A Study in Classic Horror- THE MAN WHO LAUGHS (1928)

Between my enjoyment of Paul Leni’s The Cat and the Canary and my appreciation for the works of Victor Hugo, I was really looking forward to this one, and it did not disappoint. While it joins the list of films in this project that aren’t really horror, it may be my favorite of the silent works. Certainly in the horror genre it’s hard to top The Phantom of the Opera, but judged as a film of any genre, it comes darned close to being a masterpiece. With The Cat and the Canary Leni, through use of artful camera shots and creepy art direction made a wonderful atmospheric dark comedy that delivered a well-balanced dose of laughs and chills. With The Man Who Laughs he got to apply his skills to an epic.

The story is that of a nobleman’s son who is kidnapped and disfigured by gypsies, his love for the blind girl he grew up with, and the events surrounding the reclamation of his birthright. Gwynplaine’s disfigurement has left a permanent grotesque grin on his face, and he has become famous throughout the French countryside as a carnival performer known as the Laughing Man.

Like most epic films of the time, it’s very melodramatic, and maybe a tad simplistic, but as a whole I’d say it belongs on the must-see list of any die-hard film buff. There are many memorable performances by the likes of Cesare Gravina, Brandon Hurst, Olga Vladimirovna Baklanova, and, of course, the lovely Mary Philbin, but most of all, we have Conrad Veidt’s amazing turn as the title character. In a time when performers had to resort to exaggerated gestures and facial expressions in order to convey a concept or emotion, Veidt delivers his entire performance through his eyes. Whether with the disturbing grin, or with the lower half of his face covered, those eyes communicate every nuance of Gwynplaine’s tortured existence. 

I’m glad to have spent some time with this story, even if it is the Hollywood take on it. I’ll have to explore the book in the future, and hope I’ll get the chance to see the 2012 French adaptation.

I’ll close with one last tip of the hat to Paul Leni. Based on the two films I’ve seen, I’d say he was ahead of, and died well before, his time.

Supporting features:

Daffy Duck in Nasty Quacks (1945)

The Our Gang short Forgotten Babies (1933)

Next time:
Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1953) starring Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Boris Karloff, and Eddie Parker

In Memoriam - 2012

My own list of notable people (and others) we lost in 2012 whose time on this planet left some impression, big or small, on me. Of course, like all the other lists, it doesn't include everybody, so feel free to remark on anyone you'll miss in the comments.

