The Night Walker.

Review #1418: The Night Walker.

Cast: 
Robert Taylor (Barry Morland), Barbara Stanwyck (Irene Trent), Judi Meredith (Joyce), Hayden Rorke (Howard Trent), Rochelle Hudson (Hilda), Marjorie Bennett (Manager), Jess Barker (Malone), Tetsu Komai (Gardener), and Lloyd Bochner (The Dream) Produced and Directed by William Castle (#369 - House on Haunted Hill, and #1071 - 13 Ghosts)

Review: 
"We all have a common interest: bigger and more horrible monsters--and I'm just the monster to bring them to you."

One cannot forget the master entertainer when they think about film, and there aren't many as capable in self-promotion and imagination as William Castle. He was an orphan by the age of 11, but he found inspiration to entertain audiences by seeing the play Dracula (1927-28), which featured Bela Lugosi. He found what he wanted to do in life from watching numerous performances: "to scare the pants off audiences." A meeting with Lugosi led to a recommendation for a position as assistant stage manager for the touring production, and he later dropped out of high school to do a variety of work on Broadway shows such as stage building. He performed his first great stunt of persuasion by convincing Orson Welles to lease out his theater in Connecticut (vacated in preparation for work on Citizen Kane), where Castle would do a play with German actress Ellen Schwanneke. However, regulations regarding actors speaking plays originally performed in their native country meant that Castle had to conjure up a play in German in only two days. This, combined with a telegram from Germany to invite her home to the country she left led to Castle promoting the actress as "The Girl Who Said No to Hitler", which proved successful. He soon found a job with Columbia Pictures, where he would work for a few years as bit player and dialogue director before being slated to direct in 1943. Although he is remembered for horror, he had started his career with The Chance of a Lifetime (1943, a drama), and he would also spring to doing Westerns and noirs, all being B-movies before he decided to shift focus to independent filmmaking for himself. Inspired by Les Diaboliques (1955, which Robert Bloch noted as his favorite horror film), he was inspired to do horror. which he would start doing with Macabre (1958). He was a master of self promotion and imagination, with gimmicks ranging from moviegoers being given a life insurance policy for $1,000 if they happened to die of fright because of the film they watched, vibrating motors that came from military surplus airplane wing de-icers being installed into some of the theater seats to buzz for a key moment with a supposed tingler. In a career of over 40 years, it is the films in the last fifteen years that are most remembered, some for their gimmicks (like 13 Ghosts, with Illusion-O) but some for their interesting qualities (such as House on Haunted Hill). His filmmaking helped inspire other filmmakers such as Alfred Hitchcock (noting the returns for violent B-movies by him) and John Waters (who described him as his idol).

The film was written by Robert Bloch, most known for his novel Psycho, which was adapted into the hit film of the same name that Castle had done his own take of in Homicidal (1961). The pairing of Taylor and Stanwyck seems planned by Castle as a play on the fact that they were married for twelve years. It would be the last film for Stanwyck in a career that had started in the 1920s in stage shows and Broadway before film stardom and eventual shifting to television that she did until her retirement in 1986 and her death four years later. She was cast when Joan Crawford (another classic actress/actor doing horror in the near end of their career in the 1960) declined due to her intent to star in Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964). She does a fair job in lending dignity to a film that has a careful touch of suspense that demands conviction and is accomplished without fail. Simply put, you care to follow this character in a film that grows a web of weirdness, betrayal, and deception that is done with careful control to make a solid 86 minute thriller. One should expect nothing less than something to drive some curiosity after a creeping voiceover from Paul Frees involving something about the nature of dreams that have some catchy Vic Mizzy music to dig into your head. Taylor does fine with matching up to growing tension in what is real and what isn't. Rorke, though not in the movie too much manages to make a fair impression of mania (particularly with the makeup for his eyes), while the others prove fine in bits, such as Bochner and his strange alluring presence to accompany the sometimes surreal nature of the film. This particularly proves true for its wedding sequence, involving a buildup to showing some mannequins as viewers. It finds a middle in suspense in its buildup to the climax that doesn't spring too many clichés nor do something completely out of left field for enjoyment. It makes for a pleasant experience with atmosphere and consistency expected from a Castle film that delivers most of what it wants to deliver to its audience without trouble.

