tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-77457190797197741942024-03-18T20:36:30.869-07:00Jonathan's Haunted House of HorrorHorror movie reviews, from the silent era to the present dayJonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10746384490870629929noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7745719079719774194.post-64023892547934284392011-11-06T11:02:00.016-08:002012-04-03T08:12:34.598-07:00Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1931)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDtN7RGN3Im8gT87DJKm3iyDMXYgceDFapgcalL-fbOOQN9Iu4zOR794VBGy5QmsITZOzDUerCsHBe6ezjcCWfBc60C6TDe0OOxmp7BYh0226dW6Tzdm8SkZ3WZGifU_pOokcilvID3OU/s1600/12729.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320px" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDtN7RGN3Im8gT87DJKm3iyDMXYgceDFapgcalL-fbOOQN9Iu4zOR794VBGy5QmsITZOzDUerCsHBe6ezjcCWfBc60C6TDe0OOxmp7BYh0226dW6Tzdm8SkZ3WZGifU_pOokcilvID3OU/s320/12729.jpg" width="243px" /></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Directed by: Rouben Mamoulian</span></div><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Starring: Fredric March</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"> Miriam Hopkins</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"> Rose Hobart</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Run time: 98 mins</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Studio: Paramount</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Black & White</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"></div><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Rouben Mamoulian’s <em>Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde</em> is regarded by many as the best movie version of Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic tale, and it’s not hard to see why. Quite apart from its lavish production values, its attention to detail, its magnificent central performance (which earned Fredric March a well-deserved Academy Award - a rare distinction for a horror film) and its famous special effects, the film benefits enormously from having been made before the full enforcement of the censorious Motion Picture Production Code (popularly known as the Hays Code, after Hollywood’s chief censor Will H. Hays), allowing Mamoulian to explore his subject matter with considerably more frankness and honesty than he might have been able to had the film been made a few years later. Basically, anyone who’s ever suspected that <em>Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde</em> is really the story of one man’s repressed sexuality erupting to the surface need look no further than Mamoulian’s film for confirmation of their suspicions.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGVgRkEoBa_JeD6iGGZrz1irINY5LKzlX3ECQgYhrLBUOoOG_-UsFRnLzIVnPmUCoDQhV7Ghyphenhyphenbg3bLefiihM4rP0LPHHm-h5lxwZYj87lhIherbdRFHyJmVQdQejQo_S5jlakddIRCal4/s1600/4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240px" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGVgRkEoBa_JeD6iGGZrz1irINY5LKzlX3ECQgYhrLBUOoOG_-UsFRnLzIVnPmUCoDQhV7Ghyphenhyphenbg3bLefiihM4rP0LPHHm-h5lxwZYj87lhIherbdRFHyJmVQdQejQo_S5jlakddIRCal4/s320/4.jpg" width="320px" /></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">That the film is to be an exploration of one man's psyche is established from the outset, with Mamoulian using subjective camera lensing in the opening scene to place the audience directly inside Jekyll’s head. The man we encounter there is a cultured and seemingly untroubled individual, used to the luxuries of life and happy to spend his time reciting Bach amid the opulent surroundings of his London home (and gently rebuking his manservant Poole (Edgar Norton) for failing to be moved by the music) rather than attending the local doctors’ symposium, where he is due to give a lecture that evening. Jekyll’s lectures, we are told, are popular and always sensational. He is quite the celebrity and clearly one of the leading intellectuals of his day; but Mamoulian’s use of the subjective camera alerts us to the fact that with this success has come an unhealthy degree of self-absorption, possibly bordering on narcissism, a point that is underscored by the fact that our first sight of Jekyll (while we are still viewing the world through is eyes) is his reflection in a hall mirror as he is preparing to leave the house. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Jekyll, we quickly learn, sees himself as a visionary who recognises no limits to scientific enquiry, unlike his learned colleagues.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>During his lecture at the symposium he chides them for allowing the London fog to penetrate their minds and cloud their reason. He informs them that he has analysed the human soul and has come to believe that man is not truly one. Part of man strives for nobility (the good side) while the bad side seeks an expression of impulses that ‘bind him to some dim animal relation’ of the earth. The two sides are chained together but carry out a struggle – repression to the evil, remorse to the good. Jekyll believes that if he splits the two sides then the good will reach greater heights and the bad will be able to fulfil itself and leave us alone. To this end, he has begun experimenting with certain chemicals. </span><br />
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<a name='more'></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">The speech highlights Jekyll's youthful arrogance, but it is an arrogance that is generally tolerated by his peers because as a medical doctor he is undoubtedly a brilliant healer who has the total trust - even worship - of his patients (of course, it also helps that he is charming and good-looking); and Jekyll appears to be totally dedicated to his patients, too - a fact that causes his prospective father-in-law,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Brigadier-General Sir Danvers Carew (Halliwell Hobbes), to observe that Jekyll spends far too much time with charity cases and needs to 'come down to earth'. While there can be no doubt that Jekyll's patients benefit enormously from his determination to excel in his chosen field, we can't help but feel that his motives are driven more by ego than by altruism. Despite all this, however, Jekyll is not unlikeable - he is clearly trying to be a good man - and another reason for Mamoulian's use of the subjective camera lens may well have been to help the audience sympathise more with the character by having us intimately connected with him from the start.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsU4RMbdPnTbaWZyPaQXN_QTY2piEW5GYs3S8q9ljX5cTyt8pceCDWQs2vutQtyfeKgUzCrNAfJjrdprMx4cFD27VLg1U8D4CmQihxRnK5PN7X-OauVSYm9VSSx2k6pF5BkPISGVN_38k/s1600/2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240px" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsU4RMbdPnTbaWZyPaQXN_QTY2piEW5GYs3S8q9ljX5cTyt8pceCDWQs2vutQtyfeKgUzCrNAfJjrdprMx4cFD27VLg1U8D4CmQihxRnK5PN7X-OauVSYm9VSSx2k6pF5BkPISGVN_38k/s320/2.jpg" width="320px" /></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Jekyll’s impatience with the world also includes his relationship with is fiancée, Muriel Carew (Rose Hobart). He cannot understand why he has to wait to marry her – he cannot understand why he has to wait for anything. To Jekyll, Muriel represents ‘the unknown’ and offers him a gateway to another world. Jekyll is a man with a passion for knowledge, which also extends to the possibilities he can explore through marriage. Though never stated explicitly, it is nevertheless quite clear that these possibilities include the sexual, a fact that Muriel’s father recognise all too well – he is very much against the idea of an early marriage; quite apart from the fact that it goes against tradition, people will suspect Jekyll’s motives and Muriel’s reputation will be sullied. In short, it would be indecent. But Jekyll, who admits to being frightened by the intensity of his passion for Muriel, is not ready to take no for an answer.</span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">While walking home one night from a party at the Carew’s house, Jekyll and his colleague, Dr Lanyon (Herbert Holmes), witness a prostitute, Ivy Pearson, (Miriam Hopkins), being attacked by a man outside her boarding house. Jekyll drives the man away and carries Ivy up to her room to attend to her, whereupon, in an eyebrow raising scene for its time, Ivy pretends to be more injured than she is and begins to flirt shamelessly with him, exposing her bruised thighs and encouraging Jekyll to examine a supposedly injured rib beneath her breast. When he recommends rest and turns away to allow her to undress, Ivy throws a garter at him, which he tosses away with a flick of his cane. As Jekyll returns to further examine her, Ivy grabs him and kisses him just as Lanyon enters the room; but Jekyll doesn’t care – he decides to take the kiss in lieu of a fee and leaves as Ivy dangles a leg from the bed and urges him to come back soon; he is, after all, the kind of gentleman a woman would ‘do anything for’.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHjU-7NbKQXi-1IDfQFtL1BTmh3Zc6oY3c-etOrLXQ84cmxzEFMPM64gHh-u-V10_mIMqbVJB7es2_XQ8lh5peHTTu0TTJpwTTpwptE6Q3AQbPxBk-3FClDPq0BIHIkS37dd5-84IbaAc/s1600/3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240px" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHjU-7NbKQXi-1IDfQFtL1BTmh3Zc6oY3c-etOrLXQ84cmxzEFMPM64gHh-u-V10_mIMqbVJB7es2_XQ8lh5peHTTu0TTJpwTTpwptE6Q3AQbPxBk-3FClDPq0BIHIkS37dd5-84IbaAc/s320/3.jpg" width="320px" /></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">The superimposed image of Ivy’s swinging leg accompanies the two men down the stairs and into the street, where Jekyll confesses to having enjoyed the prostitutes kiss. Lanyon is shocked, but Jekyll reminds him that while we can control our actions we cannot control our impulses. He challenges Lanyon to deny that he also found Ivy attractive, but Leyton refuses to be drawn on the matter. To Jekyll, Lanyon is in denial, refusing to admit that the animal side of his nature exists and choosing instead to bury it. Jekyll, on the other hand, admits to it and intends to expose it, with the aim of getting rid of it. At least, that’s what he says – the fact that the image of Ivy’s leg continues to play on his mind as they talk suggests that he’s not being as honest with himself as he likes to think he is.</span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Spurred to action by his encounter with ‘Champagne Ivy’ and his frustration with the social conventions that are denying him the conjugal pleasures of a life with Muriel, Jekyll immerses himself in his work. When we see him next he is in his laboratory, surrounded by his chemical apparatus, working feverishly to complete the formula that will separate the two halves of his personality. The formula complete, he locks the door and prepares to drink the potion – and for the first time there is a flicker of doubt on his face. A quick glance at the skeleton hanging in the corner of his laboratory gives him pause for thought and he hastily scribbles a message to Muriel, informing her that if he dies then it will at least be in the cause of science. Then, regaining his composure, he toasts his reflection in the mirror, and downs the steaming potion.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBczIoEbsq5sYqsp9WbR1TKFKtvl7sNYdBesMNioJxsyuNzBD26E78WKfow1t2Cqu4E9EB12Nq_ib3F3RVHn381LQApMy98sOh3NNIPmZBBqlHCc2VH7hx-oIYAGIwjgBqP_WuTMASyQg/s1600/5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240px" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBczIoEbsq5sYqsp9WbR1TKFKtvl7sNYdBesMNioJxsyuNzBD26E78WKfow1t2Cqu4E9EB12Nq_ib3F3RVHn381LQApMy98sOh3NNIPmZBBqlHCc2VH7hx-oIYAGIwjgBqP_WuTMASyQg/s320/5.jpg" width="320px" /></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">The transformation scenes in this film are justly famous, but it is not actually until much later in the film that we witness Jekyll’s full transformation into Hyde. The initial transformation merely hints at what is to come, with Jekyll clutching his throat in agony while his face contorts and begins, almost imperceptibly at first, to take on a darker aspect<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(an effect achieved with the use of contrasting make-up filmed through coloured filters) before we are back inside Jekyll’s mind, watching through his eyes as the laboratory spins around him. After several moments trapped in the maelstrom with Jekyll, the room settles and the audience is led by the advancing camera to the mirror, where they come face-to-face with Jekyll’s alter ego for the first time. </span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">With his simian features, pointed cranium (suggestive of some of the early hominid skulls) and canine teeth, Hyde’s appearance is certainly in alarming contrast to Jekyll’s. His nervous facial twitches and jerks of the head, his rapid breathing and his scuttling, almost ape-like movements – all suggest that Mamoulian wanted Hyde to represent that ‘dim animal relation’ that Jekyll mentioned earlier; but they also give the impression of a creature unfamiliar with its body and not yet quite in control. Indeed, the alluring physicality of March’s performance, in which he conveys perfectly the strangeness of being something new, is one of the highlights of the film. “Free at last!” Hyde cries in triumph once he’s gained control; and, having been so intimately connected with Jekyll up to this point, one cannot help but share in Hyde’s exhilaration.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Seemingly overwhelmed by the possibilities now open to him, he dithers for a moment before dressing to leave the house; unfortunately, before Hyde has the chance to present himself to the world, Poole comes knocking at the door, forcing Hyde to change back into Jekyll.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwbFADLD4btWPk-wS5amBQ6vI4wFuJNxK6UGudKsh0kQ-xyjZ-CVgSf0ZbmTRfvndpRcSulq_9bEJQP3Oi5XTNGnDm55BQa31RVQY5uleqYNdzdbgtEGeCKInH9OiuBaQjDfOisn9K9VY/s1600/6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240px" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwbFADLD4btWPk-wS5amBQ6vI4wFuJNxK6UGudKsh0kQ-xyjZ-CVgSf0ZbmTRfvndpRcSulq_9bEJQP3Oi5XTNGnDm55BQa31RVQY5uleqYNdzdbgtEGeCKInH9OiuBaQjDfOisn9K9VY/s320/6.jpg" width="320px" /></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Time passes; and when Muriel refuses to elope with him and announces that she is going away for a few months, Jekyll resorts to moping in his laboratory like a thwarted child. Like the exasperated parent, Poole suggests that Jekyll needs to stop feeling sorry for himself and get out of the house. Jekyll’s foot taps the floor, his fingers drum on the workbench - nearby, a cauldron bubbles and steams - and we sense the pressure building. When Poole reminds him that there are many pleasures out there in the city for a gentleman to enjoy, Jekyll realises that this is the perfect opportunity to give Hyde free reign. A gentleman like Jekyll isn’t supposed to indulge in the kind of pleasures that Poole is describing – they have to be very careful what they do and say so that they don’t get caught out. It is all hypocrisy, and Jekyll sees Hyde as a way of sidestepping that hypocrisy. Of course, he is also simply trying to justify the inevitable. The possibilities that Hyde offers have clearly been praying on his mind ever since the first transformation.</span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Hyde’s sense of release is even more acute following the second transformation. Dressed as a gentleman, resembling the walking embodiment of Victorian moral hypocrisy, Hyde hits the town. Thrilled and full of energy, even the feel of rain on his face is enough to bring him to rapture. What is particularly clever about March’s performance is that for a brief moment he manages to make Hyde seem almost likeable. There is something infectious about his enthusiasm;<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>to an extent, perhaps, we even envy him his newfound freedom. But it doesn’t last – very soon his true nature becomes all too apparent.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKuqdcB5JO_SDxn8M3oX9-mo1kShFSkuz-OP_vbY7uHvAules0xbrRYYgdgxa1U9oIJCWpR3RC7qaLFma33xvsN72O9CM1llxya8hJmye-TjsNuvlvHaf5L9iX6tTD8xTHDMo8kEeBup0/s1600/7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240px" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKuqdcB5JO_SDxn8M3oX9-mo1kShFSkuz-OP_vbY7uHvAules0xbrRYYgdgxa1U9oIJCWpR3RC7qaLFma33xvsN72O9CM1llxya8hJmye-TjsNuvlvHaf5L9iX6tTD8xTHDMo8kEeBup0/s320/7.jpg" width="320px" /></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Hyde goes immediately in search of Ivy and when he fails to locate her at her digs, he is directed to a nearby drinking den where she is known to ply her trade. Arriving at the dive, Hyde is enthralled by everything he sees. After ordering champagne and bullying a waiter who has dared to hang around for a tip, Hyde has Ivy summoned to him. Abandoning the man she has been flirting with prior to Hyde’s arrival, Ivy accepts the invitation. She is alarmed by his appearance, naturally, but he tempts her to stay with him with the promise of fine clothes, wine, and somewhere nice to live. After all, that’s all she’s interested in, isn’t it? He admits to being no beauty, but what would she rather have? A hypocritical ‘gentleman’ who ‘likes the leg but talks only about the garter’? In the end, for a girl like Ivy, it’s all about the money. Ivy’s obvious discomfort is the same for the audience, and we sense that she isn’t going to be able to refuse Hyde’s offer even if she wants to. Hyde makes this abundantly clear when he smashes a wine bottle and threatens to glass the face of the man Ivy was flirting with before he arrived. A close-up shot of Hyde’s face looming over Ivy’s not only reinforces the hopelessness of the girl’s situation, but must also have had the film’s audiences shrinking back in their seats. </span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">So begins an almost textbook abusive relationship, as Hyde installs Ivy in more comfortable digs and plies her with fine wares, whilst exacting violence upon her person, emotionally, physically and sexually. The classic abuser, he tells her he only hurts her because he loves her and justifies his actions by appealing to the fact that at least he is honest in what he wants, unlike the hypocrites she is used to. He bullies her into telling him that she hates him, twists her words, and takes great satisfaction in her obvious unhappiness. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzHihpyLBsJ6-DIXEd6D-gwBuuzsMwazjGMKfXbCXQZpJVfz_j8Hc5ZF-Q-hZPAJC4hlcxAfdrG2JTYTlFUPhq0i7mp6qXxLDYeaSz29D5V64yTjPEQM52jYyybraWZkxw5q-PhOC-BFw/s1600/8.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240px" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzHihpyLBsJ6-DIXEd6D-gwBuuzsMwazjGMKfXbCXQZpJVfz_j8Hc5ZF-Q-hZPAJC4hlcxAfdrG2JTYTlFUPhq0i7mp6qXxLDYeaSz29D5V64yTjPEQM52jYyybraWZkxw5q-PhOC-BFw/s320/8.jpg" width="320px" /></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">When Hyde is not there, Ivy confides to a neighbour that she is living in terror and reveals the bruises on her body. But there seems to be nothing she can do – Hyde dominates and controls every aspect of her life now.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Meanwhile, Jekyll begins neglecting his patients and his appearance. Poole becomes concerned that his master is sneaking out at all hours through the back door of the laboratory, getting up to who knows what? Gradually, as the weeks pass and Hyde’s dealings with Ivy grow ever more sadistic, Jekyll begins to realise what is happening to him and he swears off the drug. Throwing away the key to the back door, he informs Poole that from now on he will only be using the front door. </span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">In an attempt to ease his conscience, Jekyll sends Ivy £50 by way of recompense for the pain he has caused her and resumes his relationship with Muriel, who has returned from her travels but who he has also been neglecting, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>much to the Brigadier-General’s chagrin. By way of explanation, Jekyll claims to have been suffering ‘a sickness of the soul’ and begs Muriel to help him by marrying him. Between the two of them they manage to convince the Brigadier-General to sanction the marriage, despite the old man's misgivings.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgE0Qp9bDr7hkqRsGcWdkctvzHGQi7tFDHw0xAHwc9t77JRp9Ty9kSkzui_BSxDbrOyJJkeDNx3YWwTCRapJkglqEDcKcWfTAoGkf7Gbki4KK9NJYzSpC1CwOVHATq0UOzThSI_0ZuzgH4/s1600/9.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240px" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgE0Qp9bDr7hkqRsGcWdkctvzHGQi7tFDHw0xAHwc9t77JRp9Ty9kSkzui_BSxDbrOyJJkeDNx3YWwTCRapJkglqEDcKcWfTAoGkf7Gbki4KK9NJYzSpC1CwOVHATq0UOzThSI_0ZuzgH4/s320/9.jpg" width="320px" /></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Happy and revitalised, Jekyll returns to work with a determination to get his life back on track. The sense of relief which both he and the audience feel is shattered, however, when Ivy, curious to ascertain why a doctor she has never met should send her money, comes knocking. Jekyll’s panic on seeing her is barely contained. On realising that he is the same man who showed her kindness the night she was attacked, Ivy tries to return the money. When he refuses to take it, she shows him her injuries and begs him to save her from Hyde. In her desperation she offers herself to him, swearing that she will kill herself if he doesn’t help her, such is her fear of Hyde. For a moment it seems as if Jekyll is about to take Ivy up on her offer, but the reality of what he has already done to her sinks in and he restrains himself, promising her that she will never see Hyde again.</span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">More time passes and it appears that Jekyll has finally managed to overcome his dark urges. It would seem that the promise of marriage has helped to ease the tensions within. A formal wedding announcement is arranged, to take place at the Carew’s London home. While making his way to the house through the park, Jekyll reflects on how good life is and stops to quote Keats while listening to a bird singing in a tree. Unfortunately, the bird is silenced by a cat that has climbed into the tree, and this triumph of death not only ruins Jekyll’s mood but also precipitates a spontaneous and unexpected transformation into Hyde. Struggle as he might, Jekyll cannot fight it; and liberated again, Hyde runs off, leaving Muriel and her guests to wonder what has become of Jekyll.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK72wmogzIOnFm65ywxX-fvC4hyphenhyphenxtCy8kX3sY9XfM2ueABPyL0s97MesX06FeLIIQWFwVZJG8kpUxqEJcAMRUqRq30U3MCdsw48Z74rDD-MO8GJ22Lnp0LGPbBhkkdBhEyQ9IKJRT_p6Q/s1600/10.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240px" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK72wmogzIOnFm65ywxX-fvC4hyphenhyphenxtCy8kX3sY9XfM2ueABPyL0s97MesX06FeLIIQWFwVZJG8kpUxqEJcAMRUqRq30U3MCdsw48Z74rDD-MO8GJ22Lnp0LGPbBhkkdBhEyQ9IKJRT_p6Q/s320/10.jpg" width="320px" /></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Meanwhile, Ivy, thinking Hyde is gone for good, is at home celebrating her freedom with champagne. Standing in front of the mirror she raises a toast to her good fortune and wishes Hyde to the fires of Hell; but our attention is not on Ivy, but on the reflection of the door behind her, because we just <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">know</i> that at any moment Hyde is going to make an appearance. When the door does open and Hyde enters, we almost breathe a sigh of relief. It is, in my opinion, one of the great moments of horror cinema, as heart-breaking as it is frightening. The menacing way Hyde is lit as he descends the stairs towards the terrified Ivy leaves us in little doubt what he has in store for the girl. Enraged that Ivy should have gone ‘down on her knees’ for Jekyll – the man he hates more than any other – <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hyde reveals the truth about who he is and informs Ivy that he has found a new lover for her: death. Ivy attempts to escape, but to no avail, and Hyde introduces her to her new lover by strangling the life out of her. A word should be said here about Miriam Hopkins’ performance as Ivy. Ivy is no innocent and is never painted as such; but Hopkins conveys her terror, as well as her hope for a better future, with such conviction that the horror and pity we feel at Ivy’s murder are genuine. For all that Ivy is in many ways a stereotype (the proverbial ‘tart with a heart’), Hopkins’ performance never feels clichéd and is suffused with pathos. (Personally, I think she should have been nominated for an Oscar alongside March.)</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgW9RULgxww1F7ZfxvqLLzdqIgqH8d4SVoVN361ohdVQaEinJdAYLjC8fM1O3SJWuwfcsCZow4DwOdBueDvS04SOzdh4Vo36QctptF8meUXHMwIhmEFPzQgFcrXGb58lUKHUt8UIrMThPo/s1600/12.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240px" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgW9RULgxww1F7ZfxvqLLzdqIgqH8d4SVoVN361ohdVQaEinJdAYLjC8fM1O3SJWuwfcsCZow4DwOdBueDvS04SOzdh4Vo36QctptF8meUXHMwIhmEFPzQgFcrXGb58lUKHUt8UIrMThPo/s320/12.jpg" width="320px" /></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">The murder brings Ivy’s neighbours running, but Hyde escapes into the London fog. He manages to send a message to Lanyon, asking the doctor to retrieve certain drugs from Jekyll’s laboratory; but when Hyde arrives at Lanyon’s house to collect the drugs, Lanyon pulls a gun on him and refuses to let him leave without explaining what is going on. Impatient to be gone, but cornered, Hyde has no choice but reveal all: he mixes and drinks the potion and we are treated to the film’s first full transformation sequence as Hyde reverts to Jekyll in front on Lanyon’s eyes. The sequence may look dated to modern eyes, but for its time it is a triumph.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Jekyll breaks down and confesses to the murder of Ivy, begging Lanyon for forgiveness, but his friend cannot give it. Realising that the drug has conquered him and that he will never be able to remove the stain on his soul, Jekyll accepts that he must give up Muriel. Tormented by his conscience he finally resorts to prayer. He goes to Muriel to beg her forgiveness and to set her free, but she is blinded by love and cannot accept what he is telling her. In a scene whose emotional intensity is almost uncomfortable to watch, she tries to persuade him that he is a good man; but her every kind word is torment to him, a reminder of all that he has lost. He has become ‘one of the living dead’ utterly without hope. Declaring the loss of love as his penance for the crime he has committed, he leaves; but when he pauses outside to take one last look at Muriel through the French windows, the drug takes hold of him again and he transforms back into Hyde. As Muriel weeps at the piano, Hyde enters and grabs her from behind. Muriel’s screams bring the household running and in the ensuing fracas Hyde clubs Muriel’s father to death with his cane (surprisingly, perhaps, the murder of the Brigadier-General is less explicit than the same murder in the 1921 Barrymore version of the story) before fleeing into the night. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfrEGIMrZrvzq7WvqNEGAncK-D3IZmD2cXxTXqz2QaSAgLyS8lZjAjZcBBPWXMxDbLr-Y_20jq1o8ipNWflF0IzGmP20fiBwIBM-la3zpSJhnSyBYxwPZaKI0e2gmkH4ClFT7Dtw7e4lc/s1600/14.