The Invisible Man's Revenge.

Review #2450: The Invisible Man's Revenge.

Cast: 

Jon Hall (Robert Griffin / The Invisible Man), Leon Errol (Herbert Higgins), John Carradine (Dr. Peter Drury), Alan Curtis (Mark Foster), Evelyn Ankers (Julie Herrick), Gale Sondergaard (Lady Irene Herrick), Lester Matthews (Sir Jasper Herrick), Halliwell Hobbes (Cleghorn), Leyland Hodgson (Sir Frederick Travers), and Doris Lloyd (Maud) Produced and Directed by Ford Beebe. 

Review:

You may or may not remember that The Invisible Man wasn't exactly the Universal favorite. It took seven years from the release of The Invisible Man (1933) to merit a follow-up and, well, they never appeared in one of the Universal crossover movies, so you got The Invisible Man Returns (1940). Instead, you got stuff like The Invisible Woman (1940), a comedy feature (starring Virginia Bruce) and Invisible Agent (1942), a spy movie that happened to have Jon Hall play the title character. With this movie, Hall became the only actor to play an Invisible Man in multiple movies. The movie was directed and produced by Ford Beebe, a grab-bag man of directing various genres for cheap, whether as the Western with Overland Bound (1929), the serial such as Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars (1938) or the adventure with Bomba, the Jungle Boy (1949-1955). The movie was written by Bertram Millhauser, who had written for several mysteries such as four Sherlock Holmes movies. Previously, Beebe had directed a horror movie for Universal with Night Monster (1942).  Universal did one other Invisible Man, albeit as a spoof, with Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man (1951). There were movies abroad that cribbed from the H. G. Wells novel such as The Invisible Man Appears (1949) and The Invisible Avenger (1954), which each had effects work by Eiji Tsuburaya and there was also the Japanese feature The Invisible Man vs. The Human Fly (1957). And then of course there was some overrated Universal movie in 2020.

Now we are in the realm of pushing mad scientists to the sidelines for tired plots about revenge. To put it out of the way, this is the weakest of the three Invisible Man movies. You would think a movie that relies on draining blood from people to maybe become visible again would have an effect on you, but nope, the whole thing is just played for mild-mannered scare. The story (77 minutes long) isn't even that involving either, since the lead character is presented as just a weird guy trying to get revenge, so even if his motives were interesting beyond "maybe" being screwed over in safari, he does his stuff in the most complicated of ways, because it isn't enough to target two people, no, he wants to get their daughter married to him as well. He gets rescued by someone and decides, yes, I'm going to give them a bit of a boost and try to help them win a game of darts too. The ending is sheer audacity in ridiculous: the loyal dog of the guy the Invisible Man kills ends up being responsible for his demise, because he just happened to wander all the way through. Hall in general is too bland to really make this path of "revenge" that interesting. Carradine at least looks enthused to not be in a Universal movie with makeup (he played Count Dracula a few times) but he isn't even allowed to really go off for curiosity. Sure, his plan to help a guy gain visibility (dog gets drained of blood) sounds mad but he is quickly disposed of anyway. To say nothing of the bland triangle between Hall, Curtis, and Hendrick is the easiest thing, because really, getting money sounds more compelling than having to get visible just so you can "get" a girl. Everything is stacked in just doing things in the corniest of ways that don't even make for a great showcase of invisible effects this time, save for a scene or two. As a whole, for a studio that pumped out stuff such as House of Frankenstein the same year as this, you get basically the same amount of rushed ham-handedness for a pretty tired movie. 

Overall, I give it 6 out of 10 stars.

The Mark of Zorro (1940).

Review #1869: The Mark of Zorro.

Cast: 

Tyrone Power (Don Diego Vega/Zorro), Linda Darnell (Lolita Quintero), Basil Rathbone (Captain Esteban Pasquale), Gale Sondergaard (Inez Quintero), Eugene Pallette (Friar Felipe), J. Edward Bromberg (Don Luis Quintero), Montagu Love (Don Alejandro Vega), Janet Beecher (Senora Isabella Vega), George Regas (Sergeant Gonzales), Chris-Pin Martin (Turnkey), and Robert Lowery (Rodrigo) Directed by Rouben Mamoulian (#773 - Applause)

Review: 

Zorro, if you remember correctly, originally appeared in serialized form in 1919 from author Johnston McCulley, which went under the title as "The Curse of Capistrano" (it has since been published as The Mark of Zorro). As such, the first film adaptation came with The Mark of Zorro (1920), with Douglas Fairbanks as the adventurous one-man force that served as a co-writer, producer, and star. 20th Century Fox had the rights to do a remake when they bought them from Fairbanks, although it did not stop other stories to be adapted involving the character as created by McCulley, such as Republic Pictures making The Bold Caballero (1936). Of course, Tyrone Power is an ideal matinee idol to take the helm as the title lead. The Cincinnati native was an actor as was the case with his Irish great-grandfather (the original Tyrone Power), his grandmother (Ethel Lavenu), and his father (Tyrone Sr.). He appeared in films starting in 1932, but it was his appearance in his fifth with Lloyd's of London (1936) that made him into a screen presence worth seeing on the screen over and over, and he was only 22. At the helm of director was a solid successor from Fred Niblo in Rouben Mamoulian. He had emigrated from the Russian Empire to England before to direct plays before moving to the States to teach and direct opera/theatre. He would direct a variety of productions even after entering film such as Oklahoma! and Carousel. His first film was Applause (1929), an early sound feature, but his best-known feature is probably Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931). He would direct films on a regular basis from 1929 to 1942 (with two more films afterwards) that did a variety of genres (noir, musicals, adventure) while also serving as a founding father for the Directors Guild of America; he died at the age of 90 in 1987. Six years before his death, Zorro, the Gay Blade (1981) was dedicated to him as a tribute to the classic adventure portrayed in this film. 

