A Study in Classic Horror- THE INVISIBLE MAN (1933)

I never participated in that line at The Rocky Horror Picture Show when the lips would sing “Claude Rains was the Invisible Man” and the audience would shout, “Who’s Claude Rains?” Ignoring that the answer was right there in the song, of course I knew damn well who Claude Rains was. The Invisible Man was, of course, just the tip of the iceberg for Rains, who appeared in many classics over his career, but this was his first major role, and the one that made him famous, which is interesting considering his face is only seen for about twenty seconds.

Jack Griffin is quite a contrast from Rains’ other roles too. There’s usually a level of charm in a Claude Rains character, just look at the often unscrupulous yet always likable Captain Renault in Casablanca, arguably his other most famous role, but there’s little to like about this self-serving invisible man with an inflated sense of importance. But it’s a memorable performance for such an unlikable character. He lashes out at people with little provocation and embarks on a reign of terror with an air of pure glee.

At least in the film, his madness can be blamed on the ingredient monocane in his invisibility formula; in the novel, his egotism is a constant that the formula merely intensifies. Yet, The Invisible Man is a far more accurate reflection of its literary source than Frankenstein or Dracula. Yes, it has a romantic subplot injected into it, some of the novel’s characters are absent, and it has a very different climax, but a lot of the elements of the book are still there.

In the end however, I’d say this film is more Whale than Wells. One of director James Whale’s trademarks was his dark sense of humor. There’s plenty of humor simply in the casting of the wonderful Una O’Connor who plays the landlady at the inn where Griffin takes up residence, (and who gets an even bigger and funnier role later on in Bride of Frankenstein), and more humor can be found as Griffin dispatches one-liners when he victimizes innocent villagers, but it’s Whale’s juxtaposition of slapstick and horror that really struck a chord with me. Take for example Griffin’s murder of a policeman that is preceded by his throwing ink in the man’s face resulting in an Oliver Hardy-esque take to the camera.

There are many great performances by character actors in small roles too numerous to mention, though I must give props to E. E. Clive as Constable Jaffers. Henry Travers, who is probably best known as the angel Clarence in It’s a Wonderful Life is enjoyable as Dr. Cranley, but William Harrigan is rather dull as Dr. Kemp. And I’m afraid even Gloria Stuart’s role as Griffin’s love interest, Flora, leaves something to be desired. It may not be her fault, as I said, the romantic subplot seems like it’s only there to fill an obligatory niche, and I feel the need to go easy on Miss Stuart, as I was somewhat irritated last year when she passed away and headlines could only refer to her as the “Titanic actress” as if the rest of her 72 year career was non-existent.

Rounding out the things that make this movie special are John P. Fulton’s special effects. Even today those scenes where Griffin removes his bandages to reveal nothing underneath are pretty startling. I’m sure they incited many gasps in the 1930s.

Something else that sets the Invisible Man series apart from the Frankenstein and Dracula films is that the author of the source material was around to see it. I’m not sure if H. G. Wells’ reaction to the movies is documented, but I’d be very interested in what he thought of seeing his late 19th Century story, brought into the age of automobiles and radios.

This week’s supporting features:

Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck in Ali Baba Bunny (1957)

The Our Gang short Bargain Day (1931) featuring the final appearance of Jackie Cooper in the series.

Next week I go to a theatrical screening of Dracula (1931), I’ll post my entry on that sometime the following weekend. If you’re going to be in Central Florida on October 8, stop by the Enzian in Maitland and join me.

A Study in Classic Horror- MAN MADE MONSTER (1941)

In Man Made Monster, Lon Chaney Jr. is instantly likeable as carny Dan McCormick, the soul-survivor of a tragic bus accident. He’s a happy, go-lucky and trusting sort, if a bit on the dim side, and that what’s makes the film’s turn of events all the more sad.

Let me start by saying Chaney’s performance is a refreshing change from the sad protagonists of The Wolf Man and Calling Dr. Death. I like his performances in those films, but I must confess I was beginning to wonder how much of a range he had, which is a bit unfair. I was forgetting that he’d already won a lot of people over on stage and screen as Lennie in Of Mice and Men, a performance that would be emulated in cartoons and other comedies for decades to come. In fact there are shades of Lennie in Dan.