In Memoriam - 2012

Victor Arriagada Ríos, aka Vicar

Comic book Artist

April 16, 1934 - January 3, 2012

The Senator

Cypress Tree

c. 1500 BC – January 16, 2012

Dick Tufeld

Actor / Voice over artist

December 11, 1926 - January 22, 2012

Robert Hegyes

Actor

May 7, 1951 – January 26, 2012

Ian Abercrombie

Actor / Voice over artist

September 11, 1934 – January 26, 2012

Ben Gazzara

Actor

August 28, 1930 – February 3, 2012

Bill Hinzman

Actor

October 24, 1936 – February 5, 2012

David Kelly

Actor

July 11, 1929 – February 12, 2012

John Severin

Comic Book Artist

December 26, 1921 – February 12, 2012

Steve Kordek

Pinball Machine Designer

December 26, 1911 – February 19, 2012

Jan Berenstain

Author / Illustrator

July 26, 1923 – February 24, 2012

Davy Jones

Singer / Actor

December 30, 1945 – February 29, 2012

Ralph McQuarrie

Film Conceptual Artist

June 13, 1929 – March 3, 2012

Robert B. Sherman

Songwriter

December 19, 1925 – March 5, 2012

Jean Giraud, aka Mœbius

Comic Book Artist

May 8, 1938 – March 10, 2012

Sid Couchey

Comic Book Artist

May 24, 1919 – March 11, 2012

Jim Duffy

Animator

July 2, 1937 – March 23, 2012

Earl Scruggs

Musician

January 6, 1924 – March 28, 2012

Dick Clark

Television Host / Producer

November 30, 1929 – April 18, 2012

George Lindsey

Actor

December 17, 1928 – May 6, 2012

Maurice Sendak

Author / Illustrator

June 10, 1928 – May 8, 2012

Tony DeZuniga

Comic Book Artist

November 8, 1932 – May 11, 2012

Donald “Duck” Dunn

Musician

November 24, 1941 – May 13, 2012

Dee Caruso

Television Writer

April 7, 1929 – May 27, 2012

Dick Beals

Voice Actor

March 16, 1927 – May 29, 2012

Jim Unger

Cartoonist

January 21, 1937 – May 29, 2012

Richard Dawson

Actor / Television Host

November 20, 1932 – June 2, 2012

Ray Bradbury

Author

August 22, 1920 – June 5, 2012

Frank Cady

Actor

 September 8, 1915 – June 8, 2012

Judy Freudberg

Film  / Television Writer

July 12, 1949 – June 10, 2012

Henry Hill

Mobster Turned Informant

June 11, 1943 – June 12, 2012

Susan Tyrell

Actor

March 18, 1945 – June 16, 2012

Lonesome George

Pinta Island Tortoise

c. 1912 – June 24, 2012

Nora Ephron

Screenwriter

May 19, 1941 – June 26, 2012

Don Grady

Actor

June 8, 1944 – June 27, 2012

Andy Griffith

Actor

June 1, 1926 – July 3, 2012

Ernest Borgnine

Actor

January 24, 1917 – July 8, 2012

Donald J. Sobol

Author

October 4, 1924 – July 11, 2012

Celeste Holm

Actor

April 29, 1917 – July 15, 2012

Tom Davis

Television Writer / Comedian

August 13, 1952 – July 19, 2012

Sally Ride

Astronaut

May 26, 1951 – July 23, 2012

Sherman Hemsley

Actor

February 1, 1938 – July 24, 2012

Mary Tamm

Actor

March 22, 1950 – July 26, 2012

Marvin Hamlisch

Composer

June 2, 1944 - August 6, 2012

 

Mel Stuart

Director

September 2, 1928 – August 9, 2012

Carlo Rambaldi

Special Effects Artist

September 15, 1925 – August 10, 2012

Joe Kubert

Comic Book Artist

September 18, 1926 – August 12, 2012

Ron Palillo

Actor

April 2, 1949 – August 14, 2012

Phyllis Thaxter

Actor

November 20, 1919 – August 14, 2012

Tony Scott

Director

June 21, 1944 – August 19, 2012

Phyllis Diller

Actor / Comedian

July 17, 1917 – August 20, 2012

Jerry Nelson

Puppeteer

July 10, 1934 – August 23, 2012

Neil Armstrong

Astronaut

August 5, 1930 – August 25, 2012

Hal David

Songwriter

May 25, 1921 – September 1, 2012

Michael Clarke Duncan

Actor

December 10, 1957 – September 3, 2012

Andy Williams

Singer

December 3, 1927 – September 25, 2012

Herbert Lom

Actor

September 11, 1917 – September 27, 2012

Turhan Bey

Actor

March 30, 1922 – September 30, 2012

Alex Karras

Athlete / Actor

July 15, 1935 – October 10, 2012

Lucille Bliss

Voice Over Artist

March 31, 1916 – November 8, 2012

Larry Hagman

Actor

September 21, 1931 – November 23, 2012

Reinhold Weege

Television Writer

December 23, 1949 – December 1, 2012

Dave Brubeck

Composer / Musician

December 6, 1920 – December 5, 2012

Rusty Mills

Animator

December 16, 1962 – December 7, 2012

Ravi Shankar

Musician

April 7, 1920 – December 11, 2012

Charles Durning

Actor

February 28, 1923 – December 24, 2012

Jack Klugman

Actor

April 27, 1922 – December 24, 2012

Gerry Anderson

Television Producer

April 14, 1929 – December 26, 2012

A Study in Classic Horror- THE INVISIBLE MAN RETURNS (1940)

As far as sequels go, The Invisible Man Returns is fairly satisfying. It may not be as a strong a film as Bride of Frankenstein, but it certainly has more going for it than Revenge of the Creature. It also does a nice job of revisiting the elements of its predecessor without being too repetitive.

