3 In One

 

(the moviedb.org)

BLOOD OF GHASTLY HORROR-1967-This Independent International production started out as a non-horror film called "Point of Terror", about a diamond heist directed by Al Adamson. Later Sam Sherman got a hold of it, added some murders and music and called it "Psycho A Go Go" and added John Carradine (also in HILLBILLYS IN A HAUNTED HOUSE the same year) as a mad doctor named Vanard who creates a crazed killer (Roy Morton) with an electronic brain. This version also played on TV (edited) as "The Man With The Synthetic Brain". 

Still not satisfied, Sherman added more scenes featuring Tommy Kirk, Kent Taylor and Regina Carroll. Now there's a lot of flashbacks to the original films with 2 cops (Kirk & Arne Warde) investigating murders by a green-faced zombie (Richard Smedley), the original monster from the second film now resurrected by his father (Taylor) to get revenge on Dr. V's daughter (Carroll). Director Adamson appears as one of the robbers in the original film. A strange, pretty unwatchable movie. 

“Directors never direct me. They just turn me loose.”-John Carradine

Thanks for reading!

Made For TV

 

FRANKENSTEIN-2004-Meandering bs about a 2000-year-old mad surgeon (Thomas Kretschmann) who creates a bunch of monsters that terrorize New Orleans. 

His "monster" (Vincent Perez) searches for him while a policewoman (Parker Posey) and her partner (Adam Goldberg) try to figure it out. Everyone whispers in the dark gloomy setting and Michael Madsen is another cop. From the ending, the producers (including Martin Scorsese) thought this junk was going to have a sequel.

 Originally called “Dean R. Koontz's Frankenstein” because USA network hired him to write the thing but they had a falling out and Koontz left and wrote a series of “Frankenstein” books. Director Marcus Nispel had made a remake of THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE the year before. He went on to remake FRIDAY THE 13^th (2009) and CONAN THE BARBARIAN (2011).

Thanks for reading!

Eat It

 

 (imdb)

I EAT YOUR SKIN-1971-After a voodoo ceremony where a woman is decapitated, a publisher named Fairchild (Dan Stapleton) goes to "Voodoo Island" with his wise cracking wife Coral (Betty Wyatt Linton) and an arrogant womanizing playboy writer Tom Harris (William Joyce). After an encounter with a bug-eyed zombie, they meet Bentley (Walter Coy), the overseer of a plantation. Later they meet Doctor Biladeau (Robert Stanton) who is working on a cure for cancer and his daughter Jeannie (Heather Hewitt) who Harris tries to put the moves on. The doctor tells them about a local plant that the natives use "like we use alcohol". After dinner when Harris and Jeannie get romantic, they are attacked by some zombies who try to kidnap Jeannie but Harris thwarts them. 

There's another wild voodoo dance ritual and after Harris and Jeannie have sex, they find a shack full of deformed comatose zombies. Later they discover her dad turning people into zombies with radiation bombarded snake venom. It turns out the forgotten about Bentley is behind it all trying to create enough zombies to rule the world. 

Low budget horror that really isn't as bad as its reputation. Writer/director Del Tenney had made HORROR OF PARTY BEACH and CURSE OF THE LIVING CORPSE in the '60's.

Thanks for reading!

Abbott,Costello and Karloff

 

 (binged.com)

ABBOTT & COSTELLO MEET DR. JEKYLL & MR. HYDE-1953-Slim & Tubby (Abbott & Costello) are two Americans working as bobbies on the English police force. After they are beat up by a group of suffragettes, they are thrown off the force. Vicky (Helen Westcott), the leader of the group who is also a music hall dancer, is romantically pursued by crime reporter Bruce (Craig Stevens) who is investigating the mysterious murders credited to a monster. It turns out this is true as her guardian happens to be Dr. Henry Jekyll (Boris Karloff) who transforms into Mr. Hyde when he wants to eliminate an enemy. Tubby figures out Jekyll's secret but no one believes him, especially their ex-boss the inspector (Reginald Denny). Jekyll tricks the duo into staying overnight at his house. While Tubby is snooping around, he's menaced by scary henchman Batley (John Diekes) and discovers Jekyll's lab. Later after they escape Tubby turns into a mouse. Jekyll wants to get rid of Bruce because he's in love with Vicky. Later when the doctor is outed as the monster, a big daylight chase takes place and Tubby becomes his own Mr. Hyde. 

