Category: From the Vault

From The Vault: Caught (1949)

“The Story of a desperate girl”

CAUGHT 1949

Director Max Ophüls ( Letter From An Unknown Woman 1948, The Reckless Moment 1949) offers a gritty and volatile film noir starring James Mason, Barbara Bel Geddes, and the imposing figure of Robert Ryan. With an uncredited assistant directorship by Robert Aldrich. Based on the book Wild Calendar by Libbie Block

Written by Arthur Laurents (The Snake Pit 1948, West Side Story 1961, The Way We Were 1973)

Interesting question: If Howard Hughes gained control of RKO in 1949, was Robert Ryan’s characterization of Smith Ohlrig truly based on Hughs?

A young Howard Hughes…Ryan was perfect for the part of Smith Ohlrig.

Also stars Frank Ferguson (regular on Andy Griffith Show) as Quinada’s partner Dr. Hoffman, Art Smith as Ohlrig’s psychiatrist who knows Ohlrig is a walking powder keg, Natalie Schafer as Dorothy Dale and Curt Bois as Ohlrig’s personal assistant, and like many a good Film Noir delivers, the snarky gay cipher – Franzi Kartos, who’s incessantly calling Leonora DARLING… that if subtitled would read ‘you bourgeois cow…’

One of the staples of the Noir catalog, Caught is a brutish and self-contained story about an egomaniac, hungry for power and consumed by a nasty possessiveness that borders on the psychotic.

Paging Dr. Freud… a classic case of overcompensation and oh yes… this man is a ticking time bomb.

Robert Ryan is chilling as the Neanderthal bigwig worth millions of dollars, with an explosive rage that rests on simmer until something sets him off when it doesn’t go his way. Oh, and Ohlrig also suffers from panic attacks, which he believes is truly a heart condition and not a nervous disorder.

Barbara Bel Geddes is the naive Leonora Eames, who has childlike fancies of marrying a wealthy man and living a life of luxury. Invited to a party on a boat one night, she meets Smith Ohlrig outside on the pier, near his yacht. Although Ohlrig could have any woman he chooses, something about Leonora sparks on him. From the very first encounter, we can see that it’s not a romantic chemistry that stirs Ohlrig, but something more forbidding and sinister.

Once he sets his sights on her, taking her for a ride in his car, he decides there and then, to marry this plain girl, whom he doesn’t love but knows he can possess easily.

Leonora soon realizes that her dream has become a nightmare and that Smith is a menacing character who treats her like part of the furniture and is not quite right in the head.

Ohlrig refuses to give Leonora a divorce, so she decides to leave her opulent home on Long Island and take a job as a receptionist in the city working for a doctor who runs a free clinic in a very poor neighborhood.

Perhaps this is Leonora’s way of cleansing her soul for making the mistake of marrying for money and not for love.

James Mason is Dr. Larry Quinada the absolute antithesis of Smith Ohlrig. He’s genteel and compassionate, and soon the two fall in love, though Leonora is held captive by her dominating husband.

Leonora Eames: Look at me! Look at what you bought!

Complicating matters is the fact that Leonora becomes pregnant by the sadistic Ohlrig who would rather see her a prisoner in the sterile palace that is her home rather than let her go free… Is the threat of financial security and the welfare of their unborn child that which will chain her to him forever…?

Smith Ohlrig: Is she coming down?
Franzi Kartos: [Stands silent, knowing that Leonora is not coming down]
Smith Ohlrig: [Getting angrier] Why the devil do you think I sent you up there, you dirty little parasite? Get her down here!
Franzi Kartos: [Long pause] I think I prefer to be a headwaiter again, Mr. Ohlrig.
Franzi Kartos: [Heads for the door, then stops] You know, you’re a big man, but not big enough to destroy that girl. Goodbye.

Franzi Kartos tinkling the ivories…darling.

