HOUSE OF HORRORS (1946)

Director: Jean Yarbrough

Writers: George Bricker, Dwight V. Babcock

Producer: Ben Pivar

Cast: Martin Kosleck, Rondo Hatton, Robert Lowery, Virginia Grey, Bill Goodwin, Alan Napier, Joan Fulton (aka Joan Shawlee), Howard Freeman, Virginia Christine 

New York starving artist Marcel DeLange (Martin Kosleck) is on the verge of suicide when he discovers an injured man pulling himself out of the river. Inspired by the bizarre and brutish features of the stranger, DeLange brings him back to his studio to use as the model for what he thinks will be a masterpiece of sculpture. DeLange soon finds out that his guest is none other than the Creeper, an infamous serial killer that snaps women’s spines. The artist realizes that his powerful new friend can perpetrate murderous vengeance against the art critics that have panned DeLange’s work. 

The Flashback Fanatic movie review

In the waning days of Universal Pictures’ horror film supremacy, they seemed to be trying to create a new horror star out of Rondo Hatton. Hatton was the actor that became camera worthy solely due to his affliction of acromegaly. This disease resulted in a distortion of his features that made him ideal for scary and brutal characters that required no special make-up. He had appeared in many films since 1927, but Universal first recruited Hatton to wring some horror out of a story as the Hoxton Creeper in the Sherlock Holmes movie The Pearl of Death (1944). He was so scary that he even managed to elicit real fear out of Basil Rathbone’s usually unflappable Holmes.

The opening credits of House of Horrors say “Introducing Rondo Hatton as the Creeper,” though it is certainly not Hatton’s debut film nor even the first time he played a character called Creeper. To be clear, this movie is not meant to be a sequel of any sort for the Hoxton Creeper character of the earlier Sherlock Holmes film, yet this story gives us no background about this fiend at all. He is simply pulled out of the river with no explanation of how he got there. We never even learn the Creeper’s real name or why he has the compulsion to snap women’s spines. Is he angered by their revulsion at his appearance? Is he just a frustrated chiropractor? I guess Universal thought that the Creeper being big, strong, and having a scary puss was all the reason he needed to be a murdering monster for the horror movie crowd. The Creeper character would go on to be featured in another Universal made movie called The Brute Man (1946) that some claim is a prequel to this film. Universal sold off that later production to the poverty row studio PRC.

Martin Kosleck, as the fiendish artist Marcel DeLange, is probably the real star of this flick. He certainly seems a sympathetic fellow for the first few minutes of this story. He is a lonely and unsuccessful artist that talks to his cat and can’t afford to pay his electric bill or buy any food. Then he has a much-needed sale of a statue thwarted by a snooty art critic (Alan Napier). Even after he rescues the Creeper from the river and nurses him back to health, DeLange seems solely interested in using the Creeper as a model for a new statue. It is only when the Creeper vents his murderous impulses on a streetwalker (Virginia Christine) passing by DeLange’s studio that the little artist becomes murderous himself. He knows that the Creeper will be his all too willing weapon. 

My favorite aspect to this rather perfunctory movie would be the lifestyle of Robert Lowery’s character, pin-up artist Steven Morrow. This successful and handsome guy paints pictures of sexy models all day with out smearing a drop of paint on his clothes or the floor of his swanky apartment. He also has a beautiful art critic girlfriend (Virginia Grey) to trade banter with over cocktails to celebrate his completion of each cheesecake masterpiece before he cashes the apparently generous check. This guy probably gave Hugh Hefner a few pointers. 

 

Unfortunately, Steve is a hothead with the bad habit of threatening to break the necks of art critics at the same time that another temperamental artist has his serial killer friend doing that very thing. However, the already abundantly blessed Steven Morrow also has the best timing in the world and miraculously avoids being charged with attempted murder. You’ve got to see it to believe it. 

If there is anything to ponder in this film, it is that it seems to be saying that the commercial artist plying his trade in a proven and popular field will be happy and successful while the fine artist striving for unique expression is doomed to fail. Not a bad observation, but it seems that the filmmakers also believe that the give-the-public-what-it-wants types deserve their good fortune and we should be wary of anyone giving us anything truly creative and original. This movie almost has it both ways; it is in such a hurry to dish out a fright flick for a quick buck to the undiscriminating horror crowd that it doesn’t take enough time or care with its rather novel plot to make its killer anything more than a deadly prop. That is probably why House of Horrors seems a bit half-baked in its execution, even though it has a unique artistic conflict for a horror story at its core. 

