Diabolique (1955)

Director:  H.G. Clouzot
Starring:  Simone Signoret, Véra Clouzot, Paul Meurisse, Charles Vanel

Haven't reviewed a film in a while, have I?  Well, since it's Halloween, TCM has a great lineup of horror films, and I'm going to review a great one that I saw in my high school French class, DIABOLIQUE.

PLOT:  The film takes place in a French boarding school run by Michel Delassalle (Paul Meurisse).  However, his wife Christina (Véra Clouzot) pays fore everything.  She is frail and sickly.  One night after dinner, Michel physically abuses her.

Christina devises a plan with Nicole Horner (who is also abused by Michel, played by Simone Signoret) to kill Michel.  She and Nicole go to Nicole's apartment and lure Michel to her place.  When he gets there, he begs for Christina to take him back and she refuses.  While he's asleep, they drown him in the bathtub.

Back at school, the ladies dump Miguel's body into the school swimming pool.  When the pool is drained, Michel's body is nowhere to be found.  Scared, the women decide to flee, unaware of where the body is.

One night, Christina is awakened by the private investigator, who says he found Miguel.  Christina confesses she killed him and threw him in the pool with Nicole.  That same night, she sees someone moving throughout the building.  She goes to investigate and is followed by a man.  She follows him and enters a room where Michel's name has been typed on a typewriter repeatedly.  Entering the bathroom, she discovers her husband's corpse in the bathtub.  It begins to rise and we see the infamous eyeball scene.  Michel then murders Christina and we see that it was all a plot by Michel and Nicole to murder Christina. 

At the end, a little boy who breaks a window claims that Christina gave him a slingshot, despite her being dead.

REVIEW:  I'm still surprised that swearing was allowed in foreign films, but I try to remember that foreign films didn't have the Hayes code restricting them.  Anyway, this is a masterfully done film using two strong, powerful, unafraid female leads (until the end, at least).  The climax is well done too.  5 out of 5 stars. 

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Saturday Night Horror: The Monster Walks (1932)

Director:  Frank R. Strayer
Cast:  Rex Lease, Vera Reynolds, Sheldon Lewis, Mischa Auer

PLOT:  The film opens with Ruth Earlton's (Vera Reynolds) father's death.  We hear the screeches of an ape from below and we can already tell this is going to be some sort of horribly done KING KONG remake.

Ruth arrives at the home with her fiancé, Dr. Ted Clayton (Rex Lease).  The handmaid, Mrs. Krug (Martha Mattox) and the servant, her son, Hanns (Mischa Auer) are not pleased with the amount of money Ruth's father left to her.

When it's time for everyone to go to bed, Hanns tees off on Ruth's uncle, Robert (Sheldon Lewis), calling him a hypocrite and questioning why he didn't tell Ruth he hated her and calling the family liars.  

When the clock strikes midnight, Ruth spies a hairy hand next to her on her pillow and lets out probably the most horrible scream I've ever heard in the history of the horror genre.

After a few scenes of Ted interrogating potential suspects, the hairy hand returns and beings to choke Mrs. Krug, who makes one of the best choking faces I've ever seen.  The hand strangles her to death and Ruth faints.  

Ted speaks to Robert and informs Mr. Wilkes (Sidney Bracey) that when Ruth entered the room, his heartbeat stopped for five seconds.  Hanns confronts Robert about his betrayal and strangles him.  While Ted and Wilkes are investigating what happened to Robert, Hanns brings Ruth's body to the cellar to feed her to Yogi.  Robert confesses that Hanns is the one doing his bidding, and Ted and Wilkes rush down to the cellar.  But Yogi is one smart critter, strangling Hanns, which allows Ted and Wilkes to rescue Ruth and save the day.   


REVIEW:  I did like this film's clever use of background movement (in the scene where Ted is talking to Ruth in her room, look carefully at the painting).  Other than that, the film was rather slow, not too much action, and ample amounts of racism, though I suppose that's expected, considering the time period this was filmed in.  2.5/10 stars.

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Saturday Night Horror: The Raven (1935)

Director:  Lew Landers
Cast:  Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, Irene Ware, Lester Matthews, Inez Courtney

This week's SNH is a Lugosi-Karloff hit.  Yay!

PLOT:  Jean Thatcher (Irene Ware) has been injured in a car accident and her father, Judge Thatcher (Samuel S. Hinds), in a desperate attempt to save her, calls a retired surgeon, Dr. Richard Vollin (Bela Lugosi).  Vollin refuses to help but is eventually forced to give in. 

Judge Thatcher approaches Dr. Vollin with the claim that Jean has fallen in love with him.  He requests that Vollin stop seeing her, but Vollin is obsessed with her and won't obey his request.  A murderer on the run, Edmond Bateman (Boris Karloff, hard to believe under all that hair), serves as a scapegoat for Vollin.  He agrees to change Bateman's face if Bateman will murder the Thatchers.  After various refusals by Bateman, Vollin agrees to simply perform the surgery.  In what could be considered the first instance of epic trolling in the history of time, Vollin transforms the left (to us) side of Bateman's face into a disfigured mess; his eye is crooked and his mouth is pudgy (Vollin even laughs when he discovers that Bateman shoots the mirrors after he discovers he's disfigured [because that will change his appearance], so you know he knows he's a master troll).  Bateman demands that Vollin fix his mouth, and Vollin says that he will IF Bateman agrees to carry out the murders.  Bateman eventually says yes.

