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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Inner Sanctum #4

THE FROZEN GHOST-1945-Radio hypnotist Gregor the Great (Lon Chaney) believes he killed a man through his hypnotism act. After much soul searching he comes to believe he's losing his mind so his  manager George (Milburn Stone) suggests he take a job helping Madame Monet (Tala Birell) at her wax museum. Naturally trouble brews between Monet and Greg's girlfriend Maura (Evelyn Ankers) and then between Rudi (Martin Kosleck), the weird sculptor and Gregor over the affections of Monet's niece Nina (Elena Verdugo; Chaney's romantic lead in HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN the year before). Later Monet disappears and Greg thinks he killed her. A cynical Shakespeare loving police captain Brant (Douglas Dumbrille) investigates and at one point says "I'm not paid to think". When Nina discovers her aunt's corpse in a wax display she's chased by a knife packing Rudi but comes to suspect Greg when she sees him with aunt's scarf. Soon it's revealed that George and Rudi are in league to drive Greg crazy. Fortunately Gregor and Brant devise a plan and arrive just in time to save Nina from being burned alive. 

This was the fourth of six “Inner Sanctum” miseries, I mean mysteries. It's ok but the story and direction are kind of slipshod. Harold Young had directed Chaney earlier in 1942's THE MUMMY'S TOMB and later made THE JUNGLE CAPTIVE (the last of the Paula Duree/ape woman series). A drunk at the beginning of the film is played (un-billed) by Arthur Hohl (Montgomery from ISLAND OF LOST SOULS).

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Bud & Lou

HOLD THAT GHOST-1941-Classic Abbott & Costello haunted house comedy has Bud & Lou (sometimes referred as “the boys”) as incompetent waiters Chuck and Ferdy who are fired from their jobs. While working at a gas station they wind up in the backseat of a mobster Moose Mattson's car just as he's “bumped off”. Since his will stated that who was ever with him when he died would inherit all he had the duo inherit his rundown inn. Another gangster Smitty (Marc Lawrence; later in the duo's HIT THE ICE) believes the mobster's fortune is hidden somewhere in the place and plans to do away with Chuck and Ferdy who are accompanied by a radio actress (Joan Davis), a nerdy doctor (Richard Carlson) and a blonde waitress (Evelyn Ankers) after their driver strands them all together. Though the team does a few routines, a highlight is a kind of violent dance between Costello and Davis.

 Director Arthur Lubin made the first five Abbott and Costello comedies and THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA remake with Claude Rains. Later he did several in the FRANCIS THE TALKING MULE series. Shemp Howard appears as a soda jerk and the Andrews Sisters show up to sing at the end. 

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Ape Sequel

JUNGLE WOMAN-1944-After the events chronicled in CAPTIVE WILD WOMAN, at inquest Dr. Fletcher (J. Carrol Naish) is investigated after he admits murdering one of his patients at his sanitarium. In a flashback the doc tells all. A storm wrecks the circus freeing lions and tigers during lion tamer Fred Mason's act. Paula (Acquanetta), now a full ape saves Mason (Milburn Stone) but is shot down by the police, Fetcher gets the body and at his lab he revives it. Then Mason relates his own flashback (inside Fetcher's!) about the first time Paula Dupree showed up. (Mason's wife Beth (Evelyn Ankers) also tells about almost being attacked by Paula). We also learn that Fletcher now owns the sanitarium of the departed Dr. Walter (played by John Carradine in the first film). The revived ape escapes but when the doc and Willy, his slow witted assistant (Eddie Hyans) search the grounds all they find is a mysterious but beautiful woman. His examination of her is interrupted by a visit from his daughter Joan (Lois Collier) and her boyfriend Bob (Richard Davis/David) who Paula takes a sudden interest in (she finally talks too!). Once again Paula grows jealous. She kills Willy then tries to drown the happy couple when they go canoeing. For a while Bob thinks Fletcher is abusing Paula. Paula menaces Joan but Fletcher kills her. He's exonerated after Paula's corpse is examined which has now reverted to it's original ape form. 

Douglas Dumbrille appears as a non-believing DA, Samuel Hinds is a judge and Tom Keene is a curious doctor. Director Reginald LeBorg made three movies with Lon Chaney (THE MUMMY'S GHOST and 2 INNER STANCTUMS) the same year he made this 61 minute Universal sequel. It would be followed by a second (and last) sequel.  

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Acquanetta

CAPTIVE WILD WOMAN-1943-A Clive Beatty like animal trainer Fred Mason (Milburn Stone) comes back from Africa with a load of wild animals. After he re-captures a loose tiger his girlfriend Beth (Evelyn Ankers) relates a flashback wherein she takes her ailing sister Dorothy (Martha Vickers) to a sanitarium run by a suave and famous doctor Sigmund Walters (John Carradine) because she has “glandular troubles”. Later Walters takes a shine to Mason's pet gorilla Cheela (Crash Corrigan) and has a recently fired handler (Paul Fix) steal the ape so the doctor can use it in an experiment. Using glandular fluid from Dorothy and his nurse (Fay Helm) he transforms Cheela into the beautiful Paula Dupree (Acquanetta) who arrives at the circus just in time to save Mason from a lion as she seems to have some power over the animals. The circus boss (Lloyd Corrigan) hires her to keep an eye on the lions and tigers while Mason performs with them. Everything is fine until Paula sees Mason kiss Beth. Obviously jealous she begins to turn back into her old simian self and tries to kill Beth. Later Walters plans another experiment using both sisters but Paula/Cheela kills him and heads for the circus arriving just in time to save Mason when a lightening storm wrecks the place. She's shot and dies....or does she?

This little horror film may seem like just another Universal quickie but 2 sequels followed. It's been said that the only reason Milburn Stone (later “Doc” on the long running TV western GUNSMOKE) got the lead is because of his resemblance to the real Clive Beatty who is actually working with the animals in the long shots. Director Edward Dmytryk does a good job of matching them together but the strange flashback almost makes it seem as though the movie was re-edited before it's release. Carradine is his usual cool collected self as the mad but total rational doctor but it's the exotic Acquanetta who steals the show, although some may be disappointed by her brief turn as a hairy ape woman.

In real life Acquanetta's origins are a bit of a mystery though born in Wyoming many  biographies list her real name as Mildred Davenport while the actress herself claimed a different moniker. She co-starred in several other Universal movies and returned for  a "Captive" sequel.

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