NIGHT MONSTER (1942)

Director: Ford Beebe

Writer: Clarence Upson Young

Producer: Ford Beebe

Cast: Ralph Morgan, Don Porter, Irene Hervey, Leif Erickson, Fay Helm, Doris Lloyd, Nils Asther, Bela Lugosi, Lionel Atwill, Janet Shaw, Frank Reicher, Francis Pierlot, Robert Homans, Cyril Delavanti

People are found strangled to death around the swamp of Pollard Slough. At the nearby Ingston Towers estate, patriarch Kurt Ingston (Ralph Morgan) has summoned the three doctors that were unable to cure the ailment that has turned him into an invalid. Kurt’s distraught sister Margaret (Fay Helm) has summoned a doctor of her own, psychiatrist Dr. Lynn Harper (Irene Hervey). Margaret is troubled by the terrible evil she senses in the Ingston household and wants Dr. Harper to determine her sanity. Margaret’s fears seem justified as more killings continue within Ingston Towers.

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It seems odd to me that the '40s horror movie factory of Universal Pictures would produce a film that turned out like Night Monster. Since horror had been Universal’s bread and butter for over a decade at this point, getting two of the genre’s stars in the same film must have been by design, right? After all, Bela Lugosi and Lionel Atwill headed up the cast of Universal’s Son of Frankenstein (1939) that restored the popularity of horror at the box office. However, when their services are secured for co-starring in another fright flick, despite their star billing, both Lugosi and Atwill play rather minor characters. That’s a mystery even more puzzling than the identity of the murdering fiend in this movie.

Perhaps the advantage of directing B-movies in Hollywood’s golden age was that one could get away with more eccentricities. Because the smaller budgeted and shorter scheduled productions were not as financially risky, they were probably not as closely supervised. So long as they met genre requirements and stayed on time and on budget, the B-film directors were probably given more freedom. In the case of Night Monster, maybe Ford Beebe, as both director and producer, was allowed to seemingly squander the established horror names in his cast. Since the story operates as both a mystery and a horror thriller, Beebe may have thought that Lugosi and Atwill would act best as potential suspects in the story and disrupt genre expectations.

Ford Beebe specialized in directing westerns and action serials. He certainly manages to keep things moving in Night Monster, yet he also generates a lot of atmosphere and builds up to his horror climaxes very effectively. Apparently, the old pro really knew what he was doing and could apply his know-how to any genre. No less a talent than Alfred Hitchcock is supposed to have admired Beebe’s work on Night Monster.

While Irene Hervey, as the beautiful Dr. Harper, and Don Porter, as mystery writer Dick Baldwin, present us with an obvious romance in the offing, they are both quite low-keyed. She is always a levelheaded professional while he is relaxed, humorous, and even self-deprecating.

The rest of the characters are an important reason the film maintains interest. Most of the characters have conflicts and quirks that make them distinctive. My favorite performer is Leif Erickson as the lecherous lout Laurie, the Ingstons' chauffeur. Anything in a skirt is fair game for this big brute, which, of course, makes him an obvious suspect. He would be just as memorable and unpleasant a decade later in the surreal sci-fi creeper Invaders from Mars (1953).

Night Monster is a fun little chiller that is most remarkable due to its unique menace. I can’t recall any other fright flick that uses a phenomenon quite like the one found here. The film also manages a lot of atmosphere with its traditional old-dark-house-thriller styled setting. Add to this a cast of strange characters, mysticism, a foggy swamp, and an escalating body count, and you wind up with Universal Pictures’ most unjustly overlooked movie from their '40s horror heyday.

SILENT RAGE (1982)

Director: Michael Miller

Writers: Joseph Fraley, Edward Di Lorenzo (uncredited)

Producer: Anthony B. Unger

Cast: Chuck Norris, Brian Libby, Ron Silver, Steven Keats, Toni Kalem, Stephen Furst, William Finley, Stephanie Dunnam, Joyce Ingle, Jay DePland, Lillette Zoe Raley, Mike Johnson, Desmond Dhooge, Kathy Lee, Linda Tatum, Joe Farago, Paula Selzer, John Barrett, Sonny Jones, Sandy Lang, Eddie Galt, David Unger, Russel Higgenbotham, James Bodean (uncredited)

When psychiatric outpatient John Kirby (Brian Libby) murders two people, Sheriff Dan Stevens (Chuck Norris) subdues him and takes him into custody. Kirby soon breaks free and is shot by the police. The dying man’s psychiatrist, Dr. Thomas Halman (Ron Silver), rushes Kirby to his medical institute. With emergency surgery failing to save Kirby’s life, Halman’s fellow physician and boss, Dr. Phillip Spires (Steven Keats), tries his experimental serum. Kirby’s vital signs return and his wounds miraculously heal. Unfortunately, the still dangerously deranged John Kirby is now practically indestructible.

