The Bat

 

 (imdb)

THE BAT-1959-Mystery writer Cornelia von Gorder (Anges Moorehead) stays in a house called “The Oaks” where evasive murderer “The Bat” committed homicide several months before. Cornelia's maid Lizzy (Lenita Lane) talks about vampire bats. Meanwhile, a bank VP, uncovers a million-dollar bank theft. The prime suspect seems to be Victor Bailey (Mike Steele), an innocent clerk. Then in the Northwest, bank president John Fleming (Harvey Stephens) and his doctor, Malcohm Welles (Vincent Price) are on vacation. John reveals that he took the million and now wants the doc to help him fake his own death. When a forest fire breaks out, the doc shoots and kills John. 

Back at The Oaks, Lizzy talks about The Bat ripping out women's throats and sees a clawed hand at the door. It's apparent a sinister figure is prowling around so the two women barricade themselves in a bedroom and call the police. The figure gets in but is scared away by the cops. Later local police Lt. Anderson (Gavin Gordon) spies Welles experimenting with bats. Cornelia deduces that the embezzled money is hidden somewhere in the house and tries to figure out where. John's nephew Mark (John Bryant) gets involved trying to find the floor plans. A secretary named Judy (former female “Our Gang” member Darla Hood) turns up with testimony that could clear Victor. When it seems like Mark is the culprit, he's found dead in a secret room. The weird lieutenant tries to pin the murder on Warner, the butler (John Sutton), then Judy is killed. The Bat and Welles fight in his lab and the doctor is killed. In the secret room (where Cornelia nearly suffocates) they find a safe. Warner saves the day and the Bat's identity is revealed (it's easy to figure out; there's hardly anyone left). 

This was the third remake of the story which is based on a 1920 stage play based on a 1908 book. Director/co-writer Crane Wilbur (screenwriter of HOUSE OF WAX (1953)) doesn't do much to update the plot so it's rather dated but still entertaining in its way.

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More Cars

 

 (themoviedatabase)

HOT CARS-1956-Happily married used car salesman Nick (John Bromfield) is fired from his job for being too honest. To support his wife (Carol Shannon) and sickly baby son, he takes a job selling cars for the shady Mr. Markel (Ralph Clanton), working for manager Smiley Ward (Mark Dana; in PHAROAH'S CURSE the next year). Later he meets police detective Davenport (Dabbs Greer) who's investigating the stolen car racket. Ater the delivery of some “hot” cars, Nick realizes he's part of the stolen car ring. 

He quits Markel but when he gets home, he finds his wife in hysterics because their baby is in the hospital. He goes back to Markel and meets head hot car guy Otto (Kurt Katch) and learns “the business”. He almost has to sell a stolen car to Davenport but Smiley helps him out of it. Nick hooks up with Karen Winters (Joi Lansing), then gets involved in Davenport's murder. She could provide him with an alibi but pretends not to know him. Markel decides to do away with Nick and a fist fight on a rollercoaster between Nick and Smiley caps this story. 

his average crime drama was one of the few feature films directed by Don McDougall, a very versatile TV director. Star Broomfield was in CURUCU, BEAST OF THE AMAZON the same year. 

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Hey, Boris!

 

 (imdb)

ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET THE KILLER, BORIS KARLOFF-1949-A lawyer named Strickland is murdered. The chief suspect is bellhop Freddy (Lou) who's helped out by hotel detective Casey (Bud) after he's fired by his manager Melton (Alan Mowbray). Inspector Wellman (James Flavin) has plenty of other suspects: suspected husband poisoner Angela (Lenore Aubert), Swami Talpur (Boris Karloff) and Hanley Brooks (Roland Winters). The funniest part is Talpur trying to hypnotize Freddy into committing suicide and when Freddy dresses as a maid (he and Casey have to hide some dead bodies) and he is chatted up by the night watchman (Percy Helton). Also with Mikel Conrad and a bit by Bobby Barber. 

Director Charles Barton made 9 movies with Abbott & Costello including perhaps their best one A & C MEET FRANKENSTEIN (also featuring Lenore Aubert) in 1948. Ironically, he would also direct the team's final film together DANCE WITH ME, HENRY in 1956, usually considered one of their worst. In the '30's he was assistant director of The Marx Brothers movies MONKEY BUSINESS and HORSE FEATHERS.

