The Premature Burial.

Review #2434: The Premature Burial.

Cast:  

Ray Milland (Guy Carrell), Heather Angel (Kate Carrell, Guy's Sister), Hazel Court (Emily Gault, Guy's Wife), Alan Napier (Dr. Gideon Gault), Richard Ney (Miles Archer), John Dierkes (Sweeney), Dick Miller ("Mole"), Clive Halliday (Judson), and Brendan Dillon (Clergyman)

Produced and Directed by Roger Corman (#368 - The Little Shop of Horrors, #684 - It Conquered the World, #852 - The Terror, #931 - Not of This Earth, #1007 - Attack of the Crab Monsters, #1039 - Five Guns West, #1042 - War of the Satellites, #1136 - Gas-s-s-s, #1147 - X: The Man with the X-ray Eyes, #1186 - A Bucket of Blood, #1423 - The Wild Angels, #1425 - The St. Valentine's Day Massacre, #1674 - Machine-Gun Kelly, #1684 - Creature from the Haunted Sea, #1918 - House of Usher, #2030 - The Trip, #2113 - The Undead, #2211 - The Intruder, #2275 - The Wasp Woman, #2295 - The Pit and the Pendulum)

Review: 

Apparently, when Roger Corman was making films for American International Pictures, there came a time to settle differences of his fee with a coin toss. He and Samuel Z. Arkoff would flip a coin...and Arkoff won a handful of times that made Corman interested to venture for himself. He went to Pathe Lab to try and finance a film, since they did their own print work and financed a few AIP movies. He got Charles Beaumont and Ray Russell to do the script but had to go with Ray Milland for the lead due to Vincent Price being in an exclusive AIP contract. And then...AIP arrived on the first day of production to say that they were now partners on this film, as they leveraged the position of not having any more lab work to become partners on what became this film. While the movie made some money with audiences, Corman reflected later that the response meant that the formula "had to be varied." The next "Poe Cycle" movie was Tales of Terror (1962), released four months later that was an anthology feature with Price and other noted names. The movie is inspired by the short story of the same name, as written by Edgar Allan Poe in 1844 that had an unnamed narrator with fears of being buried alive with "catalepsy" that tries to cope with the phobia...although that story ends with one ending their obsession with death.

It isn't a forgettable movie, but it definitely is one that shows strain. It may interest you to know that Milland was an Academy Award winning actor, having previously won it for The Lost Weekend (1945). The Welsh actor had a lengthy career, and he was more than happy to be a character actor in his later years with the occasional lead or two, as one might recognize him from AIP's 1963 classic (at least that's how I remember it) X: The Man with the X-ray Eyes (1963); Milland acted until shortly before his death in 1986 at the age of 79. Unfortunately, The Premature Burial is not among his highlights, mainly because the movie does not give him to really do. It isn't merely a case of the movie needing the services of Price (four years younger than Milland, although each was already in their fifties by 1962), it just seems like a movie that is trying to coast on what you already saw from the last two Poe AIP movies and flailing. You want to see a worthy tragedy, you want to see something that could inspire anxiety and curiosity, but Milland can only do so much for a movie that doesn't really have a mystery or tragedy to it. You could almost pick a random actor from Milland's heyday to do this and possibly still have the same effect. It does not help that Court and Ney have absolutely nothing to contribute for what is meant to be a curiosity: a woman who wants to associate with a guy who believes he is doomed and a doctor in the middle of looking at his mental state. But they don't really stick in your mind for anything other than "okay". The sense of doom just seems like the previous two Poe movies but with diminishing returns besides the cemetary maybe being a different angle to look at this time. The dream sequence might be the most noted sequence in the whole film (which only runs at 81 minutes anyway) because it seems lurid and eerie in ways that actually makes one wonder where the rest of the energy went. The movie just isn't as fun as it really could be, managing to be a bit too cozy to really make anyone get chills for something that could've been a fun mystery or a look at a strange person. As it stands, it isn't a bad movie, but it just isn't accomplished enough to really recommend when there are better things elsewhere.

Overall, I give it 6 out of 10 stars.

The Invisible Man Returns.

Review #2279: The Invisible Man Returns.

Cast: 

Cedric Hardwicke (Richard Cobb), Vincent Price (Geoffrey Radcliffe), Nan Grey (Helen Manson), John Sutton (Dr. Frank Griffin), Cecil Kellaway (Inspector Sampson), Alan Napier (Willie Spears), Forrester Harvey (Ben Jenkins), and Paul England (Detective) Directed by Joe May.