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This is a movie that shouldn’t work for me. Most movies that mix genres are not satisfying because they are needlessly busy concoctions and each genre being mixed into the cinematic mess becomes diluted and can’t deliver the buzz that a single genre can. Silent Rage is an action/horror/sci-fi hybrid that succeeds because of its simplicity.

The entire story takes place over the course of just a few days. The menace and the hero are established in the very first scene. Then we see how, thanks to mad science, the menace becomes even more formidable while the hero gets an opportunity to demonstrate more of his ass-kicking prowess. Eventually, the menace goes on a murder spree that the sheriff hero must stop. All of this is building up to a rematch between the opponents from the film’s opening scene.

Of course, the exploitation hook for this movie at the time was what would happen if Chuck Norris took on Michael Myers; the most famous martial arts hero of the day vs. a mute, unkillable maniac. The sci-fi angle that justifies the villain’s awesome durability makes this thing play out like a more satisfying retread of Indestructible Man (1956).

All of the characters are presented quite simply and effectively. Aside from the clash between doctors about ethical considerations regarding the use of experimental techniques on a dying patient, there is no moralizing or character development here. This is a series of horror and action situations that are all creating anticipation for that final battle.

Chuck Norris is his usual reserved self. He actually seems a bit more relaxed this time around until he needs to start hitting and shooting people. Until the final showdown, his character of Sheriff Dan Stevens is just marking time in his little town by beating up bikers or rekindling a romance with an ex-girlfriend (Toni Kalem). He also gets to be an all too patient mentor to his new deputy (Stephen Furst).

Ron Silver’s Dr. Tom Halman is the character that raises the ethical questions about medical experimentation and whether someone as dangerous as his patient should be allowed to live. He may be feeling guilty for not having anticipated John Kirby’s homicidal potential. In one of the film’s longest scenes, we spend quite a bit of time at Halman’s home. We get a sense of the doctor’s life with his wife (Stephanie Dunnam) before the horror of the story begins to take over.

Steven Keats is the ambitious and amoral Dr. Spires. He strikes just the right notes of obsession and frustration. I love it when he has an angry, profanity-laced shouting match with his employee, Dr. Halman, or when he guzzles booze in his office to wind down from the stress of his experiment getting way out of hand. It is little touches like these that are memorable because they make a character register with us without needing to provide any sort of backstory.

The embodiment of this film’s silent rage is Brian Libby as John Kirby. After he calls Dr. Halman for help in the first scene, he devolves into a mute and murderous animal. I can hardly blame the poor guy for “losin’ it.” In the film’s opening continuous shot of nearly four minutes, we experience the claustrophobic and irritating environment John Kirby has had to tolerate. Apparently, he is renting a room in a household full of noisy kids being screeched at constantly by their busybody, motor-mouthed mother (Joyce Ingle). No wonder Kirby seems positively triumphant when he starts swinging that axe. Libby’s odd body language and wild-eyed expressions combine with his physicality to create an always interesting and formidable menace in John Kirby.

Director Michael Miller manages to stage both his horror and action scenes effectively. He is not afraid to use long takes to just show people mingling and reacting to one another. His long takes can also help set the scene or set us up for a surprise.

According to director Miller, Chuck Norris seemed a little ambivalent about the finished film. Perhaps Norris thought it was too much of a departure from what he thought his fans would be looking for in one of his movies. Silent Rage may be a bit of an anomaly in action star Chuck Norris’ filmography, but it is probably my favorite. It manages to mix its horror and action with the occasional dash of humor to fine effect. Despite its sci-fi menace, this flick still comes across far more believably than the contrived and cartoonish stunt shows most action movies have become since the late '80s.

This film never seemed to get much respect in its day. Most wrote off Silent Rage as a crass attempt to use its rising action star to get some of that slasher film audience attention. Well, they’re right! Frankly, I’m as surprised as anyone that it manages to be very entertaining. If you can’t decide whether you’re in the mood for bashing or slashing, pop open a cold one and pop Silent Rage into the player.

BLOOD AND LACE (1971)

Director: Philip S. Gilbert

Writer: Gil Lasky

Producers: Ed Carli, Gil Lasky

Cast: Melody Patterson, Gloria Grahame, Len Lesser, Vic Tayback, Milton Selzer, Ronald Taft, Terri Messina, Dennis Christopher, Maggie Corey, Peter Armstrong, Mary Strawberry, Louise Sherrill, Joe Durkin 

Prostitute Edna Masters (Louise Sherrill) and her “john” (Joe Durkin) are asleep in her bedroom when they are beaten to a pulp with a claw hammer. Then the killer sets the house on fire. Edna’s teenage daughter Ellie (Melody Patterson) is the only witness. Now orphaned, Ellie is placed in the Deere Youth Home. Ellie resents being cooped up in the county orphanage and the harsh discipline and chores imposed on her by Mrs. Deere (Gloria Grahame), the orphanage director. Ellie’s resentment turns to terror when she becomes convinced that a disfigured man with a hammer is stalking her. 