Good comedy ensues when A & C are on screen and the presence of Karloff brings it up a notch. Eddie Parker appears mostly as Mr. Hyde. This was one of 9 Universal comedies director Charles Lamont made with the team. Although Karloff made several TV appearances, this would be his only feature film in 1953. 

Thanks for reading! 

Plant Man

  (imdb)

THE MUTATIONS-1974-After a lengthy lecture by a German college professor Dr. Nolter (Donald Pleasence with an accent), we learn he's a mad scientist working in genetics with plants and humans. He gets help from an angry deformed man Lynch (Tom Baker) who hangs out at a freak show run by Burns (Michael Dunn). Others in the show include The Alligator girl, the frog man, pincushion man, bearded lady, human skeleton, human pretzel and Popeye (Willie Ingram who could actually make his eyes pop out an inch from their sockets). Students Tony (Scott Anthony), Heidi (Julie Ege; LEGEND OF THE 7 GOLDEN VAMPIRES) and Lauren (Jill Haworth; HORROR HOUSE) welcome American scientist Brian (Brad Harris; THE FURY OF HERCULES). Tony discovers Nolter's secret. He's crossing plants with animals and plans to use Tony as his human experiment. Tony is turned into a plant man and terrorizes his girlfriend Lauren. Later, Heidi is kidnapped by Lynch for the Nolter's next victim. When Brian goes to rescue her, he's nearly killed by Lynch but Burns convinces "the freaks" into killing Lynch and feeding his body to guard dogs. Tony, now a full-grown plant man breaks into Nolter's lab and kills his creator. The place is set on fire and Brian saves Heidi but… 

THE MUTATIONS is a low budget sleazy little film with a crazy plant monster that's fairly ludicrous but considering Academy Award winning cinematographer Jack Cardiff directed it, it could have been better. He was no stranger to directing as this was his fiftheeth outing (but also his last). Co-star Tom Baker started his memorable run as TV's Dr. Who the same year. Donald Pleasence was also in the horror anthology FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE in '74. Sadly, this was the last film for Michael Dunn, who died in London shortly after completing his scenes.

Thanks for reading!

Satan's Zombies

 (deviant art)

 DOCTOR SATAN-1966-A mad doctor/occultist Arozamena (Jaoquin Cordero) has some resurrected dead men do his bidding. At a cemetery he makes a deal with a winged devil. Meanwhile an Interpol agent Mateos (Jose Galvez) and his female assistant investigate a case of counterfeit money that has been spreading over town. Unbeknownst to them the crazy Arozamena is using that phony money to create an army of zombies to rule the world!! Or something like that.....

Half of this film is a crime drama and the other is an atmospheric supernatural horror story. Both halves were directed by Miguel Morayta (INVASION OF THE VAMPIRES).

Thanks for reading!

Lucha Libre vs. Monsters

 

 (imdb)

SANTO & BLUE DEMON VS. THE MONSTERS-1970-After Santo (playing himself) watches a women's wrestling match, he watches his friend Blue Demon in tag team action. Later it's announced that a famous scientist Dr. Bruno Haulder (Carlos Ancira) who once brought a dead person back to life with a brain transplant has died. His brother refuses to answer questions about his experiments when his daughter Gloria (Hedy Blue) asks. Gloria also happens to be Santo's main squeeze. The dead doctor's body is taken from his tomb by some green faced ghouls. While driving in his snazzy sports car Blue Demon (also playing himself) sees the ghouls taking the corpse to a castle. He investigates and finds a hunchback dwarf  Waldo (Santanon) reviving the dead doctor. BD is captured and duplicated. An evil Blue Demon attacks Santo & Gloria with the green faced gang. Gloria is kidnapped and Santo is tossed down a mountain side. He survives and rescues Gloria but it's apparent Doc Haulder is alive and up to no good. With Bad Demon and Waldo's help Haulder resurrects an army of classic monsters. A vampire with big ears, a wolfman with huge fangs, the Frankenstein monster, a skinny mummy and a cartoon Cyclops. They are all kind of wimpy and Santo, Gloria and her father hold off their attack when the gang invade their house. After that fails, the vampire puts on a mask and challenges Santo to a wrestling match which he accepts. When that doesn't work out either the fake Blue Demon and the monsters storm the ring! Later the vampire makes some female vampires attack Santo, who beats up the monsters and escapes. Since they only come out at night he advises Gloria and her dad to sleep in the daytime and go to crowded places at night. At a restaurant the monsters finally overpower Santo and capture Gloria & dad. Frankenstein drives the getaway car! Santo tracks them down, frees the real Blue Demon and they destroy the lab while Haulder and Waldo cower. After freeing Gloria and dad, they put stakes in the vampires. 

