Movie Review: The Devil Bat (1940)

The Devil Bat (1940) directed by Jean Yarborough

Bela Lugosi plays Dr. Carruthers, a kindly town physician in Heathville. He also concocts perfumes and aftershaves for Heath-Morton Cosmetics in town. The first cream he designed made the company number one in its industry but Carruthers took a cash payout rather than risking investing in the company. Now Martin Heath and Henry Morton are millionaires while Carruthers continues his experimentation at his small, independent lab. He's not just working on cosmetics. He's started a new project, making a bat grow to an enormous size through electrical stimulation. He trained the bat to hate a new experimental shaving lotion. Carruthers offers a lotion sample to Heath's son, who winds up dead the next morning. The coroner thinks it's some animal attack. Big city reporters show up to help the local police investigate. When Heath's second son dies in the same way, the bat is spotted but the investigators can't put together the clues to find the criminal, though they do nickname it "The Devil Bat." Carruthers's revenge scheme seems fool proof. But this is a horror movie from the 1940s, so maybe not.

The movie starts with Lugosi scheming, so the audience knows what's going on. He does a good job being suave and helpful without incriminating himself. His lab is what you'd expect for a 1940s mad scientist horror film--the Frankenstein electrical equipment, secret doors all over, and his collection of bats. The flying bat effects are very dated, to the point of distraction. Otherwise, the film is a typical example of B-movie horror--an interesting if a bit outlandish premise, some dodgy special effects, a lot of stock characters. The formula is enjoyable to me.

Mildly recommended--it's fun to see Lugosi in action even in a lesser film.

Movie Review: The Black Cat (1934)

The Black Cat (1934) directed by Edgar G. Ulmer

Very loosely based on Edgar Allan Poe's short story The Black Cat, this movie features the first team-up of Bela Lugosi (Dracula) and Boris Karloff (Frankenstein). "Team-up" is the wrong word, because their characters are enemies. Lugosi plays Dr. Werdegast, a recent escapee from prison who is coming to an obscure Austrian town seeking revenge on Poelzig (Karloff). They were in the war together (presumably World War I). Poelzig commanded a fort where thousands of men died. Werdegast was stationed there but wound up in the prison. The real problem is that Poelzig stole Werdegast's wife and daughter, claiming Werdegast died in prison just after the war. Now, Poelzig has built an ultra-modern home on the ruins of the fortification (so he has an appropriately creepy basement). Werdegast travels by train and runs into some American newlyweds who ride the same bus through the obscure Austrian town. The bus crashes in the rain, killing the driver. The passengers seek shelter in Poelzig's home. The tension quickly skyrockets as Werdegast plans his revenge, only to find his wife dead and eerily preserved in the basement. Poelzig has even more sinister plans, especially for the young bride.

The movie has almost nothing to do with the Poe story. Karloff's character does have a black cat; Lugosi is pathologically afraid of cats (leading to a bit of overacting). The conflict between the two is fun as they simmer in rage. The newlyweds are more like unfortunate victims caught in the crossfire. Visually, the movie is impressive. The sets are expressive and do a good job mirroring the duplicitous nature of Karloff's Poelzig. The editing also has some nice visual flourishes and hints at the really shocking moments without being graphic.

Recommended--not as great as Dracula or Frankenstein, but a worthy horror outing. I was inspired to watch this by a history of Universal Horror films on the Hypnogoria podcast.

Movie Reviews: The Son of the Ghost of the House of Frankenstein

More Frankenstein films from the classic Universal era!

