Sondergaard and Hatton

 

THE SPIDER WOMAN STRIKES BACK-1946-Jean Kingsley (Brenda Joyce) returns to her hometown after a career somewhere else to be a companion to Zenobia (Gale Sondergaard), a blind woman who lives in a dark house with her mute manservant Mario (Rondo Hatton). 

Zenobia seems a pleasant sort while Mario seems rather sinister. One night while Jean is asleep (obviously drugged) Zenobia comes to Jean's bedroom and draws blood from her. She then meets Mario in the basement where she feeds her carnivorous plants with Jean's blood! After some cattle and a little girl die, Z draws more blood from Jean. 

From a talk between her and Mario we learn Z killed the other girls who came to work for her. She promises Mario, who's sweet on Jean, that Jean won't die. Hal (Kirby Grant), a guy who once asked Jean to marry him, brings agricultural agent Moore (Milburn Stone) in to investigate. Later Jean discovers Z isn't blind and she's making the poison that's killing the cattle. Her mad plan is to drive all the farmers away and buy up all the land that once belonged to her family. In a frenzied effort to burn all the plants when suspicion is thrown on her, she and Mario die. Hal rescues Jean. 

This Universal quickie is like a TV movie running less than an hour. Since it was not a hit, some critics feel this movie signaled the end of the classic Universal Pictures horror run. 

Director Arthur Lubin directed 5 of Abbott & Costello's classic Universal films and THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA remake with Claude Rains. Later did most most of the "Francis The Talking Mule" series and in the '60's made THE INCREDIBLE MR. LIMPET. 

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Ulmer

 

ISLAND OF FORGOTTEN SINS-1943-On a tropical island Marge (Gale Sondergaard) runs the brothel of the title. Her boyfriend Mike Clancy (John Carradine) has a fight with his friend/rival Jack (Frank Fenton) that practically wrecks the club. Then Mike has a plan to hunt for a cargo of sunken gold with Jack's help. Unfortunately for Marge, Olga (Betty Amann), one of her girls shoots and kills a customer. Marge and three of her girls join the guys to get away from the law. They go to an island where Capt. Grogan (Sidney Toler) and his piano playing sidekick Johnny Pacific (Rick Vallin) live with island girl Luana (Veda Ann Borg). They plot to steal the gold after Mike and Jack recover it. Double crosses follow and tropical storm messes up everything. 

Extremely low budget adventure brought up a notch or two by genius director Edgar Ulmer who worked with Carradine a year later on BLUEBEARD. 

By the way, this film has singing in it!

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Bela, Basil and Broderick

THE BLACK CAT-1941-Rich cat loving Mrs. Henrietta Winslow (Cecilia Loftus) seems on the verge of death but still lives. Her relatives wait around. She has a spooky caretaker Eduardo (Bela Lugosi) and a spooky housekeeper Abigail (Gale Sondergaard). Mrs. Winslow is so nuts about cats she has her own feline crematorium. Relatives include niece Myrna (Gladys Cooper), her hard up for cash husband Monty (Basil Rathbone), her uncaring step-grandson Richard (Alan Ladd), granddaughter Margaret (Claire Dodd), grandson Stanley (John Eldredge) and granddaughter Elaine (Anne Gwynne). After Henrietta tells them what she's leaving them in her will, real estate agent Gil Smith (Broderick Crawford) stops by with antique dealer Mr. Penny (Hugh Herbert) to buy the house. He's allergic to cats. When Henrietta is stabbed to death everyone is a suspect. Even though Henrietta told everyone what they were getting Abigail and the cats get everything until her death.. Gil says to Rathbone's character "He thinks he's Sherlock Holmes". Later Abigail is killed and Eduardo becomes the chief suspect. But Elaine figures out who the real killer is. Gil arrives in time to save Elaine from being cremated. 

Director Albert S. Rogell had been making movies since the silent days and made a version of LIL ABNER around this time. Of course Lugosi and Karloff had starred in a movie of the same name back in 1934. Bela is good in his role but still kind of a wasted red herring. 

Basically this BLACK CAT is enjoyable but typical Universal “old dark house” murder mystery played mostly as a comedy. Some sources say Marlene Dietrich is standing in for Claire Dodd in one scene shot from the back with no dialogue.

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I've Been Invisible too!