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Violent Trio

 

 (themoviedatabase)

THE VIOLENT ONES-1967-In New Mexico, after a young woman (Melinda Marx; daughter of Groucho) is raped and beaten, embattled sheriff Manuel Vega (Fernando Lamas, who also directed) picks up 3 men (Aldo Ray, Tommy Sands and David Carradine) as suspects. When the girl dies, the town demands a lynching. He and his deputy (Ned Romero) try to quell the tension. For some reason, after the town gathers for trouble, the sheriff decides to handle things his own way. He chains the 3 suspects together to take them to another town across the desert. Unfortunately, they crash, fight each other and are chased by a gang led by the dead girl's father. In the end the real killer is exposed. 

Since Lamas directed, there's no one to tell him when to stop shouting. It's an ok TOUCH OF EVIL knock off, I guess. With Lisa Gaye as a nurse and Rudolfo Acosta.

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I Don't Know Any Sane Ghouls. Do You?

 

THE MAD GHOUL-1943-Dr. Alfred Morris (George Zucco), who teaches at a local college recreates a poison gas that an ancient Mayan tribe used to cause “life in death”. He hires a student, Ned Allison (David Bruce), to help him over the summer. Ned is in love with a radio singer named Isabel Lewis (Evelyn Ankers). When Morris says things like “There is no good or evil. Only true and false”, it's obvious he's mad. To top that, he's in love with Isabel too and in order to get Ned out of the way, the deranged doc turns his student into a living dead slave via the ancient concoction. Ned turns into a pasty-faced ghoul who carries out the doc's bidding. 

 (imdb)

Later they visit a cemetery where ghoul-Ned performs a cardiectomy because a human heart is needed to bring Ned back to the land of the living. Police Sgt. Macklin (Miburn Stone) and newspaperman “Scoop” McClure (Robert Armstrong) investigate. It turns out the antidote isn't permanent. Ned goes to another town where Isabel is performing to propose but Isabel doesn't love him anymore. She now prefers her pianist Erik (Turhan Bey). After she spurns him, he turns back into a ghoul and he and the doc visit a cemetery and take the caretaker's heart. When the doc finds out Isabel & Erik are an item, he sends Ned to kill Erik but Isabel's scream saves him. Meanwhile McClure figures out that a new heart stealing murder happens whenever Isabel gives a recital. He sets a trap to catch the deadly duo but he's killed in the process. The Sgt. and his detective Garrity (Charles McGraw) up their game to catch the killer. Later, when things get too hot and Ned suspects he's being used, (“What am I? Alive or Dead?”), the doc sends Ned to kill Erik then himself but Ned tricks the doc into inhaling the gas himself. Ned goes to the recital hall but is killed by the cops before he can carry out the murder. The doc dies at the cemetery unable to procure a human heart. Also with Rose Hobart and Addison Richards. 

This enjoyable, eerie Universal quickie was the last film directed by James P. Hogan (LIFE RETURNS (1934) who died of a heart attack shortly after this was finished. He had also been directed much of the “Ellery Queen” series at the time. The great George Zucco had another banner year in 1943, appearing in SHERLOCK HOLMES IN WASHINGTON, 2 PRC productions: DEAD MEN WALK and THE BLACK RAVEN and The Ritz brothers comedy NEVER A DULL MOMENT. Top billed David Bruce was in the “Inner Sanctum” entry CALLING DR. DEATH the same year as The Mad Ghoul. Leading lady Evelyn Ankers was also in among other things SON OF DRACULA.

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Whatever

 

 (imdb)

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO AUNT ALICE?-1969-Already loony Claire Marrable (Geraldine Page) goes off the deep end when she finds out her recently dead husband left her nothing in his will so she decides to kill her female servants. Relocating to Arizona, she gets rid of Mrs. Tinsley (Mildred Dunnock) and hires Mrs. Dimmock (Ruth Gordon). Her new next-door neighbor is Helen Vaughan (Rosemary Forsyth) and her young nephew Jim (Michael Barbera). She has an affair with Mike Darrah (Robert Fuller), a mechanic who is working with Dimmock to find out what happened to Miss Tinsley. 