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240px" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfrEGIMrZrvzq7WvqNEGAncK-D3IZmD2cXxTXqz2QaSAgLyS8lZjAjZcBBPWXMxDbLr-Y_20jq1o8ipNWflF0IzGmP20fiBwIBM-la3zpSJhnSyBYxwPZaKI0e2gmkH4ClFT7Dtw7e4lc/s320/14.jpg" width="320px" /></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">A chase through the streets of London follows, during which Mamoulian transforms Hyde into an angel of death whose vast shadow looms on the side of buildings. With the police and Dr Lanyon in pursuit, Hyde manages to reach Jekyll’s house and the final confrontation takes place in the laboratory, where Hyde attempts to elude his captors by clambering monkey-like up and down the tall shelves. He is finally brought down by a single gunshot and dies amid his bottles and test tubes. The film’s final shot is of water boiling in a metal pot on a burning stove, symbolising the destructive passions that Jekyll’s experiments released (or perhaps even signifying the fires of Hell that Jekyll’s soul has gone to, given that God was invoked only a few scenes before). </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBpC4Eah6AyRpqubJi4Z5RxSFJB0jAo4QqnutTpIAPvjJsSAqPCi7AE6Dlv0ahYXUHUXc-X36jiQbHDFXHisTy9bBGWFPypSMp7_zwKnLzLrGFOfCw8veyxGVTpLzw-zmfYe2_dLl2FyE/s1600/13.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240px" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBpC4Eah6AyRpqubJi4Z5RxSFJB0jAo4QqnutTpIAPvjJsSAqPCi7AE6Dlv0ahYXUHUXc-X36jiQbHDFXHisTy9bBGWFPypSMp7_zwKnLzLrGFOfCw8veyxGVTpLzw-zmfYe2_dLl2FyE/s320/13.bmp" width="320px" /></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><em>Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde</em> is a glossy, A-grade production, given the full Hollywood treatment of the day and fully deserving of its reputation. In addition to its emotional and thematic depth, it is visually one of the most rewarding black and white horror films ever produced, with Mamoulian’s use of greyscale and shadow lending it all the richness of a full colour movie. The sets are magnificent, with the appearance of Mamoulian’s London teetering on the brink of expressionism and its gas-lit warrens representing the byways of Jekyll’s unconscious mind. It could be argued that the film is slightly ‘over produced’, but Mamoulian’s use of camera tricks and effects is never arbitrary – everything happens for a reason: the point-of-view shots and close-ups, for instance, are intended to place us directly in the minds of his characters and help accentuate their fears; the presence of mirrors throughout the film is clearly symbolic, as is the use of diagonal wipes to compare and contrast the experiences of certain characters (specifically Muriel and Ivy). With its excellent performances, high production values and, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>perhaps most importantly, its willingness to bring the story’s subtext unambiguously to the fore, Mamoulian’s <em>Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde</em> is a cinematic treat and unquestionably one of the best horror movies of the 1930s.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>Jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10746384490870629929noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7745719079719774194.post-5413154860509994672011-08-01T10:43:00.000-07:002011-11-06T11:26:37.556-08:00Dracula (1931)<div style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhossBB0aQCLny1pUmj2QVTtLGVwB-1WYpCtrN5jceURy7gQdvUNKtLGQBWOmqQePtn1nfrC93zXIbrFWvk8OnV7u7m91Nb7Dfne8_F0DcvEV1KTiYJ2ZQ8_kfeSctxGWIuv3zBXx0oX1E/s1600/dracula.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhossBB0aQCLny1pUmj2QVTtLGVwB-1WYpCtrN5jceURy7gQdvUNKtLGQBWOmqQePtn1nfrC93zXIbrFWvk8OnV7u7m91Nb7Dfne8_F0DcvEV1KTiYJ2ZQ8_kfeSctxGWIuv3zBXx0oX1E/s320/dracula.jpg" width="205" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Directed by: Tod Browning</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Starring: Bela Lugosi</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Helen Chandler </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> David Manners</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Dwight Fry</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Edward Van Sloan</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Running time: 75 mins</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Studio: Universal</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Black & White</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><em>Dracula</em> is a frustrating film to watch. It is undoubtedly of historical importance (in the year 2000 it was selected for inclusion in the USA's National Film Registry), it made a star of its leading man, Bela Lugosi, and its huge box-office success helped usher in the Golden Age of Hollywood horror. Unfortunately, however, I don't think it's terribly good. "Blasphemy!" I hear you cry? Well, maybe - but as a film by Tod Browning, who was still one of the leading Hollywood directors of his day, <em>Dracula</em> is a long way from representing his best work. Indeed, some sources suggest that Browning had very little interest in the material and left much of the shoot up to his cinematographer, Karl Freund. There are several reasons why this might have been the case. For a start, <em>Dracula</em> was originally envisaged by Universal as a major spectacle along the lines of <em>The Hunchback of Notre Dame</em> and <em><a href="http://jonshauntedhouseofhorror.blogspot.com/2011/04/phantom-of-opera-1925.html">The Phantom of the Opera</a></em>, but the Great Depression put paid to that idea. Also, the screenplay was based not on the original novel but on the heavily abridged stage version that had been running very successfully on Broadway, giving Browning no opportunity to reimagine the material for himself. Finally, and probably most importantly, the original plan had been to cast Browning's long-time friend and collaborator Lon Chaney in the lead role, but Chaney died in 1930 after contracting lung cancer and suffering a throat haemorrhage. Apparently, Lugosi only got the part (which he had played in the Broadway production) because he effectively pestered the studio to give it to him and agreed to a substantial cut in his salary. All in all, it was a very inauspicious start.</span><br />
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</div></div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWY-1efwFZ-J4rhRk6WWINsDLlbQYWZwk_lMFd2WDuI4VHFtIJg-RzM91uo_gomcKDEJhIuV_wRimzGbzC3mSh3K6ihWqamHhtgmT6ukz0l-pIJfyQboYPdtcvEdObvhl4QWtragqvXAo/s1600/D1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><em><img border="0" height="236" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWY-1efwFZ-J4rhRk6WWINsDLlbQYWZwk_lMFd2WDuI4VHFtIJg-RzM91uo_gomcKDEJhIuV_wRimzGbzC3mSh3K6ihWqamHhtgmT6ukz0l-pIJfyQboYPdtcvEdObvhl4QWtragqvXAo/s320/D1.jpg" width="320" /></em></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><em>Dracula</em> is very much a film of two halves: the first twenty minutes, and the rest of the film. It begins promisingly: A carriage rattles along through a lonely Transylvanian mountain pass – on board a group of travellers including English solicitor, Renfield (Dwight Frye) are thrown from side to side while one of their number reads aloud from a guide book warning of the many evils abroad in this remote part of the world. Arriving at one of those Transylvanian villages that were to become a staple of horror movies for decades to come, the travellers alight; but Mr Renfield is travelling on to Borgo Pass to meet another carriage at midnight. The news invokes terror among the peasants. Where is he going? To Castle Dracula, he informs them. But he cannot! Dracula and his wives live there and they are shape-shifting, coffin-dwelling bloodsuckers! He must stay, especially now that the sun is setting. Renfield protests –he has no choice: it’s a matter of business and he is obliged to go. The peasants hurry away inside, but not before one of them has given Renfield a crucifix for his protection. Puzzled but not especially concerned by the </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">peasants’ warnings, Renfield boards the coach again and disappears off into the sunset.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
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</div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFySQ-sQlYAb9ScaTACz4Ejyf3CBK_LdmBvYD3_4BKOy3tGTP_Po5GwoFkTx84qwjA1pUJQTaA1zCE4MlepYQ33zFGJNhPI10ZYWY0DUNjzmMvsT6P9Q-zabP9OXImPHTDY0JHIqaEdwg/s1600/D2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="233" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFySQ-sQlYAb9ScaTACz4Ejyf3CBK_LdmBvYD3_4BKOy3tGTP_Po5GwoFkTx84qwjA1pUJQTaA1zCE4MlepYQ33zFGJNhPI10ZYWY0DUNjzmMvsT6P9Q-zabP9OXImPHTDY0JHIqaEdwg/s320/D2.jpg" width="320" /></a>We cut to Castle Dracula, a forbidding edifice that is almost indistinguishable from the mountain peak on which it sits (the mountains are a high point of the film, evoking a genuine sense of the darkly Romantic, for all that they are obviously painted backdrops). The gliding camera takes us down into the castle's crypt, where mysterious mists swirl, rats forage, and in a scene that would be repeated in virtually every vampire movie that followed, bone-white hands push open creaking coffin lids and the vampires emerge from their sleep. Silently, with undead expressions on their faces, the three female nosferatu glide in unison toward their waiting master, the Count, who then ascends the crypt's stairs to the accompaniment of distant baying wolves. What can one say about Lugosi's Dracula that has not been said before? To many, the bloodless complexion, the slicked back hair, the glowing eyes and, above all, the high collared cloak, are elements - along with the actual performance, of course - that add up to the quintessential Dracula. I'm not of that group, I have to confess (I prefer Christopher Lee's more animalistic interpretation), but there's no denying the iconic status of Lugosi's king vampire and it would be silly not to admit that his first appearance does make an immediate and strong impression.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfarRKglYpSTQYxhogWJq-La-V_2KMsYb02S94QiX8BlKudnASCbE9Ddu7t_vunxnLhbyZS4wybSMLeHWq6b4b_xw8f-tHAJmzUw4c7Khq_MkcwZ__qCI7lID6gUi3eGEmc4F3BKZ6KCU/s1600/D4.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="231" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfarRKglYpSTQYxhogWJq-La-V_2KMsYb02S94QiX8BlKudnASCbE9Ddu7t_vunxnLhbyZS4wybSMLeHWq6b4b_xw8f-tHAJmzUw4c7Khq_MkcwZ__qCI7lID6gUi3eGEmc4F3BKZ6KCU/s320/D4.bmp" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Renfield, meanwhile, has been abandoned in the fog at the Borgo Pass. Entering the mysterious black carriage that then appears, he is taken on a frightening journey along a precarious road and through the yawning gateway of Castle Dracula. When he alights, the carriage disappears, taking his luggage with it. A nearby doorway creaks open of its own accord and, somewhat nervously, Renfield enters the castle. The Great Hall of Castle Dracula is a truly magnificent set - vast, cathedral-like, and festooned with cobwebs, it is home to bats that circle in the moonlight and, bizarrely, a family of armadillos that appears to have taken up residence among the hall's dilapidated furniture. Lighting his way with a single hand held candle, Dracula descends the wide staircase and greets the dwarfed Renfield with one of horror cinema's most famous lines: "I am Dracula. I bid you welcome." In fact, the scene is filled with famous lines: "Listen to them," Dracula intones as wolves howl, "the children of the night. What music they make!" It has been said that Lugosi's eerie speech patterns were the result of him not being able to speak English very well. True or not, they certainly gave his Dracula an exotic, otherworldly quality that undoubtedly helped to establish the character in the public consciousness.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFqKWfGmFaYeVH4eOSsVmQmivy6QrFj6aGKxUtqiSsYGsUJjVz-j2Tvk2ViPiG87BYmrUOG59W_iIco_rmV2pPZO7h38mgEwIpOFOlcN_9fW4w5DFs2zoXeBvzxQ-T5Bb1Fshx1cggiw8/s1600/D5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="236" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFqKWfGmFaYeVH4eOSsVmQmivy6QrFj6aGKxUtqiSsYGsUJjVz-j2Tvk2ViPiG87BYmrUOG59W_iIco_rmV2pPZO7h38mgEwIpOFOlcN_9fW4w5DFs2zoXeBvzxQ-T5Bb1Fshx1cggiw8/s320/D5.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial;">In a justly famous shot, Dracula appears to pass through a giant cobweb without disturbing it; but when Renfield follows, he has to fight his way through the sticky strands, disturbing a fat spider in the process and causing the Count to remark that the spider has been "spinning its web for the unwary fly. The blood is the life, Mr Renfield!" If Renfield isn't suspicious by now that the Count isn't everything he appears to be, then he should be! The Count leads him to more inviting quarters, where - despite the fact that doors still open and close of their own accord - Renfield relaxes and produces the lease for Carfax Abbey, the house in England that the Count intends to buy. Renfield has also brought labels for the Count's luggage, but Dracula informs him that the labels will not be necessary - he is only taking "three boxes" with him and has charted a ship which will be leaving "tomorrow eeevening."</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">In a moment borrowed from Murnau's <a href="http://jonshauntedhouseofhorror.blogspot.com/2011/04/nosferatu-symphony-of-horror-1922.html"><em>Nosferatu</em></a> but not in Bram Stoker's novel Renfield cuts his finger (on a paper clip, of all things, rather than a knife) causing Dracula to react violently (by throwing his cloak over his face to shield it from the sight of Renfield's blood). Recovering, the Count offers Renfield some wine, but does not join him. In another famous line (taken from the stage play, but, again, not in the original novel) Dracula informs the solicitor that he never drinks....wine...and departs. Of course, the wine is drugged and very soon Renfield is feeling its effects. While he is being bothered by a bat that has flown in through the window, a door opens silently behind him and, in one of the film's most effective shots, Dracula's three wives glide in like ghosts through a supernatural mist and advance on the Englishman, who promptly passes out. On the verge of feasting on his blood, the women are repelled by Dracula, who appears at the open window (presumably he was the bat) and claims Renfield for himself, although the picture fades before we can see exactly what Dracula does to him - indeed, thanks to the censorship of the time, we never actually witness Dracula feeding on any of his victims.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqKdP4JA72w0uqRPISSsGPmdZDsTRAye1S42BMl4cpVQ9mc2CYvOV3k3Auw663vjOiMDkpHKvPIR5rgCIRZd1fDtzPH2GSCuaa6uSV5YattQbarGyFlCy2MX-8EqEq-pw1gzRqnNjG-oQ/s1600/D6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="238" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqKdP4JA72w0uqRPISSsGPmdZDsTRAye1S42BMl4cpVQ9mc2CYvOV3k3Auw663vjOiMDkpHKvPIR5rgCIRZd1fDtzPH2GSCuaa6uSV5YattQbarGyFlCy2MX-8EqEq-pw1gzRqnNjG-oQ/s320/D6.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial;">In the next scene we find ourselves on board the <em>Vesta,</em> a ship bound for England. A terrible storm is raging (though the shots of the boat's crew battling the elements were actually taken from another film) and down in the hold, Renfield, now under Dracula's control, is about to release the Count from his coffin. The sequence is helped immensely by the lighting, with Browning eliciting as much menace from his shadows as he can, and by Dwight Fry's performance as the now insane Renfield, begging his master for the reward of "lives...small lives, with blood in them!" once they reach England. The transformation of Renfield's character from nice-but-slightly-dim Englishman into sniggering lunatic is impressive and, for my money, Fry's performance (which at times reminds me just a little of Andy Serkis's Gollum in the way he delivers some of his lines) is the best and most entertaining thing about the film from here on in.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">In the next scene the <em>Vesta</em> has arrived in England and we learn that its captain is dead and its crew are nowhere to be seen. In a nicely suggestive shot, we see the dead captain's shadow cast against a wall - it appears that he tied himself to the ship's wheel before meeting his doom. The only living person on board appears to be Renfield who is found (in another excellent shot) grinning and sniggering in the hold. The newspapers the next day inform us of a crew of corpses has been found on a derelict vessel. We learn that the sole survivor is a "raving maniac" whose craving to devoir ants, flies and other small animals baffles scientists. At present he is under observation in Dr Saward's sanatorium near London...</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjagsQrUVF1Cl17lFXIwkja-DPIPyyojz6DARghWcZ_Sk4lrskDiKYidbwwcjO0DfHtHE_sNyU05SQ1P6ZI3Wxs9CYq7hGpHosuIbOPk0_Z36tzD7Ld_7rlTP7P8qrpqUBKvMaLfolVMcs/s1600/D7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="231" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjagsQrUVF1Cl17lFXIwkja-DPIPyyojz6DARghWcZ_Sk4lrskDiKYidbwwcjO0DfHtHE_sNyU05SQ1P6ZI3Wxs9CYq7hGpHosuIbOPk0_Z36tzD7Ld_7rlTP7P8qrpqUBKvMaLfolVMcs/s320/D7.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial;">All the above is dealt with in little more than twenty minutes, which is a shame as it is by far the best part of the film. While it has a stagy, slightly stilted quality to it, it is saved by the inclusion of some fine and influential imagery, and Lugosi's evocative dialogue. Sadly, however, once the action reaches England, things fall very flat indeed and the film's origins as a stage play become glaringly obvious as the main story turns out to be little more than a drawing room drama.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">When we next meet the Count he is strolling through the foggy streets of London looking very much the aristocratic man about town. After snatching a quick meal by draining the blood a Cockney flower seller, he makes his way to the local theatre, where he meets Dr Saward (Herbert Bunston), owner of the sanatorium (which happens to be situated next door to Dracula's new home) and is introduced to Saward's daughter, Mina (Helen Chandler), Mina's</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">fiancé John Harker (David Manners), and family friend Lucy Weston (Frances Dale). Lucy, it seems, harbours a slightly morbid streak: she approves of the Count's decision not to renovate the ruined Carfax Abbey, and is fascinated by his talk of death ("To die, to be really dead...that must be truly glorious!"). </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In a conversation with the straight-laced and terribly nice Mina later that same evening, it becomes clear that Lucy is, potentially at least, a rather naughty girl; it's therefore no great surprise when she's found close to death the next morning, virtually drained of blood. Attempts are made to save her with blood transfusions, but to no avail. At her autopsy, two small puncture marks are noted on her neck and it's at this point that we are introduced to Professor Van Helsing (Edward Van Sloan), whom we assume is an associate of Saward's (or possibly he's just the coroner). Van Helsing's suspicions are immediately raised by the two marks on Lucy's neck and after a conversation with the insane Renfield at the sanatorium a few days later, during which Renfield reacts badly to the sight of wolf bane (interestingly, garlic doesn't feature in the film), he concludes that Lucy's death was the work of a shape-shifting vampire (Dracula does indeed turn himself into a bat - and a wolf- several times during the film, but we never see the actual transformations - apparently the studio felt that audiences would find the notion too ridiculous. Go figure.)</span></span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyI-1NqfsvBydUuPdNKLZ25D0qRD8KlmycXZyim-IAvE5fj3SAPNQBIU2wyK65GkivKfeSBSD6WNWR7gQpazrbwJswR368o-pB77noWa6C3h1DFyL5h9rP63RJWpD-ycZkGRVca38D2cI/s1600/D12.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="236" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyI-1NqfsvBydUuPdNKLZ25D0qRD8KlmycXZyim-IAvE5fj3SAPNQBIU2wyK65GkivKfeSBSD6WNWR7gQpazrbwJswR368o-pB77noWa6C3h1DFyL5h9rP63RJWpD-ycZkGRVca38D2cI/s320/D12.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One evening, Dracula decides to pay a visit to the sanatorium. We learn later that Renfield – who despite being crazy is occasionally allowed out of his cell to roam the house - has invited the vampire in. During the rather awkward conversation that follows, Van Helsing notices Dracula does not cast a reflection in the mirror. When he brings this strange phenomenon to the Count’s attention, Dracula reacts violently, smashing the mirror and confirming Van Helsing’s theory.</span> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Count leaves, but later that night Mina, who has been receiving visits from the Count at night (although she only remembers the encounters as dreams) sleepwalks her way into the garden where Dracula is waiting for her. She is found unconscious by a maid a few minutes later. The maid herself faints shortly after, prompting Renfield (who has been eavesdropping) to crawl up to her unconscious body and, in a deliciously creepy scene, contemplate tasting human blood for the first time. </span></span></span><br />
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Over the next few days, reports start coming in of a mysterious 'woman in white' who has been luring children into a local park with promises of sweets, then biting them on the neck. Van Helsing surmises that the woman is in fact Lucy, who has risen from the grave and is now a vampire, and Mina, who seems to be taking much longer to die than either Lucy or the flower seller (presumably Dracula is savouring her), agrees. John wants Mina to return with him to London, but Van Helsing convinces him that Mina will be safer under his care. To this end, he places wolf bane around Mina's neck and orders a nurse to keep a close watch on her. </span></span></span></span></span><br />
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">At this point Dracula arrives and a confrontation ensues between him and Van Helsing. Dracula boasts that Mina is now his, but Van Helsing threatens to sterilise the Abbey and drive a stake through Dracula's heart. Dracula tries to bend Van Helsing to his will, and almost succeeds, until Van Helsing manages to brandish a crucifix, forcing the Count to leave.</span></span></span></div><br />
<div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixyYOTVzeaBuHrFmb-I3SUlKtEOrJgx8Vhi6-zOEj7NQXHHvOC4H1vgT6zpg2l1wR8vqFNipmoCt2usvLTqJvnMRUtjsk9tmxv5xl7_CRVJJPFMyDApArvQa8t2GT3JP1Awv9HcXETz54/s1600/D9.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="235" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixyYOTVzeaBuHrFmb-I3SUlKtEOrJgx8Vhi6-zOEj7NQXHHvOC4H1vgT6zpg2l1wR8vqFNipmoCt2usvLTqJvnMRUtjsk9tmxv5xl7_CRVJJPFMyDApArvQa8t2GT3JP1Awv9HcXETz54/s320/D9.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Meanwhile, Harker and Mina are sitting on the terrace where Mina, who is growing weaker, confesses a newfound love for "nights and fogs". John, being the dimwit that he is, likes this new change in Mina's character - at least until a bat appears and seems to prompt Mina into attacking him. He is saved by Dr Saward and Van Helsing, but it seems that his relationship with Mina is over - the girl is far too aware of what is happening to her and can see no future for their love.</span></span></span><br />
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">And so the film moves to its conclusion. Dracula manages to kidnap Mina by mesmerising the nurse into removing the wolf bane from around the girl's throat. He is pursued to the Abbey by Renfield (who is still lusting after his reward), Harker and Van Helsing. Mistakenly assuming that Renfield has led the others to him, Dracula strangles the lunatic and throws him down the crypt stairs. Forced by the rising sun to take refuge in his coffin, Dracula is trapped and can do nothing to prevent Van Helsing from driving the promised stake through his heart. As Dracula dies, Mina, who has been in a trance, miraculously reverts to normal (though one assumes her blood count is still low). </span></span></span><br />
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">And that's it, although the sound of church bells at the end does suggest that Mina and Harker are able to overcome the horror and save their relationship; but, frankly, who cares? With the exception of Dracula and Renfield, none of the film's characters are particularly interesting or endearing. As far as the story itself is concerned, considerable economy is used in its telling, which need not be a bad thing in itself, but nothing is fleshed out, giving the film the feel of an outline or first draft that was never completed.</span></span></span></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcY5-F3jJYm_jNmtdsQIWBjS67hnZJClbrJV_2mgnaF1UZQdBlF9AhJOxZR-7pygIUterjfxiAwmHaQCngqBz9kIg0S2_xhCS0eEISo_5TqQuQ5d2P0vGosC8Lsn3HU6AQgYj7s2UKdG4/s1600/D13.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="233" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcY5-F3jJYm_jNmtdsQIWBjS67hnZJClbrJV_2mgnaF1UZQdBlF9AhJOxZR-7pygIUterjfxiAwmHaQCngqBz9kIg0S2_xhCS0eEISo_5TqQuQ5d2P0vGosC8Lsn3HU6AQgYj7s2UKdG4/s320/D13.jpg" width="320" /></a><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">What's particularly frustrating is that there are occasional glimpses of the film that could have been: for instance, Renfield's description of a vision in which he sees Dracula commanding an army of rats is genuinely chilling; and a scene in which Mina rebuffs her <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">fiancé's </span>advances because she feels diseased and unclean hints at the darker sexual undertones of some of Browning's other films. Best of all is the scene in which Dracula confronts Van Helsing, for here Lugosi is able to rise above the somewhat hammy nature of much of his performance in the second half of the film and deliver a scene in which he commands real authority and respect. But none of this is enough. Overall, I find the main part of the film dull and indifferently directed; basically, it's a domestic drama about Mina and her boring boyfriend.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><em>Dracula</em> sorely lacks the disturbing intensity and depth of Browning's other films; but in fairness it was conceived and promoted as a straightforward shocker, nothing more, so perhaps I'm being unduly harsh. It did, after all, succeed in its aims (perhaps the idea of having the life sucked out of you resonated with victims of the Depression) and for all its faults, it was hugely influential and remained the template for vampire movies for decades after (it's interesting to note how many of Hammer's Dracula films share <em>Dracula's</em> intimate, domestic concerns). Lugosi's Dracula is almost certainly still the most famous version of the legendary Count. What's remarkable about this is that Lugosi in fact only played the Count once more in his career, when Abbott and Costello met Frankenstein seventeen years later. That he is still remembered for the role eighty years after the event is testament to his skill, however limited that skill might have been. So, whatever my personal doubts about the film's merits, it's impossible not to class <em>Dracula</em> as one of Universal's classic horror movies.</span></span></span><br />