Review: 

You have to be a bit bold to flat out call your movie a sequel to H. G. Wells' The Invisible Man, particularly since well, Wells didn't do a follow-up work to his famous 1897 novel. The 1933 adaptation by Universal (as directed by James Whale) even matched the book in killing off its lead character. But here we are because Universal Pictures loved the idea of doing follow-ups to their horror films and had a hit with Son of Frankenstein (1939). Universal apparently had an interesting time to pick a director and an actor for the title role (thinking of Rowland V. Lee to direct) but eventually settled with May to direct and picked Vincent Price (having originally thought about casting someone familiar like Boris Karloff at first before going for "young and good-looking upcomer"). This was released at the tail end of May's career as a director (having emigrated from Austria to America in the 1930s) as he directed just four further films prior to his death in 1954 at the age of 73. Four writers were utilized for this film: Lester K. Cole and Curt Siodmak wrote the screenplay while May, Siodmak, and Cedric Belfrage wrote the story. The movie apparently was shot over the course of a month in late 1939. The effects were credited to John P. Fulton, Bernard B. Brown and William Hedgcock, which apparently dealt with shooting in black velvet. The next two films dealing with invisible people from Universal were not exactly horror films, but Siodmak wrote both of them (with May being there as well for one of them) with the sci-fi comedy The Invisible Woman (1940) and the action/spy film Invisible Agent (1942). Jon Hall served as the new title character for that film and The Invisible Man's Revenge (1944).

Admittedly, the sequel does have one neat card to play: it isn't merely just doing the last film again, particularly since it seems hard to top Claude Rains and his performance from a few years ago. For one, it is more of a gradual unravelling as one might see from a procedural, complete with a somewhat low-key lead presence (note that "Sir" Hardwicke actually isn't in the film for very long). The justification for how one gets to see a new invisible man is pretty interesting: when framed for murder and on the door for execution, friends resort to helping a guy turn loose and invisible. It has a "fine" pace at 81 minutes that is more interesting when trying to play for effects rather than play itself in showing the locale that is, well, not nearly as effective in relief that one already saw years prior. It probably is more interesting to wonder just what one would end up doing in terms of stability when it comes to the idea of invisibility, and like before it presents someone who gets wrapped up a bit in chaos but otherwise had a genuine idea in mind in going with the whole thing. This was the fourth feature film for Price, who actually would go through a variety of supporting roles (with some top billing) in noirs and period films before getting latched onto as a horror guy by the 1950s. He does just fine for a role that is all about the voice over all, which he plays with concern rather than ham, which probably makes sense. Hardwicke gives the worried elegance of someone doing a job quick and easy while Grey and Sutton at least fill out the movie in casual interest (i.e. a bit of science-babble and babble about their friend). Kellaway isn't even forced to play skeptic to what's going around him, he just plays it straight. As such, it may be a hokey sequel not quite up to the original stuff, but it at least has some commitment to doing drama with some quality effects and useful enough pacing to keep one invested to the bitter end. It's a familiar comfort, go figure.

Overall, I give it 7 out of 10 stars.

Cat People (1942).

Review #1898: Cat People.

Cast: 

Simone Simon (Irena Dubrovna), Kent Smith (Oliver Reed), Tom Conway (Dr. Louis Judd), Jane Randolph (Alice Moore), Jack Holt ('Commodore' C. R. Cooper), Steve Soldi (The Organ Grinder), and Alan Napier ('Doc' Carver) Directed by Jacques Tourneur (#998 - I Walked with a Zombie)

Review: 

Oh yes, there was plenty of horror schlock to go around in the 1930s and 1940s, but one cannot forget about the ones besides the studio fare of the era. In 1942, an era of B-movie horror at RKO Radio Pictures began reaching theaters, with Val Lewton being tasked to do features for the studio; he had been hired after previously serving as story editor on films for David O. Selznick. Granted, they were not the cheapest type of horror film of their time, because even the Poverty Row studios like Producers Releasing Corporation made horror films too, but Lewton's run of producing horror B-movies made a distinct mark on horror cinema. It all started with this film, with Lewton picking both the director (Jacques Tourneur) and writer (DeWitt Bodeen), and each contributed to the script treatment, which had cat-related literature as research, with wither Tourneur or Lewton responsible for the modern setting as opposed to a period piece. One other part of the film crew was Mark Robson, who served as editor before cultivating a career of directing films in his own right. The film, reusing sets from films such as The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), was made for roughly $141,000. The film was a fair success for RKO despite mild reviews, which led to a semi-sequel with The Curse of the Cat People (1944) that saw three of the main four actors from the previous film return while Lewton served as producer and contributed script details (attempts by him to not use that particular title failed), and it happened to be the debut feature for a future famous name in Robert Wise. A remake was done in 1982. Lewton would produce eleven films for RKO from 1942 to 1946 before the death of Charles Koerner (executive vice president who supported Lewton while also being known as the guy who fired Orson Welles from RKO) along with Lewton's ailing health led to him not having employment with RKO. Lewton did produce a few features afterwards, but he died in 1951 at the age of 46. Among the notable horror films that he did were the aforementioned Cat film alongside I Walked with a Zombie (1943) and Isle of the Dead (1945). Tourneur had started his directing career with films in his native France in 1931, but it was these films that rose him into eventual status at RKO in the 1940s before he added freelance work to his output that saw a variety of genres to go with horror, most notably with Night of the Demon (1957).

