Cold

 

COLD STORAGE-1988-In this black & white overly arty “Eraserhead” influenced horror movie, a deformed young man (Glenn Pearce) lives in some kind of apartment building that's almost like a prison. He doesn't even know what it's like outside. He has sick dreams and kills a woman washing her clothes (he's not the only one there). The camera lingers on different objects and there's a lot of talk but it never goes anywhere.

 It has a good soundtrack though.

 Writer/director Paul M. Rinehard may have done more after this....

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UK

 

(imdb)

DEAD OF NIGHT-1945-An architect Craig (Mervyn Johns) visits a countryside cottage where he gets a big rush of Deja Vu. He says he's met the group of people there in his dreams. Thus begins this anthology.

1. “The Hearse Driver”-Race car driver Hugh Grainer (Anthony Baird) suffers a near fatal accident. Later, a dream saves his life. Just like a future “Twilight Zone” episode, directed by Basil Dearden.

2. “The Christmas Party”-At a party for young people, Sally (Sally Ann Howes) finds a secret room where a young boy Francis is crying and says his stepsister is trying to kill him. Directed by Alberto Cavalcanti. This is adapted from a story by Angus MacPhail, which in turn is based on a true story.

3. “The Haunted Mirror”-A wife (Googie Withers) buys her husband (Ralph Michael) a mirror. When he looks in it, he sees the background of a completely different room. He seems to be taken over by the spirit of the former wife killing owner. Directed by Robert Hamer.

4. “The Golfer's Story”-Two friends George Parratt (Basil Radford) and Larry Potter (Nauton Wayne), both golfers, play a round for the love of a woman named Mary (Peggy Bryan). Parratt wins and Potter commits suicide. After he marries Mary and goes to play some golf, he hears Potter's voice mocking him and calling him a cheat. This is actually a lighthearted ghost comedy directed by Charles Crichton and based on a story by HG Welles.

5. “The Ventriloquist's Dummy”-Frere (Michael Redgrave), a ventriloquist, is accused of trying to kill another ventriloquist named Sylvester (Hartley Power) but he blames his dummy Hugo, who seems to have a life of his own. Standout segment directed by Alberto Cavalcanti.

In the nightmarish wraparound finale, Craig isn't what he seems to be….

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Italian Horror

 

 (imdb)

HORROR aka THE BLANCHVILLE MONSTER-1963-Emile DeBlanchville (Umbretta Colli; SNOW DEVILS) comes back to her childhood home and to her brother Roderic (Gerald Tichy; HATCHET FOR A HONEYMOON). Also with her are a brother & sister, John (Vanni Materassi) & Alice Taylor (Iran Eory). Things have changed. There's a new butler and a seemingly sinister housekeeper named Eleonore (Helga Line; later in several Paul Naschy movies). Later after the mysterious Dr. LaRouche (Leo Achoritz) shows up, Emily is exploring the castle at night and sees Eleonore injecting a needle into a deformed man. She faints and Rod convinces her it was a dream. Later Emily is traumatized by strange dreams and is chased by an ugly with a cross. Then she's buried alive! 

Typical but well-done Italian Gothic horror by director Alberto Di Martino (HOLOCAUST 2000).

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 (wikipedia)

Send It Back

 

THE SENDER-1982-Dr. Gail Farmer (Kathryn Harrold),works in a psychiatric ward where she encounters a new patient the suicidal John Doe (Zeljko Ivanek). After trying to communicate with him she begins to have hallucinations, imagines he's in her house and sees cockroaches crawling in a refrigerator. She meets his mother (Shirley Knight) but no one else sees her. Apparently everyone can see Doe's dreams because of the interference of his dead mom. 

Meandering junk that might have been something in the '80's but now is dated. Director Roger Christian went on to direct a worse movie though BATTLEFIELD EARTH with John Travolta.

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Two Kellys For the Price of One!