THE INVISIBLE MAN'S REVENGE-1944-Psycho murderer Robert Griffin (Jon Hall) escapes from an insane asylum in South Africa and goes to England. He visits his old friends Jasper (Lester Matthews) and Irene (Gale Sondergaard) who abandoned him in the jungle on their diamond expedition. He's come to collect his share of the booty but Irene (who's pretty evil) has other plans. She drugs Griffin and throws him in the woods. He falls into a river but is rescued by a comic drunk (Leon Errol). They hire a lawyer (Ian Wolfe) to help them but he chickens out. While walking in the rain, Griffin comes to the door of Dr, Durea (John Carradine) who's experimenting with invisible animals. He convinces Griff to become the world's first invisible man. Even the doctor is surprised when it works (“I've out stripped the immortals of science”). Griffin goes for revenge against Jasper and Irene. Foster (Alan Curtis), a reporter who just happens to be wooing the couple's daughter Julie (Evelyn Ankers) investigates. After terrifying the the family Griffin decides he wants to be visible again but the cure is a complete blood transfusion. He goes to Durea for help but when the doc tries to double cross him, he uses the doc's blood. Now visible Griff takes over Jasper's whole household and sets his sights on Julie. In the finale Griff turns invisible unexpectedly and tries to use Foster's blood for a transfusion but Durea's faithful dog spells his end. Despite a bad double for Durea in his final scene, REVENGE is set up nicely by veteran director Ford Beebe and it's a change to have the invisible guy actually being a villain not just an innocent man driven crazy by the formula. It's also full of many un-billed character actors including Billy Bevan, Shelton Knaggs, Mildred Dunnock and a few others. This is usually considered the last of the original Universal “Invisible Man” series but seven years later the studio would dust the character off to meet Abbott & Costello! At the onset of filming Edgar Barrier played the role of Jasper but dropped out after 4 days.

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Old Creaky House

THE CAT AND THE CANARY-1939- Old house mystery turned into a vehicle for Bob Hope. 10 years after the death of millionaire Cyrus Norman, his remaining relatives gather for the reading of his will in his spooky Louisiana bayou mansion, watched over by the equally spooky caretaker Miss Lu (Gale Sondergaard). The heir most likely to gain the inheritance is Joyce Norman (Paulette Goddard) but if she is proven insane before a certain period of time the money goes to the second heir. Only the family lawyer (George Zucco, a busy actor in 1939) knows who that will be but when he's killed weird things happen to Joyce to make her seem unstable. Hope is a wisecracking actor and relative who helps Joyce find out what's really happening in a story that features secret panels, strange sounds, a clutching hand and a search for a rare necklace. John Beal, Douglas Montgomery, Elizabeth Patterson and Nydia Westman are the other relatives. Charles Lane appears as a reporter.

 

This is actually a remake of a 1927 silent film directed by Paul Leni and there are at least 4 other versions including one made in 1979 directed by Radley Metzger.

 

Former actor Eliot Nugent (he'd direct Hope again in MY FAVORITE BLONDE) also worked with Danny Kaye and Harold Lloyd and made a version of THE GREAT GATSBY starring Alan Ladd in 1949. His career was hampered by alcohol and mental condition and he retired in the early '50's. Hope and Goddard would team up again a year later in GHOST BREAKERS.

 

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Hollywood Horror

HOLLYWOOD HORROR HOUSE-1969-This junk is like the classic HOLLYWOOD BLVD. but with gore, psychedelic dream sequences and characters using drugs. 69-year-old Miriam Hopkins (in her last role) plays the Norma Desmond type former silent screen star named Katherine Parker. Between drinking vodka and dreaming about a comeback she falls down a flight of stairs and breaks her leg. She hires Vic (John David Garfield) to assist her in her recovery even though it’s obvious he’s a loony who as flashbacks of his mother having sex with several men just before he cuts off her hand. He has an affair with the young maid (Virginia Wing) but she gets chopped up.

After a dinner party with Katherine’s very boring old friends (one guy falls asleep at the table) she and Vic have an (ugh) affair and he takes her to a wild party and gives her drugs. In one bizarre scene Katherine hallucinates she’s in The Santa Claus Lane Parade! Former Hollywood screen villain Gale Sonnergaard (in her first film role in 20 years!) is Katherine’s secretary who suspects something’s up. Another real life former ‘30’s star Florence Lake is the housekeeper and Joe Besser has a small role as a tour bus driver.

Later after killing Katherine (and everybody else) Vic talks and sleeps with a mannequin of her!

Hopkins gives a pretty good performance considering the circumstances (all rotten). Her character doesn’t have the has-been type decadence of Gloria Swanson. She still looks fairly glamorous (and threatens a topless scene!). Garfield (the son of the famous actor who died at 39) was also a film editor. I hope he was better at that job. His acting was somewhere between standing still and not caring.

The director of grisly embarrassing mess was one Donald Wolfe who’s other claim to fame seems to be that he edited THE HUMAN DUPLICATORS. He also wrote and produced it so there are not too many other people to blame...

HHH is also known as SAVAGE INTRUDER and THE COMEBACK.

One note: My friend Mike lend me this video. He told me there is a scene where you can see “the clapper” before the scene starts (much like in MANOS-HANDS OF FATE) but I didn’t notice this and I’ll be damned if I’m gonna watch this thing again!!

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