There are thousands of fabulous films in my collection just as thrilling, this is one of them! Don’t you get caught-MonsterGirl

From The Vault: Ladies in Retirement (1941)

LADIES IN RETIREMENT (1941)

Directed by Charles Vidor  the man responsible for the eminent noir classic, Gilda 1946 and no relation to the more well know King Vidor. With a screenplay by Reginald Denham (The Mad Room 1969 a modern reworking of the same play, Suspense, Kraft Theater and Alfred Hitchock Presents)

The Mad Room 1969 a modern reworking of Denham’s Ladies in Retirement starring Shelley Winters and Stella Stevens.

Based on his play, and given a cast of intelligent performers like Ida Lupino, Elsa Lanchester, Isobel Elsom, Edith Barrett, Evelyn Keyes and Louis Hayward. 

The film is a suspenseful story with tremors of ethical dilemma, evocative of pity and encompassed by the moor like fog of madness and desperation.

Ida Lupino plays the reticent Ellen Creed, housekeeper to the colorful Leonora Fiske (Isobel Elsom) who has retired from the music hall stage. Ellen is the obsessive guardian of her two loosely screwed sisters Emily and Louisa portrayed deliciously vague sort of loony by Elsa Lanchester (Emily) and Edith Barrett (Louisa).

Ellen manipulates Leonora to allow her quirky siblings to come and visit, well aware that she has no intention of making it a temporary stay. Once Leonora realizes that the two are batty, she demands that they leave forcing Ellen to do the unthinkable, to not only murder her employer, but create a deceptive strategy that will allow the sisters to dwell in sanctuary at the cozy manor house by the moors.

Unfortunately, Ellen not only has the full time job of wrangling her nutty sisters, she becomes the target of her blackmailing nephew Albert Feather, played with a dash of charming malevolence by Louis Hayward. ( And Then There Were None 1945, Ruthless 1958, House By The River, Night Gallery: Certain Shadows on The Wall.)

The film is moody, macabre, theatrical, with a musty air of Gothic as Leonora’s remains lay hidden in the coal bin behind the bricks, near the grand piano where she once boisterously sang Tit -Willow from The Mikado…

The atmosphere stays closed in, as all three sisters flit about exposing their disconnection to reality. Evelyn Keyes is Lucy the house maid who brings a bit of naivete to the atmosphere as she too falls prey to Albert the ‘charming rogue” who gets her to participate unwittingly in his ruthless scheme of blackmail.

A quiet and delicately creepy hybrid of the old dark house sub genre of horror, mixed with suspenseful psychological thriller as it whimsically touches on the subject of mental illness and the darker sides of human nature.
The brooding Lanchester and the chattering, guileless Barrett (I Walked With A Zombie, The Ghost Ship, Jane Eyre all 1943) are wonderful as the one who is intense and a compulsive collector, to the one who is as fay as an aged wood sprite, wide eyed and childlike.
In contrast to the flightiness of her two sisters, the tightly coiled Lupino is beautiful and menacing as she anguishes over the fate of the peculiar pair who act more like undisciplined children, and less the blatant lunatics.
It’s the subtle intrusions of reality that impinge on the character’s terminal state of fantasy,which brings out the self-centered, insulated psyches of the two sisters. This creates the environment of insanity, and while they cause the situation to ignite a criminal conspiracy because of their unchallenged instability they are essentially harmless ultimately exposing Ellen as the most dangerous and cunning in the family.

Albert charms his way into Leonora’s home and heart!

Louisa Creed: I hate the dark. It frightens me.
Sister Theresa: It shouldn’t, my dear. Don’t you believe we’re watched over?
Louisa Creed: Oh yes. But I’m never quite sure who’s watching us.

Ida Lupino on the set of Ladies in Retirement 1941

There are thousands of films as fabulous as this in my collection, this is just one of them!-MonsterGIrl

From The Vault: Portrait in Black (1960)

“They touched…and an evil spark was struck!”

