Catman of Paris and Son of Dr. Jekyll--haven't seen them, although a local tv station has recently had repeat showings of "Son"; I might have to record it.
The Ghoul--slow and boring; surprising considering it stars Karloff and the great Ernest Thesiger; a British production--perhaps that accounts for its more "stately" pace.
The Vampire Bat--also slow and boring, which is also surprising, as it also stars great horror mainstays--Atwill, Dwight Frye, and Wray
Strangler of the Swamp--kind of blah; not enough footage of Charles Middleton, who plays the ghoulish one. It has a small cult following. William K. Everson praised it in his book Classics of the Horror Film, and I'm a fan of Everson's criticism, but this one didn't do it for me.
Captive Wild Woman and The Ape Man--both campy fun, so-bad-they're-good; Aquanetta, one of the world's worst actresses, also appears in Dead Man's Eyes, one of the Inner Sanctum mystery series, with Lon Chaney Jr.
The Boogie Man Will Get You--fun spoof, Karloff and Lorre parody their horror images; I would have liked it to have been a bit more wild and over-the-top, but it's worth a watch.
Catman of Paris is THE WORST one on the list. It's mostly a lot of low rent musical numbers in the Can-Can area, with dull romance and occasionally a guy in a cat mask, for the posters' sake, I guess. A big secret gem if you can find it though is SECRETS OF THE FRENCH POLICE.
The APE MAN is okay but RETURN OF THE APE MAN is much better.. see my deep analyses of it on my site here
Captive Wild Woman is a must -directed by a young Edward Dmytryk.. if you can get past the endless Clyde Beatty stock footage then prep for blown mindage. It's on that Universal Classic Horror set which is a must if only for NIGHT MONSTER,
THE GHOUL is nice and atmospheric, but you have to see it on the good MGM DVD, otherwise it tends to get murky (and it's that foggy British cinematography so it needs help), and in that version Boris carves an Ankh on his chest, lurid!
Strangler of the Swamp is awesome--Frank Wibar was a PRC exile from Berlin ala his fellow expressionist Edgar G. Ulmer, so its rich in dreamy atmosphere, and how cool to have a girl as a ferryman?
Vampire Bat, sooo boring. I've tried to watch it a few times... but, at least Fay Wray is in it.
Shoot, I forgot to talk abotu Daughter of Dr. Jekyll, by Ulmer -- good but John Agar seems really irritable and his suit jacket is so hideous it might blind the less fortunate
I've never seen #1 or #8. "Catman of Paris" sounds vaguely familiar; I probably saw some mention of it in a film reference book (like Leonard Maltin's TV Movies) or a horror movie magazine (Famous Monsters of Filmland or Castle of Frankenstein). "Boogie Man" was pretty funny. It kind of reminded me of "Arsenic and Old Lace." TCM showed "The Ghoul" as part of a Karloff marathon on Halloween once. It seemed dull and slow paced, but I heard it had an "adults only" rating in Great Britain at the time. "Captive Wild Woman" was the first in a series about a female were-gorilla. The sequels were Jungle Woman and Jungle Captive.
1951
Don't think I've ever come across the first or last, either. But some charming minor classics in the middle there, particularly BOOGIE MAN.
ReplyDeleteApparently the Blake Edwards listed on Strangler From the Swamp is THE Blake Edwards. IMDb credits him with 29 acting jobs between 1942 and 1948.
ReplyDeleteCatman of Paris and Son of Dr. Jekyll--haven't seen them, although a local tv station has recently had repeat showings of "Son"; I might have to record it.
ReplyDeleteThe Ghoul--slow and boring; surprising considering it stars Karloff and the great Ernest Thesiger; a British production--perhaps that accounts for its more "stately" pace.
The Vampire Bat--also slow and boring, which is also surprising, as it also stars great horror mainstays--Atwill, Dwight Frye, and Wray
Strangler of the Swamp--kind of blah; not enough footage of Charles Middleton, who plays the ghoulish one. It has a small cult following. William K. Everson praised it in his book Classics of the Horror Film, and I'm a fan of Everson's criticism, but this one didn't do it for me.
Captive Wild Woman and The Ape Man--both campy fun, so-bad-they're-good; Aquanetta, one of the world's worst actresses, also appears in Dead Man's Eyes, one of the Inner Sanctum mystery series, with Lon Chaney Jr.
The Boogie Man Will Get You--fun spoof, Karloff and Lorre parody their horror images; I would have liked it to have been a bit more wild and over-the-top, but it's worth a watch.
6 out of 8 is an impressive record for both of you guys.
ReplyDeleteCatman of Paris is THE WORST one on the list. It's mostly a lot of low rent musical numbers in the Can-Can area, with dull romance and occasionally a guy in a cat mask, for the posters' sake, I guess. A big secret gem if you can find it though is SECRETS OF THE FRENCH POLICE.
ReplyDeleteThe APE MAN is okay but RETURN OF THE APE MAN is much better.. see my deep analyses of it on my site here
BOOGIE MAN is a gem! (I wrote of this one too)
Captive Wild Woman is a must -directed by a young Edward Dmytryk.. if you can get past the endless Clyde Beatty stock footage then prep for blown mindage. It's on that Universal Classic Horror set which is a must if only for NIGHT MONSTER,
THE GHOUL is nice and atmospheric, but you have to see it on the good MGM DVD, otherwise it tends to get murky (and it's that foggy British cinematography so it needs help), and in that version Boris carves an Ankh on his chest, lurid!
Strangler of the Swamp is awesome--Frank Wibar was a PRC exile from Berlin ala his fellow expressionist Edgar G. Ulmer, so its rich in dreamy atmosphere, and how cool to have a girl as a ferryman?
Vampire Bat, sooo boring. I've tried to watch it a few times... but, at least Fay Wray is in it.
Nice posters you found. Kudos
Shoot, I forgot to talk abotu Daughter of Dr. Jekyll, by Ulmer -- good but John Agar seems really irritable and his suit jacket is so hideous it might blind the less fortunate
ReplyDeleteYou've seen all eight, Erich? Now I'm really impressed. I'll display my ignorance by posting another eight posters next Tuesday.
ReplyDeleteI've never seen #1 or #8. "Catman of Paris" sounds vaguely familiar; I probably saw some mention of it in a film reference book (like Leonard Maltin's TV Movies) or a horror movie magazine (Famous Monsters of Filmland or Castle of Frankenstein). "Boogie Man" was pretty funny. It kind of reminded me of "Arsenic and Old Lace." TCM showed "The Ghoul" as part of a Karloff marathon on Halloween once. It seemed dull and slow paced, but I heard it had an "adults only" rating in Great Britain at the time. "Captive Wild Woman" was the first in a series about a female were-gorilla. The sequels were Jungle Woman and Jungle Captive.
ReplyDeleteI saw a film with Acquanetta but can't say if this was it. I think she tried to be bad to keep her name alive.
ReplyDelete