I suppose the very things that make us like Dan are what lead to his downfall, most of all the fact that he’s so trusting. Surviving an accident that electrocutes all of his fellow passengers and his carnival job as Dynamo Dan the Electric Man, leads benign scientist Dr. Lawrence (Samuel S. Hinds) to believe Dan may have an immunity to electricity and wants to conduct some experiments on him. Trusting Dan is more than willing. Unfortunately, Lawrence’s duplicitous partner Dr. Rigas (Lionel Atwell) wants to use electricity to alter the brains of what he considers lesser men, to turn them into an army of mindless thugs, and Carl is the perfect guinea pig.

It’s heartbreaking watching what Rigas’s secret experiments do to Dan. The cheerful guy we liked at the beginning of the film becomes a morose parody of his former self, and eventually a zombified drone that murders Dr. Lawrence on Rigas’s command and finds himself on death row unable to defend himself with anything but the hypnotic confession that Rigas has planted in his mind.

It’s a very well made film, if you can handle the sad stuff, but then, most of the classic horror films have some kind of tragic element. Though I think the romantic subplot between a reporter and Dr. Lawrence’s niece / assistant June (Frank Albertson and Anne Nagel) could have been done differently. Albertson’s Mark Adams seems a bit wedged in to the story. Dan is clearly flirting with June early in the movie; I think some seeds of romance between those two might have better served the overall story.

Last but not least, I must mention Corky. This may be the earliest film I’ve seen to use an animal, particularly a dog, to elicit sympathy from the audience. There have been some canine casualties in The Mummy and The Invisible Ray, not that Corky dies, but the dogs in those stories were peripheral characters at best. Corky, the family dog in the Lawrence household, is very much a full-blown characters. Corky romps playfully with Dan, he sits waiting sadly outside the laboratory door as Dan receives the detrimental doses of electricity, and their last moment together… I’ll leave that for you to experience yourself. Corky was quite the little furry actor.

This week’s supporting features:

Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse in The Birthday Party (1931)

The Our Gang short Little Daddy (1931)

Next week’s film:

The Invisible Man (1933) starring Claude Rains, Gloria Stuart, William Harrigan and Henry Travers

A Study in Classic Horror- ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET THE KILLER, BORIS KARLOFF (1949)

I’m going to cut to the chase with a SPOILER ALERT. The title is a red herring. Of course, you don’t have much of a mystery if you reveal the killer in the opening credits, but then Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff isn’t much of a mystery to begin with. Oh, it’s fun, but I can’t help but think there was so much more that could have been done with it.
According to what I’ve read, it was originally conceived as a vehicle for Bob Hope, but following the success of Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (which I’ll get to in a future entry) Universal was eager to team the duo up with another horror legend.

With Boris Karloff’s talents and a tighter script, it could have been great; instead it’s merely good. A whodunit, set in a hotel with a gaggle of suspects, all of whom hope to pin the crime on Lou Costello, but the script doesn’t feel the need for any logical connections, and it introduces plot devices, like a procured confession signed by Costello, that are quickly abandoned. Finally, when the killer is revealed (SPOILER) it’s someone with no discernible motive whatsoever. I realize this film is primarily a comedy, but I think tightening up the mystery elements could have made the film work better as a whole.

Worst of all, Karloff is woefully underused. His best scene comes somewhere around the middle of film, when he tries to hypnotize Costello into committing suicide, so the aforementioned confession can be left with the body. A lot of laughs come from failed suicide attempts, but perhaps more mileage could have been gained had they let the motif run through the rest of the film.

More laughs result as the body count increases, and Bud and Lou find themselves hiding body after body. I think my favorite gag is where they hide a pair of corpses in plain sight by engaging them in a game of bridge. (It’s interesting to note, that the presence of onscreen corpses made the movie somewhat controversial overseas. Many such scenes were cut, which would have deprived the film of some of its funniest moments.)