The Son of Frankenstein (1939) directed by Rowland V. Lee

Wolf von Frankenstein (Basil Rathbone) returns to the home town of his father, Henry Frankenstein, with his American wife and their young son. The town of Frankenstein is hardly welcoming to another Frankenstein. Their reaction is understandable, given the horrible history and the rumors about the monster (Boris Karloff) still being alive. Wolf is both a scientist and a hothead. The castle comes with his father's notes and formulas, which inspires the younger man to follow in his father's footsteps. At Frankenstein castle, the local ne'er-do-well, Ygor (Bela Lugosi), wanders around. The local police officer (Lionel Atwill) warns Frankenstein not to socialize in town and offers to protect the family from potential angry mobs. Frankenstein reassures the officer that no shenanigans will happen. Then he meets Ygor, who has the monster under his control and has been using him to kill all the locals who condemned Ygor to be hanged. The monster has now lapsed into a coma but the new Frankenstein is inspired by the challenge to bring the monster back to full life.

The movie is a big step down from the first two, making it fairly average. The effects are still good, though the sets are less lavish and it takes a surprisingly long time to get to the monster. The other problem with the film is that Mel Brooks used lots of elements in his delightful parody Young Frankenstein. The policeman has a false arm that was ripped off by the monster and he slaps it around much like Brooks's character. The cop and Frankenstein even play darts, with the inspector using his false arm to hold the darts. It's really hard to take parts of the movie seriously thanks to Brooks's film. 

The movie is entertaining enough but disappointing in comparison to the previous films. I can see how the monster might have survived the explosion of the lab at the end of the last film, but he fell into a molten sulfur pit. It's hard to imagine him surviving, maybe that's why the next film was called...

The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942) directed by Erle C. Kenton

The townsfolk of Frankenstein are tired of the economic bad times caused by the bad name of the family, so they decide to level Frankenstein's castle in the hopes that people will no longer associate the town with the monster. Somehow, Ygor (Bela Lugosi) has survived being riddled with bullets by Wolf Frankenstein and is still wandering around the castle. As the locals dynamite the castle, they release the monster who has been encased in sulfur. He comes out okay, though now played by Lon Chaney. Ygor leads the monster to the town where Henry Frankenstein's second son, Ludwig (Cedric Hardwick), is living as a doctor catering to the mentally unwell. It isn't long before he's drawn into reviving the weakened monster with the hope of transplanting a fresh, non-criminal brain into the monster.

The filmmakers bend over backwards to try and keep continuity with the previous films. The awkwardness of the effort is visible on screen. Chaney is fairly expressionless and uninteresting as the monster. Lugosi does the same performance (slightly cheesy) as the previous film. Hardwick is not as compelling as Rathbone or Clive as a scientist driven by ambition. The brain-switching idea is interesting but turns out preposterous when the monster starts talking with the voice of another actor. They only switched brains, not vocal cords! Other bits in the story are also hard to believe, even for a Frankenstein film.

With The Ghost of Frankenstein, the series finally dips down from average into bad. But the franchise didn't die yet...

The House of Frankenstein (1944) directed by Erle C. Kenton

Karloff switches to the mad scientist role in a sequel combining the Monster, the Wolf-man, Dracula, and a hunchback. Karloff is Doctor Neimann, a mad scientist imprisoned with the hunchback (J. Carol Naish). When lightening strikes and destroys the prison (which looks like a medieval castle, you know, the sort that wouldn't be phased by lightening), they escape. They join a two-man traveling horror show where the main attraction is the actual skeleton of Dracula. It isn't long before Neimann has his lackey off the two carneys and pulls the stake out of the skeleton, restoring Dracula (John Carradine) to life. Neimann makes a deal with Dracula who helps kill off the people who put Neimann in prison. Neimann's other goal is to imitate Doctor Frankenstein's work, so they head to the town of Frankenstein to find the buried notes of the original doctor. Dracula dies along the way but underneath the ruins of Frankenstein's castle Neimann and the hunchback discover the Wolf-man (Lon Chaney, Jr.) and the Monster (Glenn Strange) encased in ice. A little thawing lets out Larry Talbot (aka the Wolf-man). He makes a deal with Neimann--Talbot will recover the lost Frankenstein notes if Neimann will cure his werewolf curse. They return to Neimann's home town where he can finish taking revenge on his persecutors (though, let's be honest, he did deserve to be in jail for what he did) and can combine his own ideas with Frankenstein's to do some brain transplants. He's a bit slow at the job and Talbot kills someone when the full moon rises. That murder brings out the local mob. During the mobs' search for the killer, some of them notice lights flashing at Neimann's lab. Naturally, they go there to burn down the lab, driving the Monster and the Doctor into the quicksand marsh where they sink to their doom.