What happened to the evil doc and Waldo isn't explained. 

Director Gilberto Martinez Solares much earlier had directed scenes with Lon Chaney in FACE OF THE SCREAMING WEREWOLF. Little person Santanon was later in 2 of Boris Karloff's Mexican horror films ISLE OF THE SNAKE PEOPLE and FEAR CHAMBER.

Thanks for reading!

I Was A Teenage Dracula

 

 (imdb)

BLOOD OF DRACULA-1957-Nancy (Sandra Harrison), a trouble teenager is dropped off at Sherwood, a prep school, by her stupid father (Thomas B. Henry) and his new gold digging bride (Jean Dean). With her headstrong attitude she runs afoul of Myra (Gail Ganley) and her secret society. Myra also assists a mad woman teacher scientist Mrs. Branding (Louise Lewis) who wants to save the world from itself and says "We live in a world ruled by men for men" when her thesis is rejected. She decides to use Nancy in her incomprehensible experiments. The girls have a party crashed by three boys where a dork (Jerry Blaine) sings a song called "Puppy Love". Under Branding's subliminal hypnosis Nancy turns into a scary fanged vampire. She kills several people. Lt. Dunlap (Malcohm Atterbury) doesn't believe it when one of his officers (Richard Devon) says it's a vampire. Nancy's boyfriend comes to rescue her but all she can think about is his neck. In the climax she kills the doctor and falls on a stake and dies while her boyfriend cries and Myra regrets not telling about Branding's weird experiments.

This AIP teenage drive-in horror was produced by Herman Cohen who held the same capacity on I WAS A TEENAGE WEREWOLF and I WAS A TEENAGE FRANKENSTEIN. Both those movies had been written by BLOOD's screenwriter Aben Kandel (who would work with Cohen later on when the producer relocated to England). Director Herbert Strock had also made TEENAGE FRANKENSTEIN. BLOOD OF DRACULA is ok as AIP teen oriented horror films go. The vampire is creepy but I kind of felt sorry for the Nancy character, a troubled kid no one seems to care about except her boyfriend who shows up to help her, only to see her die. Should have been called “I Was a Female Dracula”.

Thanks for reading!

Not Really A Vampire

 

 (imdb)

BLOOD OF THE VAMPIRE-1958-Transylvania 1874-Some yokels put a stake in a corpse. While burying the body a gravedigger is murdered. Then a limping guy with a deformed face gets a doctor to do a heart transplant on a dead man. When the doctor wants more money and threatens blackmail he's killed. Cut to Dr. Jean Pierre (Vincent Ball) convicted of malpractice and murder and sentenced to life in prison. He's sent to a hell hole led by the mysterious Callistratus. His cell mate Kurt (William Devlin) befriends him and tells him there's no escape. While they are working Pierre says a fallen man is too sick to work but when the boss passes by he gets up and starts working again. Later he meets Callistatus (Donald Wolfit), the dead man at the beginning. He puts Pierre to work in his lab, doing research on blood. The deformed killer is Callistatus' henchman Karl (Victor Maddern). It turns out the mad doctor had Pierre railroaded into his prison with help from a corrupt official. When Pierre's and Karl's escape plan fails, Callistatrus says Pierre was killed much to the sadness of Pierre's fiance Madeline (Barbara Shelly) who later goes undercover and poses as a housekeeper. They eventually find out Callistatrus's secret: he's a mad scientist trying to find a cure for a blood disease he acquired when he got a new heart! Karl turns on his master because he's sweet on Madeline and despite being shot several times helps bring down his nutty boss. 

The producers of this overlooked little horror film really give it a Hammer vibe, even hiring Jimmy Sangster to write the screenplay (he'd also write the screenplays for HORROR OF DRACULA and REVENGE OF FRANKENSTEIN the same year). Henry Cass was the director.