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If the famous Theatre of Grand Guignol in Paris were still around in 1971, Blood and Lace would have been perfect subject matter for one of their hysterical and grisly plays. Here we have people in dire situations with little hope resulting in treachery, madness, and death. The tone of this thing is an indicator of the sort of mood the '70s horror film would often strive for.

Blood and Lace is kid-centric horror that was all the more intense for its young audience because it was reminding them just how scary their world can be without parents. This horror can really get under a kid’s skin, as it seems to be a perversion of the fairy tale. As in many fairy tales, kids are the ones most at risk here, but the time is modern, there is no magic, and morality is seemingly obsolete. Only the evil menacing lost children is the fairy tale touchstone that may feel familiar, but this was rarely ever the case in horror films that would usually play for kids in the weekend matinees.

As many have noted before, this was pretty damned strong stuff for a GP rated film. In the early days of the film ratings system, GP was the equivalent of today’s PG. That meant that any kid could see it and probably got more than they bargained for. With its themes of family dysfunction, corrupt ethics, lust, madness, and murder amidst the setting of an orphanage, Blood and Lace always manages to feel really inappropriate. That’s what makes it so memorable. 

The opening sequence of the killer’s POV shots in Blood and Lace has often been considered a precursor to the openings of the later '70s classics Black Christmas (1974) and Halloween (1978). Whether this was an actual influence or not, it was certainly creative and creepy. 

Critics have always been eager to bash this film. I think that most critics miss the whole point of Blood and Lace. It is striving for the uncomfortable contrast of the mundane with the morbid. The dismal confines of an orphanage harboring gruesome secrets while personal conflicts spiral out of control create a tense dynamic. Having kids living in the midst of this evil gives the story a disturbing edge.

Although Melody Patterson is portraying the minor Ellie Masters, she is an experienced enough actress to give a strong performance. She can be as spirited, petty, stressed, or terrified as the situations demand. We root for her when she slaps her fellow orphan and hunky love interest Walter (Ronald Taft). Of all the characters in the story, we empathize the most with her.

This perverse fairy tale’s “witch” is Gloria Grahame’s Mrs. Deere. Being hopelessly devoted to her late husband, she has developed some peculiar notions about death. Mrs. Deere is probably insane and is truly despicable. Each of her orphans mean nothing more to her than a $150 per month payment from the county. She seems to resent all of the kids under her care, keeps them busy with chores, and slaps the shit out of them when they get out of line. She makes things even worse for the kids that try to run away.

My favorite performer is Len Lesser as the boozing orphanage handyman Tom Kredge. He is also fond of slapping kids around in this slaphappy flick. However, that’s just child’s play compared to what he can do with a meat cleaver. While he functions as Mrs. Deere’s henchman, he is often in conflict with her. Their scenes together are some of the best. They indulge in a lot of dark humor whether they are cooperating or are at odds with each other.

Prolific character actor Milton Selzer is on hand as unethical social worker Harold Mullins. He and Mrs. Deere have an “arrangement.” Mullins steers the county’s orphans Mrs. Deere’s way so that she gets paid and he gets laid. The carnal favors Mrs. Deere performs keep Mullins from being too thorough in his inspections of the Deere Youth Home. 

Another familiar face from television is Vic Tayback as County Detective Calvin Carruthers. He is trying to locate the murderer of Ellie’s mother and is concerned that Ellie may be in danger. Like Harold Mullins, Carruthers is another county worker whose sense of duty is ethically suspect. The scene they share together at a bar early in the film is well written and well played. It serves to establish the seedy and slippery morality of these two characters and the tone of the entire story. 

The other principals in the cast are three of Ellie’s fellow orphans. Ronald Taft, as Walter, seems like the nice, handsome guy that we expect heroic things from, but he turns out to be unreliable. Terri Messina, as Bunch, is the frustrated and flirtatious sixteen-year-old girl that is eager to grow up. She is actually quite endearing. In an early role, Dennis Christopher appears as Pete, the always hungry and nosy kid that never seems to get any respect, yet almost exposes the sinister shenanigans of Mrs. Deere and Tom Kredge.

In its final act, the film builds to a frantic culmination of confrontations and revelations. There is a quick succession of twists at the conclusion leaving us with the unsettling notion that there are no more heroes, kiddies. Blood and Lace is deemed a proto-slasher by many and certainly brandished the nihilism horror would keep slinging throughout the '70s.