PORTRAIT IN BLACK (1960)

Directed by Michael Gordon, Produced by Ross Martin, based on a play, and adapted to the screen by Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts, this crime melodrama is filled with all the right tawdry drama and campy dialogue that makes watching films from the fabulous 60’s so much fun!

Starring Lana Turner as Sheila Cabot a woman who is married to a dying shipping magnate Matthew Cabot ( Lloyd Nolan). Anthony Quinn portrays Dr. David Rivera, Matthew Cabot’s attending physician. The wealthy couple lives in a sumptuous home in San Francisco.

Sheila and the good Doctor, begin having an affair, and soon after their sparks fly, the lovers decide to murder Sheila’s nasty yet, terminally ill husband.

But as often the way these juicy tales of murder and passion go, someone knows the lovers have killed off the rich old Cabot, and begins blackmailing them.

Sandra Dee plays Cathy, Cabot’s daughter from his first marriage. Richard Basehart is Howard Mason, Cabot’s greedy business partner. John Saxon plays Blake Richards, the chauffeur, who is pursuing Cathy, and Ray Walston, Virgina Grey and Anna May Wong fill out the cast of dubious characters, all of whom might be the ‘one’ who knows about their crime!

Oh the flashy melodramatics, Oh Turner’s wardrobe! There are thousands of films in my collection, this is just one of those deliciously trashy ones.- MonsterGirl…

From The Vault: Corridor of Mirrors (1948)

Corridor of Mirrors (1948)

Directed by Terence Young, and starring Eric Portman, Edana Romney, and Barbara Mullen. The script was co-written by Edana Romney.

Terence Young plays Paul Mangin who thinks he is Cesare Borgia reincarnated and that Mifanwy Conway (Edana Romney) is his lost love from a previous life. Appearances by Christopher Lee and Valentine Dyall.

Terence Young’s film is a masterpiece of exquisite filmmaking, immersing the audience in a rich atmosphere and evoking a mood that rivals the best psychological suspense thrillers and horror films from the forties, like the shadow plays of Val Lewton and the Gothic dark romances such as Wuthering Heights, Rebecca, and Jane Eyre.

Corridor of Mirrors evokes an atmospheric, hallucinatory spectacle akin to Henri Alekan’s cinematography as he follows Josette Day’s travels through the mansion in Cocteau’s 1946 fable-like masterpiece Beauty and the Beast imbued with its baroque, gilded, and ornate set design. Andre Thomas’s poetic lighting and camera angles suffuse the landscape of labyrinthine corridors creating a somber and otherworldly landscape that evoked traces of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland as Edana Romney journeys through the dreamy complexity of the mansion trying to break free of the spell, as she pursues the white cat who is an emblem of Alice’s white rabbit.

With beautiful music by composer Georges Auric!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eouugmshR6s]

See you soon-MonsterGirl

From The Vault: The Queen of Spades (1949)

“The Dead Shall Give Up Their Secrets!”

THE QUEEN OF SPADES 1949

The Queen of Spades is a masterpiece if ever I saw one. Associate Producer Jack Clayton was on board for this film, directed by Thorold Dickinson (Gaslight 1940) who came onto the project last minute. Adapted to the screen by Rodney Ackland and Arthur Boys from the story written by Alexander Pushkin. The story could have easily been dreamt up by Aleksei Tolstoy,  Ivan Chekhov -(The Drop of Water) Nikolai Gogol  or even Oscar Wilde.

My partner Wendy even mentioned Edgar Allan Poe as she watched along with me. It brought to my mind, his short story Never Bet The Devil Your Head. Which of course was brought to life by Frederico Fellini in the segment of Spirits of The Dead 1968 called Toby Dammit, featuring the work of actor Terence Stamp.

Terence Stamp as Toby Dammit in the segment of the same name as part of Spirits of The Dead. Directed by Frederico Fellini 1968 Based on the short story by Poe, Never Bet The Devil Your Head.
From Mario Bava’s Black Sabbath 1963 vignette The Drop of Water based on a story by Chekhov.
Boris Karloff stars in an adaptation of Tolstoy’s story in the segment about The Wurdelak.