 

FEAR IN THE NIGHT-1947-Poor Vince Grayson (Deforest Kelley in his first feature film) is having weird nightmares that he killed a man. He finds several odd things (a key, a button, blood) that lead him to believe it might be true. His brother in law Cliff (Paul Kelly) tells him to forget about it. He's more concerned about his pregnant wife Lil (Ann Doran), Vince's sister. After they go to the house Vince saw in his dream, Cliff begins to suspect Vince is a murderer. A local deputy (Jeff York) fills them in on a double murder that took place a few days before. After Vince tries to commit suicide Cliff decides to help clear him. 

This little low budget film noir with a kind of long finale was written and directed by Maxwell Shane who later remade it as NIGHTMARE in 1956 (with Edward G. Robinson and Kevin McCarthy in the leads). It's based on a novel by Cornell Woolrich.

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Short and Terrible

LUCID-2013-Monica (Brittany Saylor), is a trouble woman who has dreams of killing her boyfriend Kevin (Michael Coon) after accidentally killing her first boyfriend. She's actually being manipulated by a famous dream doctor's crazy wife (writer/director PJ Woodside). She can enter patients' dreams and is plotting to murder her husband. More terrible junk from executive producer Steve Hudgins (who plays a masked killer).

IT LIVES IN THE ATTIC-2016-The less said about this bad amateurish nonsense the better. It's about three people who's lives seem to be manipulated in a house where the owner killed herself (?). Steve Hudgins stars in it and directed it. Need I say more?

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Subliminal Terror

TERROR IN THE HAUNTED HOUSE-1958-Sheila (Cathy O'Donnell) has been having the same mysterious dream her whole life. A old house with the name Tierney on the outside. She goes up the stairs “where death awaits her”. She tells this to a psychiatrist in Switzerland just before she and her husband Philip (familiar character and voice actor Gerald Mohr) leave for America. Phil seems loving but some things he says also sound sinister. He takes her to  a secluded house in Florida so she can get some rest. Guess what? It's the same house from her dreams! Caretaker Jonah (John Qualen) says he's waiting for the original owners to come back. They decide to leave but wouldn't you know it...someone tampered with their car engine. Phil blames Jonah but it was Phil who was out there alone while getting their bags. Later Jonah tells Sheila that the previous owners were known as “The Mad Tierneys”. At night Sheila hears a scream, sees a figure at the window (“a hideous inhuman face”) and is chased by Jonah's dog (which seems to obey Phillip). After finding evidence that hubby is responsible for the car not running, she prowls around, sees the stairs in her dream and faints. The next day she accuses Phil and he leaves in a huff. Then a guy named Snell (William Ching) shows up and claims to own the house and the couple are there without permission. Later Sheila finds out from Jonah that grandpa Tierney killed most of his family and that Snell and Phil, the last of the Tierneys, are cousins. When it seems like Phil tries to kill his wife with a faulty chandelier, Snell tells Sheila about a strain of madness that only gets stronger with age. 

Despite its low budget this little psychological mystery keeps you guessing right up to the finale. Aka MY WORLD DIES SCREAMING, the original version used subliminal images to scare viewers. Rhino Video later acquired it and released it with their own messages. Director Harold Daniels made BAYOU the year before also with Cathy O'Donnell.

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Mexican Trio

PANICO-1970-Three short tales from Mexico. In the first a young woman in her nightgown is pursued  by a crazy woman with a knife. Some guys seem to be hanging around but do nothing. She has a flashback to when he was assaulted by a group of men. After running some more she tangles with the crazy woman and kills her. But things are not what they seem.

In the second story, two men Carlos and Abel try to escape the jungle and an attack of yellow fever. Both have memories of Abel’s dead wife. Due to fatigue they crash their canoe and are stranded in the jungle swamp. Abel seems to take it in stride but Carlos is a mess on the verge of losing it completely but it's more likely guilt than fear that's driving Carlos batty.  In a fit he reveals he had an affair with his friend’s wife! Raging Abel tries to kill Carlos who stabs Abel to death. He buries Abel but he rises from the grave several times (perhaps all in Carlos’ mind) and Carlos loses it completely.

