The Writer's Poke

The opening sequence is unintentionally funny and really takes me out of the rest of the movie: A woman is driving at night, probably faster than conditions call for. All of a sudden, a Detour sign pops up, and so she immediately freaks out and drives over a cliff. Miraculously, she doesn't die, but the only doctor in the entire world that can save her is Dr. Vollin (Bela Lugosi). At first, he refuses to help. Why? Is he retired? Just too evil to help? Did he get his feelings hurt by the other doctors? Whatever the case, when he learns that the other doctors say he's the only one good enough for the job, and he helps. From there, the movie seems to shift. Bateman (Karloff) enters Dr. Vollin's office, demanding at gunpoint that Vollin change his face. At this point, we don't know Vollin to be an evil man. But Bateman says something that attracts Vollin's attention: Ugly people may be more prone to acting in ugly ways. Vollin calls the idea "profound" and ag...

Directed by Edgar Ulmer -- People on Sunday (1930) and Detour (1945) -- and starring Bela Lugosi (Vitus) and Boris Karloff (Poelzig). Not to mention featuring a black freakin' cat, a modern castle built on a mass grave filled with war dead and dynamite, and home to a crazed Satanic cult leader... this movie has it all. Maybe a little too much. It's like Peter (David Manners), the self-professed crappy writer, wrote it all in a fever dream. Even the ending makes fun of what we just watched, noting (in a newspaper review of Peter's latest novel) that none of it was believable. None of it was remotely realistic.  When Vitus sees a black cat, it triggers him. In no real way, to be honest, except to be overdramatic. This is another instance of the film jabbing at itself when Poelzig tells Vitus to "stop being so overdramatic." But Vitus and Poelzig have beef. It goes back to the War and to the fact that Virus spent the past 15 years in a prison -- a kind of Hotel Calif...

This movie maybe shouldn't be that good. But here are some of the "little things" that make it pretty special: "Does she bite?" "That costs extra." *** "Profession?" Looks. Laughs. "Yes." *** "Italian!" "Danish!" "German!" *** Camera shot of the woman in the swing. *** What it doesn't do so well -- The shots of the man in an ape suit, which is only slightly better or worse than the enlarged close-ups of the Ape's "chimpanzee face." Stuff like that takes me out of the movie, to be honest. So as much as I enjoyed a lot about this movie, it has a rating ceiling. Rating: 3/5 stars

Charles Laughton makes this film. His facial expressions. The small darting movements he makes with his eyes. Moreau is the prototypical mad scientist, and he seems quite calm and sane. The only way we see his insanity, other than his creations, is through Laughton's acting. Compare that to Bela Lugosi as the Law Giver. All he has to work with is his voice, and it's a great voice, but even when the camera closes in on his face, the mask he's wearing is so complete that it could be anyone underneath. In fact, although I like the close-up of the "things," and one point in the film, we go from a Lugosi closeup to an unknown actor closeup. Other than name value, it makes very little difference if Lugosi is in this film. It makes all the difference that Laughton is in the film. The plot is so simple, which makes me wonder how The Island of Dr. Moreau (1996) messed it up so badly. Not that Island of Lost Souls is perfect, but it has atmosphere. It knows how to work with...

Interesting to pair this one with a reading or viewing of 1984, which I've been studying and teaching to students at the time I watched this one.  It's frustrating watching Ninotchka (Greta Garbo) for the first 50 minutes of the film. She's so monotone, so lifeless, so robotic. This is all on purpose, of course, but as a viewer, it's not very much fun to watch.  Ninotchka is a special Soviet agent, sent to Paris to check on three Soviet agents sent there to sell the former jewels of a Russian duchess. She arrives, and the men are surprised that Razinin (Bela Lugosi) sent a "female comrade." She tells them not to see her womanhood, and she clearly tries to see herself simply as a "comrade," not as a woman.  Nevertheless, Leon (Melvyn Douglass) immediately becomes attracted to her. He's close with the duchess, but neither he nor the duchess believe in love. Later he suggests to the duchess that he always thought love was "too middle class....