The screenplay was done by John Taintor Foote while the story was done by Garrett Fort and Bess Meredyth. One other key tribute came with the world of comic books, as it is one of the parts of the original origin-story of Batman (whose parents were killed after a screening of the movie); Zorro in general proved an inspiration to the concept of Batman as devised by Bob Kane and Bill Finger, since both characters are folks presenting themselves as rich playboys while secretly fighting crime in a dark costume. Coincidentally, this film has a member of the cast in Robert Lowery, who would become the second actor to play the character of Batman in a film serial later in the 1940s. This film and The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) share two actors basically playing the same type of character with Rathbone and Pallette. It might not be as great as the original feature in terms of outright professionalism and newness (i.e. not being the first great Zorro adventure), but it does make for a solid adventure film with enough reason to exist with a capable lead and all-around charm to make it just as interesting for the curious moviegoer to view hand in hand with past and future Zorro movies. Mamoulian achieves a film with plenty of fluid engagement and rhythm that achieves plenty in 94 minutes. The balance of narrative and action is done to where one isn't aching to see too much of one over the other, moving along with smiles rather than gloom. Power plays the double act required in the title lead with worthy screen presence, dashing in the moments needed for his public face but also riveting when it comes to being the man in black with an accompanying tight drawl. He might be young, but he has the presence of an old soul that probably would've fit well in a variety of action eras (sure, Zorro should probably be played by someone of a different ethnicity when it comes to helping people living in California before it became a state, but one must pick their battles when it comes to older films). Darnell and Power have semi-decent chemistry together despite the age difference (ten years between the 26-year old Power and, well...) with at least some sort of general innocence to make things look semi-solid (Sondergaard does seem more intrigued to be in the same room with Power at times though). Pallette is the ideal pairing with Power in heroic accomplice for all of his drawing power in voice qualities and timing. Bromberg makes for a decent stooge pretender, although Rathbone is the key other highlight, one with dignified ruthlessness that simmers well against Power in the ways expected to help make its ultimate endpoint quite worth it (of course, he was quite good with fencing to where he did not need to have a double). Fred Cavens helped choregraph the fencing sequence while his son Albert served as a stunt double for Power in shots from behind, which means one isn't watching sequences of folks jumping around while trying to fence (not that there's anything wrong with that, since it is execution that matters more than anything). The funny thing is that it isn't the final part of the film, since there's still a bit of time left to wrap things up, which works out just fine, bookending itself in throwing a sword into the air with winking convenience. As a whole, it runs at a slick rate that will dazzle all whoever heard of the term "matinee" and lined up to see it with rapt attention, packed with energy that has not dulled over the prevailing eight decades since release that shows how one can re-adapt prior material and make it seem fresh and worthy of viewing for audiences that other films wish they could do so well.

Overall, I give it 8 out of 10 stars.

Next Time: Sanshiro Sugata.

The Life of Emile Zola.

Review #1347: The Life of Emile Zola.

Cast: 
Paul Muni (Émile Zola), Gloria Holden (Alexandrine Zola), Gale Sondergaard (Lucie Dreyfus), Joseph Schildkraut (Captain Alfred Dreyfus), Donald Crisp (Maitre Labori), Erin O'Brien-Moore (Nana), John Litel (Charpentier), Henry O'Neill (Colonel Picquart), Morris Carnovsky (Anatole France), Louis Calhern (Major Dort), Ralph Morgan (Commander of Paris), Robert Barrat (Major Walsin-Esterhazy), and Vladimir Sokoloff (Paul Cézanne) Directed by William Dieterle.

Review: 
"I've never tried to learn the art of acting. I have been in the business for years but I still can't tell what acting is or how it's done"

As redundant as it may sound, one needs a bit of history now and then. Who better to headline a biographical film than Paul Muni? The son of actors, he had started a career in Yiddish theatre in Chicago after emigrating there from Lemberg (a city that was in the Austro-Hungarian Empire but is now referred to as Lviv, Ukraine). He was noted for his makeup skills, appearing as an 80-year-old man to debut on stage while being just 12. He spent three years on Broadway before being signed by Fox Film in 1929, making two films (The Valiant and Seven Faces), but he went back to Broadway before being enticed to return in 1932, with Scarface and I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang leading to him being signed by Warner Bros. Muni was noted for his preparation for roles, particularly for biographies, which served him for films such as The Story of Louis Pasteur (1936), which won him an Academy Award for Best Actor. Muni made 13 of his 23 films in the 1930s, having script approval over what he wanted to do, a rare thing at the time. He ended his career the same way he started it: with an Academy Award nomination (he had five in total).

