While the City Sleeps (1956)

Pretty women are being murdered and the new head of a newspaper (Vincent Price) uses the story to fuel a competition to select the new Editor in Chief. Dana Andrews’ Ed Mobley isn’t interested.

The three competitors are George Sanders, Thomas Mitchell, and James Craig. Sanders plays the high class charmer rather than the magnificent cad he is so adept at. Some may know Mitchell as a fantastic character actor with a knack of appearing in some great films, including Stagecoach, Mr Smith Goes to Washington, The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939), It’s a Wonderful Life, and Gone With the Wind. Craig also appeared in films. His character has an inside track on the position.

Ida Lupino is something of a free agent, offering assistance to Sanders but for her own reasons. John Drew Barrymore is our villain, more famous as John’s son and Drew’s dad, although apparently not much of one. Silent film star Mae Marsh makes an appearance. She has a ton of screen credits.

Typical of Fritz Lang, there’s a whole lot going on here. Hero Dana is dealing with his relationship with pretty Nancy while schooling the police and reporters on how to investigate a crime. The murders sometimes seem to be of secondary importance.

While the City Sleeps is a pretty good crime drama. While lacking in mystery, it’s an interesting watch from start to finish. It should be noted that not a whole lot of action seems to happen while the city is sleeping. AMRU 3.5.

Cry Terror! (1958)

Good guy Jim (James Mason) is tricked into building a detonator for an army buddy (Rod Steiger) who uses it to extort money from airlines. They need his wife to execute part of the plan so they keep Jim and child locked away to ensure her cooperation.

Buddy Paul’s gang includes the always menacing Neville Brand, the never menacing Jack Klugman, and Angie Dickinson. Familiar face William Schallert has a small role and silent film star Mae Marsh makes an appearance. She has a ton of screen credits.

Jim’s young, pretty wife (Inger Stevens) could have been the helpless damsel but instead was strong and active in the face of adversity. Also quite charming. Stevens herself could have used some of that strength. Late in filming, she and Steiger were overcome with carbon monoxide fumes. She tried to refuse oxygen, saying she wanted to die. She would take her own life twelve years later. One never knows the private battles others are fighting.

Local police are on top of the case but Paul has things pretty well figured out. Many times films like this rely on characters behaving illogically in order for the story to happen. I was pleasantly surprised when that expectation was subverted.

Cry Terror! won’t stand out at the top of the genre, but it deserves to be better remembered. It has a quality story, the characters behave logically, some pretty tense moments, and a satisfying conclusion. AMRU 3.5.

Eye of the Devil (1966)

Wealthy mansion dweller (David Niven) is called back to the family estate because the grape harvest has mysteriously failed. He tells his wife (Deborah Kerr) not to visit him there, and behaves all mysterious. She visits him here anyhow and finds people acting very mysterious. The more she tries to find out what’s going on, the more mysterious things become. So mysterious!

A tremendously troubled production, starting with the fact that Kim Novak, originally cast in Deborah Kerr’s role, fell from a horse and fractured a vertebra. Principle filming was nearly complete but she was unable to finish. They were forced to hire Kerr and reshoot nearly everything. Rumors that Novak was fired are likely false. Then the studio shelved the project for over a year, motivated by equal parts lack of faith and concerns over the subject matter.

Although she appeared uncredited in a couple films and appeared in fifteen episodes of The Beverly Hillbillies, Sharon Tate makes her official debut here. She won praise for taking on a believable English accent, or maybe she was dubbed. David Hemmings received media buzz from Blow-Out, which became a surprise hit while Eye of the Devil sat on the shelf. Donald Pleasence is a creepy priest.

Eye of the Devil leans hard into the mystery, if I didn’t make that clear enough. The progression to reveal isn’t ineffective, but it was more than a little heavy handed. The attractive sets and creative cinematography are compromised by the thin, black and white film stock giving it a low budget feel. In the end it just didn’t work for me. AMRU 2.5.

Strait-Jacket (1964)

Lucy (Joan Crawford) is sent to an insane asylum after catching her younger husband in bed with another woman. She caught them with an axe. Twenty years later, she is released and stays with her daughter (Diane Baker), who witnessed the murder as a small child. Lucy has difficulties adjusting.

Baker is quite charming as Lucy’s daughter. She would appear in the Hitchcock film Marnie the same year. A young Lee Majors plays the philandering husband in his first credited role. His role was short and got shorter. Us oldies remember him fondly as Steve Austin, astronaut. A man barely alive. We can rebuild him, so long as we find the head. At 85, the dude is still acting. Maybe he really is bionic. George Kennedy pays a farm hand.

Two years after What Ever Happened to Baby Jane, Joan must have known she had no business being in this low budget schlocky thriller. But she had reinvented her career twice before by switching genres, so kudos to her for taking chances. Not sure it worked out all that well for her this time. She would appear in only four more feature films, ending with the amazing train wreck Trog.

