This is a pretty serious line-up of good flicks! MAN MADE, of course, was Lon's right before THE WOLF MAN, and written by Harry Essex (CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON); NIGHT MONSTER is a very creepy, well-done flick from serial master Ford Beebe and impressed Alfred Hitchcock, who screened the film when he was prepping SHADOW OF A DOUBT; THE DEVIL COMMANDS is Ed Dmytryk's best horror film before he came into his own at RKO with MURDER, MY SWEET and CROSSFIRE; and really love, THE HUMAN MONSTER. I think it's the best adaptation of an Edgar Wallace story, is genuinely sadistic, and features one of Lugosi's best performances. This English production is certainly Lugosi's best Monogram release. And the others? Hey, pop the popcorn and throw on DEVIL BAT and enjoy the cheesiness!
I think (amid the various enthusiasms) I agree with Courtney that THE DEVIL COMMANDS might be the best of this bunch (I definitely haven't seen 'em all); WEIRD WOMAN is, as I tend to note, the first adaptation of Fritz Leiber's CONJURE WIFE to film, but a very clumsy and loose one, and as with the other "Inner Sanctum" films it starred Lon Chaney, Jr., who was rarely more badly miscast, but, as I'm also fond of noting, Evelyn Ankers does what she can to enliven the affair. And she's certainly easier to watch.
These are cherished B-movie memories for those (like me) who watched many of them as kids on Saturday late-nite TV around 1960-61. Thanks to local TV stations that had off-hours to fill with programming, I also became a fan of old '40s Jon Hall and Maria Montez turban-and-sarong films. Speaking of literary sources, THE LADY AND THE MONSTER was the first movie version of Siodmak's "Donovan's Brain."
Let me chime in on The Devil Commands, too. I'll remember for a longtime. Forget about a Dmytryk movie? Never. I wrote about it briefly last year here. It's included among my "forgotten" films for anyone looking for something different for Halloween movie viewing.
Speaking of literary sources: THE DEVIL COMMANDS is the movie adaptation of The Edge of Running Water, a well done SF/horror novel by William Sloane who also wrote the equally good, if not better, To Walk the Night.
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This is a pretty serious line-up of good flicks! MAN MADE, of course, was Lon's right before THE WOLF MAN, and written by Harry Essex (CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON); NIGHT MONSTER is a very creepy, well-done flick from serial master Ford Beebe and impressed Alfred Hitchcock, who screened the film when he was prepping SHADOW OF A DOUBT; THE DEVIL COMMANDS is Ed Dmytryk's best horror film before he came into his own at RKO with MURDER, MY SWEET and CROSSFIRE; and really love, THE HUMAN MONSTER. I think it's the best adaptation of an Edgar Wallace story, is genuinely sadistic, and features one of Lugosi's best performances. This English production is certainly Lugosi's best Monogram release. And the others? Hey, pop the popcorn and throw on DEVIL BAT and enjoy the cheesiness!
Weird Woman. I dated her, and a bunch of her friends.
I think (amid the various enthusiasms) I agree with Courtney that THE DEVIL COMMANDS might be the best of this bunch (I definitely haven't seen 'em all); WEIRD WOMAN is, as I tend to note, the first adaptation of Fritz Leiber's CONJURE WIFE to film, but a very clumsy and loose one, and as with the other "Inner Sanctum" films it starred Lon Chaney, Jr., who was rarely more badly miscast, but, as I'm also fond of noting, Evelyn Ankers does what she can to enliven the affair. And she's certainly easier to watch.
These are cherished B-movie memories for those (like me) who watched many of them as kids on Saturday late-nite TV around 1960-61. Thanks to local TV stations that had off-hours to fill with programming, I also became a fan of old '40s Jon Hall and Maria Montez turban-and-sarong films. Speaking of literary sources, THE LADY AND THE MONSTER was the first movie version of Siodmak's "Donovan's Brain."
Jeez, I had no idea Conjure Wife and Donovan's Brain were lurking within this bunch.
Let me chime in on The Devil Commands, too. I'll remember for a longtime. Forget about a Dmytryk movie? Never. I wrote about it briefly last year here. It's included among my "forgotten" films for anyone looking for something different for Halloween movie viewing.
Speaking of literary sources: THE DEVIL COMMANDS is the movie adaptation of The Edge of Running Water, a well done SF/horror novel by William Sloane who also wrote the equally good, if not better, To Walk the Night.
Thanks, John...I knew I should've looked that up, as it was gnawing on the edge of memory.
You see what you stumble onto when you do this, Evan?
"Horror Movies I've never heard of (or didn't want to remember)"
What?!?! That's a confession I would keep very much to myself if I were you! ;-)
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