It’s clear that Russians are very good at telling Ghost stories and notorious for telling tales about selling your soul to the Devil!

The Queen of Spades, stars Anton Walbrook, Edith Evans, Yvonne Mitchell and Ronald Howard.

The gorgeous music scored by Georges Auric   (Beauty and The Beast (1946), The Innocents (1961), and Wages of Fear 1953 just to mention a very few!) is as heart wrenching as it is heroic, drawing out the exquisite melody and chord changes to reach the soul and twist it into knots while it lingers.

What can I say about the gorgeous cinematography by Otto Heller.The odd camera angles are reminiscent of the great German Expressionist movement, something from Fritz Lang or the use of light and darkly dreamy angles like that of Carl Theodor Dreyer.

Even without any sound, the story would have emerged from the screen as a powerful cautionary tale, rife with grotesque and compelling characters.

The film is an arresting fairytale, that’s dreamy, and haunting in it’s imagery and perhaps, yes perhaps as visually stunning as I dare say Jean Cocteau’s  La Belle et la Bête 1946 or Julian Duvivier’s Flesh and Fantasy 1943 and collaborative efforts of Alberto Cavalcanti, Charles Crichton, Basil Dearden and Robert Hamer’s Dead of Night 1945.

Betty Fields and the mysterious mask salesman in Flesh and Fantasy
Michael Redgrave and his dummy in Dead of Night

There are frames so masterfully conjured in shadow, that you might even think you’re watching Film Noir or an obscure Val Lewton production. Either way, The Queen of Spades sort of defies being labelled a specific genre.

It has it’s own melancholy fantasy that draws from many elements of  the mystery/suspense crime/noir and supernatural horror gems of that golden age, when visual structure was as essential to the narrative as was the character development and dialogue.

Anton Walbrook is wonderful as Moira Shearer’s domineering impresario Boris Lermontov in Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s The Red Shoes 1948

Anton Walbrook  plays the bitter and venomous Capt.Herman Suvorin an army engineer, who is so poisoned by his resentments toward the ruling aristocracy , that he wants to gain his own wealth, and punish those around him who have benefited by their birthright and title. Suvorin does not want to take life as it comes, he wants to “Grab life by the throat and force it to give him what he wants!”-Suvorin.

This he conspires to do by trying to learn the secret of winning at a card game named Faro, from the Old Countess Ranevskaya, played by Edith Evans.

The marvelous British actress Dame Edith Evans
It’s always a bad omen to draw The Queen of Spades!

After a frustrating night of watching a few of his fellow army officers play Faro, taunting Herman as if he was not of the same class, he bursts out of his room in a self absorbed rage, and wanders onto the streets and into a dusty old book store, first picking up a book about Napoleon Bonaparte whom he admires (his portrait hangs in Herman’s humble room) because Napoleon came into his power at age 26!

Herman Suvorin possess a similar intensely maniacal quality that makes him a very unapproachable,manipulative and unlikable man. Looking at him was like “looking into the eyes of Satan!”

Fatefully placed next to Napoleon’s book is another book, suddenly and with a creepy alacrity, the old bookshop owner picks up the ancient bound leather and starts relating it’s contents to Herman, as if he’d been chosen the messenger… warning Suvorin about the secrets and dangers of tampering with the universe. The old man told Herman that he’d either wind up having riches… or lose his eternal soul!

“You might wind up gaining a fortune or losing your precious soul!”

In terms of appearance and demeanor I thought of Riffraff from Rocky Horror Picture Show, and wondered if this little bookish crypt keeper was an inspiration for Richard O Brien!

Herman purchases the book for 3 rubles, and starts reading aloud to us. This mysterious book, about people making deals with the Devil, and a certain mysterious Count d. Saint Germaine who lived in an isolated palace and molded wax images of his chosen victims, thereby trapping their souls forever in his power.