Overall, I give it 7 out of 10 stars.

Scarlet Street.

Review #1365: Scarlet Street.

Cast:
Edward G. Robinson (Christopher Cross), Joan Bennett (Katherine March), Dan Duryea (Johnny Prince), Margaret Lindsay (Millie Ray), Rosalind Ivan (Adele Cross), Jess Barker (David Janeway), Charles Kemper (Patch-eye Higgins), Anita Sharp-Bolster (Mrs. Michaels), Samuel S. Hinds (Charles Pringle), and Vladimir Sokoloff (Pop LeJon) Directed by Fritz Lang (#333 - M and #500 - Metropolis)

Review: 
"Each picture has some sort of rhythm which only the director can give it. He has to be like the captain of a ship."

One can't forget about Fritz Lang when it comes to his diverse career of films, both in Germany and abroad. Born and raised in Vienna, Lang had a lengthy career, starting as a writer for film in 1916 before debuting as a director with Halbblut (1919). He met writer Thea von Harbou the following year, and they later married in 1922. They worked together in film for over a decade, which include films such as Dr. Mabuse the Gambler (1922), Metropolis (1927), M (1931, his first talking picture), and The Testament of Dr. Mabuse (1933). However, the two divorced due to an affair by Lang that same year. He would soon leave Germany owing to the rise of the Nazis, going to France (where he made one film in Liliom) before going to America. He made his American debut with Fury (1936), with his last in the country being Beyond a Reasonable Doubt (1956) before he returned to Germany (after thinking about retiring due to tough conditions to make further Hollywood films and growing age), where he made three films between 1959 and 1960, with his last being The Thousand Eyes of Dr. Mabuse before his death in 1976 at the age of 85. He was noted for his Expressionism (more so for his German films) alongside his talent in doing numerous genres, particularly with film noir.

The film was adapted (written by Dudley Nichols) from the French novel La Chienne by Georges de La Fouchardiere, which had already been played on the stage and in film in 1931 under its title by Jean Renoir (who notably disliked this film). This was the second time that Lang utilized this trio of actors, as they had appeared together in The Woman in the Window a year earlier. Both films had Robinson play a lonely middle-aged man and Bennett and Duryea play a criminal duo, and they even had the same choreographer in Milton R. Krasner. Robinson for his part did not like his experiences with either film, finding this one to be monotonous to do, although Lang found it to be one of his favorites to do. To each his own, one suppose - both of course do tremendous jobs in making a capable noir tick well. It goes to show how one can make something that plays numerous hands of deception to the benefit of its audience through 109 minutes, a clever experience with some psychological depth to it. It shouldn't prove too surprising that local authorities in three cities for censor boards objected to the content of the film, calling it many things besides "obscene". After all, it isn't exactly a noir with a happy ending, nor is it one that requires so. Just the idea of a character getting away with a murder was in some minds enough to object to, beyond portraying some sort of sordid life or illicitness with love. In other words, one needs a bit of risk sometimes to make things work better than a conventional film would do, with the best noirs utilizing imagination to give the viewer something to look into without needing things spelled out for them. Robinson does well with making an ordinary presence come into focus that we can follow along with to a point as a meek man that doesn't seem cartoonish or underplayed. Bennett and Duryea make for a conniving duo, ones with some luring power alongside a rough nature with chemistry. One can follow the film along without too much trouble, wrapped with a few twists that keep the viewer wanting more without displeasing them with where it needs to get to with its daring ending, where one can certainly find a prison for themselves without needing a conviction to do so. Lang certainly made plenty of memorable films, and this is one that is good to highlight, particularly since it is readily available through the public domain for anyone to view for themselves, a worthwhile little gem for the decade.

Overall, I give it 8 out of 10 stars.