In the third a scientist creates narcotic drug for use in surgery. It mimics death but the patient is still conscious and can see. I'm not sure what makes this a great drug but I believe this segment is actually a comedy. His cat knocks over a beaker of the solution and it spills in to the scientist's coffee. Not realizing what's happened he drinks it and falls into a narcoleptic coma. His wife calls a doctor who pronounces him dead. He hears and sees everything but no one can hear his pleas. His wife's cousin has an inkling he’s not dead but to no avail. He’s buried just as he regains consciousness. His cat who also drank some of the drug and looked dead revives. The wife and the doctor have feelings for each other. Somehow at the end he’s reborn as a maggot but doesn't survive too long. This is very reminiscent of an episode of TV’s Alfred Hitchcock Presents with Joseph Cotten in a similar situation.

PANICO is a well made psychological horror film but basically the stories aren't that good. The last two go on too long and don't really provide that much suspense (although the last segment tries hard).

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Inner Sanctum

CALLING DR. DEATH-1943-First of the "Inner Sanctum" series from Universal with Lon Chaney (who starred in all of them) as Mark Steele, a successful doctor who uses hypnotism to cure patients. Unfortunately his success doesn't extend to his marriage with his bitchy philandering wife Maria (Ramsey Ames). When wifey goes away for the weekend sans hubby he goes after her. Later he wakes up in his office and can't remember where he's been. Maria winds up dead and a smug police inspector Gregg (J. Carroll Nash) suspects the doc even when they pick up Maria's boy toy Duvall (David Bruce) for the murder. Much of Chaney's dialogue is stream of consciousness over dubbing. He is sweet on his nurse Stella (Patricia Morison) and she helps him hypnotize himself but that doesn't really help. After a while he and nurse Stella declare their love but doc seems to be losing his mind. Is it guilt? However Steele uses his hypnotism to find the real killer in a surreal dream induced flashback (with some clever effects). 

CALLING DR. DEATH tries hard to be a psychological mystery and director Reginald Le Borg sort of succeeds but despite some nice dreamy touches and good acting the short running time has the story going along a little too quickly. The most memorable scene though might be the opening where “the spirit of the Inner Sanctum” introduces the story. It's an actor's head (David Hoffman) in a crystal ball talking in a weird voice. 

Screenwriter Edward Dein wrote many murder mysteries in the 1940's and later directed THE LEECH WOMAN, SHACKOUT ON 101 and CURSE OF THE UNDEAD. Director Le Borg directed the next two in the series and later worked with Chaney on the “all star” low budget horror film THE BLACK SLEEP.

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Last One For 2016

THE NIGHT WALKER-1964-This starts off with a narrator talking about dreams. “Fly! Fly! There's death in your dreams”. Trent (Hayden Rourke), a blind millionaire suspects his wife Irene (Barbara Stanwyck) is having an affair because of what she says when she's asleep. He talks about this with his attorney Barry Morland (Robert Taylor) while his wife listens in. Later Irene admits to Barry that she has a reoccurring dream about an unknown lover. When Irene displays her disgust for her marriage she runs away and hubby is killed in an explosion. Irene's dreams start mixing with reality and she meets her dream lover (Lloyd Bochner). But is he real or only in her mind? After she moves into the back of her beauty salon she gets crazy when she sees a shish kabob and Barry accuses her of killing Trent. Her dream lover whisks her away for drinks then marriage in a strange church with a lot of weird looking guests (they are all dummies). Was it real? She and Barry investigate. The dream lover hangs around unseen so you know it's not in Irene's mind. There are other clues that let you know this too. A suspicious assistant Joyce (Judith Meredith) obviously doesn't want to help and she's killed by Irene's husband! A lot of smokey mumbo-jumbo leads to the fact that Barry is trying to drive her insane but a double cross spells his end.

