Even A Man Who Is Pure In Heart....

THE WOLFMAN-1941-In England Lawrence Talbot (Lon Chaney Jr.) returns home to Castle Talbot after spending 18 years in America, upon the death of his older brother. His dad Sir John (Claude Rains) wants him to become one of the family again. Cheerful Larry no sooner gets settled when he's fooling around with a telescope and spies Gwen (Evelyn Ankers) in her antique shop. When he visits she tells him about werewolves and the sign of the pentagram.

Larry wants his fortune told so he, Gwen and her friend Jenny (Fay Helm) visit a gypsy camp. There Bela (Bela Lugosi) reads Jenny's fortune and it's not good. He sees a pentagram on her palm. While Larry romances Gwen Bela turns into a werewolf and kills Jenny. Larry kills the werewolf with his silver cane but is bitten in the process. He's helped home by Maleva (Maria Ouspenskaya) . Later the chief of police (Ralph Bellamy) and Doctor Lloyd (Warren William) find Jenny and Bela (not a wolf anymore). The next day Larry recovers and his wolf bite has disappeared. Larry overhears Maleva talking to the dead Bela and finds out he was her son. Later Gwen introduces Larry to her fiance Frank Andrews (Patrick Knowles), game keeper for the estate. Maleva gives Larry the low down on his curse and the gypsies pack up and leave as Larry turns into the title character. His first victim is a gravedigger. Next time he goes out prowling he gets his foot caught in a trap planted by the constable. He passes out but doesn't get caught because Maleva finds him and somehow gets him to change back to human. Larry goes to Gwen for help but when he sees the sign of the pentagram on her palm he freaks out. He confesses his fears to his dad but Sir John doesn't believe it. He straps his son to chair in a locked room while everyone is out hunting the wolf. He transforms and escapes. Gwen winds up in the foggy woods being pursued by hairy Larry. He attacks her but Sir John confronts him and in an ironic twist beats him to death with Larry's cane. Larry turns human and Maleva declares “Your suffering is over”.

 THE WOLF MAN kind of ushered in the second era of Universal horror films. Director George Waggner also did MAN MADE MONSTER with Chaney the same year. He later made THE CLIMAX with Karloff. This has a great cast and the foggy scenes where the wolf man prowls are excellent despite being all done in the studio. Screenwriter Curt Siodmak went on to write several more in the series. Waggner later went into TV. His last work was on the BATMAN TV in the '60's.

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Not a Jurassic Park Sequel!

THE LOST WORLD-1960-The great Claude Rains (with red hair) portrays Prof. Challenger, the grumpy, ill tempered explorer in this Technicolor adaptation of Arthur Conan Doyle's novel. He's back from the Amazon where he claims to have seen living dinosaurs. He's ridiculed by his colleagues at a meeting but organizes an expedition that includes the pompous Prof. Summerlee (Richard Haydn), big game hunter Lord Roxton (Michael Rennie), his girlfriend Jennifer (Jill St. John), her brother David (Ed Stricklyn, RETURN OF DRACULA) and reporter Ed Malone (David Hedison, in the TV show FIVE FINGERS at the time). They are joined by guitar strumming Gomez (Fernando Lamas), their helicopter operator and his assistant Castro (Jay Novello). After a dinosaur wrecks their helicopter Malone chases and catches a native girl (Vitina Marcus) and kills a giant green spider. While Roxton and Malone have a fist fight they find the diary of Burton White, another explorer who got to the prehistoric land before Challenger (Roxton was suppose to go with them but he was delayed). The dinosaurs that menace the party are actually little lizards made up to look scary. They terrorize the group and 2 "dinos" have a long tussle. Everyone is taken captive by the local cannibal natives. The native girl helps them escape and takes them to see the still alive but blind White (Ian Wolfe) who tells them how to escape (before the whole place blows up) although they have to go through many obstacles plus a revenge seeking Gomez.

THE LOST WORLD is fairly entertaining. It has a good cast and acting (although some seem to think Rains is too bombastic) but really not much happens. The SFX and sets aren't that great. Two standout points: One is that until the last 15 minutes not one of the group gets killed. The other is Jill St. John's Jennifer who is explained by several characters as being a person capable of being in the expedition despite being a woman yet all she does is scream when there's danger (with her pet poodle in tow)!

This was Irwin Allen's first movie as director since THE STORY OF MANKIND in 1957. Most of the dinosaur footage was re-used in his '60's TV shows. Screenwriter Charles Bennett wrote for many of the TV shows Allen later produced. Claude Rains was coming to the end of his long career (he died in 1967) and doing mainly TV (he starred in 5 ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS) at the time.

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Bats and Rains

VAMPIRE BAT-1933-is a creaky low budget horror film from the early 30's but despite it's obvious restrictions and drawbacks it's fairly entertaining.

The great Lionel Atwill stars as Dr. Von Neimann, the local doctor in a village where vampire like murders are taking place. Whenever giant bats appear at night, some unfortunate local dies, the body drained of blood. Melvyn Douglas (who was in James Whale's THE OLD DARK HOUSE the year before) is the investigating police constable. Fay Wray (the same year as KING KONG) is his love interest.

The best performence though is by Dwight Frye, essaying another village idiot role (it would type-cast his career) as Herman, a bat loving red herring (who meets his demise at the famous Bronson Canyon).

Familiar '30's character actor Lionel Belmore (2 Lionels for the price of one! What a movie!) also appears. The photography is a little too dark at times and there's a lot of talk but it's short running time makes it enjoyable.

Screenwriter Edward T. Lowe had been writing movies since the '20's (including HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME with Lon Chaney). He later penned HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN, HOUSE OF DRACULA, several Charlie Chan and Bulldog Drummond mysteries and other stuff.

Director Frank Strayer made several unusual movies in the '30's (THE MONSTER WALKS, THE GHOST WALKS and CONDEMNED TO LIVE) before devoting most of his time to the movie series based on the "Blondie" comic strip in the '40's.



I also recently saw THE CLAIRVOYANT (aka THE EVIL MIND)-1934-made one year later and also featuring Fay Wray.

The always entertaining Claude Rains (one year after his film debut in THE INVISIBLE MAN) stars as a phony mind reader named Maximus who's predictions start to come true whenever he's around a certain woman (English actress Jane Baxter). Wray is his assistant-wife who fears his new power. Rains' trance states are very eerie (especially his last!). It's ok and probably influenced a few future films.

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