It has a little twisting end and it's really not much but the score by Gerald Fried and photography by Joseph Biroc are a plus. It's based on a novel by Ursula Curtiss who also wrote “I Saw What You Did” which William Castle had made into a movie in 1965. Director Lee Katzin, besides his TV work, went to make the bizarre THE PHYNX (1970) and the pretty good LE MANS (1971). He also made the failed Sci-Fi TV movie THE STRANGER (1973). He replaced original director Bernard Girard on this after a week of filming. Right before the movie's release Ruth Gordon won a best supporting actress Academy Award for ROSEMARY'S BABY.

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“People Are So Concerned About…Dogs”

 

 (imdb)

THE BODY SNATCHER-1945-Edinburgh 1831-Dr. MacFarland (Henry Daniell), a clinical no nonsense teacher at a medical school has cab man Grey (Boris Karloff; in ISLE OF THE DEAD the same year) steal bodies from cemeteries for medical experiments. MacFarland's new assistant Fettes (Russell Wade) has a conscience and doesn't like his boss’ methods. He wants MacFarland to do an operation on a crippled child but he refuses. Grey seems to have something on the doctor. When MacFarland says he needs a new body to work on, Fettes goes to Grey who kills a young female street singer (Donna Lee). When Fettes wants to tell the police, MacFarland convinces him not too. 

Meanwhile, handyman Joseph (Bela Lugosi; also in ZOMBIES ON BROADWAY the same year) hangs around, listening. He tries to blackmail Grey but Grey kills him. Later MacFarland has had enough of Grey and kills him but unfortunately for the good doctor Grey isn't done with him! 

This is probably the best of the Val Lewton-Karloff collaborations with Boris giving a command performance and Daniell a close second. Edith Atwater co-stars along with bits by Robert Clarke, Mary Gordon and Bill Williams. This was director Robert Wise's second film for producer Lewton (who co-wrote the screenplay based on a story by Robert Louis Stevenson) after THE CURSE OF THE CAT PEOPLE (1944). Henry Daniell (who was later in several episodes of the Boris Karloff hosted “Thriller” on TV) played Prof. Moriarty against Basil Rathbone's Sherlock Holmes in THE LADY IN GREEN the same year. 

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Tell Tale

 

 (imdb)

THE AVENGING CONSCIOUS or THOU SHALT NOT KILL-1914-A man (Henry B. Walthall) is raised by his uncle. When he's an adult (and Edgar Allan Poe fan), he works for the old man (Spottiswoode Aitken). All goes well until he meets a young woman Anabel (Blanche Sweet). He spends more time with her than uncle would like. When the uncle insults her, nephew quits. At a party, they meet “the stranger” (Ralph Lewis). When the nephew realizes that as long as his uncle is around, he and the girl can never be happy, he plots to kill uncle. 

Unfortunately, for him “the Italian” (George Siegman) sees him murdering unk and blackmails him. Nephew walls up the corpse in the fireplace. His guilt gets the best of him and he sees his uncle's ghost and has a breakdown. He goes to a sanitarium and seems to be cured but he suspects the stranger to be a detective (he's right) and hires the Italian to keep an eye out. Later, while being questioned by the detective, he has a fiery vision of demons in hell. He goes insane at the sight of his uncle's ghost and reenacts the murder in front of the detective. He flees but is pursued by a posse and hangs himself. The girl commits suicide but…. 

This DW Griffith directed adaptation based on Edgar Allan Poe's “The Tell Tale Heart” is sometimes called the first great American horror movie. The ending might be a letdown to some. It also features the ill-fated Wallace Reid as a doctor.

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No Mania

 

 (imdb)

BLOOD MANIA-1970-A doctor (Peter Carpenter, also one of the screenwriters) is blackmailed for doing abortions when he was a med student. He has an affair with Victoria (Maria De Aragon), who's bed- ridden father is his patient. After the blackmailer rapes the doc's wife, Victoria uses a drug to kill dad. She admits to the doctor that she killed her dad but she promises to give him money from her inheritance to pay off the blackmailer. Her sister Gail (Vicki Peters) comes for the reading of the will. Surprise! Dad leaves everything to Gail. Victoria has a break-down but it doesn't bother the doc. He just romances Gail. 