And Crawford didn’t miss the opportunity to pitch product. A six-pack of Pepsi is conspicuously visible in one scene and the role of the asylum doctor went to Michael Cox, Vice President of Public Relations for Pepsi-Cola. It is his only screen credit.

Strait-Jacket is no better of a production than any other William Castle film, but lacks the playful nature of his earlier work. Crawford puts in a full effort, but the material lets her down. And if you didn’t guess the twist during the first act, you weren’t paying attention. AMRU 2.5.

Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948)

Chick and Wilbur (Bud and Lou) operate a shipping company and Lawrence Talbot (Lon Chaney Jr.) urges them not to deliver two crates. Why? Because Dracula and Frankenstein’s monster (Bela Lugosi and Glenn Strange) are inside them. Spoiler alert. There’s more going on involving an evil scientist and Dracula’s plan with the monster, but really this is an excuse for the boys to clown around and act scared.

I watched and enjoyed The Abbott and Costello Show after school at some point, but if you are unfamiliar, Bud would boss Lou around and Lou would act silly and screw up. Basically a Moe/Curly relationship. I started this film a couple years ago but was put off by the mean-spirited nature of the comedy. I didn’t have that objection this time but never found myself laughing.

I remember hearing that Chaney once said that Bud and Lou made a mockery of the horror genre, but I can’t find a source for that. Times had changed, though. The self serious gothic horror of the depression simply didn't play during post-war optimism. I’m sure Chaney didn’t mind cashing the check.

This was the second and last time Lugosi would play Dracula, although he would occasionally play the character in everything but name. This would also be his last project with Universal. Glenn Strange is sometimes thought of as the Shemp of Frankenstein, having replaced the icon Boris Karloff for House of Frankenstein. At 6’5”, he best fit the physique of an imposing monster. He will forever be identified by his three performances (the NY Times used his picture in monster makeup for Karloff’s obituary) but he appeared in 266 feature films, many of them westerns.

Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein isn't at all scary, not particularly funny, and they don't meet Frankenstein. It's interesting mostly because of Lugosi’s performance, still at the top of his game. Perhaps I'm a little generous with a score of 3.0.

Witchfinder General (1968)

or The Conqueror Worm.

While civil war rages in England, Lawyer Matthew Hopkins (Vincent Price) travels around offering his services to extract confessions from people accused of witchcraft.

Hopkins is assisted by Stearne (Robert Russell) who does the tortuous dirty work while Hopkins concerns himself with securing payment and listening to the arguments of the accused back in his bedchambers, specifically the young ladies. It’s tough work.

Director Michael Reeves didn’t get along with Price, whose casting was insisted by AIP. They also changed the title in America to confuse it with the Corman/Poe films. This was Reeves third film and tragically his last. His trajectory went from poor, to middling, to pretty good. Some excellent films may have been in his future. He died of an accidental overdose at 25. And so it goes.

Very loosely based on the Historical Matthew Hopkins, this film serves as an excellent portrayal of the evil perpetrated by those convinced of their righteousness. Known for his theatrical, almost campy horror performances, Price was uncharacteristically menacing. Disturbingly so. He was, in a way, cast against type.

Witchfinder General’s use of mannered acting and dialog attempts to import a “Look, I’m a legit historical biopic” vibe when clearly it’s not. But this fair revenge story is elevated by Price’s performance and some story elements not seen in films of the time. AMRU 3.5.

Murders in the Rue Morgue (1932)

Creepy Dr. Mirakle (Bela Lugosi) has a trained ape and a nefarious plan that involves a young, pretty woman.

Very loosely based on the Edgar Allan Poe story, it keeps many of the elements but replaces the narrative. Instead of a detective trying to solve a series of murders, it’s a boyfriend medical student trying to protect his love. And, in retrospect, I don’t think anyone figured out what Dr. Mirakle’s plan actually was, but it appeared to involve ape/lady sexy time.

Communicating who characters are and what their relationship is is a basic task of storytelling. This was not expertly accomplished here, not that it mattered much. The only purpose for any character outside of hero, villain, and damsel in distress is for them to have someone to talk to. A bigger annoyance was the complete lack of a score. Dracula had no score, so why not.

Erik the Ape was a chimp in close-ups and a man in a shabby gorilla suit in longer shots, which wasn't too convincing. I’ve noted before that early horror films were enamored with gorillas. And, like today, many of them were portrayed by old friend Charles Gemora. Also here in a “blink and you’ll miss him” role is our favorite non-Indian Iron Eyes Cody. Us old people remember him best as the Crying Indian.

Murders in the Rue Morgue contains some serious pre-code violence and themes, nineteen minutes of which were cut, which I presume are lost. It's remarkable for that and a classic Lugosi performance, but stretches of it were quite dull. Luckily it was barely an hour long. AMRU 3.