Vollin invites the Thatchers and Jean's fiance, Jerry (Lester Matthews) to his mansion for the weekend.  During the party, Jean is scared by Bateman and lets out a (rather lackluster) scream.  This prompts Dr. Vollin reveals why he is so obsessed with Poe's poem, The Raven.  He loves anything to do with torture and death.   

Jerry decides to humor Judge Thatcher and move Jean into another room.  At 11, Bateman captures Judge Thatcher first.  Jerry runs after him, and, as is usually the case when a lover goes after a fiend, he makes no attempt to stop Bateman other than simply running towards him, and is knocked out. 

Jean is awoken by her entire room descending.  Her and Jerry are thrown into a room in which the walls will close around them and they will be crushed to death.  Bateman, however, saves the day and throws Vollin into the room instead.  I like this because I was rooting for Bateman all along, lol.  At the end of the day, Bateman dies due to Vollin's gunshot and everyone gets away safely.
 
REVIEW:  Considering the fact that almost nothing in this film had to do with The Raven (besides Vollin's torture devices and "Poe has been avenged!"), I enjoyed this film.  I loved the mad scientist combined with evil host motif (similar to HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL with Vincent Price).  Great music and Bateman was lovable.  4 out of 5 stars.

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Saturday Night Horror: The Mole People (1956)

Director:  Virgil W. Vogel
Starring:  John Agar, Hugh Beaumont, Cynthia Patrick

Been a few weeks, but welcome back!  This week, we're watching a film that sounds lame but might turn out to be a good one.

PLOT:  Drs. Roger Bentley (John Aar) and Jud Bellamin (Hugh Beaumont) are archaeologists in Asia.  They happen upon a tablet in Sumerian and the Sumerian version of Noah's ark.  They climb a mountain to where they were found and find the ruins of a Sumerian temple. 

At the end of a cave, they discover an underground city.  While they're asleep, creatures throw bags on their heads and drag them even further underground.  Once there, they discover skeletons with large hands and skulls.  They are escorted to a temple where a ruler holds up the Eye of Ishtar.  After escaping the people by flashing light at them, the men find their way to another underground chamber where humanoid mole men are being used as slaves by this civilization.

Suspicions on the part of the civilization rise when the men help the mole men and save them from being beaten.  The men eat drugged mushrooms and are captured.  In the end, the men escape with the girl (Cynthia Patrick), who dies.  Bittersweet ending. 

REVIEW:  From the start, this film was an interesting bit of history.  The title seems lame, but the concept was intriguing and interesting.  7.5/10 stars.  

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Saturday Night Horror: Dementia 13 (1963)

 

Director:  Francis Ford Coppola

Cast:  William Campbell, Luana Anders, Patrick Magee

Happy Belated New Years and Happy Belated Holidays to all!  Sorry I haven't been here in a while; school has been catching up on me.  Time to get back to Saturday Night Horror, and what better way to do that than viewing one of the films from the beginning stage of Francis Ford Coppola's career?

PLOT:  In the pre-title sequence, John Haloran (Peter Read) and his wife Louise (Luana Anders) go on a row-boating trip and argue about John's mother trying to exploit him. Louise says she is, John says she just doesn't know her.  John then suffers a heart attack and dies, forcing Louise to dump him overboard.  

Louise sends a letter to John's mother (Eithne Dunne) posing as John, saying that she has received an urgent wire from New York and that she must go and miss John's sister Kathleen's (Barbara Dowling) memorial service.  She then goes to Ireland, to Haloran Castle, where she meets John's brothers, Billy (Bart Patton) and Richard (William Campbell).  Billy tells her that Kathleen drowned and that Haloran Castle is haunted by her spirit.  

At the funeral (the seventh funeral in a row), the boys' mother collapses and Louise uses the opportunity to steal some things from Kathleen's room.  She dives underwater and leaves the toys at the bottom of the pond, but screams when she sees Kathleen's body.  She swims to the surface only to be killed by an unknown criminal.

One night, Simon (Karl Schnazer), a poacher, happens upon Kathleen's body (which, by the way, appears to be fresh) and also falls victim to the unknown murderer.  Also on that night, Lady Haloran ventures outside to place Kathleen's tiara on the girl's head, and nearly falls victim to the axe murderer.  She collapses again.

Billy tells Richard's fiancee, Kane (Mary Mitchell) about nightmares he has.  In them, he's a little boy and an insane man is climbing into his window.  He screams for his mother and she comes in.  The man says that he will nod his head, and the other insane person will nod their head.  He nods, and Lady Haloran nods and picks him up and throws him into the pond.  Kane says something about Richard throwing them both into the pond, and Billy realizes that the man in his dreams was Richard.  I knew it.  Well, I knew he was the murderer.  I didn't know that.  Oops, spoilers!

The next day, Dr. Caleb (Patrick Magee) discovers a tombstone reading "Forgive me, Kathleen" and accuses Richard of placing it there.  Richard says he has no idea and Dr. Caleb asks Billy to come with him to look for Louise.  

It all ends on Kane and Richard's wedding night.  Caleb places Kathleen on the fountain.  Suddenly, Billy appears with an axe and we find out that he was the murderer all along.  Looks like I was wrong!

REVIEW:  Everything about the film seemed like a rip-off of THE TWILIGHT ZONE.  Not saying that this was a bad film and that I wouldn't watch it again, but almost everything seemed to come from THE TWILIGHT ZONE:  the music, the plot, everything.  But overall, this is a decent thriller/murder mystery and I'd recommend it.  7/10 stars.

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