This drawn out psychological bs has bad acting, a boring story, hardly any blood and plodding direction from Robert Vincent O'Neil who later directed ANGEL (1984) and its sequel AVENGING ANGEL (1984). Star Carpenter was a mystery man for years. It had been thought he passed away in the early '70's but in fact left movie making for real estate and died of AIDS in 1996. He also starred in POINT OF TERROR in 1971 with Dyanne Thorne. 

Co-star Maria De Aragon was later in Harry Essex's terrible THE CREMATORS (1972) and was unbilled as the alien Greedo in the first STAR WARS movie in 1977.

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Bava In Black and White (for the last time)

 

 (imdb)

THE EVIL EYE aka THE GIRL WHO KNEW TOO MUCH-1963-Nora Drozon (Leticia Roman) comes from America to visit her sickly aunt and meets her doctor, Marcello Bassi (John Saxon). At night the aunt dies. Nora goes to seek help and is attacked by a purse snatcher and knocked unconscious. When she wakes up, she sees the stabbing death of a woman. She faints and someone makes it seem like she'd been drinking. In a hospital, no one believes her story and she's labeled an alcoholic. Fortunately, Marcello arrives and gets her out. He doesn't really believe her either. Nora meets Laura (Valentina Cortese) whose husband is away in Switzerland (his picture looks like the killer Nora saw). When Laura goes to visit her hubby, she lets Nora stay in her house where Laura’s sister was stabbed to death 10 years before (according to the cleaning lady). 

Later, it seems there is a serial killer murdering people in alphabetical order and Nora may be next! They meet Landini (Dante DiPaolo), the reporter who worked on the case years before but he commits suicide. When Laura returns, we learn who the murderer is and the reasons behind the killings. 

This was the great Mario Bava's last black and white film. He was also the cinematographer. It's an interesting and stylish Giallo but the ending was changed in the US version, eliminating a sub-plot. The same year as this, Bava also made BLACK SABBATH and THE WHIP AND THE BODY. Lead actress Roman starred in RUSS MEYER'S FANNY HILL the next year.

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Impact Zone

 

 (themoviedatabase.org)

IMPACT-1949-Irene (Helen Walker), the wife of industrialist Walter Williams (Brian Donlevy) plots with her boyfriend to murder her husband. Things go wrong. The boyfriend clouts Williams with a jack and throws his body into a ravine. He's promptly killed in a fiery crash. Now everyone (including Irene)) thinks he's dead. The boyfriend hinted that he and Irene were in cahoots and after a phone call Williams knows she is behind it. A police officer Quincey (Charles Colburn) investigates and suspects Irene of murder. Meanwhile, in Idaho, Williams meets female mechanic Marsha (Ella Raines). He fixes cars while Irene is arrested for his murder. Later he goes back to San Francisco and admits he is still alive. Bad move. He winds up on trial for murder. His housekeeper is Anna May Wong and her uncle is Phillips Ahn. Also with Art Baker, William Wright, Mae Marsh, Jason Robards Sr., Erskine Sanford, Ben Welden, Joe Kirk, Thomas B. Henry and gossip columnist Sheilah Graham as herself. 

The story is good up to a point but when Williams returns and reveals himself it kind of goes downhill to a unsatisfying conclusion. Director Arthur Lubin had directed Abbott & Costello's first 5 movies, then the big color remake of THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA (1943) and later THE SPIDER WOMAN STRIKES (1946). After IMPACT, he directed most of the “Francis, The Talking Mule” series.

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Holmes And Hypnotism

 

THE WOMAN IN GREEN-1945-The head of the CID in London lectures his agents on their failure to find any clues in the seemingly random murders of 3 women all missing a finger. After a fourth is killed, Inspector Gregson (Matthew Boulton) calls on Sherlock Holmes (Basil Rathbone). After another murder, rich Sir George Fenick (Paul Cavanagh) wakes up in a strange house with no memory of how he got there after having a nightcap with his younger girlfriend Lydia Marlowe (Hillary Brooke). Then Prof. Moriarty (Henry Daniel) shows up and in a roundabout way accuses Fenick of being the murderer. Later, Holmes is visited by George's daug⁰oʻhter Maud (Eve Amber). She says she saw her dad bury a box that contains a finger. 