Naturally, one is to expect a few wrinkles of inaccuracy, which the film anticipates with a title card stating that the while the production has basis in history, the historical basis was "fictionalized for the purposes of this picture". Relating to that, a cursory search of Zola leads me to a fact I didn't discover in the film: he wrote a cycle of twenty novels named Les Rougon-Macquart, for which Nana (mentioned in the film) was part of. The obvious sticking point with history is how the film deals with the Dreyfus affair when relating to anti-Semitism of the time that was key to the case since he was Jewish (the word isn't even mentioned in dialogue, only shown on screen once), which has been argued to be due to the timidity of studios when it came to dealing with Nazi Germany. There are numerous quibbles that can be freely noted, ranging from how he is brought into the Dreyfus case (not over the tears of the wife) to the fact that his death (carbon monoxide poisoning through a badly ventilated chimney) was not in fact the day before exoneration of said general. But as Zola once said, "The truth is on the march, and nothing shall stop it." The film relies on the sentiment of truth and justice eventually prevailing in the end, with German actor-turned-director Dieterle being the one to help do it, having directed Muni to three biographical films (the aforementioned Pasteur film and Juarez) in a directing run that spanned forty years. The film has a stagy quality to it, where one senses a speech with some sort of platitudes to pop up sooner than later, which can work out well when a moment of dignity is required. In that sense, Muni makes the best of it, where one sees the dedication in bringing an icon of writing to the screen come out without seeming too much like overacting (which Muni has been criticized for, with Dieterle even accusing him of doing occasionally). One can see his conviction on display without hesitation in the monologue scene for the court, a six-minute scene of dedication to making the measure of a man. The rest of the actors (including an Academy Award-winning performance from Schildkraut) do just fine, keeping up with Muni in displaying some dignity in keeping the momentum going without too many bumps in the road, whether as people who stand with Zola for truth or stand among keeping it buried to not have to deal with an army admitting fallibility. Granted, the resulting film that comes from said statements seems a bit long at 116 minutes, but at least one can say that this worked better with being a biography than the previous biographical Best Picture winner in The Great Ziegfeld (1936), even if it is at best a fairly okay experience to spend time with. One can be inspired to inquire further about the famed author than the mild snapshots that this provides. It may not be the most prime material for its decade, but it still finds a way to create curiosity through its attempts at entertainment along the lines of other films of its ilk in most of the right places.

Overall, I give it 7 out of 10 stars.

The Spider Woman.

Review #1021: The Spider Woman.

Cast: 
Basil Rathbone (Sherlock Holmes), Nigel Bruce (Dr. John Watson), Gale Sondergaard (Adrea Spedding), Vernon Downing (Norman Locke), Dennis Hoey (Inspector Lestrade), Alec Craig (Radlik), Arthur Hohl (Adam Gilflower), Mary Gordon (Mrs. Hudson), and Teddy Infuhr (Larry) Directed by Roy William Neill (#846 - Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, #873 - Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon, #925 - Sherlock Holmes in Washington, and #936 - Sherlock Holmes Faces Death)

Review: 
This was the seventh film in the Sherlock Holmes series with Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce as Holmes and Watson, respectively, and it happens to be the first one since The Hound of the Baskervilles (#583) to not include Holmes' name on the title, and that would occur for the rest of the film series. This time around, Holmes is investigating a series of suicides that are termed as "pjyama suicides" (as spelled in the film), with the villain being dubbed a "female Moriarty"; this isn't so surprising, seeing how Moriarty was already featured as a villain twice in a three year span. Admittedly, the biggest surprise in the film happens in the first ten minutes: Holmes fakes his death in order to investigate the murders...of course this doesn't really fool the villain all too much by the time they meet (with Holmes in disguise), which makes this seem a bit ridiculous.

Fans of the stories will note the film's incorporation of elements from The Sign of the Four (1890), along with the short stories "The Final Problem", "The Adventure of the Empty House", "The Adventure of the Devil's Foot" and "The Adventure of the Speckled Band", so that is certainly interesting. This is an okay movie, but I find it to be not as good as the previous film in the series, mostly because the film feels likes its going through the motions, although it has a standard level of satisfaction. It has a mildly compelling performance from Sondergaard, although her character isn't exactly too menacing. Rathbone and Bruce are both fairly consistent as one would expect; the sequence with Bruce where he tries to out what he believes in Holmes in a disguise (portrayed by Hohl) is a bit ridiculous, especially because it seems obvious that it wasn't him, and it feels less surprising when compared to when he exchanged words with a person that turned out to be Holmes in disguise. The climax of the film, which takes place in a carnival atmosphere with a shooting gallery is pretty unusual, but I do find it to work with the odd nature of the movie, which is at the very least somewhat entertaining. At 62 minutes, it is worth at least some of your time, depending on whether you are in the mood for another story with Sherlock Holmes.

Overall, I give it 7 out of 10 stars.