Nora Prentiss (1947)

The Good Doctor Talbot (Kent Smith) is dead. Murdered, in fact. Let’s go back in time to see how this all transpired. The stayed 40-something family man begins to grow tired of his predictable, boring life. A chance encounter with a 30-ish nightclub singer (Ann Sheridan) turns everything upside down.

Not terribly noir-ish, but I will allow it. What I cannot abide is that the IMDb description is a third act spoiler. I know the film is pushing 75, but that is unnecessary. End Rant.

Kent Smith appeared in both of Val Lewton’s Cat People films and I found his manner stiff, but here it fits the character. He is something of a stick in the mud, punctual and reliable. While Ann Sheridan sparkled five years earlier in The Man Who Came to Dinner (my Christmas pick), she seemed a little shop-worn here. Still, pretty and exciting to the dependable dad. Her club friend is played by Robert Alda, better known as Hawkeye’s dad.

I don’t remember how Nora Prentiss got onto my radar (and thus my DVR), maybe TCM ran a piece glowing about her performance. But I found the story kinda flat. There are some good reveals (better if they’re not spoiled for you), but I didn’t feel the chemistry and didn’t care about the characters. It’s a medium drama with some interesting story elements that left me kinda blah. AMRU 3.

Lured (1947)

Pretty women of London are being murdered, lured by an ad in the personal column. When the friend of pretty Sandra (Lucille Ball) goes missing, she agrees to act as bait for the investigation.

Lurid is classified by IMDb as Film-Noir, but I reject that label. While it does have some noir elements, it completely lacks the most important ones. A remake of a French musical romance, it keeps a rom-com undertone. That original film was inspired by a real-life case that became the last public execution in French history. Lurid was a financial failure, no doubt caused by the studio changing the title to Personal Column during its initial run. Apparently Lured sounded too much like Lurid.

Many old friends visit us here. Everyone’s favorite lecherous old man, Charles Coburn is the decidedly non-lecherous chief inspector. Batman’s Alfred Alan Napier makes an appearance, and personal favorite George Zucco has a sizable role, both appearing in their tenth film I’ve covered. But somebody please tell me what Boris Karloff is doing in this picture! My guess is he was under contract and his name was needed for promotional purposes. His small and inconsequential scene gave him forth billing. But let’s talk of George Sanders.

Before agreeing to work for the police, Sandra sets up an interview at a fancy club owned by Sanders’ Fleming, but doesn’t show. Fleming falls for her based on her voice and the chase is on. Always playing the notorious cad, Sanders was wonderful in this role. It is his performance here that, despite story issues, makes the film worth watching. Villain or not, he is wonderful in all of his roles.

Much has been said of Lucy’s less than stellar early film career and here is yet another example. Not bad, should have been better, and sabotaged by the studio with the title change. But 35 is a bit long in the tooth for a woman striving to achieve A-list status during that era. Not for a man, but certainly for a woman. Despite lots of leading lady talent, it just didn’t happen for her. But things worked out for her in the end. AMRU 3.5.

Rosemary’s Baby (1968)

A struggling actor and his young wife (Mia Farrow) rent a fancy Manhattan apartment with weird neighbors. She becomes pregnant and then is slowly convinced that her neighbors are Satanists intent on killing her baby.

Arguably the most iconic horror film I had left to cover, Rosemary’s Baby casts a long shadow. Schlock director William Castle got the rights to the book but realized he was not up to the task of putting it on the screen. This task was given to rising star Roman Polanski, but allowed himself a Hitchockian cameo. Filmed at the Dakota Apartments, that would later be the location John Lennon would meet his fate.

This may be the first film to lean hard into the occult. Castle felt the production was cursed. His health started failing and was getting hate mail for bringing the devil back. 23 year old Mia Farrow’s fifty two year old husband didn’t approve of the subject matter so he served her divorce papers on the set. Polanski’s wife and unborn child were later brutally murdered by cultists, causing him to start finding thirteen year olds irresistible.

Here we see some old friends. Eliza Cook Jr. visits us once again, as does that Ralph Bellamy fellow. We see a young Charles Grodin, rest in peace, but the standout performance goes to Maude herself, Ruth Gordon. She was amazing as the nosy, annoying neighbor. Who might worship Satan.

Adult life can be terrifying. Economic uncertainty, pregnancy, new situations are frightening enough without the specter of neighbor satanists with designs on your unborn child. Polanski and the source material exploits this theme expertly. The Take YouTube channel did an excellent video exploring elements of control and lack of it. Rosemary is young, frail, and pregnant, and alone in her fight. Check it out.

Rosemary’s Baby is a slow burn, and quite frankly did feel a bit long. Also, traditional horror elements are noticeably absent. The production designer called it the greatest horror film without any horror in it. While not exactly true, it’s close enough to not be wrong. But it is iconic for a reason, influencing The Exorcist, The Omen, and many others. AMRU 4.

"Shut up. You're in Dubrovnik, I don't hear you."

Death Bed: The Bed that Eats (1977)

There’s this bed, see, in an old, abandoned house. When people sleep in it, the bed eats them. Roll credits.

To be fair, the bed has a backstory and there is a conclusion, but Pulitzer Prize material it is not. This is a very low budget, very independent film that despite the amateur status proves to be quite watchable. Shot silent and dubbed in post, Death Bed is mostly an art film, narrated by a ghost behind a painting.