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<div style="text-align: left;"></div>Jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10746384490870629929noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7745719079719774194.post-48128379263025387182011-07-11T10:40:00.000-07:002011-11-07T11:42:58.959-08:00The Last Warning (1929)<div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQsQs8mWbQ922goPPLCDiG6hAzJYThnfmXhob4gr7P-EX6mVo5cYdBM8O0Pqto5kYtzy9LKlSVVx2mJgHmKcWD5Mpqrxn5MojFTE3BhZ1h5fSwFJMKIULD5KT5Fr2sUZxW4plIG94eDQo/s1600/Last_Warning_poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" m$="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQsQs8mWbQ922goPPLCDiG6hAzJYThnfmXhob4gr7P-EX6mVo5cYdBM8O0Pqto5kYtzy9LKlSVVx2mJgHmKcWD5Mpqrxn5MojFTE3BhZ1h5fSwFJMKIULD5KT5Fr2sUZxW4plIG94eDQo/s1600/Last_Warning_poster.jpg" /></a></div><span id="goog_1060172702"></span><span id="goog_1060172703"></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Di</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">rected by: Paul Leni</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Starring: Laura LaPlante</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Montagu Love</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Roy D'Arcy</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> John Boyles</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Run time: 88 mins</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Studio: Universal</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Black & White</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Last Warning</i> was Universal Studio’s unsubtle but entirely understandable attempt to cash in on the huge success of 1927’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://jonshauntedhouseofhorror.blogspot.com/2011/05/cat-and-canary-1927_19.html#more">The Cat and the Canary</a></i>. Unfortunately, however, as a follow-up to the earlier film, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Last Warning</i> can only really be regarded as a qualified success. Indeed, if truth be told, it’s something of a disappointment. This is doubly sad when you consider that it was director Paul Leni’s last film (tragically, he died of blood poisoning not long after it was made). I should make it clear from the outset, however, that the disappointment doesn't stem from any lack of ability on Leni's part - he remained to the end one of early Hollywood's most inventive directors. No, the problem lies entirely with the script (and yes, you guessed it - it's another stage play adaptation!).</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggdAxYQxH2PB1KL3-IA4xctr1hrn_zw0OMjSptiT8aJ2wCtO2CGH_K3xSeBHow8W4CPZyYA5o3PtlMxVWMZiI2MlZeRx0M9rCisC0ZCvZXwySvO50_OFBXrUEUpWqA79g57v8WUeZtpVg/s1600/TLW+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="242" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggdAxYQxH2PB1KL3-IA4xctr1hrn_zw0OMjSptiT8aJ2wCtO2CGH_K3xSeBHow8W4CPZyYA5o3PtlMxVWMZiI2MlZeRx0M9rCisC0ZCvZXwySvO50_OFBXrUEUpWqA79g57v8WUeZtpVg/s320/TLW+2.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The film opens with a dizzying montage sequence depicting 1920s Broadway - the so-called “electric highway of happiness” - with its bright lights, limousines, dancing girls and blackface minstrels. <span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">We arrive at the Woodford Theatre (in reality the re-used Paris Opera House set from <a href="http://jonshauntedhouseofhorror.blogspot.com/2011/04/phantom-of-opera-1925.html">Phantom of the Opera</a>) on the opening night of a play called <em>The Snare; </em>but there is panic in the stalls - John Woodford (D'Arcy Corrigan), leading light of the Broadway stage, has been murdered during a mysterious blackout in the play's first scene (the obvious joke about actors dying on stage is mercifully resisted) and his fellow actors are in the process of being questioned backstage by the police. The theatre's owners, Josiah and Robert Bunce (Burr McIntosh and Mack Swain), brothers who speak in unison, are also in attendance. During the questioning, Irish stage manager Mike Brady (Bert Roach) reveals how he overheard a terrible argument between the play's director, Richard Quayle (John Boles) and Woodford coming from the leading lady's dressing room the night before. It turns out that the leading lady, Miss Doris Terry (Laura La Plante) is a very popular young lady indeed - not only is her dressing room filled with ostentatious floral bouquets from John Woodford (who apparently considered Terry the love of his life), but there are roses from Richard Quayle, too. In addition, there is a framed photograph of caddish-looking fellow actor Harvey Carleton (Reg D'Arcy) inscribed with Carleton's own message of adoration. The film is barely fifteen minutes old and already the suspects are lining up. Things become even more suspicious when the Coroner (Harry Northrup) arrives and discovers that while everyone has been talking, Woodford's body has mysteriously disappeared. So far, so good - it looks as if we might have a decent mystery on our hands.</span></span></div><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The murder, not unexpectedly, makes the papers (although if the montage of newspaper headlines that follows is anything to go by, interest in the case does seem somewhat inordinate!). We learn that Quayle and Doris were indeed lovers, although they have separated as a result of the murder. Years pass, and as the newspaper montage literally melts into the New York landscape, we find ourselves back outside the Woodford Theatre; only now the place is a dark and decaying "house of mystery" whose weathered facade looks uncannily like a demonic face (it's a trick of perspective, of course, but a very effective one, and one that would be used again many times, perhaps most famously by Stuart Rosenberg in <em>The Amityville Horror</em> fifty years later). Within, the theatre has gone to wrack and ruin - plaster falls from the ceilings, while bats circle in the echoing auditorium. It has become the haunted house that convention demands. We meet Gene (Torben Meyer), Woodford's erstwhile secretary who, rather like the housekeepers of other old dark house thrillers, has gone slightly potty from years alone trying to take care of the place. He is busy preparing for the arrival of guests - the theatre is to be reopened and the director and original cast of <em>The Snare</em> have been summoned to discuss remounting the play, a fact that Gene is none too happy about.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEju8bHyU51q4Kbn59kgaVlAl9bPZ8GTSYsInfXun99-HFl16AjvhAoRd4NNYhrc55aDxY0XzKEJrkbuWqDG6IqAJ0K_jDnyDnmSyDjAsezu-xnWf0f2Non9be8CYMFV7grRruPD_3KQ_o0/s1600/TLW+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="227" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEju8bHyU51q4Kbn59kgaVlAl9bPZ8GTSYsInfXun99-HFl16AjvhAoRd4NNYhrc55aDxY0XzKEJrkbuWqDG6IqAJ0K_jDnyDnmSyDjAsezu-xnWf0f2Non9be8CYMFV7grRruPD_3KQ_o0/s320/TLW+1.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Familiar faces arrives while new characters are introduced, including the nervous electrician Tommy Wall (Slim Summerville) - who, anticipating Agatha Christie, reckons <em>everyone </em>involved in <em>The Snare</em> killed Woodford - and stuffy actress<em> </em>Barbara Morgan (Carrie Daumery), who enters the building via the spider-infested basement and, having become enveloped by cobwebs, startles the others by ascending the stairs like some stunned and wide-eyed zombie emerging from its crypt.</span></div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Next to arrive is cigar-chomping producer, Arthur McHugh (Montagu Love). Claiming that he used to be Woodford's best friend, he outlines his plan for the theatre's re-launch but Quayle wants nothing to do with it; until, that is, the arrival of Doris Terry. It turns out McHugh hasn't been entirely honest with everyone, as Doris has accepted McHugh's offer without realising that Quayle will also be there. Doris is uneasy - something about McHugh frightens her, but Quayle persuades her to stay (we know there's something untrustworthy about McHugh by the way he absent-mindedly toys with cobwebs when people are tryin to talk to him). Doris is followed by the bizarre Bunce brothers - the cantankerous and beak-nosed Josiah and the bumbling but seemingly well-meaning Robert - and a new addition to the cast, the young and street-smart Evelynda Hendon (Margaret Livingston) to whom Bunce the Younger takes an immediate shine.</span><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNdOGEgNbsrzzXFyGVcf2Zm4m0UOASDM8tw6uuWbJgmftfBmgQTb7UUFEEVds10Rf6QYeL10qMwfAhJiN9rEBlp8F5P8H6CBSosFszyZV1PhfR7aRtn9H-FKhFYzaWhfDdEEIAHWlGCx4/s1600/TLW+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="231" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNdOGEgNbsrzzXFyGVcf2Zm4m0UOASDM8tw6uuWbJgmftfBmgQTb7UUFEEVds10Rf6QYeL10qMwfAhJiN9rEBlp8F5P8H6CBSosFszyZV1PhfR7aRtn9H-FKhFYzaWhfDdEEIAHWlGCx4/s320/TLW+3.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Brothers Bunce have received a mysterious telegram, supposedly from John Woodford, warning them not to reopen the theatre; and when Gene goes to retrieve the play's scripts from the office, the drawer in which they are kept is filled with scuttling spiders and a handwritten note: "BEWARE - LET THE DEAD SLEEP". The general sense of unease escalates when Tommy and his assistant burst in claiming to have just seen Woodford's ghost; and they all watch in fear as a door opens ominously slowly to admit...Harvey Carleton. No one is particularly happy to see him, especially when McHugh announces that Carleton is to play Woodford's old part. The news is greeted with horror and doesn't seem to go down well with the theatre's resident spook, either - when Carleton opens his script he finds inside a note from Woodford warning him that only death awaits whoever takes on the lead role.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifdYynLCuFKBWczoygbOMg6eIp0z0829iMrvWKJLKP80cIanGufdrsou80RbqU_MCMvRKJkPz9TyI3V3QvZcFQldX7MXVTYUWriuzdyr9iunvg7-deFKcYONe5T-4Br6nmkoXXNK9XRdI/s1600/TLW+7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="238" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifdYynLCuFKBWczoygbOMg6eIp0z0829iMrvWKJLKP80cIanGufdrsou80RbqU_MCMvRKJkPz9TyI3V3QvZcFQldX7MXVTYUWriuzdyr9iunvg7-deFKcYONe5T-4Br6nmkoXXNK9XRdI/s320/TLW+7.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Despite everybody's misgivings (and an incident in which the "liquid smoke" that Tommy is trying out is mistaken for a fire) rehearsals begin, but no sooner have they started than they are disrupted when scenery comes crashing down on to the stage. A distressed Doris retires alone to her dressing room where, in what is probably the film's most effective sequence, she becomes aware of a dark presence lurking behind the walls. Like any haunted house worthy of the name, the Woodford Theatre is honeycombed with secret passageways; and down one of them we see a hideous robed figure advancing slowly towards Doris's room. While by no means as imaginative in appearance as the villain of Leni's previous film, the ghost of John Woodford is, initially at least, no less unsettling, what with its vacant, almost eyeless stare and its lumpy, melted features. As in <em>The Cat and the Canary</em>, La Plante's character frets and wrings her hands, instinctively aware of the danger she is in but equally unaware that the horror is just behind her, pushing open the secret doors in a wall panel to peer in at her. Though this kind of scene was by now virtually<em> de rigeur </em>in American horror movies of the period, the sequence nevertheless has an authentically nightmarish feel to it, no doubt helped by the age of the film (and possibly by the sepia tint on the version I own, which lends everything an otherworldly quality). Sadly, however, it is the only such scene in the film. (Not only that, but when we later encounter the ghost away from its shadowy lair the limitations of its 'mask' are cruelly exposed.) In fear, Doris hurries out of the dressing room, but forgets her bag. In the next shot, we see a hand removing it from the table.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbIcZgF6Bpzmt4SHu7XMhwBohCyf6M_CUd7O5Ykzs1C3Vl4knrGDBfXJQmYskYrOfopynxCnMHlKDmygql_3_fvgEpT3JpxVJO5jsih560SpbYViDOVhn8Lwa9DtZsGO2i800CQp4wCMY/s1600/TLW+4.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="234" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbIcZgF6Bpzmt4SHu7XMhwBohCyf6M_CUd7O5Ykzs1C3Vl4knrGDBfXJQmYskYrOfopynxCnMHlKDmygql_3_fvgEpT3JpxVJO5jsih560SpbYViDOVhn8Lwa9DtZsGO2i800CQp4wCMY/s320/TLW+4.bmp" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The rehearsals begin, but Quayle has no sooner started putting the actors through their paces than there is a blackout, during which Harvey Carleton vanishes. Suspicion falls on Doris when , searching the stage by torchlight, the others discover her powder puff, which she swears was in her bag; and when she claims to have seen Woodford's ghost peering down at them from one of the theatre boxes, no one believes her. Alerted by strange groaning and scratching sounds (conveyed by a superimposed shot of scrabbling fingers), the company are drawn to John Woodford's old dressing room, which has been sealed since the actor's murder. Breaking in with an axe they begin searching through its contents, like thieves rifling a tomb. Among the cobwebbed junk and artefacts they discover Doris’s bag and a handkerchief with her initials on it. Further moans and groans lead to the discovery of a secret door through which a bruised and battered Harvey Carleton staggers. Dazed, he can't remember what happened to him, so McHugh and Quayle decide to investigate the secret passageway behind the door. Exploring the theatre's rotting innards they come across what appears to be John Woodford's monocle lying next to a trap door in the floor, beneath which they uncover a pit of quicklime that they reason was used in the disposal of Woodford's corpse. The passage leads to Doris's dressing room where Quayle becomes convinced that McHugh thinks he and Doris had something to do with Woodford's murder and Carleton's abduction. In an effort to convince the director of his innocence, Quayle offers to play John Woodford's part in the play, knowing full well that he might be putting his life in danger. McHugh agrees to this and promises to arrange police protection on the opening night. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEig06d4PQqsnNAswJCT0kslX1Meu0VQ5oKLYGzJW0uIPlOLdm6t2v5gH0T9mjkLHNQM-fOWbK62yELWsKcKPL5h8csxndrGwwnrwmlT8PAcNbNV76Ts-24lsax-bba92zVH8Bsdllf-4Ic/s1600/TLW+6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEig06d4PQqsnNAswJCT0kslX1Meu0VQ5oKLYGzJW0uIPlOLdm6t2v5gH0T9mjkLHNQM-fOWbK62yELWsKcKPL5h8csxndrGwwnrwmlT8PAcNbNV76Ts-24lsax-bba92zVH8Bsdllf-4Ic/s320/TLW+6.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In the next shot we see a clawed hand writing another note, this time to McHugh warning him that if he insists on going ahead with the production then <em>no-one</em> will get through the opening performance alive. This is the last warning of the title and the threat makes the newspapers; but McHugh decides to ignore it and <em>The Snare</em> opens to a packed house just a few weeks later. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sadly, from this point on the film devolves into a routine and fairly dull runaround, as the lights go out <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">on opening night and Woodford's ghost is chased </span></span>around the theatre. Leni does his best to enliven the final sequence - by swinging the camera lens on a rope to give the impression that the ghost is swinging Tarzan-like from balcony to balcony, for instance - but is unable to overcome the distincly perfunctory nature of the film's climax. When Woodford's 'ghost' is apprehended and its true identity and motivations are revealed, it's a real shrug-of-the-shoulders moment. </span></div><div style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBGFBPYmt8ScDWAPrA3xW2nV3vEjFrFLdDaJ0drwCIkOvL0QRV5LgMAXpoTUA5__Cm6uIs5putFFiUG7f9W8oQLALF5pJ3UG6vXuCuFStkNZ67T4IiSOfxLlhxxLVRy-InFJ9NVqE9ick/s1600/TLW+8.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="242" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBGFBPYmt8ScDWAPrA3xW2nV3vEjFrFLdDaJ0drwCIkOvL0QRV5LgMAXpoTUA5__Cm6uIs5putFFiUG7f9W8oQLALF5pJ3UG6vXuCuFStkNZ67T4IiSOfxLlhxxLVRy-InFJ9NVqE9ick/s320/TLW+8.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><em>The Last Warning</em> isn't bad, <em>per se</em>, just inconsequential and a little bit silly. Of course, I'm aware that the same criticism could be levelled at some of the other films I've reviewed on this blog, but given my admiration for Leni's <em>Cat and the Canary</em> I suppose I was just hoping for more; but as I indicated at the beginning of this review, I don't really blame Paul Leni for this - he certainly does his best to invest the picture with the requisite creepy atmosphere, and the film does contain several potent images and some horrific elements - the first appearance of Woodford's ghost, for example - but the script simply doesn't allow Leni to <em>do</em> anything with them. The acting is of a high standard (although Laura La Plante is wasted here) and the picture is filled with Leni's trademarks (the dissolve shots and superimpositions; the ingenious typography he uses on the intertitles to help set mood and theme; the unusual camera angles and point-of-view shots; and the economy with which he establishes character), but there's no disguising the fact that by the end of the 1920s the haunted house thriller had become hidebound by its clichés and had pretty well run its course. It would take a genius to reinvigorate it.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Fortunately, a few years later, that's exactly what it got...</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
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</div>Jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10746384490870629929noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7745719079719774194.post-24403550376000505312011-06-26T08:46:00.000-07:002011-08-05T04:56:10.383-07:00West of Zanzibar (1928)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtMO1XgKs94-aAmajT8EUCPPj0r6tACtrozxf-rLIeCcp5T5mJry5aX_jfOWl0_md1eG0c5pf4IhTpBk81itgzmVSg5WcP_bTaUXBEN4tQ_oZyZJwa2zl1suc-juflnjas5GK-hZXrBcU/s1600/west_of_zanzibar_1928.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtMO1XgKs94-aAmajT8EUCPPj0r6tACtrozxf-rLIeCcp5T5mJry5aX_jfOWl0_md1eG0c5pf4IhTpBk81itgzmVSg5WcP_bTaUXBEN4tQ_oZyZJwa2zl1suc-juflnjas5GK-hZXrBcU/s1600/west_of_zanzibar_1928.jpg" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Directed by Tod Browning</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Starring: Lon Chaney</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Lionel Barrymore</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"> Mary Nolan </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"> Warner Baxter</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Run time: 65 mins</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Studio: MGM</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Black & White</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><em><span style="font-family: Arial;">West of Zanzibar</span></em><span style="font-family: Arial;"> was the penultimate collaboration between director Tod Browning and actor Lon Chaney (the following year's <em><span style="font-family: Arial;">Where East is East</span></em> was the last) and explores familiar territory, with Chaney cast as yet another down-at-heel showman grievously wronged in love and out for revenge. But whereas 1927's <em><span style="font-family: Arial;"><a href="http://jonshauntedhouseofhorror.blogspot.com/2011/05/unknown-1927_31.html">The Unknown</a>,</span></em> morbid though it is<em><span style="font-family: Arial;">,</span></em> had an almost fairy-tale quality to it (owing to its circus setting and central love story) <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">West of Zanzibar</i> has no such redeeming feature; it’s a nasty, grubby little film, and quite possibly the most morally depraved of its era. That sounds as if I’m getting ready to knock it, but nothing could be further from the truth: although critical opinion generally favours <em>The Unknown,</em> I actually prefer <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">West of Zanzibar. </i>Indeed, it's one of my favourite films from the 1920s.</span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br />
</span><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Browning wastes no time in laying his cards on the table: the film begins with a quote from the Anglican burial service - “ashes to ashes, dust to dust” – before cutting to a shot of a bleached skeleton propped in an upright coffin. Having symbolically established that death is going to be a prominent feature of the film, Browning then reveals that the coffin is part of a cheap trick being performed by a downmarket stage magician named Phroso (Lon Chaney), in which the skeleton is transformed into the beautiful form of Phroso’s wife, Anna (Jacqueline Gadsden). </span></span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7b2zyWilHtvmCzrzCHRpCYMwL0BsDMlVza8Rp4SUPdlgnKcGFgmrMp3l_iaFbh_7Qv8peaQjNG6AiSRBowt_U92oAE46dFpMLsKHAIYasaFlUWgDFydy_mEaaJT-yM5auhSYaSJFxhNw/s1600/WZ1.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="231px" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7b2zyWilHtvmCzrzCHRpCYMwL0BsDMlVza8Rp4SUPdlgnKcGFgmrMp3l_iaFbh_7Qv8peaQjNG6AiSRBowt_U92oAE46dFpMLsKHAIYasaFlUWgDFydy_mEaaJT-yM5auhSYaSJFxhNw/s320/WZ1.bmp" width="320px" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Anna, we quickly learn, is a very unhappy woman. Leered at by the unsavoury-looking audience, she smiles and goes through the motions of putting on a show; but behind the scenes she is wracked by guilt and self-doubt as she contemplates leaving her husband and running away to Africa with a businessman named Crane (Lionel Barrymore) who is hoping to establish himself in the Congo region as an ivory merchant. We are given to distrust Crane from the start: when we first meet him he is lurking in the corner behind the dressing room door, waiting like some predatory animal for Anna's return. <span style="font-family: Arial;">Realising that Anna's guilt is preventing her from telling Phroso about their affair, Crane offers to do the job for her and confronts Phroso in the theatre flies. As might be expected, Phroso is devastated on hearing the news, and the situation is only made worse by Crane's manifest delight at the sight of the magician's heartbreak and despair. Since there is no evidence of any history between the two men, or that Phroso has ever treated Anna badly, one can only assume that Crane's unfeeling behaviour stems from him simply being a sadistic bastard rather than from anything Phroso might have done to deserve such cruelty. Unfortunately, the confrontation turns physical and ends with Phroso falling from the balcony and breaking his spine on the stage below. </span></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh27sVRcNicvg_fneCoeSlDvdXs7KXlrTfT1SKi96n7cE32MOjAUO5Zus7zxQCM5bYp7fV3PMKmIb3vZxr-JVzMYGogZgunwRyhESFAcv8kjtOjYp1OaXu-rCujsBKnbIucxeOaCA-kJuI/s1600/WZ6.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="216px" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh27sVRcNicvg_fneCoeSlDvdXs7KXlrTfT1SKi96n7cE32MOjAUO5Zus7zxQCM5bYp7fV3PMKmIb3vZxr-JVzMYGogZgunwRyhESFAcv8kjtOjYp1OaXu-rCujsBKnbIucxeOaCA-kJuI/s320/WZ6.bmp" width="320px" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The action moves forward a few years and in the following scene we see that Phroso has lost the use of both his legs and has been reduced to moving around on a wooden trolley. He also appears to have lost his livelihood and has the appearance of a man who, if not exactly homeless, is certainly living on the edge of ruin. As the scene opens we see him on his trolley, propelling himself with near-demonic fury down the street. We learn from an evil-looking group of gossiping old bag ladies that Anna has returned. What's more, she's brought a baby with her and has sought sanctuary in a nearby church. Phroso arrives at the church and, abandoning his cart, drags his broken body down the aisle, only to discover that Anna has taken her own life at the altar, leaving her child, bawling over her corpse. Wracked with remorse for not having fought harder to keep his wife, Phroso concludes that Crane must have made her life a misery; and with a statue of the Virgin Mary as his witness he swears vengeance on the man who has destroyed his life and everything that he loves.</span></div><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">The action now moves eighteen years into the future and to deepest, darkest Africa. West of Zanzibar, Phroso, now known as Dead-Legs, has secured a position as a trader by using his skills as a magician to exploit the superstitious local natives - a tribe of cannibals - who believe him to be a fearsome voodoo witch-doctor, more powerful than any evil spirit. With his two hulking goons, Tiny and Babe (Roscoe Ward and Kalla Pasha), who sometimes dress as monsters to terrify the credulous savages into doing as they are told, Dead-Legs has the tribe under his almost complete control. </span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzXpQT-5aBFFRzx2w5HDBK9h9bB1qvww80mcO3FB41z-M6lAJBz9H-rwSPtwA04Jz2aGhfBujY4_172uIhh5Ut08rQrNdu3B_es46IXYSUM2UcIlrGHyRRXf5Wspausq_U2sBWzuKBxz4/s1600/WZ4.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213px" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzXpQT-5aBFFRzx2w5HDBK9h9bB1qvww80mcO3FB41z-M6lAJBz9H-rwSPtwA04Jz2aGhfBujY4_172uIhh5Ut08rQrNdu3B_es46IXYSUM2UcIlrGHyRRXf5Wspausq_U2sBWzuKBxz4/s320/WZ4.bmp" width="320px" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial;">Phroso as Dead-Legs is a far cry from the seemingly gentle, caring man we met at the beginning of the film. The years have turned him into a roughened, shaven-headed thug whose face has become locked in a cruel sneer. </span><span style="font-family: Arial;">He has become "this thing that crawls", as much a part of the jungle as the insects and lizards that we are shown writhing in the mud and crawling through the decaying vegetation. When not plotting in his wheelchair and snarling at the world, he is clambering monkey-like up and down knotted ropes, or slithering through his hut on his belly like a snake. Nor has he forgotten his promise to wreak vengeance on the man who wronged him: he has been using his fear tactics to manipulate the natives into stealing Crane's precious ivory; but this is only part of the plan, a move designed merely to get Crane's attention. </span></div><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The second part of the plan involves dispatching Babe to Zanzibar to collect a present - "a little sweetheart...a blonde one"- for Dead-Legs' alcoholic doctor, Doc (Warner Baxter), the fourth member of the gang. The leering expression on Dead-Legs' face as informs Tiny of the plan leaves the viewer in little doubt that he intends Doc to enjoy his present to the full. The 'present' is currently living in a sailor's dive in Zanzibar. Her name is Maizie (Mary Nolan) and we later learn that she is none other than Anna's child, now fully grown. It transpires that following Anna's suicide, Phroso took the child with him to Africa and arranged to have her raised in the brothels and gin dens of Zanzibar, with no knowledge of her background. When we first meet Maizie it is clearly a lost soul: alcoholic, almost certainly a prostitute (the establishment's proprietess expresses regret at the loss of one of her girls) and probably drug-dependent, too. Her joy when Babe (in the guise of a colonial gentleman) explains that he has come to take her to meet her father is almost pitiful to behold. Seeing an opportunity to escape her empty life in Zanzibar and discover who she really is, Maizie readily agrees to accompany Babe back to the jungle outpost. </span></span></span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEio1XlWCdX0dH6T0VmLcbYKCYyKGUMrJ9Cx7KC0FYzsRQeuv_xnUhHB-SMI22lSSMcXUPQfkj9tY8CnvAT632Tyzz6BoRNxI9VhOnHIm6VD2pGnISQ0Ab-a0AGu9HT-LLxJuGyKYPCMC64/s1600/WZ7.