They visit Sir George and find him dead. Holmes suspects Moriarty, who was supposed to have been hanged in Montevideo. The professor visits Holmes and tells the detective to drop out. Later, there's an attempt on Holmes' life. The assassin appears to be hypnotized. After he's killed, Holmes & Dr. Watson (Nigel Bruce) visit The Mesmer Club and a disbelieving Watson is hypnotized. Then Holmes formally meets Lydia who says “hypnotism is like a religion with me”. She tries to hypnotize Holmes and make him commit suicide. Of course, Lydia is in league with Moriarty, along with her maid and a crazy doll lover. 

This is the 11^th of the 14 Sherlock Holmes adaptations starring Rathbone and Bruce, again produced and directed by Roy William Neil. It's based on the Conan Doyle story “The Adventure of The Empty House”. Both Brooke and Daniel were in their second outing in the series.

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Dead Talking

 

 (mubi.com)

THE DEAD TALK BACK-1957-After some dark scenes of a woman being stalked, Henry Krasser (Aldo Farnese), a weird cigar smoking self- proclaimed “metaphysic” talks to the camera and says he doesn't believe you're dead when you die. He shows various projects he's working on. He also mentions a murder case he's helping the police with. Then he proceeds to give a rundown on the people he lives with at a boarding house including a weirdo named Fites Freuger (Curtis Roberts), soon to be victim model Renee (Laura Brock), Raymond Millburn (Myron Natwick), Christy (Kyle Stanton), a Bible spouting loony and others. Krasser helps a cliche cop (Scott Douglas) solve a bow and arrow murder. 

Talky low budget junk, produced, written and directed by Merle S. Gould. Star Farnese was a kids TV host in Philadelphia. Co-star Natwick was in many TV shows later on. In 2000, he was in TV Mikels' THE CORPSE GRINDERS 2.

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Lisa, The Devil And You

 

 (themoviedatabase)

LISA AND THE DEVIL-1973-In Italy, Lisa (Elke Sommer) sees a mural of the devil then meets a guy (Telly Savalas) who looks like the mural. She gets lost and is a given a lift (after she seems to kill a man) by Francis (Eduardo Fajardo) & Sophia (Sylva Koscina) and their chauffeur George (Gabriele Tinti) who's having an affair with Sophia. The car breaks down at the residence of Maximilian (Alessio Orano) and his blind mom, the Countess (Alida Valli). Their manservant, Leandro, is the same guy Lisa met earlier. There also seems to be one other person in the house. 

Weird things happen and then George is killed. Max romances Lisa. His mom scolds him. Lisa seems to be pursued by the man she killed. After Sophia runs Francis over with their car (about 5 times), she's bludgeoned to death by Max who thinks Lisa is his long dead love, Elena. Later, Lisa winds up on a jet with the dead people as passengers and Leandro as the pilot. She turns into a corpse. 

Pretty crazy stuff especially when you consider it was co-written and directed by Mario Bava! When it failed to get a distributor at Cannes, the producer Alfredo Leone had Bava shoot a framing sequence with Robert Alda as priest and called it “House of Exorcism” (THE EXORCIST was big at the time). Only years after Bava's death was his original finally released.

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Early Alfred

 

 (imdb)

BLACKMAIL-1929-It takes a little while to get started but a woman Alice (Anny Ondra) has a fight with her policeman boyfriend Frank (John Longden) then goes with an artist (Cyril Ritchard) to his studio. Unbeknownst to her Frank sees them. After some flirtation he tries to rape her but she stabs him to death. The police investigate and Frank finds Alice's glove and sees that the dead man is the one she was with. When a man shows up at Alice's father's tobacco shop attempting to blackmail Alice, Frank devises a plan to pin the murder on the blackmailer. A chase through a museum highlights the story. Guilt ridden Alice wants to confess. 

This was Alfred Hitchcock's tenth movie and though originally done as a silent film it was decided midway way through the production that a sound film would also be made. This silent version is very well done with Hitchcock showing many of the traits he would use in subsequent film classics. It also features the longest of his many cameo appearances. The new score is a bit overwhelming.