The film rose to fame when back in 2007 comedian Patton Oswald did a bit on it, referring to it as “The Bed that Eats People” in a comedic flourish. It was shot in 1972 and a print wasn’t stuck until 1977. There it sat until bootleg copies began circulating. It got a DVD release in 2003 and the rest is history.

Kinda interesting if mostly for it’s unusual narrative style, it is a very watchable film. It has a dreamlike quality and the most was made with amateur actors. Compare it to the bulk of the super low budget amateur films, it rises above. On the overall watchability scale, I give Death Bed an impressive AMRU 3.

Night of the Lepus (1972)

An Arizona ranch is being overrun by Lepus. Wanting to avoid the indiscriminate spraying of poison, they turn to a well-meaning scientist who injects … something … into one of the Lepus. It escapes and later that day, giant Lepus are attacking the town and killing people. What’s a Lepus? Oh, they are bunny rabbits.

That’s right, this is the famous giant rabbit horror movie, three years before The Holy Grail. How do you make bunnies terrifying? Simple. Take close up shots of real bunnies on miniature sets, slowed down and shot at a low angle. Adding fake blood and a menacing growl made them genuinely terrifying fuzzy widdle baby-boos! Who’s a fuzzy boy! You are! Yes, you are!

Yea, this didn’t work. But the low rent special effects are not the worst part. Not even close. The pacing is slow and plotting, the story underdeveloped, and the acting … oh, the acting. I would periodically check to see if this was made for TV.

Films like this follow a certain format. The monster is introduced, there are initial incidents, the people try to figure out what is going on, things escalate, a plan is formulated, and conclusion. Them!, The Blob, The Birds, Jaws, they all progress the threat while exploring the people’s reaction to it. It should come as no surprise that the movie featuring giant, murderous bunnies does this very poorly. Things just happen and people just do things. There is very little logic. I mean, considering.

So, with this low budget, poorly conceived film, how did they manage to get former A-Lister Janet Leigh? Well, it was ten years since her last big film. And it was filmed near her house. Also here is Rory Calhoun. Perhaps you remember him from such films as Rogue River, Massacre River, and River of No Return. Oh, and How to Marry a Millionaire. And hey! Look, it's Doctor McCoy! Nice to see him get work.

The studio knew this wouldn't work, keeping the bunny angle a secret. Clunky, drab, and poorly acted, the effects just may be the best part of the film. There is an environmental Silent Spring message that may have won points with some viewers, but felt out of place. And the conclusion would take those points right back. AMRU 2.

The Odd Couple (1968)

When the wife of neat freak Felix (Jack Lemmon) leaves him, he becomes suicidal, causing his poker buddies to worry. He stays with slob Oscar (Walter Matthew) while he gets over the shock. They do not get along.

It is impossible for me to separate the movie from the 1970’s TV show I watched as a kid. I will refrain from contrasting the two works except to say that it is impressive how Tony Randall and Jack Klugman successfully created a personalized but very recognizable version of the same characters.

Ostensibly, The Odd Couple is a film about men’s relationship with women. Oscar and Felix’s ex-wives, who are never seen, and the Pigeon sisters, whom they attempt to engage. Women, or the desire of them, drive much of the action. But in reality, this is a story about men’s relationship with each other. They bicker, but are genuinely concerned when one is in jeopardy. Felix and Oscar cannot stand living together, but grow close through the experience. Closer than what they can comfortably communicate.

Not laugh out loud funny, at least for me, but funny and engaging. Particularly the coo-coo Pigeon sisters, Monica Evans and Carole Shelley, who reprised their roles from the stage play and would again for the TV series. They would also play Maid Marion and Lady Kluck in the Disney version of Robin Hood, a childhood favorite of mine.

The Odd Couple depicts adult male life in a very different and in many ways more realistic way than films to that point. That’s the hallmark of stage to film adaptations. They are not the idealized manly men of some films, but men in a very recognizable and sometimes unflattering way. The crisis forces them to confront a situation they are not capable of handling very well. In the end they learn and grow, play poker, and bicker with each other. AMRU 4.

The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (1927)

A man calling himself The Avenger is murdering “fair haired” girls, causing panic in London. When a strange man matching his description rents a room, they begin to suspect him.

Set in current day (well, 1920’s) London, The Lodger is based on a book about Jack the Ripper. The book and the movie differ particularly in the ending in ways and for reasons that spoil. This is Hitchcock’s third film and first thriller. Having done his first two in Germany, he experimented with expressionist style to good effect.

The story centers around the husband and wife running the house, their fair haired daughter, her detective boyfriend, and of course, the lodger. Detective Joe is obsessed with catching The Avenger and doesn’t care much for this odd stranger, but pretty Daisy likes him just fine. Daisy is billed as being a “mannequin”, meaning she modeled clothes in a department store for rich people.

Hitch did his first ever cameo, and it came by accident. He didn’t hire enough extras for an early newsroom montage, so he sat in, back to the camera. A tradition is born. Assistant director and script supervisor Alma Reville had a quick cameo as well.

The expressive style and tense storytelling make The Lodger a compelling watch. The animated title cards were imaginative. One declaring Murder “Wet from the press”, which I presume to be the 1920’s London version of “Hot from the press”. But this film showed what Hitchcock could, and would eventually do. In fact, it would be years before he produced it’s equal. AMRU 4.