Last night we found a good old fashioned werewolf story called "The Undying Monster"(1942), directed by John Brahm, who also helmed twelve Twilight Zone episodes as well as horror classics like "Hangover Square" and "The Lodger". Brahm gives us atmosphere aplenty in this film, opening with a thunderstorm over the English coastline. There's a mansion on the cliff; inside is a family with an ancient secret. Lady of the house "Helga Hammond" (Heather Angel) wishes her brother "Oliver" (John Howard) would return from walking his dog. "He never should've gone out on a night like this." Her butler "Walton" (Halliwell Hobbes) sympathizes, but tells her not to worry. "I'm sure he'll be all right, madame." After hearing the howl of what sounds like a wild beast, she wants to go out and look for him herself, with the aid of her own loyal pooch, a giant Great Dane named Alex. But Walton persuades her to stay put.
Frightened, Helga goes up to bed and a fitful sleep. Later, her brother does come in. "Don't wake her," he tells Walton. "There's been a ghastly situation, a tragedy." While out with his dog, he saw a woman being attacked. "I ran to help her, but the man - or whatever it was - was twice my strength. Five times. He threw me and I hit my head. I don't even know how I've gotten back here." Walton bandages Oliver's bleeding scalp, then Helga wakes up. Overhearing the story, she says, "We need to go help that poor woman!" When they get down to the beach, they find Oliver's dog dead. The woman is unconscious and barely clinging to life.
The next day, with the injured woman in a spare bedroom (in a coma), Helga calls Scotland Yard. "You've got to come out! There's been a monster at Hammond House!" Indeed it appears so. According to Inspector "Robert Curtis" (James Ellison), a forensics expert, it had to be a large animal. "Sir, your dog was ripped apart. Only an an ape could've done this. Are there any zoos in the area?" There are, but there've been no gorilla escapes. The middle of the movie turns into an investigative gem, with Curtis and his chemist partner "Christy" (Heather Thatcher) using early CSI techniques including spectrometry to separate the colors in a wolf's hair, which appear on the screen as a bar code.
There's a secret room in the house, which Curtis asks to see. A Hammond ancestor was locked away in there with mania of some sort or another. "All Helga and I were ever told is that there was a long-standing family curse. But we don't believe in superstitions." Down in the basement is the family cemetery. "The story is they all died from fever".
Up the old dirt road, very muddy on a night like this, lives a family of impoverished poachers. They're always setting traps on the Hammonds' property, which Oliver has tried to stop. He wonders if the poachers could be behind the beach attack? "Maybe we caught them setting their traps and they decided to kill us." "Yes sir, but your dog's bones were torn out of its body." "Yes, well you've got me there." Future American Noir great Charles McGraw plays the poacher who is questioned, and because his family are the #1 suspects, the movie briefly turns into a courtroom drama. But even the prosecutor has to drop the charges when confronted with the evidence of the ripped-up dog. Director Brahm keeps the Gothic atmosphere high. After the mauled woman dies, suspicion falls on the Hammond's doctor, who's been working on a cobra venom remedy. The Yard investigators think he may be using it in animal experiments, which would account for the strength of the killer. Inspector Christy performs a quick chemical analysis of the cobra venom, and it turns out that doc is not the murderer but the protector of the family secret. Another howling is heard and a chase on the cliffs ensues. Two Huge Thumbs Up for "The Undying Monster", but try to find the Blu Ray because the picture is somewhat blurry. ////
Then we have a maniac on the loose in last night's "Among the Living"(1941), a tale of twin brothers, one crazy, that has elements of Frankenstein and Beauty and the Beast. Man, does this one ever need a restoration; it's an oddball classic. As it opens, Harry Carey (our old Western pal) is attending the funeral of his business partner. Together, they founded a legendary mental hospital that has greatly benefited the community. "We staved off two epidemics," Carey notes. But something weird is going on. His servant "Pompey" (Ernest Whitman) is nervously waiting outside the cemetery gates. Carey approaches, trying to avoid notice by the mourners. "What's the problem, Pompey?" he whispers, looking past the man, down toward a house across the field. "Well, sir, it's Mr. Paul. He's gettin' hungry, and I'm all out of money for the chickens." Carey, a wealthy doctor, digs in his pocket and hands Pompey a wad of cash, muttering "Go feed Paul and put him back in his room." At this, even we horror vets are shocked: the staging of the funeral scene, followed by a nuthouse secret. What kind of insanity are we in for?