So overall, funny, but not as funny as it could have been. I hope to find improvements were made when the three reteamed for Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

This week’s supporting features:

Daffy Duck and Conrad Cat in Conrad the Sailor (1942)

The Our Gang short Love Business (1931)

Next week’s film:

Man Made Monster (1941) starring Lon Chaney Jr., Lionel Atwill and Samuel S. Hinds

A Hand for Marcella

You might recall an earlier blog entry where I extolled the virtues of The Puppini Sisters. Well, the group's founder Marcella Puppini has another group on the side called Marcella and The Forget Me Nots, and their new album comes out at the end of the month, and I can't resist giving them a shout out. (May seem like this entry's a big ad, but what can I say? I'm a big fan.) Here's a player where you can sample their work:

A Study in Classic Horror- THE INVISIBLE RAY (1936)

I’m sure if you come into this movie knowing as little about it as I did, you won’t get anything close to the plot you imagined from the title. I pictured a ray that rendered people or objects invisible. I’m still not entirely sure what the ray is that the title refers to. The posters seem to suggest it has something to do with the powers Boris Karloff’s character acquires, but posters have been misleading before. (See my entry on Night Key.)

What we actually have here is a rather sad melodrama entangled with science-fiction. Boris Karloff is Dr. Janos Rukh, a brilliant scientist who (with the help of some 1930s movie pseudo-science) proves that a meteor struck Africa millions of years ago leaving a deposit of an unknown element that will revolutionize both physical and medical science. Unfortunately, his initial exposure to it not only causes him to glow in the dark, but also makes his skin deadly to whoever else touches him. Thanks to renowned physician Felix Benet (played by Bela Lugosi) the physical attributes of his condition can be held back, but Benet can do nothing to prevent the effects on Rukh’s mind.

What follows is a tragic descent into madness. The element, Radium X, is refined and through the work of Rukh, Benet and their colleagues becomes everything they’d hoped it would be. However, the expedition to Africa has caused Rukh’s marriage to crumble, and he feels that he is not receiving his due from the other scientists for his discovery despite being awarded the Nobel Prize. His madness leads him to blame all of his misfortunes, both real and imagined, on the rest of the expedition and he decides to use his deadly powers to enact his revenge.

As is often the case, there is a romantic subplot, but this time it’s at the cost of Rukh’s marriage. Frances Drake, as Diane Rukh, really appears devoted to her husband, but events in Africa lead her to believe he no longer cares for her, and she runs to the arms of Frank Lawton as Ronald Drake. All just part of the spiral that Dr. Rukh’s life goes into. At the beginning he seems to have a lot going for him, and slowly he begins to lose it all, and more to due to happenstance than to his own faults. Very sad.

While essentially enjoyable, The Invisible Ray is also a mixed bag. It opens in a classic stylized Universal mansion complete with a laboratory and an observatory; the middle section, set in Africa, is filled with politically incorrect natives and wealthy Brits who whine about the weather and fancy themselves great white hunters, and the final act is the exploits of a serial killer in the streets of Paris. It could have been a mess, but once again the lead performances of Karloff and Lugosi manage to tie it together. Despite his eventual villainy, Karloff is easy to sympathize with, and Lugosi is a welcome surprise in a more heroic role for a change. The two have a wonderful chemistry that manages to keep the film’s lesser performances from dragging it down.

Now I find myself wondering, and I think I already know the answer, as they so often seem romantically motivated, will Boris or Bela ever get the girl?

This week’s supporting features:

Goofy in Goofy and Wilbur (1939)

The Our Gang short Helping Grandma (1931)

I’ll be taking a break for a bit now as I prepare for our big vacation, which includes my annual trip to Dragon*Con in Atlanta, Georgia (See you there!). I’ll be back the weekend of September 16 with:

Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff (1949) starring Bud Abbott, Lou Costello and Boris Karloff

A Study in Classic Horror- CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON (1954)

The Gill Man is the last of the great classic Universal monsters, and he’s a big shift from his brethren. Unlike the other greats, there is no Karloff, Lugosi or Chaney to endow him with a soul. He’s not the first movie menace to be a head to toe creation of the make-up artists, but he’s certainly one of the most memorable. Not to take anything away from Ben Chapman and Rico Browning, the men who wore the suits, but I think most of this film’s success is owed to the people who designed them.

In terms of story, it’s pretty simple, and a tad uneven in places. A scientific expedition that falls victim to a hitherto unknown force of nature, in the form of the Gill Man, a missing link between fish and man. It’s a story framework that had been used before and has been done successfully several times since. (The Thing from Another World was released three years earlier, and of course later on we got that film’s remake, and the Alien and Predator films.) The characters don’t have much dimension. Richard Carlson and Richard Denning bicker constantly as the respective scientist and businessman of the institute sponsoring the expedition. Julie Adams (billed here as Julia) was a popular leading lady at the time, who took the role because it seemed like fun; she’s introduced as an intelligent member of the group, and not just a romantic interest for Carlson, but once the Creature shows up, her role is quickly reduced to that of the screaming, stumbling damsel. Then there's the Beauty and the Beast aspect of the plot, where the Gill Man is inexplicably drawn to a human female. (Either that, or she just looks like a more tender morsel than her male counterparts.)

