Meow

 

 (imdb)

THE CREEPER-1948-A doctor's daughter sleepwalks with her dad's gun. At a medical facility, Dr. Jim Bordon (Onslow Stevens) argues with Dr. Cavigny (Ralph Morgan) about his experiments with cats. Nurse Gwen Runstrom (June Vincent) reports that their special serum has been destroyed. The other nurse Dora (Janis Wilson), Cavigny's gun toting sleepwalker daughter, seems more than a little bothered having had a fever when they were in the West Indies. Bordon has some experimental cats sent to him. Meanwhile Dr. Van (Eduardo Ciannelli) listens secretly to the whole debate. Van works with Dr. John Reade (John Baragrey) across the hall researching allergies. It seems Reade and Gwen are engaged. Dora freaks out when she meets Reed's cat named "Creeper" (is that a cat name?). 

Later Dora relates to Reade how she caught a fever and later had an episode at a Chinese restaurant.(run by Phillip Ahn). She has several dreams she's being menaced by a giant cat paw. When her dad is murdered she's arrested. She's let go for lack of evidence but the cat handler Andre (David Hoffman) is killed by what appears to be a man size cat but only a shadow is seen. A police inspector (Richard Lane) snoops around. 

There's not much except a few more murders and a kind of dumb ending. Director Jean Yarbrough doesn't have much to work with here but keeps this low budget 20^th Century Fox release quick and short.

Vampire

CONDEMNED TO LIVE-1935-Two men and pregnant woman are trapped in a cave full of vampire bats by some natives. The woman is bitten by a bat. 

Years later “in another land” a small village is terrorized by vampire like murders. The victims’ throats are torn open and their bodies drained of blood. Most folks say it's a giant bat but a guy name David (Russell Gleason) disagrees. He thinks it's a man. Professor Kristan (Ralph Morgan) warns everyone to stay indoors and be “protected by light”. He has a hunchback servant named Zan (Mischa Auer) and is a much-admired resident engaged to the much younger Marguerite (Maxine Doyle) who seems honored by the arrangement but a little doubtful. Her childhood friend David doesn't like it. He loves her. 

Anyway, it turns out that Kristan has a few faults. Like at night he turns into a creepy vampire and commits the murders that have the village so frightened! Though he complains about headaches and exhaustion, the good Prof. doesn't seem to know he’s the killer. His old friend Dr. Bizet (Pedro de Cordoba) comes calling and advises him about his engagement. Later when the vampire/professor tries to kill Marguerite, she's saved by Zan but the the villagers think he’s the fiend. When Kristan regains consciousness Bizet explains how the professor was born in a cave after his mother had been bitten by a vampire bat! After clearing Zan, Kristan jumps off a cliff and Zan follows him. Marguerite and David are free to have sex. 

This dark moody horror film from Invincible Pictures was directed by Frank R. Strayer who earlier made THE VAMPIRE BAT and other interesting but mostly forgotten horror films. Soon after this he became the usual director for the BLONDIE series of movies!

Thanks for reading!

Night Monster

NIGHT MONSTER-1942-Ingston Towers is full of strangeness. It's guarded by an ominous caretaker (Cyril Delevanti) and his dogs. The place is run by Mr. Ingston (Ralph Morgan; later in THE MONSTER MAKER), a rich reclusive deformed cripple with a lecherous chauffeur (Lief Erickson; in PARDON MY SARONG with Abbott & Costello the same year), a swami named Singh (Nils Ashter), a grouchy housemaid Sarah (Doris Floyd) and smarmy seemingly sinister butler Rolf (Bela Lugosi). Guests for a dinner party Kingston is throwing include psychiatrist Dr. Harper (Irene Hervey), horror author Dick Baldwin (Don Porter; also in WHO DONE IT? with Abbott & Costello the same year) and the three doctors who left Kingston in his sorry state (Lionel Atwill, Frank Reicher and Francis Pierlot). Also thrown in is Kingston's sister (Fay Helm) who every believes is insane. The swami goes into a trance and materializes a skeleton that bleeds. Later the three doctors are murdered and it turns out Ingerston is using the swami's power to give himself new limbs and seek revenge. The estate burns at the end but Rolf's fate is never determined (I assume he died in the fire).

NIGHT MONSTER isn't a bad film by any means. It's well directed by Ford Beebe who keeps it mysterious and creepy up until its strange ending. It's usually thrown aside because neither Atwill or Lugosi have primary roles in it (top billed Bela, a red herring; Atwill, a victim). It does seem a little strange though to have these two guys in it and waste them in co-starring roles (though Bela is suspiciously sinister in several scenes). 

Lugosi reprised his role as Ygor in GHOST OF FRANKENSTEIN the same year.

Thanks for reading!

Monster Maker

THE MONSTER MAKER-1944-This PRC horror film isn’t bad considering it’s low budget restrictions. The underrated J. Carroll Naish is Dr. Markoff, a crazy phony doctor working on a cure for agromegly (the film calls it a glandular disease but I think they were basing it on the real bone deforming disease that actor Rondo Hatton suffered from). He’s obsessed with the daughter (Wanda McKay who was in VOODOO MAN the same year) of a famous concert pianist (Ralph Morgan), who he thinks is the reincarnation of his dead wife. Markoff injects Morgan’s character with the disease so he can gain control of the daughter (who’s rejected him). Morgan becomes the mad doc’s deformed prisoner but in the end is saved by Markoff’s long-suffering assistant (Tala Burel).

Glenn Strange is Markoff’s henchman and there’s even a phony gorilla thrown in for good measure. Morgan’s make-up is pretty good but the climax is disappointing.

Besides MM director Sam Newfield made a staggering 11 more movies in 1944 including I ACCUSE MY PARENTS and NABONGA. 1944 was also a busy year for the prolific Naish. He was in 8 other movies including HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN (which featured Strange as The Monster) and DRAGON SEED. He ended his career in Al Adamson’s FRANKENSTEIN VS. DRACULA (1970).

Make-up man Maurice Seiderman worked on CITIZEN KANE and TOUCH OF EVIL for Orson Welles and BRIDE OF THE MONSTER for Ed Wood!

Thanks for reading!