 (imdb)

Thanks for reading!

 

Wrestling Women

 

 (imdb)

DOCTOR OF DOOM-1963-A mad doctor Prof. Ruiz (Roberto Canedo) is doing brain transplants on women. He also has a man beast Gomar (Gerado Zepeda) in his celler. When his latest experiment fails his assistant says they need women with higher IQs. The doctor's gang kidnap a lab assistant Alice but once again the experiment fails and Alice dies. Her sister is wrestling star Gloria Venus (Lorena Valasquez from SHIP OF MONSTERS). Gloria and newcomer Golden Rudi (Elizabeth Campbell) team up with police detectives Armando (Armando Silvestre) and Chema (Chuco Salinas) to try and stop "The Mad Doctor" who usually dresses like a KKK member. After several encounters the doctor creates "Vendetta", a wrestler with a gorilla's brain programmed to kill Gloria in the ring! 

Fun craziness from Mexico by director Rene Cordona and screenwriter Alfredo Salazar who collaborated the next year on a sequel.

Thanks for reading!

The Aztec Mummy Strikes Back!

 

THE CURSE OF THE AZTEC MUMMY-1957-In this sequel to THE AZTEC MUMMY (made earlier in '57), Dr. Krupp (Luis Aceves Castenada) aka The Bat is sprung from jail by his gang led by Tierno. Krupp is still after the necklace and breastplate the mummy Popoca (Angel Di Stefani) is guarding. They invade the home of Dr. Almada (Ramon Gay) and kidnap his wife Flor (Rosita Arenas) because under hypnotism she was regressed and turns out she was Popoca's love, Xochitl. Also thrown in is a masked "El Santo" crime fighter called "The Angel". 

9monsterAfter Krupp awakens the mummy by stealing the sacred objects. Popoca inadvertently saves the good guys by beating up the gang and throwing Krupp into a pit of snakes. 

This is a wacky sequel that looks more like it was made 10 years earlier. Every one runs around a lot and Popoca is pretty scary. The director Rafael Portillo also made the second sequel THE ROBOT VS THE AZTEC MUMMY and many more movies in Mexico.

Thanks for reading!

Australia

 

DEAD SLEEP-1990-In Australia, Maggie (Linda Blair) goes to work at a clinic called “Elysian Fields” where an idiot named Dr. Heckett (Tony Bonner) is using “deep sleep therapy” on his patients and is obviously mad. She spends most of the movie trying to prove he killed 51 patients. He tries to kill her but she escapes and proves him guilty. He drives his car off a cliff. 

This down under downer was directed by Alec Mills who was a camera operator on many big budgeted films including some with Roger Moore as James Bond.

Thanks for reading, eh!

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?

Thanks for reading!

Man Made Lon

MAN MADE MONSTER-1941-After a near fatal car accident jolly lug “Dynamo” Dan McCormick (Lon Chaney Jr.; he made THE WOLFMAN the same year) survives an accidental electrocution because of an electricity act he does at the local carnival. He's invited to the home of Dr. Lawrence (Samuel S. Hinds) so he can be studied. June (Anne Nagel), the doctor's niece takes a shine to Dan. So does the family dog. Mark Adams (Frank Albertson), a wise ass reporter tries to get a story by wooing June. Unfortunately Lawrence's crazy genius assistant Dr. Riggs (Lionel Atwill) uses Dan for his own experiments in making an invincible man. Dan becomes a sad, slow moving “electricity addict” and turns into a glowing ghoul like monster who can kill with one touch. Despite wearing a rubber suit when not electrocuting people he kills Lawrence anyway. He's arrested, found guilty of murder and sentenced to the electric chair. Naturally he survives and gets his revenge on Riggs (by electrocution; the same way Chaney,s Frankenstein monster does in Atwill's Dr. Bohmer in GHOST OF FRANKENSTEIN the next year!) For some reason he runs off with an unconscious June but drops her in time to die by touching a barbed wire fence. In a touching final scene the dog mourns over Dan's dead body. ''

The story has good acting and fine direction by George Waggner and Chaney is very good as the happy go lucky Dan. It's real shame to see him come to such a terrible end especially when he was actually exploited by the rotten Riggs. Waggner also wrote the screenplay which was based a story called “The Electric Man” although some have claimed Ed Wood came up with the story idea and was cheated out of the credit. Universal had purchased the rights to the story years earlier hoping to use it for a Karloff/Lugosi team up but that never happened. It's been noted most everywhere now that Byron Foulger is credited as Alienist #2 but doesn't appear in the film. His scene was cut prior to release but strangely his name is still listed. Even stranger, there doesn't seem to have been an Alienist #1...