This time around the invisible man in question is the victim rather than the aggressor.  Geoffrey Radcliffe (Vincent Price) has been wrongly imprisoned for the murder of his brother. His friend Frank Griffin (John Sutton) injects him with the invisibility serum invented by his brother Jack (the title character of the first movie) allowing him to escape, thus giving him the opportunity to track down the real murderer and clear his name. Things get complicated as the maddening side effects of the formula begin to manifest in Geoffrey.  The story becomes a race as Frank tries to discover a cure, while Geoffrey’s fiancée Helen (Nan Grey) tries to keep him from going over the edge as he attempts to confront the man he believes to be the real killer, Richard Cobb (Cedric Hardwicke). Hot on his heels is savvy Scotland Yard Inspector Sampson (Cecil Kellaway) who remembers the events of the original Griffin case all too well.

Though the storyline has some freshness, it still appears the filmmakers couldn’t resist bringing back some familiar plot elements of the original. Hardwicke and Grey’s characters seem like echoes of those played by William Harrigan and Gloria Stuart previously. But this is a minor quibble and easily overlooked in light of the new special effects tricks learned between movies.

I was a little curious about Vincent Price’s voice in this film. Price had one of the most recognizable voices in movie history, but here, in what is essentially a vocal performance, he doesn’t quite sound like himself. Granted this is one of his earlier performances, but he’s not that much younger than he was in some of his other notable roles. I suspect it was a conscious choice either on his part or the director’s; I just wonder what the motivation was. Only in a scene where Geoffrey seems to really be going off the deep in does Price’s familiar cackle sneak in.

Supporting features:

The Merrie Melodies cartoon Russian Rhapsody (1944)

The Our Gang short Fish Hooky (1933)

Next time:
The Man Who Laughs (1928) starring Conrad Veidt and Mary Philbin

A Study in Classic Horror- THE CLIMAX (1944)

I’m beginning to suspect that the powers that be at Universal began to rely on Boris Karloff’s talents to bring life to weak scripts. As I discussed in my entry on The Mummy, those efforts (with the help of Jack P. Pierce’s amazing make-up effects) paid off; with The Climax, not so much. 

The main problem with The Climax is that it doesn’t know what kind of film it wants to be. Whenever Karloff is onscreen it’s a dark thriller, but the rest of the time it’s a light romantic comedy. Certainly, many of the classic horror films balance the scares and the laughs nicely, but not this time.

Karloff plays Dr. Friedrich Hohner, physician to the Royal Opera Company, whom years before fell in love with the company’s lead soprano Marcellina (June Vincent). When Marcellina’s star began to rise and their relationship began to take a backseat to her career, Hohner murdered her in a jealous rage and secretly enshrined her body in his home. Ten years later, Angela Klatt (Susanna Foster), a new soprano discovered by the company, sings with a voice much like Marcellina’s and the insane Hohner takes steps to control her, so that no one ever hears that voice but him.

As you might suspect, Karloff’s intimidating presence serves him well as usual, but the film suffers in his absence, and he doesn’t get enough screen time to keep the movie going.  Most of the film is taken up by Turhan Bey, who plays Angela’s love interest, Franz Munzer, another hero who really doesn’t take much action but spends plenty of time making moon-eyed “gee, I’m in love” faces at his beloved. One particular scene where he literally chews up his program while watching Angela sing at the opera is out-and-out embarrassing.  Of the rest of the cast, only Gale Sondergaard, as Hohner’s housekeeper Luise, is particularly engaging.