Eight decades have been kinder to the film, which was a moderate success with audiences while having a decent if not spectacular reaction from others (i.e. not as hyperbolic as Freaks). In fact, the reputation of the film has perhaps been a bit overstated depending on the perspective of who is evaluating it, which either rests on being a sophisticated classic or just a good B-movie. I think it is merely pretty good, not exactly outclassing the creature features such as with Universal of the time but instead going for something a bit different in creativity. At any rate, the power of imagination is what matters most for the output of the RKO run with Lewton and company. Tournier himself described the film as "very poor" (in terms of the script and story progression) and "very childish" while also not being happy with Simon's acting. At any rate, it is the examination of "the Other" that matters most, where it is not only a movie about someone who may or may not be a cat but also a tragedy of how one loses their bearings in mind and with people. Superstitions and legends matter most to those who have the words to back it up, basically, whether that involves panthers or something else. It is a 73-minute movie with the most careful of touches that lives and dies on how you treat the road to seeing if someone is a cat-person or not, one that treats it seriously without veering into ridicule territory (RKO tried to push for more shots of, well, take a guess, but the filmmakers did play it carefully in shooting). Oh sure, you could save yourself the time by peeking to see whether the title is going to be what the title is, but sometimes it is the imagination of where the truth lies that is more useful to consider. With that in mind, Simon is serviceable up to a point: one can see the vulnerabilities present in a withering role like this and give her credit while also thinking that she pulls it off a majority of the time in shaky grace rather than an absolute one. Smith, tasked with being the ordinary fellow in a movie with the most careful of all tensions, does exactly what is required, one with striking causality towards how he treats Simon and Randolph when paired with either that makes for the tension needed. Conway is harder to peg down, mostly because he isn't exactly just the doctor character playing exposition nor one who has as much time to corral against Simon, but his last sequence does show exactly what would hope to see from a moderate actor. One of the most striking things to linger from the film is a moment that lasts for less than a minute: the first jump scare. Imagine if you will, a quiet little scene with growing tension, one that has you curious in your seat, things move carefully, and then bam, a loud noise strikes out of nowhere, with this one being the sound of an incoming bus. The jump scare became more of a thing in the 1970s with slashers, but it's always interesting to see where horror tricks can come from, especially when done right. As a whole, I think it is a pretty good movie, maybe not exactly the kind of movie that is great in any one area, but it would prove just right for a night out with the proper mindset of patience.

Overall, I give it 8 out of 10 stars.

Redux: Batman (1966).

Redux Review #177: Batman.

Cast
Adam West (Bruce Wayne / Batman), Burt Ward (Dick Grayson / Robin), Lee Meriwether (Catwoman/Miss Kitka), Cesar Romero (The Joker), Burgess Meredith (The Penguin), Frank Gorshin (The Riddler), Alan Napier (Alfred Pennyworth), Neil Hamilton (Commissioner James Gordon), Stafford Repp (Chief Miles O'Hara), and Madge Blake (Aunt Harriet Cooper) Directed by Leslie H. Martinson.

Review
The original review gave the rating as a 6/10, but I felt in hindsight that it likely deserved a slightly more improved rating. While I could have just simply fixed the rating without much fanfare, I thought it made more sense to make a redux review instead, with a little bit of waiting to get the review to sync up with the 50th Anniversary of the movie's release. Interestingly enough, this film was released six months after the television series had premiered. In any case, I hope you enjoy this redux review. There will be a new review tomorrow, BTW.

Obviously, one must look at the time this was made as context for a movie that is wonderfully campy much like the show that it came from. For its time, the show (and the movie) are enjoyable in what they aspire to be, fun for all and without an ounce of awful pandering. They both aimed for entertainment and succeeded. Sure, it may seem ridiculous, but that's part of the fun. West and Ward have excellent chemistry together (as one would expect), and the Rouges Gallery (Meriwether, Romero, Meredith, Gorshin) also have an exuberant amount of charm as villains. The colors are bright and vibrant, such as with the Batcave. There are a good deal of silly elements from shark-repellent bat-spray (with rubber shark included) to Alfred wearing a mask while on a stakeout in the Batmobile, but it all feels welcome and is charming enough. It's a well crafted movie at about 105 minutes, not just being like a two-parter from the show. It manages to keep itself cohesive enough, and the fight scene at the end with the Dynamic Duo and the villains is entertaining enough, with everyone getting in on the fun. On its own, this is a movie wonderful in its cheesiness.

The 1989 film (and its sequel) shaped Batman in film to be darker than this film's interpretation (and more like the comics), with that mode still being the dominant form to this day. Batman Forever (but especially Batman & Robin) tried to emulate the show (in a sense), but the tacky artificial nature of the two films (more so for the latter) were not as fun as the original. Even after a half century, this movie, while not a high caliber film, succeeds in being what it wants to be for everyone, with a undeniable charm of its own.

Overall, I give it 7 out of 10 stars.