Thanks for reading!

I'm Ravin'

THE RAVEN-1935-Judge Thatcher's daughter is near death after a car crash. He (Samuel S. Hinds) implores the famous but retired Dr. Vollin (Bela Lugosi) to perform life saving surgery on the “root nerves at the base of the brain”. The Edgar Allen Poe loving doctor (“It's more than a hobby”) finally agrees and the operation is a success. A month later the organ playing doc is obsessed with his patient Jean Thatcher (Irene Ware) who doesn't respond to his come-ons as she is engaged to a doctor named Jerry (Lester Matthews). The judge has his suspicions and tells Vollin to steer clear of his daughter. Vollin couldn't care less and tells the judge he wants his daughter and will get her. Later a wanted criminal named Bateman (Boris Karloff) who “shot his way out of San Quentin” and later killed a guy with a blowtorch wants Vollin to give him a new face. Vollin does but gives him a deformed face and blackmails him into doing his bidding if he wants a real face. Vollin invites The Judge and Jean and Jerry and some others to his place. Bateman is his disfigured but sympathetic butler. Jean wins Bateman's heart when she apologizes to him after initially being frightened by him. The Judge still insists Vollin is mad despite everyone else's flip attitude. 

The nutty doctor has a recreation of Poe's “The Pit and The Pendulum” in his basement and makes Bateman strap the judge on the pendulum. A crazy climax ensues with Bateman saving the day but dying and Vollin crushed to death. Bela says “Death is my talisman", “I'm the sanest man who ever lived” and “I like to torture” and is very insane in the leading role. It's usually said that this is kind of “Bela's movie” where he has the biggest stand out role and it's true in a way. But Karloff snags the more sympathetic role and intimately becomes 'the hero”. It was a big year for Boris (billed as “Karloff”) as he also made THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN and THE BLACK ROOM. Bela wasn't exactly sitting on his hands either making MARK OF THE VAMPIRE for Tod Browning, starring in THE RETURN OF CHANDU and THE MYSTERY OF THE MARY CELESTE. Director Louis Freidlander (later known as Lew Landers) would direct both horror stars separately years later: Lugosi in THE RETURN OF THE VAMPIRE and Karloff in THE BOOGIE MAN WILL GET YOU.

Thanks for reading!

More Found Footage

GRAVE ENCOUNTERS-2011-This Canadian production is influenced heavily by THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT but I was actually surprised by a couple of scenes. It's told through the video cameras of a film crew doing a segment of a reality TV show called "Grave Encounters" who go to an abandon mental hospital to film an episode. The host of the show Lance Preston (Sean Rogerson) only interested in a TV contract is accompanied by several camera people and a phony psychic. After they interview some locals the group has themselves locked up in the asylum over night. At first they only hear noises but a few things happen that they don't notice. Later they become trapped in the place and one by one everyone starts to disappear. They actually do meet up with some real ghouls and eventually it turns out a mad doctor who was killed years before is still doing lobotomies (and maybe devil worshiping) in the basement. It's well done (with some gory SFX) but the ending goes on too long.

It was written, produced and directed by two guys who go by the name of "The Vicious Brothers". They wrote and produced a sequel in 2012.

Thanks for reading!

Karloff & Lugosi

BLACK FRIDAY-This is the last of the Universal Pictures "team up" of Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi. It's more a crime revenge drama with horror overtones. Dr. Ernest Sovac (Karloff) faces death by electric chair. Before he goes he gives his notebook to a news reporter (James Craig) and we learn through flashbacks how Sovac became a murderer.