Pompey walks back to the decaying mansion in the distance, named Raden House for the site of the asylum. The first thing we see is a man in a straitjacket: "Paul Raden" (Albert Dekker), a big man and a lunatic who's just killed his father, Carey's partner, the man who's just been buried. Not only has Carey covered up that murder, signing a death certificate for heart attack, but he also faked Paul's death 25 years ago. No one knows that Paul is still alive, and has been for all this time, locked away in a straitjacket in a hidden room in Raden House, put there by Carey to protect him. Paul's father (Carey's partner) was a cruel man, who pitted his twin sons against their mother, whom he beat and finally killed. Carey always knew this but covered it up because their asylum was doing such good work. But now, Crazy Paul has killed his dad. Pompey is scared. "Don't worry, Pompey. They've never questioned us before."
Harry heads back to the funeral to pay his final respects, but back at Raden House, poor Pompey is trying to get Paul back in his straitjacket so he can safely feed him his dinner. Paul is like a wild beast. He can be pacified by the right words, but a wrong sound or gesture can trigger his mania. Pompey says something, which reminds Paul of Dad. Paul goes crazy, kills Pompey, and escapes into the city, where he feels "normal" again, among anonymous people, and because he's handsome and wearing a suit, no one suspects he's a kook.
He's led to rent a room by a landlady needing money, and her spark-plug daughter "Molly" (Susan Hayward) takes a shine to him. Paul has the wad of money Harry Carey gave Pompey. He buys Molly a 30 dollar dress (expensive in 1941), so she shows him a night on the town. Pretty soon, she thinks he just might be boyfriend material; better than that no-account "Bill Oakley" (Gordon Jones) downstairs who's always asking her out. Molly and her mom like Paul because he's a gentleman. but what she doesn't know is that he's just killed a dance hall girl in another one of his spells. The police have put out a warning over the radio, offering a 5000 dollar reward.
Once she finds out it's Paul, Molly turns against him in a heartbeat. Hayward's performance here, at 24 (but looking 18) shows what a top actress she'd become. Now. she's inciting a lench mob, led by Bill Oakley, because she wants the five grand reward. Paul goes on the run, reverting to his mad state. He tries to make his way out of the city and back to the "safety" of Raden House, where he knows he'll be protected. Macabre is the key word here. Albert Dekker is tremendous in a dual role, also playing Paul's sane twin brother John. And the Frankenstein Torch Mob now believes that John Raden is the killer. He has to be, because "they all know" Paul is dead (and don't we all?). Remember that Harry Carey faked Paul's death years earlier, to prevent him from being put in the asylum! Therefore, the mob believes that the killer has got to be John. The tragic Frances Farmer, herself the victim of madness (not her own but her persecutors'), has a key role toward the end. What a cast! But the showstoppers are Dekker and the young Susan Hayward. "Among the Living" gets Two Huge Thumbs Up. It's really weird, and has there ever been a scarier word than "maniac"? The picture is soft, even blurry at times, but don't let that stop you from watching this classic. ////
And that's all for today. The blog is late, sorry about that. I'm trying to keep up with other writing and attempted publishing (learning PDF, etc.) My blogging music was Klaus Schulze "Timewind", my late night (last night) was Wagner Das Rheingold. I hope your week is off to a good start and I send you Tons of Love, as always. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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