STRANGE ILLUSION-1945-A teenager (Jimmy Lydon, the former star of the HENRY ALDRICH movie series; not Johnny Rotten’s brother) suspects his mom’s new beau (Warren William in his last role) may have been responsible for his father’s death. He pretends he needs psychiatric help so he can expose the guilty men. He gets help from the family doctor (Regis Toomey) and has a strange, prophetic dream.
Director Edgar G. Ulmer (from Austria-Hungry; now The Czech Republic) made the classic (and controversial) Universal Karloff-Lugosi team-up THE BLACK CAT in 1934 but worked mainly for basement budget companies like PRC turning out some film noir classics like DETOUR (made the year before), BLUEBEARD and THE MAN FROM PLANET X.
Supposedly Ulmer had an affair with a Universal studio boss’ wife (who he later married) which put him on the shit list with all major studios! If anyone could make “ a silk purse out of a sow’s ear” it was Ulmer!
THE STRANGE WOMAN-1946-Strange indeed! Hedy Lamaar stars as the title character who uses her feminine wilds to get whatever she wants. She marries storekeeper Gene Lockhart for his money then woos his son (Louis Hayward). She drives him to kill his old man then dumps him for his best friend (George Sanders), who dumps his own fiancée (Hilary Brooke). Eventually her evil deeds catch up with her in the dumb finale. This farfetched movie only works if you feel Lamaar was “the most beautiful actress ever”. Otherwise...
The rest of the cast includes Ian Keith and future TV Batman butler Alan Napier. Director Ulmer tries hard to do his best with what he’s got but it’s one of his weakest. Lamaar (from Vienna) had made a big splash with her semi-nude scenes in the German made EXTASE in 1932. She had a short successful career in Hollywood and even developed a guiding system for torpedoes during WW2! She retired in the late ‘50’s and was only heard from sporadically after that, several times for her arrests on shoplifting charges. She died in 2000 at 87.
Personally Edgar Ulmer was one of the greatest directors ever!
Thanks for reading!
2 comments:
I'd love to see both of these. The only Edgar G. Ulmer movies I've seen are The Black Cat and Bluebeard (both of which I really like).
Those are two great ones! The Black Cat was one of the few films where Ulmer wasn't constricted by a low budget and the stars weren't so bad either...
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