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="219px" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEio1XlWCdX0dH6T0VmLcbYKCYyKGUMrJ9Cx7KC0FYzsRQeuv_xnUhHB-SMI22lSSMcXUPQfkj9tY8CnvAT632Tyzz6BoRNxI9VhOnHIm6VD2pGnISQ0Ab-a0AGu9HT-LLxJuGyKYPCMC64/s320/WZ7.bmp" width="320px" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When they arrive back at the trading post during a native funeral ceremony, Maizie's first reaction on meeting Dead-Legs is one of alarm - could this crippled, brutish-looking man possibly be her father? But with a sneer of contempt Dead-Legs informs her that, no, he is not her father and he has no intention of telling her who is...at least not yet. As Maizie takes in her surroundings, the realisation that she has been lured there under false pretences begins to sink in - Doc is a drunken wreck, Babe is no longer a white-suited 'gentleman', but an obese, sweaty cutthroat, and beyond the hut the jungle is alive with the frenzied sound of voodoo drums. Dead-Legs dons a grotesque mask (which, it has to be said, does make him look a little like Gonzo the Great) and slithers off into the night to join the ceremony. As they watch him go, Babe explains to a confused, but oddly amused, Maizie that Dead-Legs is playing the part of a spirit chaser. His role in the ceremony is to ensure that demons stay away while the natives cremate the dead man's body. Maizie's amusement, however, soon turns to horror when Babe informs her that as the deceased was a man, cannibal law dictates that his female relatives must burn with him. As Maizie watches the dead man's wife (or maybe it's his daughter) being dragged to her grisly death, the true horror of the situation, as well as perhaps a realisation of the hopelessness of her own, causes her to break into hysterical laughter. </span></div><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Realising she is a prisoner, Maizie attempts to escape through the jungle; but the next time we see her she is back at the trading post looking soiled and messed-up. She agrees not to try again, and we are left to wonder exactly what happened to her. Did she return because she realised she wouldn't get very far in the jungle at night? Or was she pursued and physically forced to return? Maybe even sexually assaulted? If so, then it wasn't at the hands of Doc, who, when sober, betrays traces of humanity by expressing concerns about Maizie's treatment. She tries to appeal to his good nature, but he is either too loyal, or too weak, to stand up to Dead-Legs, who takes every opportunity to humiliate and degrade the girl. When she takes a drink, he tells her to smash the glass, lest he should ever have to drink from it. He mocks her attempt to hold back her tears and orders her to eat off the floor, like a dog. As a final humiliation he gives all her clothes to the natives to play with and despoil. </span><span style="font-family: Arial;">Despite the fact that Doc finds this hilarious, Maizie continues to try and get him on side. She can see that Dead-Legs is using alcohol to control the doctor and bend him to his will, so she tries to get Doc to remember a time when he was in control of his own life; but there are things in Doc's past that he is trying to forget, so from his point of view Dead-Legs is doing him a favour. Nevertheless, he slowly begins to grow close to Maizie, and together they hit the gin...</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiU_y8AqykN602hP1coaUz0sekkeOt2pzCalvUxDgMMGjQGlGqQ3YkX4P8k97Fv_jvuTw3iipGfvVzz3p7IsC6UijojKJ6GgfnObcDisVhJVWvXJMD-8orvz9boVX6vhYRK6BaqHR_RHKY/s1600/WZ3.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="226px" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiU_y8AqykN602hP1coaUz0sekkeOt2pzCalvUxDgMMGjQGlGqQ3YkX4P8k97Fv_jvuTw3iipGfvVzz3p7IsC6UijojKJ6GgfnObcDisVhJVWvXJMD-8orvz9boVX6vhYRK6BaqHR_RHKY/s320/WZ3.bmp" width="320px" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial;">Meanwhile, on instruction from Dead-Legs, the natives have informed Crane that it is Dead-Legs who has been stealing the ivory. Crane is now on his way to the outpost to confront the trader and will arrive in the next few days. This is the news that Dead-Legs has been waiting for. He instructs a native representative to inform the rest of the tribe that the white girl living with them is Crane's daughter. Unfortunately, Lon Chaney chooses this moment to break the 'fourth wall' and give the audience such a knowing look - as if to say "Yep, you know where this is heading" - that for a brief moment all pretence at reality goes out of the window. Fortunately, it's the only such moment in the film and therefore doesn't ruin it - but it's still incredibly inappropriate, not to mention unnecessary: anyone who has been following what's going on will have worked out that Dead-Legs intends to have Crane murdered and then have Maizie burned alive at the ivory merchant's funeral . </span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Crane arrives a few days later and is remarkably calm and reasonable considering that he’s come to confront the man who’s been stealing from him. There is a flicker of recognition when he first encounters Dead-Legs, but it is not until the erstwhile magician throws open the lid of his old coffin stage trick to reveal the skeleton within that Crane finally realises who he’s dealing with. Why, it’s old Phroso! What a funny coincidence! Indeed, Crane seems to find the whole situation highly amusing – after all, how could an insignificant nobody like Phroso possibly be a threat?</span> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">His laughter wanes, however, when Dead-Legs opens the coffin again to reveal Maizie in a wretched drunken state.</span> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Who is this "terrible wreck"? Dead-Legs is on the verge of telling him when Doc bursts in, threatening Dead-Legs and declaring his love for the girl. As the incredulous Crane watches, Doc lifts Maizie from the coffin and carries her off into the jungle. Amused again, Crane demands to know what is going on and Dead-Legs finally reveals that miserable creature he's just revealed is Crane's daughter; that he found her in the church with her dead mother and brought her to Africa to be raised in the lowest dives so that Crane could be proud of her. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjepJaZ7WyZp5KIXTU4EyT6gZVC4TcU7t5oYpId5_ow3rOd9lc1n2cmwin5oUOXtBvKKj0D0YzOpvZo6e4J1OxvlA_FJGzSk8Hw9t4QG4vDozf7nphspy2fJgRlM-U8rkQSHkZd5nJudM0/s1600/west-of-zanzibar.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="245px" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjepJaZ7WyZp5KIXTU4EyT6gZVC4TcU7t5oYpId5_ow3rOd9lc1n2cmwin5oUOXtBvKKj0D0YzOpvZo6e4J1OxvlA_FJGzSk8Hw9t4QG4vDozf7nphspy2fJgRlM-U8rkQSHkZd5nJudM0/s320/west-of-zanzibar.jpg" width="320px" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">On hearing the news, Crane appears to break down in tears; but Dead-Legs’ victory is only momentary – Crane isn’t crying tears of sorrow, he’s crying tears of laughter. Dead-Legs has got it wrong…very wrong indeed. Maizie isn’t Crane’s daughter – she’s Phroso’s. Crane explains that Anna never ran away with him to <place w:st="on">Africa</place>; when she found out what he’d done to the magician she hated him and stayed behind. Knowing she could never return to Phroso she chose to give birth to their child alone; and her guilt over what happened drove her to take her own life.</span></span></div><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"></span></span><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Dead-Legs is devastated by the news. In what must surely rank as one of Chaney’s most heartfelt and moving performance, we watch as the truth of what Crane is telling him sinks in and the mask of hatred slowly slips from his face to reveal the tormented human being beneath. Crane departs, still laughing, while Doc and Maizie return, startled to find that Dead-Legs is no longer the callous thug they left a few minutes before, but a broken man wracked with remorse and regret. In a desperate bid to make amends, Dead-Legs explains that he has a boat and that he is willing to take Maizie away from the horrors of the jungle; but Doc will hear none of it, and as far as Maizie is concerned Dead-Legs is still a vile worm to be despised for what he has done to her. </span><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKUB4EyNCmFq4ophvklPPa8fwkdnbWOIIPtWGeFhurVeVtFpnbupxgoxsxh3WM66TbA5pbtjFy3TQVsSRewnLeI1LatRWumN8bSV2eRKYp4omgOKkUcOes9GUalzzlV3906n7QCH4IaG0/s1600/WZ5.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="215px" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKUB4EyNCmFq4ophvklPPa8fwkdnbWOIIPtWGeFhurVeVtFpnbupxgoxsxh3WM66TbA5pbtjFy3TQVsSRewnLeI1LatRWumN8bSV2eRKYp4omgOKkUcOes9GUalzzlV3906n7QCH4IaG0/s320/WZ5.bmp" width="320px" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial;">At that moment a group of natives arrives and deposits Crane's body on the floor. In accordance with Dead-Legs' earlier instructions, they have shot the ivory merchant. They will be back later for the body, and also for Maizie. But Crane isn't quite dead. Dead-legs orders Doc to keep him alive, but to no avail - Crane passes away and Maizie, believing that Crane was her long lost father, faints. As the drums for the funeral ceremony start beating, Dead-Legs cradles the unconscious Maizie in his arms and lets slip that <em>he</em> is her real father. Doc overhears the remark and when Maizie comes to, just as the natives arrive to collect the corpse, he calms her hysteria by telling her that Crane wasn't her father, after all; that they lied to her and that her real father died many years ago. Having hid Maizie in a back room, Doc tries to convince Dead-Legs to tell the natives the truth, but he won't; he doesn't want to risk Maizie learning the truth about him, at which point the cannibals return to inform him that "Fire...ready...for white girl." </span><span style="font-family: Arial;">And so the race is on to prevent Maizie from becoming toast....</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw5dtcLUUKvUVgAbS51WgZ1pq2cuX0wdtNyhnw8PNrLX83Zb8TUSDZAHMlsStwWrrTIIUedkB_PsIcEw7Om13eXu5Iu3F58k1DX4PhPF-Y53ZtIEbRDuW8MGXM7zaZkv_QYqK1yXyNFLc/s1600/936full-west-of-zanzibar-poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320px" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw5dtcLUUKvUVgAbS51WgZ1pq2cuX0wdtNyhnw8PNrLX83Zb8TUSDZAHMlsStwWrrTIIUedkB_PsIcEw7Om13eXu5Iu3F58k1DX4PhPF-Y53ZtIEbRDuW8MGXM7zaZkv_QYqK1yXyNFLc/s320/936full-west-of-zanzibar-poster.jpg" width="260px" /></a>If the above makes <em>West of Zanzibar</em> sound a tad melodramatic, that's because it is - which is probably why it has never quite achieved the status of some of Browning's other films - but it benefits hugely from Chaney's ferocious performance (for my money, a more realistically frightening one than the more lauded performance he gives in <em>The Unknown</em>) and its genuinely grimy atmosphere. Browning's demon-infested jungle is a moral cesspit, hot, steaming and putrid. His characters are soiled, sweat-stained and rotting from within. All his trademark themes - obsession, jealousy, lust and revenge - are here, but in concentrated form. Browning's Africa may look cramped and artificial, but this only adds to the claustrophobic tension of the piece, as does Browning's liberal use of close-up shots. It's a film about the ease with which people will renege on their humanity in the pursuit of revenge, willingly degrading themselves in order to degrade others. The pessimism isn't absolute, though - Chaney's character does achieve redemption in the end, but at a terrible cost.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div style="clear: both; text-align: left;">All the performances are noteworthy (although Lionel Barrymore does veer dangerously close to overacting at times), but special mention must go to Mary Nolan, who manages to turn in a thoroughly modern and convincing performance as the defiled Maizie. Nolan clearly had the makings of a great actress; but, tragically, her own life mirrored Maizie's in too many ways as she struggled with a string of abusive relationships and an eventual decline into obscurity and drug-dependence. She was only 42 years old when she died on 31st October 1948.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><em>West of Zanzibar</em> was remade in 1932 as <em>Kongo</em>.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"></span></div>Jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10746384490870629929noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7745719079719774194.post-17510479331065490792011-06-09T11:51:00.000-07:002011-08-17T03:32:19.889-07:00The Bat (1926)<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-mzRWqpKFFA7Wqeib4c2u8WcntagSjgfND7K-RM06vhfdUhmCw89s8BZa_QVcR_Jp9TikJDincDNQmRcu5Nt3HnaDqC7LsGMyAO5i7L4xQkrfkOmxvSRtLcKxx0vF2AhTpBZYhXr8gsg/s1600/TheBat1926.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-mzRWqpKFFA7Wqeib4c2u8WcntagSjgfND7K-RM06vhfdUhmCw89s8BZa_QVcR_Jp9TikJDincDNQmRcu5Nt3HnaDqC7LsGMyAO5i7L4xQkrfkOmxvSRtLcKxx0vF2AhTpBZYhXr8gsg/s1600/TheBat1926.jpg" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Directed by Roland West</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Starring: Jewel Carmen</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"> Jack Pickford</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"> Emily Fitzroy</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"> Tullio Carminali</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Run time: 88 mins</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Studio: United Artists</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Black & White</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Whoops. My plan to review the horror films of the 1920s in chronological order has come unstuck. Somehow I managed to forget about <em><span style="font-family: Arial;">The Bat</span></em>, even while I was writing my review of West's <em><span style="font-family: Arial;"><a href="http://jonshauntedhouseofhorror.blogspot.com/2011/04/monster-1925.html">The Monster</a></span></em> (1925). It was only while searching for the next film to review (another Lon Chaney) that I discovered the <em><span style="font-family: Arial;">The Bat</span></em> wedged between Roger Corman's <em><span style="font-family: Arial;">The Terror</span></em> and Tobe Hooper's <em><span style="font-family: Arial;">Texas Chainsaw Massacre</span></em> (I really need to organise my DVDs better!). As I fed the disc into the player I did worry that maybe I'd forgotten about <em><span style="font-family: Arial;">The Bat</span></em> because I didn't like it or because it wasn't very good; but happily I can report that although my personal preference is for <span style="font-family: Arial;"><em>The Monster, </em></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"><em>The Bat</em></span> is in fact a better film and further proof that West deserves to be better remembered than he is.</span><br />
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<em><span style="font-family: Arial;">The Bat</span></em><span style="font-family: Arial;"> is yet another old dark house thriller based on yet another successful Broadway stage play (although, in fact, it began life as a novel) and, like <em><span style="font-family: Arial;">The Monster</span></em>, its storyline has more holes in it than a Swiss cheese; but West's frenetic direction doesn't allow us much time to ponder them - as with <em><span style="font-family: Arial;">The Monster,</span></em> the action in <em><span style="font-family: Arial;">The Bat</span></em> moves at a furious pace. Characters don't just creep around the old dark houses in West's films - they race through them, run up and down the stairs, leap over furniture, and swing through windows. <em><span style="font-family: Arial;">The Bat</span></em> is essentially a farce, characterized as it is by an elaborate and improbable plot, multiple chase scenes, and a generous helping of verbal and physical humour. </span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEil1Q12g4jHM2m4q8GhnsF66pKFmIWxBYnAJ8n9jUWYttYfthbhLnuAiHapRvn1BjUuzpykXPujvi_GLcauFjicPGg3u2Ya5NmapDkUuXUQCjG9e7ahffeQDv1GF44KkSCPO0OQtYRReK0/s1600/Bat+10.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="244px" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEil1Q12g4jHM2m4q8GhnsF66pKFmIWxBYnAJ8n9jUWYttYfthbhLnuAiHapRvn1BjUuzpykXPujvi_GLcauFjicPGg3u2Ya5NmapDkUuXUQCjG9e7ahffeQDv1GF44KkSCPO0OQtYRReK0/s320/Bat+10.jpg" width="320px" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial;">The Bat of the title is a master criminal (and, incidentally, an acknowledged inspiration for Bob Kane's <em><span style="font-family: Arial;">Batman</span></em>) who has been running rings around the police for some time. Something of a celebrity, whose escapades are reported regularly in the papers, the Bat is famous for the sinister costume he wears to mask his real identity. Though he is known primarily as a thief, the Bat has a darker side to his nature, as revealed in the opening scene in which he breaks into the penthouse of a jewel collector named Gideon Bell (George Beranger) and murders him for the sake of stealing just one of the "fabulous Favre emeralds" (in fairness to the Bat, however, it should be noted that he does give Bell advance warning of his intention to rob him, so maybe Bell should have heeded the warning and cleared out of the apartment instead of waiting with a gun to catch the thief in the act). Escaping through the window and across the rooftops, the Bat leaves behind a bat-shaped calling card informing the police that he is going to take a short break in the countryside.</span></div><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">This trip to the countryside turns out to be a trip to <place w:st="on"><placename w:st="on">Oakdale</placename> <placetype w:st="on">County</placetype></place>, where it transpires that the Bat intends to rob the county bank. Unfortunately, however, someone has beaten him to it. As the Bat watches through the skylight, a mysterious Man in a Black Mask (Charles Hertzinger) opens the safe and removes a large sum of money. Scurrying away from the bank with the cash in a bag, the Man in the Black Mask gets into a car and speeds off into the night. Disconcerted and annoyed, the Bat decides to follow in his own prototype batmobile. The Man in the Black Mask leads him to a lonely, moonlit mansion built and designed, we are told, by a certain Courtleigh Fleming, recently deceased president of the Oakdale Bank. The Bat watches from the trees as the Man in the Black Mask breaks into the house through a basement window. </span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5Gw91S9Osbf5YQ_KM41bER22kBxVM1rci7cSASAmrWD4HZ1Q3DBNhQnHCv5uoZNs4b3V-Y8wB9uKJOGaRNx8EzXrKtiX1HRYNPGWfK9i2j2vf0-iqyzPuSToT28qKOhCpH7XBHTtCvNk/s1600/Bat+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="244px" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5Gw91S9Osbf5YQ_KM41bER22kBxVM1rci7cSASAmrWD4HZ1Q3DBNhQnHCv5uoZNs4b3V-Y8wB9uKJOGaRNx8EzXrKtiX1HRYNPGWfK9i2j2vf0-iqyzPuSToT28qKOhCpH7XBHTtCvNk/s320/Bat+3.jpg" width="320px" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial;">The Fleming Mansion is currently occupied by Mrs Cornelia Van Gorder of New York (Elizabeth Fitzroy) who has leased the place with her niece, Dale Allen (Jewel Carmen), hoping to find the peace and quiet she needs to concentrate on her knitting. But strange things have been happening around the house: lights keep flickering on and off, and mysterious noises have caused her superstitious maid, Lizzie Allen (Louise Ferzenda, in the film's most comedic role), to become more than usually jittery. Lizzie, who has been setting bear traps around the grounds (or, rather, hurling them out of the windows) on the off-chance that the Bat might turn up to terrorise them, is convinced that the 'Heebies Jeebies' are at work in the house; but Cornelia is convinced that there are logical explanations for what has been happening. Nevertheless, she agrees to accompany Lizzie down to the basement to investigate the source of the latest unexplained sounds. By this time, the Man in the Black Mask has disappeared up the laundry chute via a conveniently placed ladder, so the two women find the basement empty; but when the Bat's long-eared silhouette appears at the window, Lizzie's screams cause Cornelia to accidentally fire the gun.</span></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">The next day, the robbery makes the papers. At his gentleman's club in <place w:st="on"><state w:st="on">New York</state></place>, Richard Fleming (Arthur Houseman) reads that the police are searching for one Brooks Bailey (Jack Pickford), a cashier at the Oakdale Bank, who has gone missing along with $200,000. Richard is the late Courtleigh Fleming's spendthrift nephew, who has leased the Fleming house in the hope of paying off his gambling debts, some of which appear to be owed to the family physician, Dr Wells (Robert McKim), who is also at the club and informs Richard that there are reasons why the Fleming house should not be occupied at this time. He warns Richard that he may have no choice but to scare the women out.</span></div><div class="separator" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNl2T-mH5aLS7VqmUvPoejku76K6FUfugtnafrGoN4kE7iHB-54fVtLvQCzo2GPQsO6YqBSpGKiWcKbp9EfDGhpqR3h7XQ6IgCPkXSfGItKoSRpXxxNDJcEiFKDlQvlR8hT5i7CmgC_QM/s1600/Bat+4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="246px" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNl2T-mH5aLS7VqmUvPoejku76K6FUfugtnafrGoN4kE7iHB-54fVtLvQCzo2GPQsO6YqBSpGKiWcKbp9EfDGhpqR3h7XQ6IgCPkXSfGItKoSRpXxxNDJcEiFKDlQvlR8hT5i7CmgC_QM/s320/Bat+4.jpg" width="320px" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial;">Meanwhile, back at the house, Dale is trying to persuade her aunt to employ her new boyfriend as their gardener. Cornelia questions the young man to determine if he really is what he says he is and, with a little help from Dale, he succeeds in securing the job - except that Cornelia has seen right through him and knows full well that he isn't a gardener. (How many gardeners do <em><span style="font-family: Arial;">you</span></em> know with manicured fingernails?) She appears to have hired him simply to keep her niece happy. Dale's boyfriend is in fact Brooks Bailey, the Oakdale Bank cashier, who has come to the <place w:st="on"><placename w:st="on">Fleming</placename> <placetype w:st="on">Mansion</placetype></place> not only to be with Dale and hide from the police, but also to search for the stolen money, which he believes has been brought to the house. Dale suspects that the cash might be hidden in a secret room that she heard about when the house was being built, and it's here that I find myself scratching my head a bit. What reason would Brooks have to think that the money has been brought to the Fleming house? And isn't it too much of a coincidence that he just happens to be going out a girl who lives there? In addition to this, there's no suggestion that Dale or her aunt have ever had any connection to the Fleming family prior to their renting the house, so how could a much younger Dale have overheard the conversation between Courtleigh Fleming and his architect about the hidden room? It's never explained. (On the other hand, it's entirely possible that I've completely misunderstood what’s going on here. If so, please feel free to enlighten me.)</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8Re-qD17j33J4DagKhY3FHf3Pw017j2kn34qOEeKZh5FPG1wjIqg7h9f6e7QCHqZdxU9TgSyB_0PikrCBLu_oZvabyWHXSW3PJKA6nvTG89VHJIKatBWbgm5Bbhz2Fz1bpS7kml0-8wk/s1600/Bat+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="241px" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8Re-qD17j33J4DagKhY3FHf3Pw017j2kn34qOEeKZh5FPG1wjIqg7h9f6e7QCHqZdxU9TgSyB_0PikrCBLu_oZvabyWHXSW3PJKA6nvTG89VHJIKatBWbgm5Bbhz2Fz1bpS7kml0-8wk/s320/Bat+1.jpg" width="320px" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial;">Meanwhile, Billy (Kamiyama Sojin), the sinister Oriental butler who was thrown in with the lease, announces the arrival of Dr Wells, who happens to turn up just seconds after a message wrapped around a rock and warning Cornelia to get out of the house has been hurled through the dining room window. Hot on the doctor's heels is a detective by the name of Moletti, who has been summoned by Cornelia as a result of the suspected break-in the night before, and who also just happens to be the detective charged with hunting down the Bat. Cornelia wants to know if there is any connection between the goings-on at the house and the Oakdale Bank robbery. Detective Moletti doesn't think so - that is until he accidentally discovers that Brooks Bailey is in the house. A lengthy chase sequence then ensues that reveals West's considerable aptitude for farce, as Moletti pursues Brooks through the house, up and down the building's many staircases and in and out of rooms, including the bathroom where Lizzie is trying to shower (and where Brooks makes clever use of the shower curtain to evade his pursuer) and the bedroom where Cornelia, seemingly oblivious to the intrusion, is pressing on with her mission to knit until Doomsday.</span></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSH5ZrxVX9Q9znVKG324B_pSMj8nwphQRIX_xpFpEJjlKcZGzGzCkaLuBVaFRzSB9EeyRNuffeD5Qnjl5E12D-MRp6_OYc_6i5lNoRvk0fkGyIdKYJpKI40Y4K1cystDyolWpXGiRVOvQ/s1600/Bat+7.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="243px" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSH5ZrxVX9Q9znVKG324B_pSMj8nwphQRIX_xpFpEJjlKcZGzGzCkaLuBVaFRzSB9EeyRNuffeD5Qnjl5E12D-MRp6_OYc_6i5lNoRvk0fkGyIdKYJpKI40Y4K1cystDyolWpXGiRVOvQ/s320/Bat+7.bmp" width="320px" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial;">A few words should be said here about the film's sets. The exterior model shot of the Fleming Mansion, complete with haunted tower and ever-circling bat, is charmingly spooky and well-executed (indeed, all the film's model shots, including a New York cityscape, the Oakdale Bank, and the Fleming house garage, which later burns down, are noteworthy for their time) but it's the interiors that really impress.