When his good friend Prof. George Kingsley (Stanley Ridges) is involved in a near fatal car accident, Sovac uses a secret, illegal brain transplant to save him. Unfortunately, Sovac uses the brain of a violent gangster Red Cannon (also Ridges). Everything goes well but when Sovac learns that Cannon stashed away half a million dollars he's anxious to get his hands on it so he can "continue my research". He takes Kingsley to NYC hoping familiar surrounding will jog his memory (they even stay in Cannon's old hotel room). The two go to a nightclub where Cannon's former lover Sunny (Anne Nagel) sings. They also run across Cannon's old gang members now led by Marley (Bela Lugosi). They are also looking for the hidden loot. Eventually, the Cannon persona gets out of control and starts killing in revenge but reverts back to Kingsley just in time before the police arrive. He and Sovac return to their sleepy town and seem to live fairly normally till a siren brings the Cannon personality back. He attacks Sovac's daughter (Anne Gwynne) and Sovac is forced to shoot him (he reverts back to Kingsley and dies).

BLACK FRIDAY is often ran down by detractors as not being a horror film but the real thing wrong with it seems to be that while Lugosi does get second billing, he's hardy in it at all (and badly miscast). He doesn't even have any scenes with Karloff! It's said Karloff (who smokes a lot!) was originally cast in the Kingsley role with Lugosi as his friend Sovac but his version of the Red Cannon gangster wasn't effective enough so Karloff was given the Sovac role and character actor Sidney Ridges replaced Karloff and he makes the most of the role giving quite a performance first as the timid bookish Kingsley and then as the ruthless revenge bound killer Cannon. (Some Jack P. Pierce make-up helps though). Lugosi was given the only other male role of any substance, that of Cannon's former second in command.

Director Arthur Lubin would make BUCK PRIVATES with Abbott and Costello the next year and go on to make many of the team's most famous movies (and many of the FRANCIS THE TALKING MULE series) Co-screenwriter Curt Siodmak would write the similar theme novel "Donovan's Brain" in 1942 and would work on many of the Universal horror film s of the '40's.

BLACK FRIDAY is fairly well done if improbable little story of which the only real failing is Lugosi wasted in a minor role.

Thanks for reading!

Bela In The Rue Morgue

MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE-1932-Universal Pictures first horror film (based on a Edgar Allan Poe story) made after the hits FRANKENSTEIN and DRACULA! Set in Paris in 1845, Bela Lugosi portrays Dr. Mirakle, a slightly demented guy with a killer ape named Erik. The doctor can even "speak ape" to him. When not giving lectures on apes and humans being related he prowls the foggy streets looking for female victims to experiment on. He's assisted by Janos, (Noble Johnson). Mirakle takes a liking to Camille (the ill fated Sidney Fox who has top billing) after Erik steals her bonnet. She describes Mirakle as "a funny old man". Her boyfriend is medical student Pierre Dupin (Leon Waycoff, who later changed his surname to Ames) investigates the recent murders of 3 "women of the streets" and discovers they all died because ape blood was injected into them. A scene of Mirakle "experimenting" on a prostitute (future celebrity talk show panelist Arlene Francis) seems pretty shocking for 1932. Unable to convince Camille to come to him, Mirakle dispatches Erik to kidnap her. Fortunately Erik rebels and kills his master before any blood injecting can begin. Unfortunately Erik carries Camille over the rooftops of Paris with an angry mob in hot pursuit. Dupin arrives just in time to save his love.

Some comic interrogations where no one can agree on what language MIrakle and Erik are talking aren't that funny and seem to be thrown in to waste time. And since Erik is actually gorilla suited veteran Charles Gemora the close-ups of a an angry ape edited in are out of place.

Of course director Florey and star Lugosi were the original choices for the Universal production of FRANKENSTEIN but that was eventually changed. MURDERS has a smaller budget but is gruesome and eerie. It goes along well, until the end which seems rushed. The idea of Mirakle talking "ape" to his "pet" was used in a later Bela vehicle THE APE MAN.

Lugosi was in WHITE ZOMBIE and ISLAND OF LOST SOULS the same year. Florey, who co-wrote FRANKENSTEIN but was cheated out of screen credit by James Whale, co-wrote this and it's said John Huston also contributed some dialogue. MURDERS uses Tchiakovsky's Swan Lake over the opening credits (as did DRACULA and THE MUMMY). Herman Bing, Iron Eyes Cody and Charlotte Henry all have small roles.  

Thanks for reading!