Bela Lugosi plays wealthy and respected Charles Kessler, who was deserted by his wife (Betty Compson) years before. From time to time, Kessler is gripped by a homicidal mania that is set off when he sees his wife wandering around his mansion’s grounds. (Unbeknownst to Kessler, his wife is being hidden and cared for by …
Read the full post →“Monogram Monday: <em>Invisible Ghost</em> (1941)”
One hundred years ago this week, the magazine Weird Tales debuted. The “Unique” magazine is perhaps the most famous of the pulps to readers today thanks to its publishing of horror by H. P. Lovecraft and Conan tales by Robert E. Howard, but it encompassed many more authors and works during its three-decade run. I’m …
Read the full post →“Wednesday Pulp: <em>Weird Tales</em>, March 1923”
Engineer Oliver Reed (Kent Smith) meets and marries Irena, a Serbian immigrant (Simone Simon), who is fascinated by the big cats at the zoo and who worries that she herself may be descended from the were-panthers of her homeland. Although Oliver tries to help her, Irena’s beliefs put a strain on their relationship, as does …
The comic contribution of Mantan Moreland is the highlight of this otherwise rather lackluster Monogram horror movie. In it, a plane driven off course in a storm makes a crash landing on a small Caribbean island. There, the fliers — Mac (Dick Purcell), Bill (John Archer), and Bill’s valet, Jeff (Mantan Moreland) — find shelter …
Read the full post →“Monogram Monday: <em>King of the Zombies</em> (1941)”
Chills and chuckles, with an emphasis on the latter, are both provided by this little programmer, in which two comedians (Alan Carney and Wally Brown) promise to supply a gangster (Sheldon Leonard) with a real zombie for the opening of his new nightclub, the Zombie Hut. Their efforts bring the boys to the island of …
Read the full post →“<em>Zombies on Broadway</em> (RKO, 1945)”
Hot rods and a haunted house: hijinks among the young. There’s silly fun in this unmemorable American International outing that is worth a look in spooky season. Mildly recommended. Otto judiciously thinks this movie is OK. Movie 563 for 2021.
A man (Boris Karloff) is framed for murder by gangsters and then executed, but he is brought back to life through the efforts of a scientist (Edmund Gwenn) who seeks to learn what the man experienced while dead. The revivified fellow confronts those responsible for his demise, with fatal results. Solid performances (including Ricardo Cortez …
When the son of the notorious Dr. Jekyll is inspired to undertake some experiments of his own along the same lines as those of his father, deadly happenings suggest that history may be repeating itself. But who in fact is responsible for the crimes? Louis Hayward does well in the lead, even if he is …
Read the full post →“<em>The Son of Dr. Jekyll</em> (Columbia, 1951)”
Murder stalks the guests in the sinister home of a man (Ralph Morgan) left crippled by three doctors (among them Lionel Atwill), a man whose sister (Fay Helm) fears for her own sanity as well. Can plucky Dick Baldwin (Don Porter) unravel the mysterious goings-on and protect Dr. Lynne Harper (Irene Hervey), a psychiatrist summoned …
Read the full post →“<em>Night Monster</em> (Universal, 1942)”
Boris Karloff shines as usual as a mad scientist, this time one committed to cryogenic research. In fact, he himself is a beneficiary, when, after being frozen alive, he and those frozen with him are revived by a younger doctor who makes use of “frozen therapy” to treat cancer. Unfortunately, the scientist’s monomania, though it …
Read the full post →“<em>The Man with Nine Lives</em> (Columbia, 1940)”