Herman Suvorin slowly and thoughtfully recites to us from the book:

Containing the true stories of people who sold their souls in return for wealth, power or influence"¦ Chapter IV The Secret of The Cards
Countess R"¦(Countess Ranevskaya )
In the year seventeen hundred and forty six, (60 years ago)
The Count d. Saint Germain arrived in St. Petersburg.
He chose for his residence, a palace on the outskirts of the city.
and soon there were strange rumors, about the weird dwelling and it’s mysterious occupant. It was certainly true that in the vaults of the palace. he had a curious collection of wax figures, which, so it was whispered, contained the souls of those who had fallen under his evil influence. He would derive intense please from modeling the wax figures from his intended victims, each one of whom was chosen.
with deliberate appreciation. Thus the countess Ranevskaya, acknowledged as the most beautiful woman in Russia came to excite his attention. He learned that in spite of a jealous husband, all the men had vied for her favors.

Sleeping with a handsome stranger, gets The Countess into grave trouble!
This stranger warns the Countess of having amorous encounters, then robs her of her jealous husband’s money!

When the last of the guests had left. the countess went down the secret stairway.. To admits the young stranger she had promised to meet. She alone had the key to the hidden door. They had an amorous meeting. He was a cad and threatened her with scandal. Taking all her money. She was haunted by the fear of scandal. She needed to replace the money. In her despair she remembered the message from Saint Germain. she had no alternative but to answer the mysterious summons.  She would sell her soul"¦ anything  to save herself…

Is Saint d. Germain really The Devil?

Germain’s messenger tells the young Countess to meet him at his palace!

In Saint Germain’s vault of waxworks, just before the darkness closes in, and the Countess screams off screen…

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From The Vault: Who Killed Teddy Bear?(1965)

“Why with everybody else – why with every slob … and not with me?”

WHO KILLED TEDDY BEAR? (1965)

Sal Mineo (Rebel Without A Cause 1955 The Young Don’t Cry 1957) plays yet another troubled youth, this time he’s a busboy at a disco. His name is Lawrence Sherman, who has had a turbulent childhood manifesting into an obsessive sexually disturbed young pervert.

His object of desire is aspiring actress/disc jockey Nora Dain, at the club where he buses tables. He makes obscene phone calls, partakes in a bit of voyeurism, frequents porn shops and XXX movie theaters with the rest of the heavy breathing raincoat crowd!

A very sleazy exploitation goodie from the 60s utilizing that gorgeous high contrast black and white and Charlie Calello’s perfect soundtrack of raunchy cheese horns that make you want to flail your hips in Satan red high heel shoes, digging holes in the carpets, while you twist til dawn!

Mineo exudes angst and a bottled up sexual repression so well that his role as obsessive stalker , makes the scenes with his sweaty bare chest, creep me out til Tuesday of next week!

Normally I just adore a sweaty bare chest, don’t get me wrong… but these are ‘pervert beads of sweat’ we’re talkin’ here…! Now JUST TO BE CLEAR! I am not drawing connections between Mineo’s real life self proclaimed homosexuality and the film’s perceived character of Lawrence Sherman whose so-called ‘perversion’ and sexual proclivities lead him down a dangerous path.

Sal Mineo, teen idol, extraordinary actor playing the street kid against the established order of things, and publicly gay man in the 70s, was very brave to wear his identity out in the open.

But that’s why I love these exploitation gems from the 1960s so much. They run counter-intuitive to The Cleavers ( which I LOVE so, no disrespect there.)But it’s important to muddy up the good clean mythos of the American dream once in a while….!

Added to the plot line is the obsessive cop who has his own fixations, like listening to crime tapes with graphic confessions!

The film is directed by Joseph Cates, Written by Arnold Drake and has an interesting cast including not just Juliet Prowse, but Jan Murray as Lt. Dave Madden another obsessed male animal, the great Elaine Stritch as Marian Freeman , Nora Dain’s fur coat stroking, club owning dyke…

I love how they get these older dames like Gypsy Rose Lee in Screaming Mimi and Elaine here as Marian Freeman to play lurking coded lustful lesbos / adult club owners on the hunt for fresh meat!

