Vashirdfel
Simply A Masterpiece
FeistyUpper
If you don't like this, we can't be friends.
Voxitype
Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.
mark.waltz
Don't be confused by the vivid color in this deliciously silly thriller with tons of comedy-both intentional and accidental. This actually was photographed in a process known as "Tru Color". This is the type of film that Mystery Science Theater used to depend on to ridicule, so wonderfully preposterous and poorly made that you might end up with an eternal grin that freezes from viewing the absurdity, that is if your eyeballs don't end up in the back of your head for rolling them too hard. Horror greats George Zucco and Bela Lugosi are enemy cousins, tossed together here like Lugosi and Boris Karloff in "The Black Cat" to toss barbs over an old vendetta that is never explained. Zucco's son (Roland Varno) is married to extremely nasty Molly Lamont who is being haunted by a mysterious person in a green mask whose image keeps appearing in the window in an attempt to frighten her.Comedy relief is provided by the bumbling Nat Pendleton who is in love with the sarcastic maid (Gladys Blake). Others present include diminutive Angelo Rossito as Lugosi's companion, Douglas Fowley as an obnoxious reporter, and Joyce Compton as his girlfriend, and the sudden appearance of an obvious man in drag looking like something out of "Glen or Glenda". The film is narrated by Lamont's corpse, already dead as the film starts, giving the impression that a dead body's brain can still think. The narration is intertwined with extremely wretched editing and eerie music that pops up every time her corpse is shown. The conclusion is hardly worth waiting for. Enjoy it purely as fun crap with plenty of moments to laugh at, not with.
Woodyanders
Feisty young Molly Lamont (essayed with fervent eye-rolling brio by Laura La Valle) relates from the coroner's slab how she was frightened to death. Director Christy Cabanne, working from a thoroughly bonkers script by Walter Abbott, tells the deliriously loopy story involving hypnosis and a creepy guy wearing a blue mask lurking at the window at a brisk pace and pitches the off the wall humor at a hysterically broad level. Moreover, the game cast has a ball with the nutty material: George Zucco keeps a straight face and maintains his dignity as the incredulous Dr. Joseph Van Ee, Bela Lugosi hams it up deliciously as the sinister Professor Leonide, Nat Pendleton is a complete riot as bumbling, but earnest lug ex-cop turned bodyguard Bill Raymond, Rolad Varno contributes a lively turn as wisecracking reporter Terry Lee, and both Joyce Compton as sweet dingbat Jane Cornell and Gladys Blake as sassy maid Lillybeth bring considerable flair to their roles. Moreover, the ubiquitous Angelo Rossitto even pops up as Leonide's ill-tempered dwarf companion Indigo. Marcel Le Picard's color cinematography makes cheesy use of gradual dissolves. Carl Hoefle's cornball score does the shuddery trick. The tight 68 minute running time ensures that this picture never gets dull or overstays its welcome. Granted, this film is extremely silly and contrived, but it's so cheerfully absurd that one can't help but enjoy it for its rampant inanity alone. An absolute hoot.
Flixer1957
Here's a weird one for you: a terror tale told in flashback by the voice of a dead woman. Heroine Joyce Compton is terrorized by an eerie figure in a green mask until her ticker can't take it any more. Shots of her corpse are separated from flashbacks by loud noise on the soundtrack. Perennial mad doctor George Zucco stars, along with Bela Lugosi as a hypnotist, Angelo Rossitto as his assistant and Molly Lamont as a stereotype Irish maid. Big Nat Pendleton, so good at playing goof-balls, is a dopey detective so inept he couldn't catch a virus during a flu epidemic. They all play their parts as if completely unrehearsed, which at least gives the picture its only continuity. Cabanne blended horror and comedy relief very well in THE MUMMY'S HAND; this outing is a farce with horror trappings and nothing more. Allegedly Lugosi's only film in color.
pery-1
Much like an "Abbott and Costello meet ...Lugosi" type movie. Nat Pendleton's bizarre and irritating yet somehow endearing slapstick is a major part of the film. The reporter and maid are also rather irritating characters like you find in the old screwball comedies. The midget crawling all over is one of many zany touches, and false leads. Legosi is earnest in playing it straight, as always, and he gets some good lines off. It's a treat to see Lugosi in color.One thing that's irritating today is the (Theramin?) sound every time it flashes back from the body to what happened, because that sound was later appropriated as the "UFO" sound and is now so identified with them that it feels very wrong here.