None of this, however, dampens the fun. The Gill Man is a pretty scary creation; no visible zippers or obvious mask lines here, like many of the other costumed beasts of the era. He’s menacing on land, and creepy underwater. (The vulnerability of being in water while a silent killer lurks below is a scary concept to me.) I find him at his scariest when he stares at the crew of the boat through the bamboo bars of the makeshift prison they create to take him back to civilization. As a costumed monster, he’s almost completely believable; I particularly love the way his gills flap when he’s on land.

I was also watching a documentary this weekend that accompanied the new Mystery Science Theater 3000 Gamera collection in which the Chiodo Brothers lumped the Gill Man in with the likes of Godzilla, Gamera and the other Japanese costumed monsters. They may be distant cousins, but I think Alien, the creatures of the original Star Wars films, and the types of characters Doug Jones has played in films like Hellboy and Pan’s Labyrinth are examples of more direct descendants.

Incidentally, I had the opportunity to watch Creature from the Black Lagoon in 3-D last year. If the opportunity arises, I recommend it. The underwater footage alone makes it worthwhile.

This week’s supporting features:

Speedy Gonzales in Mexicali Shmoes (1959)

The Our Gang short School’s Out (1930)

Next week’s film:

The Invisible Ray (1936) starring Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi and Frances Drake

A Study in Classic Horror- TOWER OF LONDON (1939)

The second non-horror entry in my study in horror, and not surprisingly, it’s from the same Boris Karloff box set as Night Key. Like Night Key, I’m sure Karloff’s reputation as a horror actor was relied upon to sell both this film and the dvds to fans of the genre. But what we really have here is a historical drama, albeit a historically inaccurate one, as it tells the, until recently, widely believed account of Richard III’s bloody ascent to the throne of England. These days we know that Richard has been viciously maligned over the centuries, so just as with Amadeus, you enjoy the film at face value rather than as a history lesson.

Karloff may have been used to sell this film, his leering face looms over the title in most of the old posters, and recent vhs covers featured only him, but this is Basil Rathbone’s time to shine. Don’t get me wrong, Karloff is great, as usual, but it’s really a minor role. Rathbone is brilliant as the duplicitous Richard, and quite scary sometimes as his machinations bring him closer and closer to the throne. Rathbone had already become Sherlock Holmes to the world by the time he was making this film, and it’s what he’s best known for today, so it was nice to get a look at his acting range here in a role that was so far removed from Holmes.

Another cast with very few weak links. (The weak links being John Sutton and Nan Grey in the obligatory romantic subplot.) A young Vincent Price, in one his earliest film roles is enjoyable as the sniveling Duke of Clarence, one of Richard’s obstacles, but I was particularly impressed by Ian Hunter and Barbara O’Neil as King Edward VI and Elyzabeth, his queen. O’Neil’s Elyzabeth is compassionate, but a powerless pawn against the politics of state. One scene in particular, in which she must make a decision she knows will seal the fate of the last two heirs between Richard and the throne, is heartbreaking. Hunter’s Edward is that rare breed of Hollywood, the morally ambiguous character. So often movie characters are quite simply good or bad with no middle ground. It’s hard to make up your mind about Edward, he’s kind and likable one moment, and the next he’s conniving with Richard, little knowing he’s just another puppet to him.

I suppose one of the reasons Tower has a reputation as a horror film, is that some elements are horrific. Boris Karloff, as Mord, the executioner and dungeon master, is ruthless and sadistic. Some of the scenes of torture and murder are terrifying, and when Mord claims his last two victims it’s as chilling as anything a bona fide horror film has to offer.

This week’s supporting features:

Donald Duck in The Wise Little Hen (1934)

The Our Gang short Teacher’s Pet (1930) featuring the series debut of Matthew “Stymie” Beard and June Marlowe as Miss Crabtree

Next week’s film:

Creature From the Black Lagoon (1954) starring Richard Carlson, Julie Adams and Richard Denning