“Gimmick” director William Castle directed this twisting turning psychological drama from a screenplay by Robert Bloch. It has it's moments, although the end I suppose is fairly guessable. Castle made this between STRAITJACKET (also written by Bloch) and I SAW WHAT YOU DID. By this time Castle had all but given up on straight horror films instead making crime dramas and murder mysteries disguised as horror films. Music is by Vic Mizzy. Unusually stars Standwyck (in her last feature film) and Taylor had been married in real life at one time. They were already divorced 12 years when they made this. 

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Corman/Poe

THE PREMATURE BURIAL-1962-Ray Milland is Guy Carrell, a doctor with a fear of being buried alive and haunted by terrifying dreams. His understanding new wife Emily (Hazel Court) tries to help him. Unfortunately it seems she may have bitten over more than she can chew. A song makes him cranky, he doesn't like flowers and spends most of his time in a mausoleum which he has rigged with gadgets to make sure he's not buried alive. His sister (Heather Angel) hands around suspiciously. His friend Dr. Archer (Richard Ney) tries to help while experimenting with dead frogs. Guy has a strange dream where he's locked in his mausoleum and almost drinks a cup of maggots. Eventually Emily brings Guy back to normalcy and he burns down the mausoleum but there seems to be a plot against him when he suffers a seizure and is buried alive anyway! He's freed from his dirty grave by two grave robbers (one is Dick Miller) and becomes a sunken eyed revenge seeking ghoul who electrocutes his father in law (Alan Napier).

THE PREMATURE BURIAL started out for some reason being made by director Roger Corman for Pathe' studios instead of AIP. (He had already made THE HOUSE OF USHER and THE PIT AND THE PENDULEM for them) He wanted to cast the star of those previous two Poe adaptations, Vincent Price in the lead but he was under contract to AIP so Corman got Academy Award winner Ray Milland to fill in. He does a good job but doesn't have the intensity Price often brought to his roles. Still despite the dumb resolution it's a good entry into the “Poe series”. Charles Beaumont was a co-screenwriter. Corman was busy in '62. He made this, the usually overlooked THE INTRUDER, the kind of remake of TOWER OF LONDON and TALES OF TERROR.

 

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Alice Has A Date With Ro-Man

ROBOT MONSTER-1953-One of the best “bad” movies ever. ROBOT MONSTER seems have been forgotten in recent years. On viewing it recently I can say it's as crazy now as it was 25 years ago when I first saw it! 

Anyone who cares already knows the whole story. Invading alien Ro-Man Extension XJ-2 (from the planet Ro-Man) destroys almost all of the inhabitants of Earth with a his strange (and annoying) C ray that turns everything negative when he uses it. Only 5 people are left. They are “The Professor (John Mylong with a distracting German accent), his wife (Selena Royale), grown daughter Alice (Claudia Barrett, still living at the time of this posting), two younger children Johnny (Gregory Moffet) and Carla (Pamela Paulson) and Alice's scientist/boyfriend Roy (George Nader). They are immune to the deadly “Ro-Ray” because of a serum Dad invented. The group  hide out in a burned out bunker  with some kind of electric barrier that keeps Ro-Man from finding them. 

It's strange that since Ro-Man can't find them and the family are the only people left in the whole world he just happens to have his headquarters (a cave in the famous Bronson Canyon) a hop, skip and jump away from their hideout! But then that's the least strangest thing! 

Take the terrifying Ro-Man! He's a guy (famous man in a gorilla suit actor George Barrows) in a ape costume but instead of an ape head he has some kind of modified diver's helmet! He threatens the family by a special view screen and occasionally talks to Ro-Man leader “The Great Guidance” (probably the same guy). Ro-Man's dialogue is funny stuff. “The great one is never wrong”.  In fact all the dialogue is funny!