The movie is uneven. The early part with Dracula seems thrown in just to have Dracula in the picture. His early demise is surprising and a bit disappointing. Carradine gives viewers a fairly average and not very interesting vampire. On the other hand, the travelers pick up a young gypsy woman who is at first interested in the hunchback until she sees he is deformed. She's still willing to be friends with him. Once Talbot joins them, she is a lot more interested in him (Chaney may not be a great actor but he is good looking), causing some strife. That side plot is more interesting than the main plot. The special effects are a bit cheesy. The collapsing prison is hard to believe and Dracula's transformations to and from bat-form are obvious animations. Neimann's lab is good-looking, with the typical mad-scientist equipment and electrical discharges. They do repeat important points (like Dracula will die in sunlight or the werewolf can be killed only with a silver bullet) too many times. The movie has likable and unlikable parts.

Overall, it's not a satisfying movie except for completists. Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein is a much better combining of the Universal horror monsters than this movie.

Movie Review: Extraordinary Tales (2015)

Extraordinary Tales (2015) written and directed by Raul Garcia based on works by Edgar Allan Poe

This movie is an anthology collection of several stories by Edgar Allan Poe, rendered in stylistic animation. The tales are narrated by various horror icons, the two outstanding ones being Christopher Lee, who narrates "The Fall of the House of Usher," and Bela Lugosi, with a scratchy recording where he dramatizes "The Tell-Tale Heart." Each tale has its own visual style, again with "The Tell-Tale Heart" being outstanding with its stark black and white visuals inspired by Alberto Breccia's work. They still work as a set thanks to the visual sensibility of the director and to having the same composer.

The tales are strung together through a framing device of Poe visiting a graveyard in the form of a Raven and having a conversation with Death about his obsession with death and morality and his desire for his writings to be remembered. The device doesn't work so well and leaves the viewer hoping it will be over quickly to get back to the next story.

The tales' only other flaws are two. The computer animation sometimes looks too much like computer animation. Second, there's an implicit assumption that viewers are already familiar with Poe and his writings (otherwise, some of the Poe/Death dialogue is not very comprehensible). Definitely read the stories before watching. The stories are:

• The Fall of the House of Usher narrated by Christopher Lee
• The Tell-Tale Heart narrated by Bela Lugosi
• The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar narrated by Julian Sands
• The Pit and the Pendulum narrated by Guillermo del Toro
• The Masque of the Red Death narrated by no one, it's just visual storytelling!

The movie is interesting as an interpretation of Poe and is certainly worth hearing Lee and Lugosi do what they do so well.

Mildly recommended.

Parental recommendation: in addition to dealing with death and the macabre throughout, "The Masque of the Red Death" sequence is explicit but not overbearing with the sexuality of the debauched people celebrating while the outside world is dying from the plague. I'd recommend teens and up.

Movie Review: Dracula (1931)

Dracula (1931) directed by Todd Browning

The 1931 movie version of Bram Stoker's novel Dracula features the iconic performance of Bela Lugosi as the titular vampire. The performance seems riddled with cliches (the cape and overly formal eveningwear; the odd Eastern European accent (Lugosi was Hungarian); the bony outstretched hands; the blazing, penetrating eyes) except that this is the source of the cliches. In the 1930s, all of this was original, bizarre, and terrifying. Lugosi has a strong screen presence and can switch from suave to menacing with great effectiveness. He set the character in stone for everyone who came after him. Unfortunately, he became typecast--always able to get a job, but always the same job.