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Ghost Revenge

 

 (imdb)

EMPIRE OF PASSION-1978-In a village, a married woman (Kazuko Yoshiyuki) has an affair with a much younger man (Tatsuya Fuji). At the man's urging they kill her rickshaw driving husband and throw his body in a well. 3 years later, their passion has cooled except for brief periods and her lover has grown distant Then her husband's ghost shows up. A police officer investigates as her life crumbles against ghost sightings and gossip. 

This Japanese-French co-production is renown director Nagisa Oshima's only real foray into a ghost story but it's excellent. Too bad he didn't do another one. He also wrote the screenplay based on a novel. Oshima made the infamous IN THE REALM OF THE SENSES in 1976 (also with Fuji). His next movie was 1983's MERRY CHRISTMAS, MR. LAWRENCE.

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Baron Bava

 

 (imdb)

BARON BLOOD-1972-Peter comes from America to Austria to discover his roots and learn about this ancestor Baron Von Kleist (dubbed Baron Blood by the locals). At dinner with Uncle Karl and his family, Peter meets Eva (Elke Sommer) and they discuss a witch named Elizabeth Holly who put a curse on the Baron. For some reason, Peter wants to recite an incantation that could bring the Baron back to life. Eva takes him to the room where the Baron died and he invokes it. The Baron comes back as a deformed killer. When the castle is put up for auction a guy in a wheelchair named Becker (Joseph Cotton) buys it. Later they suspect he is the Baron who's restoring the castle complete with impaled victims and a torture chamber with recorded screams. The Baron reveals himself and in his torture chamber. He tortures Peter first. However, an ancient medallion causes the Baron's recent victims to rise and torture him to death. 

Stylish direction from the great Mario Bava, who made this between A BAY OF BLOOD and LISA AND THE DEVIL. It was a big hit in the US.

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Coming And Going

 

 (imdb.com)

EXIT THE DRAGON, ENTER THE TIGER-1976-On a movie set, martial arts actor Dragon Bruce Lee tells his friend Tiger David Lee (Bruce Li) that if something happens to him, Tiger will be Dragon's successor. Of course Bruce dies. In Singapore, Tiger David suspects foul play. He's pretty upset. He goes to Hong Kong to check it out. It seems some gangsters led by The Baron (Yi Chang), tried to blackmail Bruce into carrying drugs for them and his mistress movie star Susie (Hsin-Yi Chiang) has an incriminating tape they want. Tiger's friend George is killed and his girlfriend is raped but Tiger triumphs in the end in this sub-par Shaw Brothers production.

Director Tso Nam Lee also made FIST OF FURY 2 (also with Bruce Li) and THE TATTOO CONNECTION with Jim Kelly.

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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

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If You Could Read My Mind...

 (imdb)

THE MIND READER-1933-A carnival huckster (Warren William) becomes “The Great Chandra”, a phony fortune teller. He's assisted by Frank (Allen Jenkins) and Sam (Clarence Muse). He meets pretty unemployed stenographer Sylvia (Constance Cummings) and hires her as his secretary. They start to fall in love, even after she discovers his mind reading act is phony. In a town where fortune telling is illegal, he helps the local sheriff by predicting a jewel robbery (he sent it up!). Later a woman (Mayo Methot) accuses Chandra of ruining her life with his “predictions”. When she commits suicide, Sylvia decides to leave him. He gives up the racket for her and becomes a brush salesman in NYC. 

Frank, now a chauffeur, gets Chandra involved in a new scheme exposing cheating husbands with his “power”. He's very successful behind Sylvia's back but he accidentally kills a disgruntled husband with Sylvia right outside his office. Somehow, she's arrested and put on trial for the killing. Chandra hides out in Mexico, drunk and guilt ridden. He exposes his whole act in front of an audience. Then he goes back to NY, confesses, exonerates Sylvia and tries to divorce her but she sticks by him. Final line: “It sure is tough to be going away just when beer is coming back”. 

The Mind Reader was directed by Roy Del Ruth (PHANTOM OF THE RUE MORGUE (1954)) who made the original version of THE MALTESE FALCON in 1931. His last feature film was THE ALLIGATOR PEOPLE in 1959.