</span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial;">Although the Fleming Mansion is not strictly speaking an <em><span style="font-family: Arial;">old</span></em> dark house, having been built in the fairly recent past by Courtleigh Fleming, its vast rooms are still steeped in the requisite Gothic gloom;</span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial;">but it's the Art Deco trimmings and the illogical layout of the place that give it its unique appeal. There are hints of Expressionism here and there (although the only obviously Expressionistic set in the film is Gideon Bell's penthouse) but it seems to me that West wasn't so much trying to reflect disturbed states of mind in his architecture as he was trying to ensure that his large cast had enough space to run around! </span></div><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">While the chase is going on, Dale sneaks down to greet Richard Fleming at the front door, having phoned him earlier to tell him her suspicions about the money being in the house. (Again, I'm not sure why she would phone him. How does she know him?) Richard confirms that the hidden room does exist and explains that its location can be found on the mansion’s blueprints, which he says are stored in an old chest of drawers in the dining room. But he is lying – as Dale goes to retrieve the prints, Richard removes them instead from a secret compartment in a bookcase. Dale catches him out and it turns out that, unlike her, Richard has no intention of returning the money to the bank. Dale pulls a gun on him and is threatening to turn him over to Detective Moletti, when a door opens at the top of the stairs on which Richard is standing and an unseen assailant shoots him dead.</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaRvaY8jB6gjllJ8NfkkEYgeiGv2oCeWPHViWw6j1ijPKfV42D7lbYkFjT9Y0WgeWTL6Atf_Ul7awHeLWXuUoXkqIPXz8uBUr1JusxIFoFkOMMNXTJ2xCVZWtEUh1DpVW4I0Wa6p1dqi4/s1600/Bat5.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="241px" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaRvaY8jB6gjllJ8NfkkEYgeiGv2oCeWPHViWw6j1ijPKfV42D7lbYkFjT9Y0WgeWTL6Atf_Ul7awHeLWXuUoXkqIPXz8uBUr1JusxIFoFkOMMNXTJ2xCVZWtEUh1DpVW4I0Wa6p1dqi4/s320/Bat5.bmp" width="320px" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial;">The shot of course brings everyone running and when it is revealed that a single shot has been fired from the gun that Dale is carrying, she is branded number one suspect in Richard’s murder (of course, the gun is missing a bullet because Aunt Cornelia accidentally fired it the night before, but Moletti doesn't believe her). Examining Richard's body, Moletti discovers the blueprints and notices that a part of them has been torn off. He somehow knows about the hidden room and suspects Dale of having killed Fleming in order to learn of its whereabouts. </span></div><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">At this point there is another arrival at the house, Detective ‘Bloodhound’ Anderson (Eddie Gribbon) of Oakdale Detective Agency, who has apparently been summoned by Cornelia in response to the strange goings-on. (But hang on – didn’t Cornelia say that about Moletti, too?). No sooner has <city w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Anderson</place></city> arrived than the internal telephone rings. Cornelia answers it but can only hear horrible groans at the other end – the sounds of someone in terrible distress in the garage. Suddenly the lights flicker and fail, and through the window there shines a beam of light that begins to creep eerily across the wall. In the centre of the beam is the silhouette of a bat…</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizS0XctgCM-RD3uhVWgBsWaMKwKrFZ2Ny-rQP5TwoQvzlQV3VhYBymqumEE1Fm4YWYJVYbi4cMJ9hkO14eFlKIjs-xKNm3LocF8QBTaG2xrJyq0vJ6YqG_tuaQePHV__yL9uAeATA5HsM/s1600/Bat+6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="244px" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizS0XctgCM-RD3uhVWgBsWaMKwKrFZ2Ny-rQP5TwoQvzlQV3VhYBymqumEE1Fm4YWYJVYbi4cMJ9hkO14eFlKIjs-xKNm3LocF8QBTaG2xrJyq0vJ6YqG_tuaQePHV__yL9uAeATA5HsM/s320/Bat+6.jpg" width="320px" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The bat signal turns out to be the projected silhouette of a moth stuck on the headlamp of Dr Wells’ car. The doctor (who earlier left but has now returned) examines Richard’s body and is informed by Dale that she has indeed taken the scrap of blueprint and has hidden it on a tea tray in the dining room. While they are talking, a dishevelled figure creeps in unseen through the French window …then exits again shortly after.</span><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Investigating noises in another room, ‘Bloodhound’ <city w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Anderson</place></city> discovers Brooks Bailey and exposes him to everyone as the missing Oakdale Bank cashier. He attempts to arrest him, until Cornelia<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>vouches for him and Dale explains that she and Brooks are engaged to be married and that all Brooks wants to do is clear his name.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Meanwhile, Dr Wells has found the blueprint fragment in the dining-room and is interrupted by Moletti, who demands that Wells hand the fragment over. Once in his possession, Moletti disappears in search of the secret room, knocking on walls as he goes. The sounds alert the others, who interpret the noises as yet further evidence of something sinister going on in the house. With the exception of Dr Wells, they follow the sounds into what Lizzie calls ‘the haunted ballroom’, a dark and cavernous space where candles will not stay lit, as <city w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Anderson</place></city> discovers when he tries to light two candelabras.</span> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Elsewhere,</span> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Detective Moletti is still knocking on walls until he is attacked by Dr Wells, who knocks him unconscious (actually, given the number of times the doctor beats Moletti over the head it's a miracle that the detective survives!) ties him up and bundles him into a cupboard. </span><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Having returned to the dining-room the main group are alarmed by rapping sounds on the French window. Opening the window, they are startled when the battered and dishevelled stranger staggers back in. He is semi-conscious, cannot speak, and has no I.D on him. While the group are debating what to do, Brooks rushes in to inform them that he has just encountered the Man in the Black Mask, at which point the door slams shut and they are locked in. They try to leave the house via the veranda, but the Bat is waiting for them with a gun. Clinging to the ivy he shoots at them when they attempt to leave. Satisfied that they will not try to escape through the French windows, the Bat climbs up onto the roof and disappears into the tower where he locates the secret room behind a fireplace. In the corner of the room is a safe.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The main group downstairs use a chair as a battering ram to escape from the dining-room, whereupon they send Brooks outside to see what is going on (which is nice of them, considering that he could get his head blown off!). Brooks catches sight of the Man in the Black Mask creeping along the roof towards the tower and is shocked to realise that the stranger, whose mask has slipped to reveal his face, is none other than Courtleigh Fleming, the supposedly dead president of Oakdale Bank. When he tells the others they leave him with the semi-conscious stranger and all head up to the tower.</span><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">While the others clamber out of the tower and onto the roof (I’m sorry, I’ve forgotten why –<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ll admit that by now I was starting to have difficulty following exactly what was going on) Dale spies a light around the edges of the<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>fireplace and, exploring, gains entry to the secret room. Unfortunately, the fireplace closes behind her, locking her in with the Bat, who demands that she tell him the combination to the safe (which, of course, she doesn’t know). However, there appears to be another entrance into the secret room – while the Bat is menacing poor Dale, Courtleigh Fleming sneaks in through another door, opens the safe, and tries to make off with the cash, but the Bat spots him and a wrestling match ensues, during which the bat’s gun goes off, killing Fleming. The Bat drags Fleming’s corpse out through the second door, while Dale manages to get the fireplace open and escape. </span><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There is a good deal more running around before everyone ends up back in the attic, where they discover Fleming’s corpse and the bag of money, which the Bat apparently forgot to take with him when disposing of Fleming’s body. It transpires that Fleming was in league with Dr Wells (who forged Fleming’s death certificate) and that they had planned to rob the bank, split the money, and put the blame on Brooks. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXrKAt7w_rxcE2E5B3Toho1ETlkfEyPNha-uC-LA8WFJA8nRYptZPdxJvsUxfJDGulN0z660Mx3ydCag2ScvF3cSUWoaffFuClqsGyGin9I5E-lf4R2ZUAYBVbECSBTMWVdks5yUZ2FsU/s1600/Batb+12.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="247px" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXrKAt7w_rxcE2E5B3Toho1ETlkfEyPNha-uC-LA8WFJA8nRYptZPdxJvsUxfJDGulN0z660Mx3ydCag2ScvF3cSUWoaffFuClqsGyGin9I5E-lf4R2ZUAYBVbECSBTMWVdks5yUZ2FsU/s320/Batb+12.jpg" width="320px" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Bat, meanwhile, has set fire to the garage in the hope of drawing everyone out of the house and regaining the money, but it doesn’t work and he is apprehended on his return to the tower. Fortunately, however, he has booby trapped the room and is able to escape again when the lights go out. Unfortunately, he runs straight into one of the bear traps that Lizzie has set to capture him. His identity is revealed at last (as is the identity of the mysterious dishevelled man) and, thankfully, it isn’t a cheat. There are still unanswered questions, of course, but on the whole the story threads do come together satisfactorily at the end. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><em>The Bat</em> isn't as good as Paul Leni's <em><a href="http://jonshauntedhouseofhorror.blogspot.com/2011/05/cat-and-canary-1927_19.html">Cat and the Canary</a></em>, but it's a fine and influential 'old dark house thriller' nonetheless. Like <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Monster</i>, it's probably fair to say that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Bat</i> is more fun than frightening to watch; but that's not to say that it doesn’t have its scary moments: the scene where the Bat advances on Dale in the secret room is particularly effective, especially as it's the first time we get to see the Bat's crude but genuinely creepy mask in close-up.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWeNjOcfYoirQjgDEbUSH4UmRZlTrheFafAZCuDlZs5dyC6lgZR5GYqjoYsv7afEzumN19p5j1Ja6pbe5gldH24CcBT4biKEgXeR9p0dZtykjpc1duteDvXbi5vJXXyGeGrcurlo2EYcc/s1600/Bat+8.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="244px" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWeNjOcfYoirQjgDEbUSH4UmRZlTrheFafAZCuDlZs5dyC6lgZR5GYqjoYsv7afEzumN19p5j1Ja6pbe5gldH24CcBT4biKEgXeR9p0dZtykjpc1duteDvXbi5vJXXyGeGrcurlo2EYcc/s320/Bat+8.jpg" width="320px" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">While the film does at times come close to sinking under the weight of its plot, West is able to keep a much tighter reign on his material than he does in <em>The Monster,</em> managing, on whole, to stick to the point rather than<em> </em>get sidetracked with things that bear little relation to the main story. The balance between the horror and the comedy is also more finely tuned than in <em>The Monster</em>, no doubt because the comedic characters (Lizzie and, in particular, the wonderfully dry and deadpan Cornelia) are much more credible than any of the characters that appear in the earlier film. And then of course there are the special effects and the acrobatics, which are always a treat and something of a West trademark.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">And yet, as I said at the beginning, I can't help but prefer <em>The Monster</em>. I just find it more imaginatively appealing, for all that it is the more naive of the two films. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">(West remade <em><span style="font-family: Arial;">The Bat</span></em> in 1930 as <em>The Bat Whispers</em>, but unfortunately I don't own a copy and have never seen it. I'm hoping to rectify that soon, however, as everything I've read about it suggests that it was his masterpiece. </span>You can watch clips of it here: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PO2BS7BtfDQ">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PO2BS7BtfDQ</a>)<br />
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</div>Jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10746384490870629929noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7745719079719774194.post-7479697510885479782011-05-31T11:28:00.000-07:002011-08-05T04:07:19.118-07:00The Unknown (1927)<div align="left" class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZQDBhwSQHVXxEUnCJhtZOT2FsEtHN_hIHdlxWbF0ECvMPy4JvEcp3ft2JxVUjF80AfefKW_5WIBzB75gunvbA6FSDo_UDtPpNxVtUF97_iidOj2vTlXe7Fjwwe9NVlBxniPwD3sxY89E/s1600/6794629129_The_Unknown_1927_DVDrip_Dvix.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320px" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZQDBhwSQHVXxEUnCJhtZOT2FsEtHN_hIHdlxWbF0ECvMPy4JvEcp3ft2JxVUjF80AfefKW_5WIBzB75gunvbA6FSDo_UDtPpNxVtUF97_iidOj2vTlXe7Fjwwe9NVlBxniPwD3sxY89E/s320/6794629129_The_Unknown_1927_DVDrip_Dvix.jpg" width="204px" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Directed by Tod Browning</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Starring: Lon Chaney<br />
Joan Crawford<br />
Norman Kerry<br />
Run time: 49 mins (originally 63)<br />
Studio: MGM<br />
Black & White</span><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Unknown</i> is an example of a certain kind of horror movie that flourished in the 1910s and ‘20s, one that dealt with deformity and mutilation and fixated on the idea of the ugly as monstrous. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Hunchback of Notre Dame</i> and <a href="http://jonshauntedhouseofhorror.blogspot.com/2011/04/phantom-of-opera-1925.html"><em>The</em> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Phantom of the Opera</i></a> are two obvious examples, but there were many others. It has been suggested (in the documentary film <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Universal Horror</i>, for instance) that one of the reasons people responded to these films may have been because of the unprecedented numbers of maimed and mutilated soldiers that were returning from the Great War; soldiers who in previous conflicts would have died from their injuries but who now acted as unwelcome reminders of mankind's capacity for senseless cruelty and violence. It was the horror film as catharsis. </span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHVlzon4QCEafWEWo9cTrUYiaXWzwxXw_0yWbmESi6V_uTSFduyHqVEYh1uR2fVYY0dspPXWHD3_F6s-TcGcVu9lev-esmA4sm9FXiRbS0DMn2OUi6Q_KgTZYKKuGgVbXEdLcrGM2UVJA/s1600/tumblr_l74jn9KmmE1qb7dheo1_500.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320px" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHVlzon4QCEafWEWo9cTrUYiaXWzwxXw_0yWbmESi6V_uTSFduyHqVEYh1uR2fVYY0dspPXWHD3_F6s-TcGcVu9lev-esmA4sm9FXiRbS0DMn2OUi6Q_KgTZYKKuGgVbXEdLcrGM2UVJA/s320/tumblr_l74jn9KmmE1qb7dheo1_500.jpg" width="251px" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The director most associated with this kind of film is Tod Browning, and together with actor Lon Chaney he produced a string of films during this period in which Chaney played a variety of violent and murderous cripples. Browning, who at the age of sixteen had run away to join the circus, was able to draw inspiration for several of these films from his experiences as a traveller with various carnivals, where he had mixed with the extraordinary individuals who made up the freak shows that were popular in their day. Thus he was able to bring to his work a very personal perspective on the theme of physical deformity. Browning certainly acknowledged the horror that his audiences felt at the sight of disfigurement, but he refused to let them have it all their own way - in his most famous film, 1932's <em>Freaks</em>, he subverted expectations by presenting the sideshow freaks as basically honourable and decent people, while it was the 'normal' characters who were evil and monstrous, exploiting the freaks for personal gain. While it was quite possibly an expression of natural sympathy on the director's part, this theme of exploitation might also have been Browning's indictment on a society that came to his films in the hope of justifying its prejudices and assuaging its guilt. The theme of exploitation is also present in <em>The Unknown, </em>where the central character, an evil amputee, isn't quite what he at first appears to be.</span></div><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjX5KhvZSx1g4r1wnuL_P6Cm6xq8sqMJtoNPDe45aQTVNAouaQguBHpimQXw4e-hJiS0QFBpIrzBtQ75NsXsjVOO7PDdqFd4zNTf3KgOjrOk7oiZYlypEptEwCblz4-3ndThSTXlrPRa38/s1600/george6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjX5KhvZSx1g4r1wnuL_P6Cm6xq8sqMJtoNPDe45aQTVNAouaQguBHpimQXw4e-hJiS0QFBpIrzBtQ75NsXsjVOO7PDdqFd4zNTf3KgOjrOk7oiZYlypEptEwCblz4-3ndThSTXlrPRa38/s1600/george6.jpg" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The film opens with crowds arriving at Antonio Zanzi's gypsy circus, where Alonzo the Armless (Chaney), "sensation of sensations...wonder of wonders", is about to perform his death-defying knife act with Zanzi's daughter, the beautiful Nanon (Joan Crawford). Using his feet in lieu of arms, Alonzo fires bullets and hurls knives at the moving target against which Nanon is standing. On hand to assist with placing the weapons between Alonzo's feet is the dwarf Cojo, dressed as the Devil. The act is a great success and is followed by another of the circus's highlights: Malbar the Mighty (Norman Kerry), who performs incredible feats of strength. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Malbar, it transpires, is in love with Nanon, a fact that doesn't sit well with Alonzo, who harbours his own infatuation for the young woman. Nanon tries to reassure Alonzo that he has nothing to worry about - brute strength just doesn't interest her - but her eyes tell a different story: she is clearly attracted to the strongman despite her claim that she has had enough of being 'pawed' by men, whom she regards as 'beasts'. Alonzo offers his sympathies - "Always fear them," he tells her. "Always hate them." - while in secret confessing to Cojo that he intends to have Nanon all to himself. It might be easier if Malbar were the kind of brutish male that Nanon professes to hate, but in reality he is a thoroughly decent chap, and Alonzo knows it. Declaring his love, Malbar offers Nanon hands to caress her and strength to protect her; but, drawn to him though she is, she still flinches from his touch. </span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTVRo-H15mXKp_g0mYBEKxu1yH1Sg3C9tbPN_cdu05wRYOiTBacsxrfoUWMZQ0pkI5Hzl3py5Pa6yLLjr4JLvFzZJSV7M9qBd44yZXheW_r6wcKCU4bWLRaUn-Nt_hLWt3OLw3c1L9JRM/s1600/unknown.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="238px" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTVRo-H15mXKp_g0mYBEKxu1yH1Sg3C9tbPN_cdu05wRYOiTBacsxrfoUWMZQ0pkI5Hzl3py5Pa6yLLjr4JLvFzZJSV7M9qBd44yZXheW_r6wcKCU4bWLRaUn-Nt_hLWt3OLw3c1L9JRM/s320/unknown.jpg" width="320px" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Nanon is clearly a confused and conflicted young woman, a fact that the jealous Alonzo hopes to use to his advantage; but even he seems unaware of the depth of her pathology and is taken aback when Nanon suffers what appears to be a psychotic episode: railing against Malbar's inability to love her without touching her, she wishes to God that she could cut the hands off every man. She recovers when she realises that her words might be deemed insensitive in the presence of an amputee.</span></div><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Alonzo, however, continues to assure her of his friendship, a friendship that Nanon's father, Zanzi, (Nick De Ruiz) violently disapproves of. When Alonzo presents Nanon with a shawl as a gift, Zanzi rips it from her shoulders, accusing Alonzo of putting 'crazy ideas' in his daughter's head, 'again'. In a scene that is remarkably uncomfortable to watch, Zanzi proceeds to punch the helpless Alonzo and beat him repeatedly with a cane until Malbar comes to the cripple's rescue.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">At this point in the film we might begin to feel a certain amount of sympathy for Alonzo, but in no time at all he is encouraging Nanon back into the arms of the strongman, knowing full well that girl's aversion to being touched is no simple phobia. Convinced that by playing on her pathology he will bring her round to his way of thinking, Alonzo allows himself to relax in his caravan with Cojo, and the truth about him is revealed. Alonzo is an imposter - he is not an amputee at all, but secretly has both arms bound to his torso beneath a corset. It sounds contrived, but the revelation comes as a genuine surprise. As he contemplates the beating he has suffered he remarks that now it is time for Zanzi to learn that he, Alonzo, also has hands. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The opportunity comes sooner than expected - when Zani accidentally discovers Alonzo's secret, the imposter is forced to strangle the circus owner in order to ensure his silence. Unfortunately, the murder is witnessed by Nanon through the window of her caravan. Although she does not see Alonzo's face, she does see the double-thumb on his right hand, a genetic defect that would make him easily recognisable as her father's killer should his arms ever be revealed. Not only is Alonzo an imposter, but he is also a fugitive. When the police gatecrash Zanzi's gypsy funeral they are convinced that the circus owner's murderer is also responsible for a series of crimes committed in other towns where the circus has been. </span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgULuH0gI5GCG4Ji4cFbv4-DVivqP5OqFh6wNMMDvO8isRtNLhfoOke0k6dYM3DdR_nuTMzp8KgY7C_q3Xx8d65qtEV3_-kUtsAmaZig2vktgxBHFDk2AR1XHGKlGISyKs_wnUSvah-P-M/s1600/chaney-crawford-the-unknown-1927.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="239px" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgULuH0gI5GCG4Ji4cFbv4-DVivqP5OqFh6wNMMDvO8isRtNLhfoOke0k6dYM3DdR_nuTMzp8KgY7C_q3Xx8d65qtEV3_-kUtsAmaZig2vktgxBHFDk2AR1XHGKlGISyKs_wnUSvah-P-M/s320/chaney-crawford-the-unknown-1927.jpg" width="320px" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Nanon fears ruin if the circus is sold to pay her father's debts, but Alonzo promises to look after her and take her away from the things he hates. To this end, they remain in lodgings in the town while the circus moves on. Alone, Nanon can only think of Malbar and her joy is as obvious as Alonzo's hatred when it transpires that Malbar has also elected to remian behind and is willing to wait for Nanon to overcome her fear of being touched. Delighted by this sudden good fortune, Nanon embraces and kisses a secretly devastated Alonzo.</span></div><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Later, Cojo, (who is in on Alonzo's secret) insists that Alonzo must never let Nanon touch him again, in case she discovers Alonzo's hidden arms. Alonzo threatens Cojo, telling him to keep quiet and reminding him, with a mad gleam in his eyes, that there is <em>nothing</em> he will not do to keep Nanon. He intends to marry her, but Cojo points out that Nanon is likely only to feel hatred when she discovers Alonzo's deception on their wedding night. Alonzo, fully in the depths of his delusion, insists that the girl will forgive him; but Cojo reminds him that it was Alonzo's deformed hand that Nanon witnessed crushing the life out of her father.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Fully in despair, Alonzo appears to forget that he has arms and despite being free of his corset he continues to use his feet to light his cigarettes. When angry, he clenches is toes instead of his fists and uses them to rub his tired eyes. He is now so used to the deception that it has become his first nature. It is an extraordinarily clever and convincing scene, all the more so when you realise that Chaney was collaborating with a real-life armless double whose legs and feet were used to manipulate objects in frame with Chaney's upper body. The fact that it isn't noticeable in the least is testament to their skill.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When Cojo laughs and points out that Alonzo has forgotten about his arms, Alonzo's mood changes from despair to madness. A plan begins to formulate in his mind, one that fills Cojo with horror and causes the dwarf to beg him to reconsider. It is clearly something that the Alonzo has contemplated before, but the sheer insanity of it has held him back. Now, however, he has reason to see it through. The plan involves blackmailing a doctor to amputate his arms.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We never learn exactly what it is that the doctor has done to allow Alonzo to blackmail him so easily, but it's obviously of a sufficiently serious nature, because the doctor agrees to perform the surgery without delay; but while Alonzo is recovering from this extreme and desperate act of self-mutilation, Nanon and Malbar are growing ever closer. Nanon is even beginning to show signs of overcoming her phobia. They decide to get married and both agree that they want their close friend Alonzo to attend the ceremony.</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijMUxEKYhtOb6CfPTvxQQwVgxEB-qItN93Z-JbicVjV28tYEkhOGP3-_q4vFx6GDHG473ozX5g5SB0uHcBipXGPdXFoUol4PHv2fkG-ciFi-wJfYK-G1tTmcJ_QxNz0qDvL7Tk-LUt1rU/s1600/Untitled5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="243px" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijMUxEKYhtOb6CfPTvxQQwVgxEB-qItN93Z-JbicVjV28tYEkhOGP3-_q4vFx6GDHG473ozX5g5SB0uHcBipXGPdXFoUol4PHv2fkG-ciFi-wJfYK-G1tTmcJ_QxNz0qDvL7Tk-LUt1rU/s320/Untitled5.jpg" width="320px" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On Alonzo's return, Nanon is of course delighted to see him but can't help noticing that there is something a little...well, different...about his physique. But never mind that - she is just happy to have him back. Now they can get married. Of course, Alonzo misunderstands, thinking that Nanon is referring to him, and for the briefest of moments you see a flicker of real hope in his eyes for the first time; but it is soon dashed when Nanon reveals that her fiancé is none other than Malbar the Mighty, the very man Alonzo had hoped would repel her with his touch. The moment when Alonzo discovers the truth and realises that he has mutilated himself for no good reason is both heartbreaking and genuinely chilling. We watch as his expression slowly morphs from one of crushing defeat to one of naked, insane rage. Bizarrely, Nanon and Malbar fail to notice that Alonzo's reaction is one of pain and fury; when the full implication of what he has done to himself sinks in, Alonzo begins laughing madly, which the two lovers choose to interpret as a sign of his happiness at hearing their news. </span></div><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Realising that his reaction is in danger of bretraying him, Alonzo composes himself while Malbar, who is performing in a theare now, explains that he intends to perform a feat of strength in which he has a horse hitched to each hand while they pull in opposite directions on a treadmill. Alonzo, now fully insane with jealousy, asks what would happen if the treadmill broke or stopped suddenly. Malbar informs him that the horses would tear his arms from their sockets. Information received, Alonzo begins to plot his revenge and the film moves towards its thoroughly thrilling climax, in which Alonzo does indeed sabotage Malbar's act.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><em>The Unknown</em> is an intense film that contains what many regard as the most emotionally compelling performances of Lon Chaney's career (Joan Crawford apparently stated that she learnt more about acting from Chaney than from anyone else in her long career). It is also noticeable for its many dark undertones. The 'unknown' of the title appears to refer to the unspecified sins and secrets of the past that dictate the characters' actions and determine their emotional responses and obsessions: we have Alonzo and his possibly murderous past (is he in fact a serial killer?); then there are the unknown crimes of the doctor who performs the amputation; and, most of all, we have Nanon. Though it is never stated explicitly, the implication is certainly there that her pathology is the result of sexual abuse, possibly at her father's hands. Nowadays, of course, such a revelation about a character would scarcely cause a raised eyebrow, but back in 1927 the very suggestion must have been shocking indeed. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As far as the visual side of things is concerned, there is little to mention here. I'm not sure that Browning has ever been considered a great stylist, but his concerns are clearly elsewhere. As a study of obsession and jealousy, <em>The Unknown</em> is undoubtedly a great film, and Bowning succeeded in elicting fine performances from all his cast, not just Chaney. He certainly wasn't afraid to deal with disturbing subject matter or confront his audience with things that they would rather not face; and the fact that he succeeded in exploring uncomfortable issues in stories that on the face of it might seem ludicrous is enough to guarantee him a unique place in cinema history. He is certainly one of the great directors of the era and, <em>Freaks</em> aside,<em> </em><em>The Unknown</em> is probably his best regarded film.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(<em>The Unknown</em> was thought for many years to be a lost film until a copy was discovered in 1968. Unfortunately, it is incomplete. Although the film’s coherency is unaffected, the missing scenes apparently include Alonzo's murder of both the doctor and Cojo, which would explain why the dwarf disappears about three quarters of the way through the film.)</span></span><br />