Anyway, his base is a cave that seems to be guarded by a bubble machine! Ro-Man is ordered by “the great one” (for all I know Jackie Gleason could have been in the costume...) to destroy everyone but it's obvious he has “feelings” for the comely Alice (he may look and act like a doofus but he's no fool apparently). When trying to reason with the alien diver helmeted hairy menace fails Alice and Roy have a toss in the grass. When they come back to the shelter they announce they want to get married! And The Professor does the job! And then the newlyweds leave the protected area to go on their honeymoon with Ro-Man still running around! Then Carla chases after them to give her big sister some flowers. On the way back she meets Ro-Man who proceeds to strangle her (off-screen). He then breaks up the honeymoon by throwing Roy off a cliff and kidnapping Alice. He takes her back to his place and tears off the top of her dress! 

Just then The Great Guidance calls (Mr. perfect timing) and Ro-Man gets some rope to tie Alice up. He can't seem to do this so he clouts her with his hand. His boss is quite peeved to learn his henchman has yet to kill everyone. Ro-Man 'fesses up that he wants Alice and can't kill her. “I must but I cannot. Where do must and cannot meet on the graph?”. And I guess there are elves in the cave with Ro-Man because when next we see Alice she is bound tightly! Fairly pissed and completely through with letting XJ-2 ruin his plan “the great one” unleashes prehistoric animals and earthquakes to destroy the Earth (and Ro-Man). (Why didn't he just do this in the first place????)

But of course it was all a dream Johnny had after hitting his head! Yet after the seemingly happy ending The Great Guidance Ro-Man is seen emerging from the cave (3 times!). 

RM was originally shot in 3-D. I always like the opening credits as they were shown over a backdrop of comic books. According to most sources director Phil Tucker shot the whole thing in 4 days for a budget of about $16,000 and grossed around $100,000 despite bad reviews. To some it's consider one of the worst movies ever made but to me it's one of the most enjoyable bad movies ever made! 

There is also the story that Tucker tried to commit suicide after the movie opened when he realized how bad it was. Though he did try to kill himself, it was probably due more to depression over personal woes than bad reviews (they may have heightened his depression) because the film actually made money! The same year as RM Tucker also made DANCE HALL RACKET starring Lenny Bruce (who also wrote the script) and his wife Honey Harlow. He made the low budget Sci-Fi movie CAPE CANAVERAL MONSTERS in 1960 and was mostly an editor (and inventor) after that.

Shanghai born screenwriter Wyott Ordung also wrote TARGET EARTH, directed MONSTER FROM THE OCEAN FLOOR and later was the assistant director on a film 10 times worst than RM, THE MUMMY AND THE CURSE OF THE JACKALS! He occasionally acted too. Executive producer Al Zimbalist was also behind CAT WOMEN OF THE MOON, KING DINOSAUR and THE MONSTER FROM GREEN HELL. 

Leading man George Nader was signed to a contract with Universal Pictures the next year (but not on his RM performance). He became good friends with fellow contract player Rock Hudson and like Hudson was a gay man hiding his true nature. 

He was later the star of movies like THE HUMAN DUPLICATORS and AGENT FROM H.A.R.M. According to The Internet Movie Database after quitting movies Nader wrote a Science Fiction novel in 1978 called “Chrome” which featured gay robots! 

Selena Royale was a popular character actor in the 1940's (THE FIGHTING SULLIVANS) before being blacklisted. Her role in RM was one of her last. 

Final note: Near the beginning of RM when Ro-Man destroys the rocket heading for space, look closely the final time and you can see a hand operating the “burning rocket”....

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Japan

A PAGE OF MADNESS-1926-This silent film from Japan was once thought to b lost. I'm glad someone found it. It has no titles however and is a bit hard to follow. I admit there were a few bits I wasn't quite sure about until I did some research. 

A janitor works at an insane asylum to be near is wife, an inmate. One day their daughter comes to the place to visit the mother unaware who her father is. Flashbacks tell a back story as to how the mother wound up an inmate and why the father isn't recognized. Other parts seem to be a dream. It features incredible haunting scenes of patient madness and eerie surreal imagines. 

Some critics compare it (usually unfavorably) to THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI. I can't agree. This stands on it's own. Director Teinosuke Kinugasa made many more films including GATE OF HELL in the sound era.

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