The other standout performance is Dwight Frye as Renfield, the estate agent turned Dracula's lackey. He vacillates between sanity and lunacy; loyalty to and betrayal of Dracula; desire for his own well-being and that of his "master." The performance looks over-the-top at times, but fits well into the expressionistic tone of the film.

The production's look is also very iconic. Dracula's castle and his home in England are rundown, cobwebby, and crumbling. Some of the sets are huge, with sweeping staircases dwarfing the characters. In a great scene, Dracula walks through the cobwebs covering a staircase while his guest practically has to beat away a spider to get through. Van Helsing's blend of scientific apparatus and folkloric resources makes a nice contrast to Dracula's elegant appearance and predatory actions.

The story moves along swiftly, almost too swiftly at times. The filmmakers assume a certain familiarity with the story and leave some things unexplained, like Dracula's wives at his Transylvanian castle who appear and stalk Renfield (who is the estate agent, not Harker) though they are never identified. They are certainly creepy. Lucy becoming a vampire and preying on children is barely mentioned and resolved so far off screen that it's easy to miss. I think the film still works, but it works much better if you have read the book.

This movie well deserves its status as a classic horror film. As a side note, the opening credits have ruined Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake for me, which I have always associated with vampires since I first saw this movie as a kid.

Highly recommended.

Movie Review: The Corpse Vanishes (1942)

The Corpse Vanishes (1942) directed by Wallace Fox

A series of young society brides die at the altar. If this isn't sensational enough, those brides' bodies are stolen on the way to the morgue! Reporters are fascinated and the police are baffled. One plucky society columnist discovers the linking clue between the murders/snatches--each bride was wearing a special orchid with a strange, sickly-sweet smell. Her editor, figuring the clue is a red herring, gives her the go-ahead to investigate. She goes to visit a horticultural expert in the country. The horticulturalist is played by Bela Lugosi, so you know that's bad news for her. His house is full of creepy people who ham it up in their performances. Horror ensues.

Lugosi is good but not at his best (like White Zombie and Dracula). Luana Walters also does a good job as the reporter but the other regular characters are a bit flat both in their performing and in the writing. This is a typical B-movie horror film from the 1930s and 1940s, diverting but not riveting. That's a shame since the premise could be a lot of fun if played out with more verve.

Quick Movie Review: White Zombie

With these zombie feet, he shambled into history!

White Zombie (1932) directed by Victor Halperin.

This movie is the first of all feature length zombie movies. The story is about a couple who are in Haiti and want to get married. They go to the estate of a recent friend to tie the knot, but he wants to have the bride for his own. Enter Bela Lugosi as the local voodoo master who helps the friend "kill" the bride and have her come back as a zombie slave for the friend. The distraught husband goes on a bender, then to visit her grave, only to find out she's gone. With help from a local expert he tries to find his bride and get her back.

The movie has a lot of things going for it. Bela Lugosi is great as a creepy and beguiling voodoo master. The mood and style is very Gothic and unnerving, though this is often undercut but the performances of the other actors who are nowhere near as good as Lugosi. I especially enjoyed the intercutting between shots that suggested character separated in space were influencing each other. Also the story was told through a lot of action and visuals rather than characters explaining everything to each other, which is a big plus in my book.

The zombies are voodoo zombies, basically people who are not quite dead but are made into mindless slaves through voodoo magic or medicine. They are put to work mostly for manual labor and to scare the pants off people, which the zombies do effectively. They look pale and vacant but aren't gory.

The plot was pretty melodramatic but didn't bother me too much. The ending was a little clunky, especially the tagged on joke at the end. It felt like the end of an episode of Scooby Doo, Where Are You!, which isn't what you want for a horror film.

I watched the film on Netflix instant queue and the quality was pretty low. The print had a decent transfer but the sound was really bad. I had the volume almost doubled and still had a hard time hearing the dialogue. Maybe getting a disc is a better way to go.