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</div></div>Jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10746384490870629929noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7745719079719774194.post-75457995055753091892011-05-19T11:20:00.000-07:002011-07-03T02:07:55.092-07:00The Cat and the Canary (1927)<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPpP_1-7If3PAuBXUHgCV4_FYiD5kmOs_4vjHGGdNsZC2U_vflV4G0bn8Z0S6w-Qo1DUk1utkWTkVyjKXIIw0dXvFYhtHl8KE-McQH_3XvdiSh7uXRH_DhMARiwDh6sGepovPhoZeyq0c/s1600/tumblr_lax75yw9Xl1qbrdf3o1_500.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPpP_1-7If3PAuBXUHgCV4_FYiD5kmOs_4vjHGGdNsZC2U_vflV4G0bn8Z0S6w-Qo1DUk1utkWTkVyjKXIIw0dXvFYhtHl8KE-McQH_3XvdiSh7uXRH_DhMARiwDh6sGepovPhoZeyq0c/s320/tumblr_lax75yw9Xl1qbrdf3o1_500.jpg" width="251" /></span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Directed by Paul Leni</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Starring: Laura La Plante</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Creighton Hale</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Run time: 82 mins</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Studio: Universal</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Black & White</span><br />
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</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Based on John Willard’s popular Broadway stage play, Paul Leni's <em>The Cat and the Canary</em> holds the distinction of being the first 'proper' horror film produced by Universal Studios following the success of 1925's <em><a href="http://jonshauntedhouseofhorror.blogspot.com/2011/04/phantom-of-opera-1925.html">The Phantom of the Opera</a></em>. As such, it marks the beginning of a cycle of films that would go on to have a profound influence on the genre; and for all that it is a very early entry in the ‘old dark house’ sub-genre, it’s probably fair to say that <em>The Cat and the Canary</em> remains the definitive example of the form, responsible for countless imitations and the subject of no less than five remakes. Noting the success of previous film adaptations of similar Broadway material (such as <em><a href="http://jonshauntedhouseofhorror.blogspot.com/2011/04/monster-1925.html#more">The Monster</a></em> (1925)) Universal Studios were perhaps playing it safe by opting to film John Willard’s play; but the result is a film that bids fair to be called the first classic American horror movie. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Leni was a German Expressionist filmmaker whose previous works had included the fantasy anthology <em>Waxworks</em> (1924), and it was this film that brought him to the attention of Universal founder, Carl Laemmle. What set Leni apart from his Expressionist contemporaries, however, was his willingness to adapt the non-realist tropes of Expressionism (such as geometrically absurd sets) to satisfy the needs of a more mainstream audience, without sacrificing the movement's use of shadow, lighting and scenery to influence mood. He also seemed possessed of a playful sense of humour, which was undoubtedly another reason why Laemmle felt that he was the right man for the job - <em>The Cat and the Canary</em> is another horror comedy, after all. There’s no denying that the film's plot is simplistic (and was probably verging on the hackneyed even in 1927) but Leni set out to transcend the story's limitations by concentrating instead on the film's mise en scène. The result is a veritable triumph of style over substance, hugely entertaining, and one of the most forward-looking horror films of its day.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiigq9NnkVdcM0dwkROK3JVKCubuFurUXNqTTWaoSVCIX1RSWv6w3GwyOJsyJaQd6J6Rnpg7EPDH0NjHPP3ATQdxdG61hsM4RfrXReTUS_3v5arfUMDsQrLRRLcPb8GYOkUtRU2_QJQQ-E/s1600/PDVD_008.BMP" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="248" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiigq9NnkVdcM0dwkROK3JVKCubuFurUXNqTTWaoSVCIX1RSWv6w3GwyOJsyJaQd6J6Rnpg7EPDH0NjHPP3ATQdxdG61hsM4RfrXReTUS_3v5arfUMDsQrLRRLcPb8GYOkUtRU2_QJQQ-E/s320/PDVD_008.BMP" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">From the start, Leni takes every opportunity to do something different with the material: the opening credits, for example, are standard title cards, but are revealed by a hand brushing away cobwebs. The film's prologue isn't simply narrated on intertitles, but is told in a series of extraordinary dissolve shots. We meet Cyrus West, a dying millionaire, trapped in his fortress-like mansion, besieged and driven to the verge of madness by his greedy relatives. The spiky towers of his grotesque house are seen transforming into towering medicine bottles, symbolising West's terminal condition, which then transform into a clowder of giant hissing cats representing the relatives who are tormenting him and goading him towards death. We learn that West's last will and testament isn't to be read until twenty years after his death. It is sealed in an envelope and locked away in a hidden safe; but whose hairy, spider-like hand is this we see removing it from the safe? And what of the second envelope, never to be opened if the terms of the will are carried out?</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLJK6ock-Yy40JRfBh6OIWeZFGdd2sF6XdVhMalwCyes9iCW6FdD7wp5EWStyuP8Sq2qIH9-QCes752h7YtGL1CGm9sP-j1bH8QCKOsVHu-VaOOhrS4m2cCP4A4dyAmMXIs0FEVdL-T7Y/s1600/PDVD_023.BMP" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="245" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLJK6ock-Yy40JRfBh6OIWeZFGdd2sF6XdVhMalwCyes9iCW6FdD7wp5EWStyuP8Sq2qIH9-QCes752h7YtGL1CGm9sP-j1bH8QCKOsVHu-VaOOhrS4m2cCP4A4dyAmMXIs0FEVdL-T7Y/s320/PDVD_023.BMP" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For twenty years it is said that West's tormented ghost wanders the deserted halls and passageways of his house. Leni establishes early on that the real star of the film is the house itself - a celebrated tracking shot takes us on a tour of the decrepit pile, gliding down a long, dusty corridor with billowing curtains and into the library with its towering windows and bookcases, where torchlight explores the panelled walls and a gloved hand is seen placing the envelope back in the safe. When the family solicitor, Mr Crosby (Tully Marshall), arrives during the obligatory storm, he is met by Mammy Pleasant (Martha Mattox), the equally obligatory sinister housekeeper, herself a ghost-like figure who has apparently lived in the house ever since her master's death. Indeed, when Mammy Pleasant opens the door to admit the lawyer she disturbs a mass of congealed cobwebs around the doorframe, suggesting that she rarely, if ever, sets foot outside the tomb-like house. When Crosby asks her if she has been lonely on her own all these years, she smirks and assures him that she doesn't need the company of the living; and when Crosby discovers that someone has accessed the safe, Mammy Pleasant continues to insist that no one other than herself and Cyrus West's ghost has lived in the house since the millionaire's death.</span><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiskDnd2OJYaskPitjiHT-vys953tva2gDVgY6dRCT1jMmxdRxkOvl-TjcxVfA8eWjsVQSOiqzPo2rGAohOXkmzDOUfU4Oo_nCr5R0zY5TrzGNCwyUUl8-HzAARFA3mQjPB7dEdo37ivAM/s1600/wrgergerg.BMP" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="242" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiskDnd2OJYaskPitjiHT-vys953tva2gDVgY6dRCT1jMmxdRxkOvl-TjcxVfA8eWjsVQSOiqzPo2rGAohOXkmzDOUfU4Oo_nCr5R0zY5TrzGNCwyUUl8-HzAARFA3mQjPB7dEdo37ivAM/s320/wrgergerg.BMP" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One by one the relatives arrive: rival cousins Harry and Charlie (Arthur Carew and Forrest Stanley), spinster Aunt Susan (Flora Finch) and vain, empty headed niece Cecily (Gertrude Astor). Next is the bumbling Paul Jones (Creighton Hale), a young man given over to fantasising and exaggerating; and, finally, the beautiful ingénue Annabelle West (Laua La Plante), apparently the image of Cyrus West and, we are told, probably just as mad. As they all gather in the library for the reading of the will, the clock strikes midnight for the first time in twenty years, suggesting that supernatural agencies may be at work after all. </span></div><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Leni establishes character with the minimum of fuss: Harry lurks behind a table lamp, looking shifty; Charlie on the other hand looks worried, as though he has something to hide; Aunt Cecily fidgets impatiently, clearly a woman unused to having to wait for anything; and Cecily powders her nose, oblivious it seems to why she is even there. Meanwhile, Paul doodles and dreams of being rich, while Annabelle watches him with amusement and obvious affection. The relationship that develops between Paul and Annabelle during the film is another aspect that sets The Cat and the Canary apart. Avoiding the literalness and over-emphatic gesturing that was common to many other films of the era, their love story is realistic and genuinely touching precisely because it is hesitant, reliant on non-verbal cues, and a little awkward.</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWnlKP7rvHAVNelawzrYNp0CDqnqW5PqjEF9TmmRTobot51BsOxok0rATV1dAOZVxaDL0GeJ9w0YjTYlu8n85JWMt72mVjBh1LNV8a3zSEyUtf2hbBxgtmTHMZ72F06OIR8gOCjX5MbcA/s1600/PDVD_090.BMP" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWnlKP7rvHAVNelawzrYNp0CDqnqW5PqjEF9TmmRTobot51BsOxok0rATV1dAOZVxaDL0GeJ9w0YjTYlu8n85JWMt72mVjBh1LNV8a3zSEyUtf2hbBxgtmTHMZ72F06OIR8gOCjX5MbcA/s320/PDVD_090.BMP" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The will is read and it is revealed that the estate is to go to the most distant relative with the name West - in other words, Annabelle. Mammy Pleasant hands Annabelle another sealed envelope, one that she has kept on her person for twenty years. In accordance with West's final wish, the letter is to be opened in the privacy of the dead man's bedroom before Annabelle retires. The other relatives speculate that the letter may give the whereabouts of the famous West diamonds, the mention of which causes Cecily to stop pampering herself and finally take notice of what is going on. Annabelle now realises that she is in the same position as the long dead West - trapped in a cage surrounded by scheming relatives, a point emphasised by having the actress filmed through the backing splats of a chair, giving the impression that she is behind bars. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Of course, there's a condition to the will: West's heir must be proved sane by a physician, who will arrive later. If it turns out that she is even slightly mad, then the estate will go to the person named in the second envelope. As if on cue, Cyrus West's glowering portrait comes crashing down to the floor, an apparent coincidence that is interpreted by Mammy Pleasant as a sign of death. It's almost as if West is acting as referee from beyond the grave, signalling that the deadly fun and games can begin. </span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJePxuy-wh6x0_apS-h69umV3naLGDmaWqNQ_ZhQPpYm-WWJe9WI-3M5VEqu5zGaHPkDjyHH9RPGRaz9aRa9vlP4pNO4kj6BNywlcJPh5T1KHU4cqge4zkMZUsnStzJ5gNiq27ZRJIy6A/s1600/PDVD_094.BMP" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="242" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJePxuy-wh6x0_apS-h69umV3naLGDmaWqNQ_ZhQPpYm-WWJe9WI-3M5VEqu5zGaHPkDjyHH9RPGRaz9aRa9vlP4pNO4kj6BNywlcJPh5T1KHU4cqge4zkMZUsnStzJ5gNiq27ZRJIy6A/s320/PDVD_094.BMP" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Shaken, the relatives retire to the dining room for a very late dinner; but no sooner have they settled down to eat than a guard arrives to inform them all that a maniac has escaped from the local lunatic asylum – a maniac who likes to tear his victims to pieces, like a cat devouring a canary. The guard claims to have tracked the lunatic to the house and informs the group that the killer is either inside the house or somewhere in the grounds.</span></div><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">While this is going on, Crosby is discussing the terms of the will with Annabelle in the library. He informs her that the second envelope has been tampered with and that whoever’s name is in it probably knows the conditions of the will and may do Annabelle harm. In case her sanity is questioned, Annabelle asks to be warned who her successor is; but before Crosby can reveal the name, a clawed and hairy hand emerges from a secret passage behind a bookcase and snatches him away. It's one of the best moments in the film. Leni teases his audience and builds the suspense by showing us the bookcase inching slowly open while Crosby paces the room unaware of how close he keeps straying towards his doom. It's possibly <em>the </em>classic example of the audience being let in on the secret before the characters realise what's going on.</span><br />
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</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Although the commotion of Crosby's abduction startles Annabelle, she doesn't actually witness it; so when she informs the others that the solicitor has vanished into thin air, they immediately begin to doubt her sanity (all, that is, except Paul) - either she is mad or she has engineered the disappearance herself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSY7-onOPKumzT8jF0Ly2e1gYKL8JjJixwmUI2sK_E5NG_tZElJL4uAl3zYw6a3yDt2d_RjRRQwHlTiKujSOnEf9T-Y3WJYS7Sa9ZaKnG9HDTeMrEWlRRshANvPx4Ny34I6xAVrFNc_XI/s1600/PDVD_054.BMP" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="248" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSY7-onOPKumzT8jF0Ly2e1gYKL8JjJixwmUI2sK_E5NG_tZElJL4uAl3zYw6a3yDt2d_RjRRQwHlTiKujSOnEf9T-Y3WJYS7Sa9ZaKnG9HDTeMrEWlRRshANvPx4Ny34I6xAVrFNc_XI/s320/PDVD_054.BMP" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Advised not to leave the house by the asylum guard, the relatives retire to their rooms for the night. In Cyrus West's room on the ground floor, Annabelle opens the envelope given to her by Mammy Pleasant and learns that the missing West diamonds are in fact hidden in a secret compartment in the fireplace. Charmed by the glittering jewel necklace, Annabelle decides that it would be a good idea to wear it while she is asleep. Needless to say, it's not long before that same spider-like hand is emerging from a panel above her bed, its shadow feeling around her neck for the diamonds. When the hand snatches away the necklace, Annabelle awakes and her screams bring the others running. Her story only raises further suspicion; but when they examine the wall by Annabelle's bed they discover another secret panel, out of which tumbles the dead body of Mr Crosby (a moment spoiled ever-so-slightly by Tully Marshall's obvious attempt to break his fall at the last moment). </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">An attempt is made to contact the police, but the telephone wires have been cut. Harry believes that the escaped lunatic killed the solicitor, but Paul suggests that the murderer is whoever was named in the second envelope, which should still be in Crosby's pocket. But when he and Annabelle return to the bedroom to retrieve the envelope, Crosby's corpse has mysteriously disappeared.</span></div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Paul decides to explore but soon becomes lost in the house's secret passageways, leaving Annabelle alone in the library when the physician, Dr Lazar (Lucien Littlefield) arrives and proceeds to question her to determine her mental state.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Lazar is a thoroughly sinister-looking character, reminiscent (intentionally, one suspects) of Dr Caligari, and his examination of Annabelle is one of the film's more unsettling sequences. When encouraging her to tell him her troubles, his fingers beckon like claws; and when he examines Annabelle's eye for signs of madness, the close-up shot of his grubby fingers holding open her eyelids while her eyeball rolls creates a genuine sense of unease, serving to further highlight the young woman's vulnerability.</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgs3H83pNP4k5EBsmiCyPYWPfRkH1feA5rADXwJLylIULBS68R7k09k54gXVWQ5XTfOzR2pdVrPOIOIDe3n-fzTGtMLpS180PpaMQwCkQtVFAPq40WVClcW6RpWsLKbDED5zL6B-XfKg1A/s1600/PDVD_104.BMP" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="249" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgs3H83pNP4k5EBsmiCyPYWPfRkH1feA5rADXwJLylIULBS68R7k09k54gXVWQ5XTfOzR2pdVrPOIOIDe3n-fzTGtMLpS180PpaMQwCkQtVFAPq40WVClcW6RpWsLKbDED5zL6B-XfKg1A/s320/PDVD_104.BMP" width="320" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Meanwhile Paul has found his way to the cellar where he encounters at last the escaped lunatic, the Cat of the title. In appearance, the Cat is a bizarre and uniquely disturbing manifestation of evil, and the most Expressionistic element in the film. His face is a nightmare of features gone horribly wrong, while his long talons and battered hat give him more than a passing resemblance to a certain Freddy Krueger (I've often wondered if Wes Craven was influenced in some ways by Leni's film). In an uncharacteristic display of bravery, Paul engages the maniac in a fight, but is knocked unconscious, leaving the Cat to go in search of Annabelle.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In another scene that would be imitated countless times (most famously in James Whale's <em>Frankenstein </em>a few years later) the Cat enters the library where Annabelle has again been abandoned, emerging from the secret passageway and creeping up on her from behind while she stands in the doorway peering out into the hall. Once again, Leni plays on our expectations masterfully, teasing us with shots of the Cat's arm reaching out, receding, then reaching out again from behind the door while Annabelle frets. When the moment arrives and she comes face to face with the horror, her screams bring Paul (who has regained consciousness) running and another fight ensues, during which one of the Cat's eyes falls out of its socket and ends up lying on the floor like a hardened fried egg. It's a disguise! The Cat isn't an escaped lunatic, after all. So who is he (or she)?</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxSABX0J4-FJqDtG1kSInN1Mw0AF_b5Wg_IeawwJTo5HYM6Bh98hHwMQgXYyK8d4QmzHhAQrIgXa1ZDFmPYYg37KbuI6Yu1sobr6_YZMa5j8ZEov-Wh3Vfj-QXwFUMGZ7rDOtIxon4D8I/s1600/PDVD_064.BMP" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="249" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxSABX0J4-FJqDtG1kSInN1Mw0AF_b5Wg_IeawwJTo5HYM6Bh98hHwMQgXYyK8d4QmzHhAQrIgXa1ZDFmPYYg37KbuI6Yu1sobr6_YZMa5j8ZEov-Wh3Vfj-QXwFUMGZ7rDOtIxon4D8I/s320/PDVD_064.BMP" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">At this moment the police arrive, having been summoned by Aunt Cecily, who earlier fled the house on a milk cart, and the Cat is unmasked like some forerunner to all those villains in <em>Scooby-Doo, Where are You?. </em>Who, how, and why, are all revealed; but I'm not going to tell you here.</span></div><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><em>The Cat and the Canary</em> is a brilliant film. With its combination of dark horror and light comedy it set the tone for many of the Universal horrors to come. Again, Leni's masterstroke was to insist on realism, despite his Expressionistic background, and his cast play their parts with utter conviction, avoiding (for the most part) the theatrical overacting that mars many other films of the period. The comedy is never allowed to detract from the underlying menace of the piece (and in actual fact there are really only two episodes of overt comedy in the film - a scene when Paul is trapped under the bed while Aunt Susan and Cecily undress for the night, and the sequence in which Aunt Susan escapes the house on the milk cart) and a suitably sepulchral atmosphere is sustained throughout. <span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">There is so much to admire while watching this film. In addition to the examples given above, look out for the way in which characters’ faces are lit from below to imply sinister motives and agenda, or the way in which the camera zooms in on them to magnify their terror. Then there's Leni's creative use of animated intertitles, with words like 'g-g-g-ghosts' appearing in shivering letters. Finally, keep an eye out for the floating skull...</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If you hadn't guessed already,<em> The Cat and the Canary</em> is one of my all-time favourite horror films. I can't recommend it enough.</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbtihbDUGiGLCRatp62KIKVsABeOA2j1YskXRhtC7bripKzqo1k775UR8TXTm-WjUm1fd_hGRxWV_9YEOyWuJXiNAtfL8-GC2Az8ntHZrYNrppGMf-GXmFsMolPGg6j3xOzIYazZ4u1gU/s1600/PDVD_074.BMP" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbtihbDUGiGLCRatp62KIKVsABeOA2j1YskXRhtC7bripKzqo1k775UR8TXTm-WjUm1fd_hGRxWV_9YEOyWuJXiNAtfL8-GC2Az8ntHZrYNrppGMf-GXmFsMolPGg6j3xOzIYazZ4u1gU/s320/PDVD_074.BMP" width="320" /></a></div><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(The first of the film's many remakes was <em>The Cat Creeps</em> in 1930<em>.</em> One of the early talkies, it is now a lost film, but you can view surviving clips of it here: </span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqlHzj18E6Q"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqlHzj18E6Q</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">)</span>Jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10746384490870629929noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7745719079719774194.post-92046257731002127892011-04-28T12:44:00.000-07:002011-06-27T02:56:07.147-07:00The Monster (1925)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_LUYqrmgcNv6wiBNx2YP6nHQnsehyrxdvkPYQ1JUcQ-mcnRW0znzFil_G56NVm83LwEhOwzKqXbz8zYxHJp5Pv_LxRWEmBfakbEzUUvfRW-hEqqnv64B48PSkqvqsu-5CLBYAVVFujoQ/s1600/40221264_91f60ca2bc.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320px" i8="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_LUYqrmgcNv6wiBNx2YP6nHQnsehyrxdvkPYQ1JUcQ-mcnRW0znzFil_G56NVm83LwEhOwzKqXbz8zYxHJp5Pv_LxRWEmBfakbEzUUvfRW-hEqqnv64B48PSkqvqsu-5CLBYAVVFujoQ/s320/40221264_91f60ca2bc.jpg" width="202px" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Directed by Roland West</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Starring: Lon Chaney</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Johnny Arthur</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Gertrude Olmstead</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Run time: 86 mins</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Studio: MGM</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Black & White</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Picture the scene: It is a dark and stormy night. Betty and Amos, a young, carefree couple have just left a party together and are driving through the woods in Amos's car. An accident forces them off the road and into a ditch. Owing to the relentless downpour and the fact that the car is wrecked, they are forced to take shelter in the only building for miles around - an old dark house whose lights they have spied through the trees...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">This could be a scene from any number of horror films; but there had to be a first time, and <em><span style="font-family: Arial;">The Monster</span></em> is probably it. Of course, like many horror films of the '20s and '30s, <em><span style="font-family: Arial;">The Monster</span></em> was based on a successful stage play, so this particular plot device may already have been familiar to its audience. Even so, <em><span style="font-family: Arial;">The Monster</span></em> is notable for being the first to present, if not necessarily originate, a number of elements that would later become some of the most recognised conventions (oh ok, cliches!) of the genre.</span><br />
