unleash more giant gorilla mayhem.  Rose's script has enough differentiating details as to not be a carbon copy of its predecessor, but there is no denying that all parties involved were attempting to make lightning strike twice with the same formula of "oversized primate from the jungle gets brought to the States and put on display for the masses who upset him and make him run amok".  As was the case with Kong, the star of the show is the stop-motion animation, with a young Ray Harryhausen receiving his first mainstream credit under O'Brien's tutelage.  The title ape is the most sympathetic character, fully-realized by the practical effects team who make him yet another misunderstood beast that only engages in his violent nature when being provoked by those who exploit and gawk at him.  Terry Moore does fine work as the now grown little girl who took a baby Joe under her wing and raised him with loving care, and their sweet report with each other serves the film's overall light tone.  This might not make it much of a high-octane adventure movie and certainly nothing that was breaking any new ground, but it is visually exceptional and its heart is in the right place.

1930s American Horror Part Seven - (Ernest B. Schoedsack Edition)

THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME

(1932)

Dir - Irving Pichel/Ernest B. Schoedsack

Overall: GOOD

 

Utilizing the same jungle sets from King Kong, director Ernest B. Schoedsack, producer Merian C. Cooper, and four of the actors from said movie join forces in The Most Dangerous Game which serves as the first of numerous cinematic adaptations of Richard Connell's novel of the same name.  The film mostly works due to its macabre, man-hunting premise, but Leslie Bank's camped-up performance as the villainous aristocratic Count Zaroff certainly helps as he rolls his R's and raises his bushy eyebrows appropriately.  As the only woman on screen, Fay Wray portrays one of her countless, genre-defining damsels in distress, a necessary addition to any movie where men and only men pontificate on the self-proclaimed hierarchy of hunting.  There are a few ghoulish touches such as Zarnoff's human head trophy room and some disturbed decor to his island fortress, but this is mostly just a mild adventure film that ends predictably enough while thankfully never overstaying its agreeable, sixty-two minute running time.

 

KING KONG

(1933)

Dir - Merian C. Cooper/Ernest B. Schoedsack

Overall: GOOD

 

RKO's seminal monster movie King Kong remains one of the most famous of all Hollywood creations and mostly holds up nearly a century later.  Though stop-motion dinosaurs had already proven successful at the box office with things like 1925's The Lost World, (who animator Willis O'Brien likewise worked on), Kong essentially ushered in the "giant monster on a rampage" motif that would prove particularly influential during the 1950s and 60s, especially in Japan.  This was also the first American "talkie" to feature a film score specifically composed for it, with Max Steiner's forty-six piece orchestra setting a standard that is essentially still in practice today.  Fay Wray already had a few noteworthy roles under her belt at the time, (and was even able to film both Dr. X and The Mystery of the Wax Museum during off-production hours here), but this best established her as cinema's first official scream queen.  Kong himself of course is the main attraction and directors Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack keep up a taught pace after the initial build-up by throwing one intense monster battle and chase sequence after the other, all without unnecessary exposition.  The "beauty killed the beast" angle is moronic and Robert Armstrong's Carl Denham is one of the most laughably irresponsible characters in any film, but there is so much iconic imagery here and overall laudable movie making that it is an impossible work to disregard.

SON OF KONG

(1933)

Overall: MEH

The sequel to King Kong which came out a mere nine months later certainly feels like a bulldozed job as Son of Kong lacks almost all of the grandiose scale of its predecessor and pussyfoots around for over forty minutes before even getting to the title character.  Considering that the movie is less than seventy minutes in total and ergo more than halfway dedicated to an unengaging set-up, this is a problem.  Bringing back Robert Armstrong, Frank Reicher, and Victor Wong with Helen Mack filling in for the lone pretty girl, no one watching such a film would prefer to spend as much time with them standing around and talking while Skull Island awaits for a revisit.  Yet due to the condensed budget and rushed production, that is exactly what we get.  The script by Ruth Rose, (who was an uncredited punch-up writer on the first film), goes for cuteness and low stakes which is probably for the best considering that this had no chance of being a bombastic, heart-racing follow-up.  For stop-motion fans though, Willis O'Brien still delivers the goods when it finally gets to them, but otherwise, this is forgettable stuff.

1940s American Horror Part Two

DR. CYCLOPS
(1940)
Dir - Ernest B. Schoedsack
Overall: MEH

Dr. Cyclops is a technically impressive, Hollywood-produced bit of sci-fi silliness which was the first American horror film to be made in three-strip Technicolor.  For 1940, it very successfully pulls off a multitude of convincing special effects.  Unfortunately that is all that the movie has going for it.  Directed by Ernest B. Schoedsack, (King Kong), based off a short, pulp story by Henry Kuttner, and scripted here by Tom Kilpatrick, it is a generic, mad scientist set up and then reduces itself to a cat and mouse chase as the title character's enemies get reduced to doll-sized people and he continues to spout ridiculous dialog at them.  He also leisurely takes naps and kind of assumes that his prisoners are just going to cooperate with him as he does a couple of bad guy laughs and goes on and on about how important his "work" is.  So in other words, nothing to take seriously in the least.  The movie is rather dull though and besides Albert Dekker as Dr. "Cyclops" Thorkel, the cast is as unremarkable as the effects are solid.

PHANTOM OF THE OPERA
(1943)
Dir - Arthur Lubin
Overall: MEH

Universal Studio's only lackluster "classic monster" character movie, (and also the only one made in Technicolor and only one that did not get a sequel), was the remake of the 1925, iconic Phantom of the Opera staring Lon Chaney.  While Claude Rains is as fine a choice as any, (and had triumphed as Dr. Jack Griffin ten years previously in The Invisible Man and in a supporting role in The Wolf Man), this version of Phantom lacks all of the eerie, German Expressionism of the silent one and Rains is left with very little to do in his own staring vehicle.  The story is reworked considerably and though it is nice to see Rains' pre-Phantom stage in the first act, the rest of the movie feels both rushed and overly padded with musical numbers and weak, out of place comic relief revolving around Christine DeBois, (Susanna Foster) and her two suitors.  It barely works as a horror film until the last nine or so minutes and the finale gets undermined by not only an underwhelming de-masking, (nothing as memorable as Chaney's two decades earlier), but also a magical bullet that makes an entire, underground cavern collapse upon itself.

THE BEAST WITH FIVE FINGERS
(1946)
Dir - Robert Florey
Overall: MEH

Though it stars Peter Lorre who is as exceptionally unsettling as always, was directed by Robert Florey, (Murders in the Rue Morgue), was scripted by Curt Siodmak, (The Wolf Man, The Invisible Man Returns, Black Friday, I Walked with a Zombie, and a whole lot more), and had a lasting impact on the horror genre with its killer hand motif, The Beast with Five Fingers comes off just shy of being a successful entry.  Things mostly fall apart at the ending, which oddly botches its attempt to rev up the tension.  While the music is blaring and Lorre is having a complete mental collapse before our eyes, the pacing is dreadfully boring and it seems more ridiculous than anything that he simply stares wildly and sweaty as the mutilated hand slowly, slowly crawls towards him.  There is a final, forth-wall breaking tag to the film as well that is absolutely clashing with the rest of the movie's tone and rather derails everything further.  Before all of that though, it has plenty of moody moments and nearly gets by with Lorrie, as well as on its familiar and ghastly premise.