Wow…I think that there’s a pattern forming here. Hhhm…I’ll have to look back at Naked Kiss and reconsider that scene where club owner (Virginia Grey) Candy is shoving that dirty money into Constance Tower’s mouth… Hhm.

Elaine Stritch predatory lesbian club owner and Sal Mineo very sexually troubled young man…

Margo Bennett as Edie Sherman Lawrence’s sister.

Lawrence’s sister in the closet. Ah the wholesome American home life breeds so many happy youngsters!

“I never thought you’d put me down, but I’m walkin’ around with no place to go!”

 

There are thousands of films like these in my collection, this is just one of them, so curl up with your own ‘teddy bear’ if it’s not psychotic and see it for yourself!-MonsterGirl!

From The Vault: Brainstorm (1965)

“The Most Fiendish Idea Ever Conceived By The Human Brain!”

BRAINSTORM 1965

This thriller from the 60s has an incredible cast, starring Jeffrey Hunter, Anne Francis, Dana Andrews, and Viveca Lindfors. Directed by William Conrad.

A young scientist saves an attractive married woman from a suicide attempt, becomes romantically involved with her, plots to kill her husband, and then fakes insanity to escape the murder charge.

The first Five minutes of Brainstorm 1965 set the slick and sinister vibe in motion on a dark and desolate noir highway against George Duning’s snazzy score, where Jim Graham (Hunter) stumbles upon Lorrie Benson (Francis) trying to commit suicide by train! He manages to get into the car and move it moments before the train comes hurling itself right behind them. The moment is dark and frenetic and possesses so much of what makes some of the best Noir/Psychological thrillers of the 60s so enigmatic…!

Reaching in through the broken window to unlock the car, moments before the impending train! A beautifully framed shot in Film Noir style…

Swedish-born actress Lindfors (Whom I consider to be one of the most underrated actresses, and one of my favorites as well.)plays Dr. Elizabeth Larstadt whose testimony keeps Grayam out of jail and sent to a sanitarium instead. Andrews plays Cort Benson, Lorrie’s Beverly Hills millionaire husband. With Michael Pate and Strother Martin, it is always a treat to see both character actors in anything trashy or classy.

Here’s a clip from Brainstorm 1965

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3YlmGu8H4M]

There are thousands of films in my little collection, this is just one of them! Say, I just had a brainstorm… see it for yourself!-MonsterGirl

From The Vault: Flesh & Fantasy (1943)

FLESH AND FANTASY 1943

Released by Universal in 1943 Flesh and Fantasy is by brilliant director Julien Duvivier, and co-produced by Charles Boyer, and still remains an obscure forgotten horror gem.

Fatalistic, philosophical, Impressionistic, and hauntingly romantic, it dabbles in destiny and the dynamism of fate’s meddling hand in our lives. Are we all free souls, or is life predetermined for us? Part social commentary with an edge of ironic charm, utilizing elements of the supernatural to drive the narrative.

The three episodes star Robert Cummings and Betty Field, Edward G. Robinson and Thomas Mitchell,  & Charles Boyer, and Barbara Stanwyck. Robinson and Stanwyck are two of my favorite actors!

The film revolves around 3 vignettes, the first written by Eliis St. Joseph, the second adapted from Oscar Wilde, and the third written by László Vadnay.

Turning out a collection of eerie stories told by Gentlemen at their club. The stories are framed by Robert Benchley as Doakes and David Hoffman as Davis.

The first stars Betty Field as Henrietta a dowdy woman who comes upon a mysterious mask during Mardis Gras and then goes to a party festooned with regalia, turbulence, and a romantic game of cat-and-mouse with the handsome Michael (Robert Cummings) A beautifully tragic tale of loneliness and the essence of what beauty is. The use of masks creates a nightmarish landscape of human disconnection.