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<em><span style="font-family: Arial;">The Monster</span></em><span style="font-family: Arial;"> is a horror comedy, one of several that followed in the wake of D.W.Griffith's haunted-house spoof <em><span style="font-family: Arial;">One Exciting Night</span></em> (1922); but the haunted-house elements in <em><span style="font-family: Arial;">The Monster</span></em> are taken to a much more surreal level than in <city w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Griffith</place></city>’s film, and they feel more authentic, for all that they remain non-supernatural. It’s also the first horror film to present us with a particular kind of Mad Doctor in the character of Dr Ziska (Chaney). Of course, Doctors Caligari and Jekyll were mad as well (or, at the very least, misguided), but Ziska belongs to a different class of Mad Doctor all together – that of the raving, white-coated variety: a deranged scientist who conducts his evil experiments in a laboratory that looks more like a torture chamber, and whose cinematic descendents will one day include Henry Frankenstein, Herbert West, and, yes, Dr Frank N. Furter.</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitV18yyHGAm3-53GgSEMVOp3WDtFVTEpUGuPSWAD2DKmeiCD4GaLQzDx8kz_JOfTamas01R5mvZ7hMqkfOwPiZ09U9oF0kQvew3s1xhDufNYr0Edjxb732YulKpljFXs3QeQy6LfTT0KU/s1600/10.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="241px" j8="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitV18yyHGAm3-53GgSEMVOp3WDtFVTEpUGuPSWAD2DKmeiCD4GaLQzDx8kz_JOfTamas01R5mvZ7hMqkfOwPiZ09U9oF0kQvew3s1xhDufNYr0Edjxb732YulKpljFXs3QeQy6LfTT0KU/s320/10.jpg" width="320px" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Arial;">The story begins, however, with a variation on the scene described above. The wealthy Farmer Bowman is driving his car through a lonely nocturnal wood.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Lurking in the trees up ahead is a “human monster”, a hunched and caped figure with a corpse-like complexion, who lowers a huge camouflaged mirror down onto the road so as to confuse the approaching motorist into believing that he is about he collide with another car. It’s an unwieldy but effective device, and Farmer Bowman does indeed swerve to avoid hitting his reflection, sending his car crashing into a ditch.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At this point another figure emerges from the ground, like some precursor to the zombies that would claw their way out of their graves decades later, and the good farmer is snatched away. It’s a great opening scene that moves at a rollicking pace and sets the tone for the rest of the film.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Farmer Bowman’s disappearance is a cause of much excitement in the local town of <city w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Danburg</place></city>. A reward is posted for information leading to his safe return and a detective, <place w:st="on"><city w:st="on">Jennings</city></place> (Matthew Betz), is employed by the missing man’s insurance company to clear up the disappearance. Our hero, however, is not Detective Jennings, but the earnest and resourceful Johnny Goodlittle (Johnny Arthur), a clerk at the local general store. Johnny has ambitions to become a detective one day and has enrolled on a correspondence course accordingly. Naturally, he is excited at the prospect of meeting a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">real</i> detective, but when he discovers the only solid clue at the crash site - <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>a single scrap of paper with the words ‘Dr Edwards’ Sanatorium’ written on one side and the word ‘help’ written in reverse on the other - no one is interested. Dr Edwards is travelling abroad and his sanatorium has been closed for months, so how could they possibly be connected to Bowman’s disappearance?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Johnny’s love interest is the pretty Betty Watson (Gertrude Olmstead), whose father owns the store where Johnny works; but while Betty is fond of Johnny and feels sorry for him when people don’t take him seriously, she prefers the suave and sophisticated Amos Rugg (Hallam Cooley). Amos is manager of the store and Johnny’s boss. More importantly, he has a car! </span><span style="font-family: Arial;">Betty suggests to Johnny that if he wants to be taken seriously then he will need to do something big to impress Detective Jennings. Johnny frets, because he doesn’t feel that he can legitimately do anything until he receives his diploma from the Correspondence School of Detectives. But guess what? No sooner has Betty left the store than a package arrives for Johnny containing an oversized pair of handcuffs, a sheriff’s badge, a gun (!), and – yes, you guessed it - his diploma. </span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrwHer9A10WRpynHcrem9fhxn1EC88B2NDl7TLDNXo9MIxM8wMoSOg_0Zh_4eZSU60VCZa7Tr0sPFDEUI5zyrwVAWGbSKa6msGxWzNIeQMj8lFJiQ4-HGONxdbhTOBvi7WpvWPHFi2gcc/s1600/2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="260px" j8="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrwHer9A10WRpynHcrem9fhxn1EC88B2NDl7TLDNXo9MIxM8wMoSOg_0Zh_4eZSU60VCZa7Tr0sPFDEUI5zyrwVAWGbSKa6msGxWzNIeQMj8lFJiQ4-HGONxdbhTOBvi7WpvWPHFi2gcc/s320/2.jpg" width="320px" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">At a party that night Johnny is able to monopolise Betty and all seems to be going well, until the inevitable moment when Amos turns up and steals her away. Feeling sorry for himself, Johnny leaves the party and encounters the mysterious figure last seen climbing out of the earth following Bowman’s crash. Intrigued by the stranger’s odd behaviour and cryptic comments (“Do you know who I am? No? Neither do I.”) Johnny follows him into the woods. </span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><span style="font-family: Arial;">Meanwhile, Amos and Betty have decided to ditch the party and go for a drive. As if on cue, the heavens open. Barely able to see the road ahead through the downpour, Amos is easily fooled when, again, the caped “human monster” – whose name we learn later is Rigo (George Austin) – lowers his mirror down onto the road. Amos and Betty end up in the ditch, just like Bowman. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Fortunately, having followed the stranger to the site of the crash, Johnny is able to warn Amos and Betty of the danger they face; but when the stranger turns on him, Johnny is forced to flee and falls into a concealed hole in the ground. A slide takes him down a secret tunnel and deposits him in the parlour of the old sanatorium. How this is possible is never explained; but it hardly matters, because it’s at this point that the film throws all logic to the wind.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Exploring his surroundings, Johnny encounters an actual skeleton in a closet and a hulking Arabian manservant, who emerges ghost-like from a trunk in the corner of the room. This is Calliban (Walter James), and he has risen in response to knocking at the front door. It is Amos and Betty, who have spotted the sanatorium’s lights through the trees and have come in search of a telephone. When the door swings shut behind them Calliban has mysteriously disappeared. Further spookiness ensues: eyes peer down at them from secret panels high in the walls and doors open and close of their own accord. Ever the rivals, Johnny and Amos resort to bickering, but are forced work together when they discover a dead body sitting in a chair. </span><br />
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</div><div style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaxgu8DlsWVM15RZyRoIhmdPt9QYnT4hVkWHMlZ_uLhX3xODay2_IlOaWl0eympSDgqHfrPZbJIzWuWGTqlWYaoGuzhkDRCHfJKOwWZzav4PhDKX0UstI5N0dNWCtZ5msecvlfFJp7s08/s1600/4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="246px" j8="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaxgu8DlsWVM15RZyRoIhmdPt9QYnT4hVkWHMlZ_uLhX3xODay2_IlOaWl0eympSDgqHfrPZbJIzWuWGTqlWYaoGuzhkDRCHfJKOwWZzav4PhDKX0UstI5N0dNWCtZ5msecvlfFJp7s08/s320/4.jpg" width="320px" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial;">It is at this point that we are introduced to Dr Ziska, who emerges from a dark room at the top of the stairs looking like some undead aesthete, dressed in a Noel Coward-style dressing gown and brandishing a long cigarette holder. He introduces himself, claiming to be in charge of the sanatorium while Dr Edwards is away. Amos asks if he can use the phone, and not for the first time one is reminded of Richard O'Brien's <em>Rocky Horror Show (</em>I'd be surprised if O'Brien didn't have <em>The Monster</em> somewhere in the back of his mind when he dreamt up his musical). Dr Ziska explains that unfortunately there is no phone. Besides, he couldn't possibly permit them to leave on so wild a night. The set-up is thus complete and our heroes' night of terror is assured.</span></div><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">It turns out that the corpse in the chair is in fact Rigo. Dr Ziska, who deals in “strange cases”, explains that Rigo is a mental patient that he keeps in a death-like trance to prevent him from getting out and doing “terrible things”. (How Rigo managed to get from the woods to the parlour from before Johnny’s arrival is something else that is never explained)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Calliban reappears and is told by Ziska that the guests are to get "the usual attention". Quite what Ziska means by this is open to interpretation, but one gets the impression it's not good news for Betty: on hearing these words, Calliban's eyes light up and a lecherous grin spreads across his face. A lethal glare from Ziska puts him back in his place. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Ziska excuses himself and floats back up the the stairs, trailing cigarette smoke as he goes. When asked if they will see him in the morning, he replies: "Who knows if one will ever see morning" and vanishes. The three guests are shown to a cavernous bed chamber and quite sensibly decide to barricade themselves in. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">What follows could be considered a crash course in how to construct the perfect amusement park funhouse. The action never lets up as West throws every trick he can think of into the mix: secret trapdoors and passageways; creeping shadows; clutching hands; poisoned wine; a bizarre steel trap that lowers onto the bed to enscase its sleeping victims; a pile of corpses in the cellar...our heroes are essentially given the haunted-house ride of their lives. None of it makes the remotest sense, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">but it's good, creepy fun nonetheless. One extraordinarily surreal moment has a pair of arms emerging from a couch to wrap themselves around our heroine while the couch sinks into the floor, taking Betty with it. </span></span></span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZ0yIm0kRiBVCOiJ1FamnEAv-Odcsp6BOMOxIkz55AivI-rH-TyxrUDwJ4dXtKLzOEygTcvNpDVjyuqaK1A0w9UAlKraOVUhIfwLZOt6-18um07PMyieTQkGbC-pCmsnKYwJgw5tUtPig/s1600/5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="233px" j8="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZ0yIm0kRiBVCOiJ1FamnEAv-Odcsp6BOMOxIkz55AivI-rH-TyxrUDwJ4dXtKLzOEygTcvNpDVjyuqaK1A0w9UAlKraOVUhIfwLZOt6-18um07PMyieTQkGbC-pCmsnKYwJgw5tUtPig/s320/5.jpg" width="320px" /></a><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It turns out that the lunatics have taken over the asylum (no great surprise there, then; but might this have been another first?). Dr Ziska, we are told, was once a “fearless surgeon” who now has the inmates, including Calliban and Rigo, under his control and playing his devilish games. Johnny discovers that Dr Edwards, Farmer Bowman, and other victims of Ziska’s car crash policy, are being kept in an oubliette beneath Ziska’s basement laboratory. With the aid of his "death chair" Ziska hopes to learn the secret of life by transporting a male soul into a female body (a fate worse than death, one assumes, for a manly man like Amos) and to this end ties Amos to the lethal looking chair while bemoaning the fact that his assistants have been unable to supply him with a female body. Apparently women don't do much driving around Danburg (or go mad,it seems, as there are no female inmates at the sanatorium). It takes him a surprisingly long time to remember that he's actually got a female guest in the house.<br />
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With Betty strapped to the operating table and Amos struggling in the chair, Ziska prepares his great experiment. Quite how the process will work - and why it should reveal the secret of life - is anybody's guess; but we do know that it will involve tightening Amos's straps "until he squeals" and slicing poor Betty open with knives.<br />
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Meanwhile, Johnny has managed to escape from the sanatorium and in a chase sequence that further displays West's technical virtuosity, we witness Johnny tight-rope walking across telegraph wires, swinging Tarzan-like through windows, and sliding down an impossibly long bannister rail. Fortunately, while evading Rigo on the roof, Johnny is able to signal to the police with the roman candle firework that he always carries with him in case of nocturnal emergencies. While waiting for them to arrive, he somehow disposes of Rigo and, donning the lunatric's cape, is able to smuggle himself into the laboratory and free Amos from the death chair. Together the two men overpower Ziska and strap him into the chair. Calliban, mistaking Ziska for Amos, flicks the lethal 'on' switch and the Mad Doctor meets his doom.</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEili3YPbJHDagvVKZ6h-mIOhgkYMK6VvLFJj_IyQCPUqP_WoI-W2R6yd02_Z83MvUN8dwSXIC8A8QUDajUCb7H0DnAiTYfYOuFQ41MKr4l6HW0yw-5faW-70G5rXEJAwirAvOLFWLClVNU/s1600/7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240px" j8="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEili3YPbJHDagvVKZ6h-mIOhgkYMK6VvLFJj_IyQCPUqP_WoI-W2R6yd02_Z83MvUN8dwSXIC8A8QUDajUCb7H0DnAiTYfYOuFQ41MKr4l6HW0yw-5faW-70G5rXEJAwirAvOLFWLClVNU/s320/7.jpg" width="320px" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><em>The Monster</em> is tremendous fun, an early example of what we would nowadays call a 'roller coaster' movie. The pace never lets up - which is just as well given the multitude of plot holes (here's another: how did Dr Edwards get his message to the outside world, and what was the point of writing the word 'help' in reverse?) - and neither does the inventiveness. Everyone involved, especially Chaney (who must have relished the chance to play against type) seems to be having a whale of a time. There is something undeniably camp, even perverse, about it all (exactly <em>why</em> does Ziska want a man inside a woman's body?) and it's this strain of perversity that would later flourish in the films of James Whale. It's a great shame that Roland's West's career as a director imploded in the '30s after the death of his mistress, Thelma Todd. He clearly had a lot more to offer. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Of course, there were many more haunted-house spoofs to come, including Paul Leni's superlative <em><a href="http://jonshauntedhouseofhorror.blogspot.com/2011/05/cat-and-canary-1927_19.html">The Cat and the Canary</a></em>, but for its pure unadulterated funhouse thrills and chills, and for the template it helped to create, <em>The Monster </em>deserves to be remembered.</span><br />
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</div>Jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10746384490870629929noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7745719079719774194.post-10340436605412585092011-04-19T08:16:00.000-07:002011-08-05T08:17:43.503-07:00The Phantom of the Opera (1925)<div style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9T69IYfYvQU5VBjlW_32Pt0MR2vvGPMIHowViWK_TdinB_lHuCsKfTf6dubzSGQu_BwQmOD_axKnwL1SBO5RKukk-lKIjM8H6jGo_piWSTaJWLiawXUZDoHC9GBn9pco4Hge4LwGRdWQ/s1600/PhantomOpera1925.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320px" i8="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9T69IYfYvQU5VBjlW_32Pt0MR2vvGPMIHowViWK_TdinB_lHuCsKfTf6dubzSGQu_BwQmOD_axKnwL1SBO5RKukk-lKIjM8H6jGo_piWSTaJWLiawXUZDoHC9GBn9pco4Hge4LwGRdWQ/s320/PhantomOpera1925.jpg" width="222px" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Directed by Rupert Julian</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Starring: Lon Chaney</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Mary Philbin</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> Norman Kerry</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Running time: 94 mins</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Studio: Universal</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Black & White</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div></div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Phantom of the Opera</i> was a troubled production. Cast and crew clashed with its director, Rupert Julian, who walked off the project after a disastrous preview . The film's producer, Carl Laemmle, was forced to reshoot large chunks of the movie. (Even Lon Chaney found<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>himself having re-direct some of his own scenes.) The result is a visually impressive but frustratingly uneven film. Nevertheless, it’s ultimate success made Universal Studios sit up and and take notice of horror. The rest, as they say, is history.</span><br />
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<div style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Chaney's performance as the horribly disfigured Erik - the Phantom of the title - is of course at the heart of this film, but the first thing to grab our attention is the spectacular Paris Opera House set (apparently parts of the set still exist at Universal Studios) and it's clear from the start that a great deal of attention and money was lavished on this production. The Opera is under new management and the new season has opened with an extravagant version of Gounod's <em>Faust</em>. As the new executives celebrate in their office, they are warned to beware of the Phantom, a mysterious masked stranger who has reserved Box 5 for his exclusive use. So far, so good.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP84mTo4TQ7M_dvzE9H4GjGbLbF6-1glSbpAJl3Z-GAi_dlZgaHkt9c0__4xmgCUNoNsoOTJPMv0jSGVQ0P_XD5UxclnMcPF48Nl8PBoWDw7owjnpLZDYEJfxleSPLBQtguyjNzZUDGo0/s1600/phantom02.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="257px" i8="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP84mTo4TQ7M_dvzE9H4GjGbLbF6-1glSbpAJl3Z-GAi_dlZgaHkt9c0__4xmgCUNoNsoOTJPMv0jSGVQ0P_XD5UxclnMcPF48Nl8PBoWDw7owjnpLZDYEJfxleSPLBQtguyjNzZUDGo0/s320/phantom02.jpg" width="320px" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial;">Rumours are rife backstage that the Phantom has returned and it is during the scenes involving the over-excited stage hands and ballerinas that things start to look less promising. We are told that the Phantom has eyes "like holes in a grinning skull" and that his skin is like "leprous parchment...drawn tight over protruding bones." Yet the scenes are played for laughs. When one of the ballerinas anounces that she thinks she's seen the Phantom emerging from a secret panel, they all run around like hyperactive children in a fairground haunted house. Coming so early on in the proceedings, these scenes give the unfortunate impression that the film you're about to watch isn't to be taken too seriously. (On the other hand, it's quite possible that the intention was to lull the original audience into a false sense of security.) </span></div><a name='more'></a><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">The Phantom, it turns out, is obsessed with a young, pretty soprano, Christine Daar (Mary Philbin), and has been tutoring her in secret, speaking to her from his secret hiding place behind the wall of her dressing room. To ensure that Chritine's career flourishes, the Phantom issues a number of written threats to the management, warning of dire consequences if Christine is not allowed to perform as the Phantom wishes. When the managers ignore one of his warnings and allow the toothy Mme. Carlotta (Virginia Pearson) to sing in Christine's place, the Phantom tampers with the lights and brings the huge chandelier in the auditorium crashing down onto the panicking patrons below. It's a superb moment, brilliantly shot. Although you don't see any explicit carnage, the implication is certainly there that members of the audience have been crushed.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Intrigued and flattered by the Phantom's attention, Christine has begun to lose interest in her sweetheart, the dashing Vicomte Raoul de Chagny (Norman Kerry), who hopes one day to marry her. She informs him, somewhat coldly, that her career must take precedence over their love. Raoul, for all his status and bearing, appears to be a pretty ineffectual chap. As Christine's attentions turn ever more toward her unseen admirer, Raoul seems incapable of acting to defend what is his, even when he overhears the Phantom wooing her.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Answering the Phantom's call, Christine passes through one of the Opera House's many secret panels to be with him (in this case the mirror in her room) and the film moves into new territory: that of the dark fairy tale.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Phantom escorts Christine on a dreamlike journey through the Underworld, down through the catacombs beneath the Opera House, first on horseback and then by gondala across a subterranean "black lake". Any romanticism is dispelled by the fact that Christine is clearly disturbed by the Phantom's masked appearance and becomes increasingly frightened as they descend to who-knows-where. Having realised that she has made a big mistake, the last thing she wants to hear is the Phantom declare his love for her, which is exactly what he does when he has her safely ensconsed in his crypt-like lair. The fact that he sleeps in a coffin doesn't help matters much, either.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">The Phantom claims that he wishes the good in him to be "aroused by [Christine's] purity". He wishes to be redeemed by her love - and, perhaps more importantly, by her music. Music is the only thing that makes his existence tolerable, as evidenced by his profciency on the organ that dominates his lair. It is while he is playing the organ that Christine decides to end the mystery and find out who she's dealing with, despite the fact that the Phantom has warned her never to touch his mask. Mustering courage after a night's unmolested sleep in the fairy-princess room that the Phantom has prepared for her, Christine creeps up on him from behind and, after some hesitation, whips off the mask.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">The moment is played for all it's worth, and the payoff is magnificent . The reveal of the Phantom's hideous, ruined face is surely one of the classic moments in cinema history; it's also the moment when <em>Phantom of the Opera</em> becomes a horror film. Up to this point we have sympathised to a degree with the Phantom - there is something pitiable about his masked features - and if he is a monster, then it is only because men have made him so with their hatred; or so he tells us. But at the moment when Christine whips away the concealing mask, he is just a monster, worse than anything we could have imagined. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEXN7mxwGAZlw834gh4PIXT_f3nzQZz8XxRvzM__KoluoTpI-aC3wUf221fIzhIgabuYNcTH26fZIUXsbbrcdjhQaNHtherRj3BqUzshKYuOwwONIlBbXUU_Lyia7o1mSWQicX65fiPkM/s1600/1925_Phantom_img1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320px" i8="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEXN7mxwGAZlw834gh4PIXT_f3nzQZz8XxRvzM__KoluoTpI-aC3wUf221fIzhIgabuYNcTH26fZIUXsbbrcdjhQaNHtherRj3BqUzshKYuOwwONIlBbXUU_Lyia7o1mSWQicX65fiPkM/s320/1925_Phantom_img1.JPG" width="254px" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Chaney, the Man of a Thousand Faces, designed his own make and, like the make-up he designed for himself on <em>The Hunchback of Notre Dame</em>, it was very painful to wear; but it had the desired effect - and it's just as original and alarming now as it was then. If legend is to be believed, cinema patrons screamed or fainted when they saw it. (I like to believe it's true!)</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A terrified Christine begs the Phantom to let her leave, promising that if he does so she will be his slave forever. The anguished Phantom agrees, on the condition that Christine never see her lover, Raoul, again. If she does, then it will mean death for both of them. Christine agrees and is freed; but she immediately reneges on her promise and contacts her lover, arranging to meet him at the Opera's annual masked ball. The masked ball is the second best scene in the film, with the Phantom making his way down the grand staircase dressed as the Red Death and damning the revellers for daring to dance on the tombs of tortured men. It is the Phantom reminding Christine of their agreement. Some versions of the film have this scene tinted in red, which gives it a suitably infernal look. The Phantom's demonic aspect becomes even more apparent in the next scene, where he is perched like a gargoyle on the roof listening to the young lovers plan their escape. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Unfortunately, from the moment when we learn from a secret policeman that Erik is an escaped Devil’s Island convict, albeit one versed in the black arts, the story loses some of the atmosphere it established with Christine's descent into the Phantom's lair. It becomes a bit of a runaround, with the Phantom kidnapping Christine again and letting loose with trickery and booby traps to try and thwart her rescue. When Christine promises him that she will do anything he wants if only he will let Rauol live, the Phantom falls for it a second time. He frees Raoul from a deadly trap, but is forced by a Parisian mob to flee with Christine in a carriage, which crashes soon after. Christine is rescued, but the Phantom is beaten to death by the mob and his corpse thrown into the river. In fairness, it's involving, even exciting, stuff; but it still has a slightly routine feel to it (although, of course, it could be argued that <em>Phantom</em> set the precedent here). It has to be said, however, that the Phantom's death at the hands of the mob is remarkably barbaric and the film therefore ends on a genuinely shocking note.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><em>The Phantom of the Opera</em> is a class product, to be sure, but its inconsistency in tone spoils it somewhat. What isn't in doubt, however, is Lon Chaney's performance - for all that the Phantom is clearly a psychopathic individual, we are never in doubt of the suffering he has had to endure as a result of his ghastly appearance. <em>Phantom</em> may not be the greatest horror film ever made, but like Count Orlok's shadow in <em>Nosferatu</em>, the face of the unmasked Erik is one of Horror 's abiding images. He remains the poster boy for the silent horror film's strange fascination with physical deformity. <em> </em></span></div><span style="font-family: Arial;"></span><br />
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</div></div>Jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10746384490870629929noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7745719079719774194.post-4900435100402792732011-04-13T00:07:00.000-07:002011-07-06T02:44:15.489-07:00Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror (1921)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZjjthuq63qsd8PlChDm_0Qcf0HDsdf143xVE0UbthLF8rz-8e5Ziv1R_rSwgBe61a9aseQL0I6zVHsNf9rZwlM75yK_sQKVFzzOSr3gM0pYj8tIcBvL6mM0X-pLTD8FeurbhUR6ZRWu0/s1600/nosferatu-1922.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="320px" i8="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZjjthuq63qsd8PlChDm_0Qcf0HDsdf143xVE0UbthLF8rz-8e5Ziv1R_rSwgBe61a9aseQL0I6zVHsNf9rZwlM75yK_sQKVFzzOSr3gM0pYj8tIcBvL6mM0X-pLTD8FeurbhUR6ZRWu0/s320/nosferatu-1922.jpg" width="232px" /></span></a></div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Directed by F. W. Murnau</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Starring: Max Schreck</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Running time: 94 mins</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Studio: Prana Film</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Black & White</span><br />