The other drawback of The Climax is that it just feels like there are too many shades of The Phantom of the Opera, and considering it features the same female lead and was filmed on some of the same sets as the 1943 version of Phantom that’s not exactly surprising. Just as I suspect the studio was looking for another Dracula with The Mummy, The Climax appears to be a further attempt to make lightning strike twice. Karloff certainly deserved a more worthy project for his color debut.

Supporting features:
Popeye in Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor (1936)

The Our Gang short A Lad an’ a Lamp (1932)


Next time:
The Invisible Man Returns (1940) starring Vincent Price, Cedric Hardwicke, Nan Grey, and John Sutton

A Study in Classic Horror- SON OF FRANKENSTEIN (1939)

Well, well, a Frankenstein movie in which Dracula is the star. I must say I’ve really been looking forward to this one, primarily for the reputation of Bela Lugosi’s performance as Ygor, and I concur that it is everything people say it is. Bela’s flair for throwing himself completely into a role really pays off here. This is the part that conclusively establishes how much more he was than simply screen presence with an accent.  Of course the Lugosi aura helps, but where many of his characters are rather one-dimensional Ygor is, at last, a character with depth, at times earning our sympathy, at others our revulsion, an echo even of the Monster who he befriends and controls.


Taking place some time after the events of Bride of Frankenstein, this story concerns the journey of Baron Wolf von Frankenstein (Basil Rathbone) back to the castle and surrounding village where his father Henry conducted his notorious experiments so many years before. The villagers remember the creature Henry Frankenstein unleashed on them all to well, and Wolf, along with his wife Elsa and his son Peter (Josephine Hutchinson and Donnie Dunagan) are greeted with a rather cool reception. Only Inspector Krogh (Lionel Atwill), who himself lost an arm to the Monster as a boy, shows them any treatment resembling respect, but he still advises them to leave for their own good. Soon Wolf encounters Ygor, an estranged villager shunned by the town having been convicted and unsuccessfully hanged for grave robbing. Ygor reveals he has befriended the Monster (Boris Karloff) Wolf’s father created, but that the Creature has fallen ill. Wolf, who had been in denial that the Monster even existed, now comes to his aid, not knowing that Ygor has been using him to enact his murderous revenge on the jury that convicted him, and so finds himself continuing the work of his father, just as the villagers feared.


Karloff is in good form as usual, though I wish there could have been more of a progression in the Monster’s development from the more articulate characterization in Bride of Frankenstein. Here he’s reverted back to the grunting and moaning Monster of the first film. Lionel Atwill gives a fine performance as Krogh, the voice of reason among all the madness. There are some rather nice scenes between him and young Donnie Dunagan as Peter. It’s a nice turnaround from the character I saw him play in Man Made Monster, which came two years later. Now, I’ve seen Basil Rathbone’s performance criticized as over-the-top, but I didn’t see it that way. I think maybe it’s because he exhibits behavior we’re used to in slapstick comedies. As things start to unravel around him, he runs around in hysterics trying to hold things together, not unlike Archie trying to keep Betty and Veronica from finding out he’s made a date with both of them on the same night. Yet Wolf’s behavior is justified. This is a man who’s found himself out of his depth trying to protect his family while trying to hide a terrible secret.  I think the performance works.


Finally, I must say I loved the art direction for this movie, particularly the enormous and sparse interiors of the Frankenstein home.  Wolf and Elsa take their meals in a virtually empty dining room while enormous twin gargoyles loom over them from a pair of fireplaces you could walk into. Young Peter’s bedroom appears to be on the farthest end of the house, accessible by a delicate-looking staircase, serving to heighten the danger he’s in when the Monster’s on the loose.


Overall, it’s not as solid as James Whale’s entries, but it’s still a worthy part of the series, a fitting swan song for Karloff’s tenure as the Monster. And congratulations to Lugosi, though I fear this is probably also the moment when his career entered into decline.