The shop of mysterious masks.

The second vignette is an adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s, Lord Arthur Saville’s Crime, which stars Edward G. Robinson as Marshall Tyler, a lawyer who is told by a Fortune Teller Septimus Podgers (Thomas Mitchell) that he is going to kill someone. Also at the affair is Dame May Whitty as Lady Pamela Hardwick and C. Aubrey Smith as the Dean of Norwalk.

Playing out the obsessive victim, Tyler devolves ever increasingly into a world of malefic paranoia in that way that Robinson is so good at. He spirals into madness as he is surrounded by reflections and warning shadows, and an impending dread, that creates a sense of the film being a Horror/Noir hybrid. The use of shadow does invoke a bit of Jacques Tourneur’s style as well.

In the third installment, Charles Boyer plays an acrobat in the circus named Paul Gaspar, who has a premonition of fatal consequences surrounding his high-wire act. Gaspar has a dream one night before his performance that he falls to his death, and so he decides to take a cruise, where he meets the woman from his dream, Joan Stanley played by Barbara Stanwyck, who was the one person he could still hear screaming as he plunges to his death! This episode concludes the film with a dreamy and grim set of atmospherics.

Impressionism in Nightmares-Symbolism-and the fear of falling…

the woman in dreams, is she as unattainable in real life?

THE GREAT GASPAR: that drunken gentleman of the tightrope will walk 75ft. in the air without a net!

Flesh and Fantasy predate by two years another wonderfully suspenseful ensemble of ghostly stories, Dead of Night 1945 starring Michael Redgrave in the iconic short tale of the ventriloquist and his frightening dummy sidekick!

Never trust a guy who’s made of wood and lets you stick your hand up his shirt for no money!

There are thousands of wonderful obscurities in my collection, this is just one of them!

See it for yourself-MonsterGirl

From The Vault: The Man in Half Moon Street (1945)

“I’ll share your madness because there’s grandeur in it. And I have faith – and love.”

THE MAN IN HALF MOON STREET (1945)

Nils Asther (Night Monster 1942, Bluebeard 1944) plays Dr. Julian Karell a 120-year-old scientist who has found a way to prolong life. Julian falls madly in love with Eve Brandon (Helen Walker Nightmare Alley 1947, Call Northside 777 1948) Unfortunately he needs new glands in order to survive, and not head toward decrepitude and die!

Eve Brandon: “I’ll share your madness because there’s grandeur in it. And I have faith – and love.”

“You’re the spitting image of Julian Le Strange!”

Written by the great Barré Lyndon and directed by Ralph Murphy. Hammer and Terence Fisher offered us a remake in 1959 The Man Who Could Cheat Death starring Anton Diffring, Hazel Court, and Christopher Lee! Man in Half Moon Street includes a dramatic score by the wonderful composer Miklós Rózsa!

Dr. Kurt van Bruecken: “We are not scientists anymore. We are murderers.”

‘You’ll go on until you disintegrate!”

There are oodles and oodles of fantastic films in my collection, this is just one of them!

MonsterGirl forever young at heart!

From The Vault: Julie 1956

JULIE 1956

WHAT HAPPENED TO JULIE ON HER HONEYMOON?

Directed by Andrew L. Stone, this noir thriller stars, Doris Day who plays Julie Benton, whose unstable musician husband Lyle Benton played by Louis Jourdan confesses that he killed Julie’s first husband. Lyle is incredibly possessive and wouldn’t rather see her dead than be in the arms of another man. Julie seeks out the help of friend Cliff Henderson (Barry Sullivan) This is a woman in peril thriller, that has the police closing in on Lyle, but not before the climatic ending, where Julie boards a plane, returning to her work as a stewardess, not realizing that Lyle is also on board!

The film also co-stars veteran noir actor  Frank Lovejoy as Det. Lt. Pringle.

Julie is being stalked by Lyle!

There are thousands of films in my collection, this is just one of them!-See it for yourself-MonsterGirl