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<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"></div><div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Murnau’s <em>Nosferatu</em> is of course a pared down and unofficial adaptation of Bram Stoker’s <em>Dracula</em>. Famously, when Stoker’s widow sued, orders went out for all prints of the film to be destroyed, but fortunately some survived. How much of Murnau’s original cut remains is still open to conjecture, but what we do have is more than enough to be able to say with confidence that not only is <em>Nosferatu</em> one of the absolute masterpieces of the horror genre, it is also one of the great films of all time. That makes reviewing it a little bit daunting, but here goes:</span></span> </div><div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><em>Nosferatu</em> is a film about many things; but primarily it’s a film about Death. Death with a great big capital D. Presented as a chronicle of the Great Death in Wisborg of 1838, we are informed at the outset that the very word ‘Nosferatu’ is like “the midnight cry of the Deathbird” and is capable of causing one to lose the will to live. The story opens, though, with images of life in abundance – bright sunshine; playful kittens; blossoming flowers; and a husband and wife in love – but we are reminded almost immediately that life and its pleasures come at a cost, usually to something or someone else. When our hero, Hutter (Gustav von Wangenheim), presents his wife<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ellen (Greta Schroeder) with freshly picked flowers from the garden, she is upset by the fact that the flowers have had to die in order for Hutter to show his affection.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh41ArnmQwzvz5dpM8XG-ByC5PSxQbHnE8niRxTq1y4Te74FuG5022l0mttuXXQVOwiSzfCsTvovONxbVr8PerPBfqzyH0oFEnKkYV8YqteoibhuWrZX0rLzvi0G6I05VYlG_-WbB_M4ZM/s1600/PDVD_005.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240px" r6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh41ArnmQwzvz5dpM8XG-ByC5PSxQbHnE8niRxTq1y4Te74FuG5022l0mttuXXQVOwiSzfCsTvovONxbVr8PerPBfqzyH0oFEnKkYV8YqteoibhuWrZX0rLzvi0G6I05VYlG_-WbB_M4ZM/s320/PDVD_005.jpg" width="320px" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hutter, however, doesn’t seem to let such things bother him. He is a man who believes, or at least is told, that he has a destiny. We are introduced to his employer in Wisborg, a property agent by the name of Knock (Alexander Granach). Knock is the subject of “all sorts of rumours”. We are never told what these rumours are, but given his appearance and suspicious behaviour, it is not unreasonable to assume that they are of an unsavoury nature (more on this later). When we meet him he is deciphering a letter written in some strange code. The letter is from a Transylvanian Count by the name of Orlok, who is looking to buy a “fine, deserted” house in Wisborg; but Knock's reaction to the letter's contents suggests that there's more going on. Tellingly, he thinks that the tottering and near-derelict pile that sits opposite Hutter’s own house would make the perfect home for the Count; and he decides that Hutter would be the ideal person to make the transaction, although it will mean travelling the long distance to Transylvania to meet the Count in person.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This doesn’t sit well with Ellen, who is immediately afflicted with dread on learning the news from her husband; but Hutter seems eager – perhaps too eager - to go, and soon he sets off on horseback, leaving his anguished wife in the care of friends. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hutter’s journey is hard, but eventually he arrives at the peaks of the Carpathian Mountains. In contrast to the bright and orderly calm of Wisborg, Hutter finds himself entering a world of darkness and irrationality. Peasants at the inn where he spends a night react in terror at his mention of Count Orlok’s castle and try to dissuade Hutter from going any further by frightening him with talk of werewolves. On his bedside table, Hutter finds a book entitled <em>Vampyres, Gastlie Spirits, Bewitchments & the Seven Deadly Sins</em>, which speaks of Nosferatu springing from ‘Belial’s seed’. Horses panic in the fields, wolves prowl the forests and the peasant folk huddle together and make the sign of the cross. </span></div><div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Of course, things <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">seem</i> better in the morning, but as Hutter continues his journey by coach the landscape becomes ever wilder and more threatening, with its jagged, barren mountains, it’s deep valleys and black tarns. It is the world stripped to the bare bones, its desolate underlying reality exposed. Abandoned at sunset at a pass beyond which the driver of the coach will not go, Hutter is forced to continue to Orlok’s castle on foot. As he enters “the land of spectres” and espies Orlok’s castle perched precariously atop of rocky mountain outcrop, he is afflicted with “eerie visions”, including - it seems - the arrival of a mysterious black coach which takes him the rest of the journey . Some critics have expressed disappointment that Murnau’s chose to speed up the film at this point to convey the Count’s supernatural<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>abilities, and the sight of the coach rattling along at impossible speeds does at first look a little silly; but at the same time, if it isn’t merely an ‘eerie vision’, it is consistent with the idea of the irrational as the true, denied, reality. Like Hutter, we can’t quite believe what we’re seeing, but it’s happening all the same.</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqITrsxp8botRxZv6R8l_cABMhpAFBsH8lOwZN42yDh-8Ty0DicNHtKRw6xD2qXbBv5Q7W8kd7RuiYIinT7gYlb5NTb8OBQMOyuy2Bu6C__uvRGUpVPosXwN8aElo9n2elDLfiQMlB1iE/s1600/nosferatu1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a></div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Count’s castle is a decaying, ramshackle affair – a far cry from the imposing medieval edifices favoured by later, more famous cinematic vampires – and the Count’s first appearance puts one very much in mind of a rodent emerging from its hole, so low is the archway through which the rat-like Orlok (Schreck) appears.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hutter is clearly alarmed by the Count’s bizarre appearance, as any sane person would be, and Schreck’s Orlok, with his long talons, hooked nose and pointed ears, remains one of the most iconic figures in the history of horror, inspiring countless imitations and parodies. </span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhu6-4tgR-e2wlPJED3Ylht8dxJ4NAjZMFqqUOUmri8HL6gnFqrqLvhsGUeH72tFORmOktN_RN-b7dgiZmY4MIkUe6DoE1HonLT-4GnfKaG_9LoH_6omrHYjU0Ze1-rjncuXhVzrpPxV4o/s1600/PDVD_014.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240px" r6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhu6-4tgR-e2wlPJED3Ylht8dxJ4NAjZMFqqUOUmri8HL6gnFqrqLvhsGUeH72tFORmOktN_RN-b7dgiZmY4MIkUe6DoE1HonLT-4GnfKaG_9LoH_6omrHYjU0Ze1-rjncuXhVzrpPxV4o/s320/PDVD_014.jpg" width="320px" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Orlok’s home is filled with images of desolation and death – the near-empty rooms; the disused fireplace containing nothing but a few dry sticks; the skeleton clock that strikes at midnight. There is no life here.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even the bread that Hutter eats during the meal that the Count lays on looks tasteless and stale.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>During the meal, Hutter accidentally cuts himself on the bread knife eliciting an almost lustful response from the Count, who worries about the loss of Hutter’s “precious blood” and tries to kiss the wound better, an act so grotesque and inappropriate that Hutter recoils in disgust. The Count, however, is not offended and they end the evening in conversation before Hutter falls into a deep sleep.</span></div><div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On waking, Hutter is bothered by two small bite marks on his neck, which he attributes to the ever-present mosquitoes. He spends the morning writing a letter to Ellen and later that evening presents Orlok with the deeds to his new home. Whilst signing the deeds, the Count is intrigued by a photograph of Hutter’s wife, commenting that she has “a lovely neck”. That night, in one of the film’s eeriest sequences, Orlok enters Hutter’s bedroom to drink his blood. This is the point at which we see Orlok for what he really is: an animated corpse, moving as though in a trance, the embodiment of an unconscious and deadly will that has no purpose except to feed. As his shadow falls on the terrified Hutter, far away in Wisborg Ellen receives “the Call of Death” in her sleep and cries out her husband’s name. Orlok mysteriously ceases his attack.</span></div><div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnt-NvB27tJ64-3yYTHuWl31OfN45qfRQ845fsDGmLSxt8EtdebfSgMOcJ9L0Bq5390Tb3vmZ12_k8CVh4DJ5Yg4p8Q07FXDFLvH8w9pp_EdW7uxTOHwPB46Q5WfkgymeiqBberFW8qT8/s1600/PDVD_019.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240px" r6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnt-NvB27tJ64-3yYTHuWl31OfN45qfRQ845fsDGmLSxt8EtdebfSgMOcJ9L0Bq5390Tb3vmZ12_k8CVh4DJ5Yg4p8Q07FXDFLvH8w9pp_EdW7uxTOHwPB46Q5WfkgymeiqBberFW8qT8/s320/PDVD_019.jpg" width="320px" /></a></div><div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It has been argued that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Nosferatu</i> conceals a homosexual subtext that may have reflected its director’s own repressed tendencies. Indeed, some have gone so far as to suggest that the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">whole</i> film is an allegory for homosexuality, with Knock in on the secret from the start and effectively grooming Hutter as a gift for Count Orlok. Perhaps Orlok’s interest in Ellen has less to do with wanting to possess her and more to do with wanting to remove the competition. In the end it takes the love and sacrifice of a good woman to free Hutter from the Count’s homosexual clutches. Watching the scenes in Orlok’s castle, it’s easy to see how such conclusions have been reached; but equally one has to say that if the film <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">is</i> an allegory for homosexuality – with vampirism and death as its metaphors -<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>it’s a pretty phobic one!</span> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">The next day, a dazed and bewildered Hutter finds the Count sleeping in a coffin in the rotting depths of the castle and decides that the time has come to make good his escape. Before long, the Count is also on the move, piling coffins filled with “God-curst earth from the fields of the Black Death” onto a wagon in preparation for his journey to Wisborg.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> <span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Orlok’s sea voyage is without doubt my favourite part of the film. Quite apart from Murnau’s magnificent, doom-laden photography, this section of the film has a really palpable sense of menace, as the crew of the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Empusa</i> slowly come to realise that the cargo they are carrying is not what it seems (they have been told that the coffins contain earth intended for “experimental purposes”). Rumours begin to spread of a mysterious, half-glimpsed passenger in the hold; men start to fall ill and die. Finally, when only the Captain and his first mate are left alive (though not for long), Orlok reveals himself, rising from his coffin like some hypnotised jack-in-the-box, to claim the ship of death as his own.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His emergence from the hold and his advance on the Captain - who, in refusing to abandon his post, has tied himself to the ship’s wheel - is genuinely frightening; and the shot of the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Empusa</i> sailing into harbour at Wisborg must rank as one of the most ominous in all horror cinema. </span></span></span></span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdfYgzoe0S0pLG4XTeC5ydlTGIvOiHixwCb4jcLtmre14_ckP9WR6cwV9yyOWSNqs5SS8NWos12VN1tPQTGiIs8eQjLEflpXlHMkvbeNaenEWpcbENmtfmD3RJBYpYosncavJ2iRbbNQo/s1600/PDVD_025.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240px" r6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdfYgzoe0S0pLG4XTeC5ydlTGIvOiHixwCb4jcLtmre14_ckP9WR6cwV9yyOWSNqs5SS8NWos12VN1tPQTGiIs8eQjLEflpXlHMkvbeNaenEWpcbENmtfmD3RJBYpYosncavJ2iRbbNQo/s320/PDVD_025.jpg" width="320px" /></a></div></div><div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Meanwhile things have not been going well for Ellen, who has fallen under a “shadow of death” and spends her days, inconsolable, in a graveyard overlooking the sea, watching for her husband’s return. And Hutter does return, having escaped Orlok’s castle and made the journey back to Wisborg by land. This brings some relief for Ellen, but little true consolation: even the strongest ties cannot hold back the darkness that she knows is coming.</span> </span></div><br />
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Knock, too, has been waiting and has gone insane with excitement at the thought of his master’s arrival. Confined to a lunatic asylum he spends his days eating flies and crying “Blood is life!” to anyone who will listen. It is around this time that we are introduced to Professor Bulwer (John Gottowt), the Van Helsing character, who is engaged in a study of “the cruel habits of nature” and spends his time observing the horror of their mysterious ways. The theme of life devouring life returns again, but reminding us of this appears to be Bulwer’s sole contribution to the story. Unlike the Van Helsings of later adaptations, Bulwer is utterly ineffectual. Science, Murnau seems to be saying, can do no more than show us the horror at the heart of the world. It's also worth noting that there's an almost complete lack of religious iconography in the film. Again, unlike most adaptations of the story, God simply doesn’t enter into the equation. Neither reason nor faith can save us from the darkness that awaits us all.</span><br />
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<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As Orlok takes in his new home, scurrying through the streets with his coffin under his arm, the army of rats that accompanied him from Transylvania begins its work and the Great Death descends on Wisborg. As plague spreads and the death toll mounts, Orlok observes the fruits of his labours from the shattered windows of his ruined house. Knock, meanwhile, escapes from his cell and, in a sequence that, sadly, feels like padding (for me, it’s the weakest moment in the film), is cast as a scapegoat for the terrible things that are happening and is chased around town by the angry townsfolk for a while, before being recaptured.</span></span><br />
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<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Meanwhile, having read up on vampires and their filthy ways, Ellen has come to the conclusion that she alone can confront and destroy the evil that is threatening to destroy her husband and the whole town. Thus the film moves towards its climax, which is essentially a succession of startling and groundbreaking images: Orlok staring over at Ellen from the window of his house, his face like a mask of death; Ellen throwing open her bedroom window to signal her consent; the door to Orlok’s house bursting open to release him into the night; the famous, iconic shot of Orlok’s shadow scuttling up the stairs of Hutter’s house and reaching out to open the bedroom door; the terrified Ellen giving in to the Count's unnatural cravings.</span></span></div><div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfoJzQ23bhO8kZYTYMjq-suI75-z1yBiNbs8FhyphenhyphenlSS33cKx5fJOXojnKM1BEEIzj1fSCTr7m5YR_ihWVRDDLwqGe_hj0vZjTz77TPstdtrlJOpA0epL6uKN5EAnTdOXPo0ItCTYbAqKqo/s1600/PDVD_030.BMP" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240px" i8="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfoJzQ23bhO8kZYTYMjq-suI75-z1yBiNbs8FhyphenhyphenlSS33cKx5fJOXojnKM1BEEIzj1fSCTr7m5YR_ihWVRDDLwqGe_hj0vZjTz77TPstdtrlJOpA0epL6uKN5EAnTdOXPo0ItCTYbAqKqo/s320/PDVD_030.BMP" width="320px" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Of course, Ellen has a plan, and is able to keep the Count busy feasting on her neck until dawn is signalled by the crow of the cock; at which point, Orlok realises he has outstayed his welcome and disintegrates in the rays of the morning sun. (Interestingly, Murnau was the first person to suggest that a vampire can be destroyed by sunlight - it isn’t in Stoker’s original). The Great Death is ended, but it is a Phyrric victory - the darkness has consumed Ellen at last, as it will consume all of us eventually, and she expires in the arms of her distraught husband. The film ends with a shot of a ruined building (Orlok’s castle?) on a hill. </span></span></div><div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Despite all the above, I very much doubt that I have managed to do true justice to this magnificent film. Few horror films have had the artistic scope of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Nosferatu</i> and fewer still have had a more profound impact on the genre as a whole. Its hallmarks are its genuinely creepy atmosphere (helped in no small part by the extensive use of natural settings), its relentless pessimism, and its painstaking visual composition. It's a film that bears repeated viewings, as there is always something new to discover.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On a final note, one other reason that I admire this film so much is that in this age of angst-ridden, teenage vampires it’s refreshing to be reminded that once upon a time the vampire wasn't a romantic or anti-heroic creature to be pitied or sympathised with, but a pestilential menace designed to evoke fear and dread. For me, Count Orlok remains the cinema’s most frightening vampire.</span> <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBM7AGjDSvACVEc-32EZKdiMsRU1oQuIbdTKJgjWzTABSAbJgopDG-CxNgDQcSSA0PiBORDbsoU3dTfD7OTGaJj3mfS1uG_-ssips_Pd9CYjspiN6fYuuwi09yO77OWc4x1-1xFHeaYzo/s1600/PDVD_034.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240px" i8="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBM7AGjDSvACVEc-32EZKdiMsRU1oQuIbdTKJgjWzTABSAbJgopDG-CxNgDQcSSA0PiBORDbsoU3dTfD7OTGaJj3mfS1uG_-ssips_Pd9CYjspiN6fYuuwi09yO77OWc4x1-1xFHeaYzo/s320/PDVD_034.jpg" width="320px" /></a></div></div></div></div></div></div>Jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10746384490870629929noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7745719079719774194.post-2014319215547690432011-04-11T04:28:00.000-07:002011-11-06T11:26:55.035-08:00Dr Jekyl and Mr Hyde (1920)<div class="separator" style="border: currentColor; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8TMK122GLnggkc-oN8lbuX9O32BsQ5LSAQRy3iCT4lJB7fGxgp2yweoQ5xmyA8tf0k_BQG37Ff5eOUxN_Z5u7VFGLP-YWVER4wkmcyk1D1c1Uvw7ZJSD2cEOs2gQlEvSZCJc-Rav16O8/s1600/%7BC136065A-7801-43B5-9C38-4B680BE33D48%7DImg100.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" r6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8TMK122GLnggkc-oN8lbuX9O32BsQ5LSAQRy3iCT4lJB7fGxgp2yweoQ5xmyA8tf0k_BQG37Ff5eOUxN_Z5u7VFGLP-YWVER4wkmcyk1D1c1Uvw7ZJSD2cEOs2gQlEvSZCJc-Rav16O8/s320/%25257BC136065A-7801-43B5-9C38-4B680BE33D48%25257DImg100.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Directed by John S. Robertson</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Starring: John Barrymore</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Running time: 82 mins</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Studio: Famous Players - Lasky</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Black & White</span><br />
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<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The earliest horror film in my collection (yes, I know it should be <em>The Cabinet of Dr Caligari</em>, but to be honest I’m not a fan, masterpiece though it is) this seems like a good place to start. The author Clive Barker once described Robert Louis Stevenson’s original novella as ‘a Victorian conceit with a boring moral dichotomy at its centre’ (or words to that effect) and nowhere is this more true than in this film version, one of several produced during the silent era. That’s not surprising, really, when you consider that it was based on an 1897 stage version. This is a world where women are “Paradise for the eyes but Hell for the soul” and are banished from the dining room when the wine arrives; but dated though it is, it’s still very watchable.</span></div><div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">John Barrymore (Drew’s grandfather) plays the handsome, upright Dr Henry Jekyll, “idealist and philanthropist”. The point is perhaps somewhat laboured; his surgery, for instance, is packed with the kind of poor people usually reserved for a Dickens-style comedy sketch. Here, in his “human repair shop”, Jekyll works tirelessly to justify his belief that a man can truly know himself only when he is engaged in helping others. And the Poor love him for it. Sick old crones gaze wistfully into his eyes, while gum-chewing street urchins regard him with something like awe. </span><br />
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Unfortunately, when Jekyll attends a dinner party hosted by Sir George Carew (Brandon Hurst), father of Jekyll’s beautiful fiancee, Millicent (Martha Mansfield), he finds himself taunted by his fellow guests, who regard his avoidance of the baser pleasures in life as a sign of male weakness. Surely, they insist, even a man like Jekyll must acknowledge that he has a dark side to his nature. In an effort to tempt him into sin, they take him to a sleazy music hall in the heart of a London slum, where Jekyll encounters an erotic dancer who, despite not actually dancing <em>that </em>erotically, has a disturbing effect on him. He is horrified but transfixed by her performance. Later, when she is introduced to him and tries to kiss him, the whole experience proves too traumatic for the good doctor and he flees the scene.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As a result of his exposure to the evils of Victorian music hall, Jekyll decides that it would be a good idea if the two natures of man could be separated and the evil side housed in another body (and bundled away under the stairs to be forgotten about, presumably). To this end he develops a potion in his laboratory that he believes will achieve this aim; but having apparently forgotten, or more likely been unable, to find someone willing to act as a receptacle for his nasty nature, Jekyll's evil side takes him over instead and we are treated to the first of the film’s many Jekyll/Hyde transformations. Barrymore’s performance in this scene has been dismissed by some critics as ham; but it is very effective nonetheless.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Apparently performed in one take and without make-up, the change from the good-looking doctor to the hideously bent and dishevelled Hyde is genuinely alarming, for all that there is a tad too much flailing of limbs. The effect is topped off by an excellent dissolve shot of Jekyll’s hand turning into a withered claw.</span> <span id="goog_1904243984"></span><span id="goog_1904243985"></span></span></div><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"></span></span></div><div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="border: currentColor; clear: both; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYZS73iiy0RwnW3XU4luUZDi0AldXBOF9Oib22KKeXb7Wm055ir0jIDtM7U2vP1k4vmOMnvphtad77KxDq8Ml9WVJ4ysBvxRjREP1vIoKYWuQ2WDn4EC9SherQis-__nzjlMlO23QSHPE/s1600/jekyll1920-01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="239" i8="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYZS73iiy0RwnW3XU4luUZDi0AldXBOF9Oib22KKeXb7Wm055ir0jIDtM7U2vP1k4vmOMnvphtad77KxDq8Ml9WVJ4ysBvxRjREP1vIoKYWuQ2WDn4EC9SherQis-__nzjlMlO23QSHPE/s320/jekyll1920-01.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As Mr Hyde, the doctor can finally take that holiday from morality that he’s been secretly promising himself all these years. He rents a grotty room in a seedy part of town and embarks on a personal mission to indulge in as much working class debauchery as he can. This amounts to drinking, smoking, frequenting opium dens, taunting prostitutes, and trampling on infants in the street.</span> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Worse, he begins to neglect the lovely Millicent, preferring instead to spend his time leering over and pawing at the music hall dancer he met. If all this sounds rather tame it’s more than made up for by Barrymore’s performance - of all the Mr Hyde’s that have graced the silver screen over the years, his is by far the most repulsive. </span></span><br />
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<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Of course, things only go from bad to worse, and as his depravity deepens - and Hyde’s appearance grows ever more cadaverous - Jekyll finds that he is no longer able to control the effects of the potion. Before long, he is transforming spontaneously. This culminates in him morphing into Mr Hyde in front of Sir George, who has come to Jekyll’s house to determine why the good doctor has been behaving so oddly. As Hyde, the doctor is forced to silence his prospective father-in-law and, in a surprisingly brutal scene, clubs Sir George to death in the courtyard.</span> </div><div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“Tortured by remorse for Hyde’s monstrous cruelties” and overwhelmed by guilt when Millicent asks him to help find and apprehend her father’s murderer, Jekyll suffers terrible dreams. In what is probably the film’s most macabre sequence, Jekyll's bed chamber is invaded by a monstrous spectral spider that clambers up onto the bed and merges with Jekyll's sleeping body, transforming him again into Hyde. It’s clearly a symbolic moment, but what makes it so grotesquely effective is that - whether by design or not - the actor inside the spider costume is clearly visible.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It sounds risible, but it lends the scene a genuinely nightmarish quality and, for me, </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">it's the high point of the film.</span></div><div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">After this, there's little more for Hyde to do except avoid the police and menace poor Millicent. Love does win through in the end (sort of) but the outcome isn't good for the tragic Dr Jekyll. </span></div><div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For all its class stereotyping and old-fashioned moral certitude, this was a fun film to watch. It’s not especially frightening by today’s standards, of course, but it’s easy to understand why it was a critical success in its day. The camerawork and lighting are excellent throughout, and despite its occasional moments of overt theatricality, Barrymore's performance, especially as Hyde, must surely rank as one of the great performances of silent horror cinema. </span></span><br />
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</div></div>Jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10746384490870629929noreply@blogger.com0