WEREWOLF OF LONDON (1935): Universal’s Original Version Of The Wolf Man Story
While I fully understand the preeminent position that Lon Chaney Jr’s THE WOLF MAN (1941) holds in the Universal Monsters lexicon, I find their first telling of the werewolf story, THE WEREWOLF OF LONDON (1935), to be a more interesting movie. While it lacks the gloss and polish of the 1941 version, that gloss and polish is…
MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE (1932): Studio Interference Ruined A Potentially Fascinating Movie
What happened to MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE is a textbook case of studio interference ruining a potential masterpiece. After preparing the original FRANKENSTEIN project only to have it handed to James Whale (who retained the idea of the stolen criminal brain), original director Robert Florey and star Bela Lugosi (who rejected the part of…
YOUNG SHERLOCK HOLMES (1985): Anticipating The Harry Potter Movies By 16 Years
When this Steven Spielberg produced effort came out in 1985, it came and it went fairly quickly. I missed it entirely and this is a movie that normally I would have seen. It just goes to show that the name of Steven Spielberg doesn’t always mean gold at the box office although officially the film…
THE MASKS OF DEATH (1984): Peter Cushing’s Last Go Round As Sherlock Holmes
In the mid 1970s Kevin Francis (son of legendary cinematographer and director Freddie Francis) made a foolhardy attempt to keep alive the tradition of British horror that he had grown up with (and to which his father had made significant contributions). Unfortunately he was tilting at windmills as his company, Tyburn, did not have the…
THE GHOST CAMERA (1933): Ida Lupino’s Film Debut
THE GHOST CAMERA is one of those little movies that is of no great significance. It’s an early 1930s British movie which was made as a “Quota Quckie”. That’s the term used to describe British B films made between 1928 and 1938 which were meant to bolster the British film industry. No American movie could be…
DEVIL BAT’S DAUGHTER (1946) Is An Attempt To Hoodwink Its Intended Audience
Movies about psychology and psychiatrists were very big in the 1940s during and right after World War II. GASLIGHT (1944) and 2 Alfred Hitchcock movies SUSPICION (1941) and SPELLBOUND (1945) were big box office hits so PRC decided to make a cut-rate version of their own which was DEVIL BAT’S DAUGHTER (1946). To ensure DBD’s chances…
PRC’s LIGHTHOUSE (1947) Shines Brightly Despite Its Low Budget
This review does not refer to other lighthouse titles such as Robert Eggars THE LIGHTHOUSE (2019) or Britain’s 2016 THE LIGHTHOUSE both of which are inspired by a real life tragedy from 1801. Those two movies have a contemporary edge (especially the former) but this LIGHTHOUSE (no THE) is a 1947 B movie from Poverty…
GOODNIGHT MY LOVE (1974): ABC TV Movie Pays Tribute To 1940s Detective Film Noir
I recently came across a photo of actors Richard Boone and little person Michael Dunn (of WILD WILD WEST fame) as down and out detectives in the TV movie GOODNIGHT MY LOVE. I first saw it when it aired in 1974 as part of ABC’s MOVIE OF THE WEEK concept which began in 1969 and…
JOURNEY TO THE UNKNOWN (1968): Hammer Films’ First Foray Into Television
Unlike Hammer Films’ two television shows from the 1980s (HAMMER HOUSE OF HORROR, HAMMER HOUSE OF MYSTERY & SUSPENSE), I saw their JOURNEY TO THE UNKNOWN when it first aired on ABC in 1968. At that time, I had heard the name Hammer but didn’t know who they were. I had caught some of the…
HORROR HOTEL / CITY OF THE DEAD (1960): An Old Favorite That Still Has The Power To Chill
HORROR HOTEL has always been one of my favorites since I first saw it on TV back in 1962. I was surprised to discover that I hadn’t written a review for it so, finally, here it is. This review refers to this VCI edition released under the original British title, CITY OF THE DEAD. Online…
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The Capsule Critic 