Supporting features:
Tom and Jerry in The Night Before Christmas (1941)
The Our Gang short Birthday Blues (1932)


Next time:
The Climax (1944) starring Boris Karloff, Susanna Foster, Turhan Bey, and Gale Sondergaard

A Study in Classic Horror- WEIRD WOMAN (1944)

This my second visit to the Inner Sanctum, and I think a pattern is beginning to emerge. Once again Lon Chaney Jr. falls victim to the machinations of a jealous woman. And once again we are made privy to his inner thoughts, but as the inner sanctum in question is that of the mind, perhaps that’s the common element. I suppose I’ll find out as I continue through the series.

This time around Chaney plays college professor Norman Reed, a man who has made his name on studies in logic. On a trip to the South Seas he meets Paula (Anne Gwynne), who has been raised by island natives to believe in tribal superstitions. Despite the dichotomy of their beliefs, the two fall in love and marry, much to the chagrin of Norman’s ex-girlfriend Illona (Evelyn Ankers). Illona begins to plot revenge by mentally manipulating Norman, Paula, and their colleagues at the college. Norman quickly finds himself under scrutiny for his professional conduct and, eventually, suspicion of murder. Paula tries to combat Norman’s troubles with her old tribal rituals, and Norman begins a mental war with himself as what appears to be mysterious circumstances begin to challenge his faith in logic.

While not quite on par with the first Inner Sanctum mystery, Weird Woman is still an enjoyable ride. Unlike Calling Dr. Death it won’t keep you guessing. The audience is let in pretty early on the fact that Illona is up to something even if the other characters are not. Chaney’s performance comes down a notch; his onscreen performance to the frequent inner-monologues doesn’t quite match up as well as it did in the earlier film. The rest of the cast gives merely adequate performances- with one exception. This film really was Evelyn Ankers’ time to shine. In The Wolf Man and Captive Wild Woman Ankers was pretty much the typical scream queen, the damsel in need of rescue, but here, she makes a rather devious villain. In a genre where there were really few good roles for young women, it makes for a refreshing change. Like Patricia Morrison in Calling Dr. Death, the Inner Sanctum is proving a good source for villainous females.

I’d say two for two then on the Inner Sanctum series. I look forward to seeing if it maintains its batting average.

This week’s supporting features:

Donald Duck in The Autograph Hound (1939)

The Our Gang short Free Wheeling (1932)

Next time:

Son of Frankenstein (1939) starring Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, Basil Rathbone, and Lionel Atwell

Oh, Wise Guy, Eh? Nyuk, Nyuk

Yes, I admit it. I just saw The Three Stooges, and I had a good time. Unlike many of the recent revivals of old television and movie characters this is a loving homage rather than a self-referential parody. Chris Diamantopoulos, Sean Hayes, and Will Sasso are dead-on as Moe, Larry, and Curly, not just in voice, but in every nuance and mannerisms. I would have liked to have seen more references for the longtime Stooge fans, there was a sequence in a hospital, and no one thought to include a "Calling Dr. Howard, Dr. Fine, Dr. Howard", and a Shemp cameo would have been nice, but I think a character named Teddy may have been a nod to Ted Healy, who was part of the Stooges' original vaudeville act.

Early into the movie I realized I should approach it less like I would say the Smurfs movie or any of a dozen film reboots of tv sitcoms, and more like a stage show like A Day in Hollywood / A Night in the Ukraine (part of which is a re-imagining of a Chekhov story as a Marx Brothers film). Even as a film, I'd say it has more in common with the latter in spirit. I realized that had this been on Broadway rather than the big screen it probably would have been less controversial among the purists. (And a purist I often am.)

It's by no means flawless, I could have done without a Jersey Shore subplot, although there was a sense of satisfaction in seeing Snooky and crew getting eyepokes and head slaps (but lordy, they CANNOT act), but still, it was a fun diversion. I hope some of the kids in the audience will be tempted to check out the classic shorts, I know I'M in the mood for some.