Uh oh! You don’t suppose the Creeper also kills movie critics, do you?

THE MUMMY'S GHOST (1944)

Director: Reginald LeBorg

Writers: Griffin Jay, Henry Sucher, Brenda Weisberg

Producer: Ben Pivar

Cast: Lon Chaney, Jr., John Carradine, Robert Lowery, Ramsay Ames, Barton MacLane, George Zucco, Frank Reicher, Harry Shannon, Emmett Vogan, Lester Sharpe, Claire Whitney, Oscar O’Shea, Jack C. Smith, Jack Rockwell, Carl Vernell, Stephen Barclay, Dorothy Vaughan, Mira McKinney, Bess Flowers, Caroline Cooke, Eddy Waller, Fay Holderness, Ivan Triesault, Anthony Warde, Peter (Pietro) Sosso, Martha MacVicar, David Bruce

Yousef Bey (John Carradine), an Egyptian High Priest of Arkham, travels to the town of Mapleton in America to find the living mummy Kharis (Lon Chaney, Jr.). Bey’s mission is to reunite Kharis with the mummy of his ancient lover Princess Ananka. They try stealing the mummy of Ananka from a museum, but it disintegrates because Ananka’s spirit has been reincarnated in a living woman. That woman is Amina Mansouri (Ramsay Ames), an Egyptian exchange student at the local college in Mapleton. Bey and the Mummy seek her out and kill anybody that gets in their way.

The Flashback Fanatic movie review 

The Mummy’s Ghost was the third of the four Kharis Mummy films from Universal Pictures. Although all of the Kharis films, except this one, used footage from the earlier film The Mummy (1932) for flashbacks to Kharis’ origins, that Boris Karloff starring film is an unrelated story. The continuity through the four film Kharis series was always pretty shaky. In this film, when the Mummy makes his first appearance, he just comes shambling from out of the countryside. No explanation is given for how he survived the fire that should have destroyed him in the last film, nor is there information regarding his whereabouts since then. This is a less egregious oversight than the time warp that must have occurred between the previous two Mummy films to cause two characters to age 30 years, or the relocation from New England to Louisiana bayou country another 25 years later in the next installment!

Critics of the Mummy films often cite the repetitive plot points. Many of them are to be found in this entry, as well. All film series hinge on some sort of formula, and the Mummy films can be more restrictive than most, but I enjoy them. The fun is in returning to the same circumstances that generate the conflicts and seeing what new elements are introduced. The reincarnation concept is lifted from the unrelated film The Mummy, but it is played out in a much different manner that makes this film quite distinctive.

I consider this the best of the three Mummy films starring Lon Chaney, Jr., as Kharis. There is no heavy-duty drama going on here, but the interaction between all the main characters seems livelier in this installment. I think a lot of the credit goes to John Carradine as the villainous Yousef Bey and Robert Lowery as Tom Hervey. Carradine’s voice and the fanatical gleam in his eye make you pay attention to his scheming and never forget that he is as much of a menace as the Mummy. Robert Lowery is a welcome relief from the utterly bland young heroes of the other two Chaney Mummy films. Some have noted that his performance is a bit surly, but I welcome that bit of character. Lowery’s Tom Hervey is probably possessive of his beautiful girlfriend Amina and also worried about her. He is frustrated with anything that can feed Amina’s seemingly irrational dread that stems from the spirit of Ananka reincarnating in her.

Ramsay Ames as Amina Mansouri is more decorative than dramatic. She is very beautiful and looks great in that silvery nightdress she wears, but her acting has drawn criticism from many. While I don’t think she hurts the film, she just doesn’t make us feel as deeply as we should for the fear and confusion her character is suffering. In her defense, I will say that even Meryl Streep would probably have a tough time bringing conviction to lines like “Isn’t it wonderful? I can laugh again.”

Lon Chaney, Jr., seems a bit more animated this time around as the Mummy, perhaps too animated for some members of the cast and crew of this film. According to director Reginald LeBorg, Chaney really throttled elderly actor Frank Reicher. Later when killing the museum guard (Oscar O’Shea), Chaney purposely broke a large pane of real glass in a door when the prop department did not supply the breakaway glass on time. It is a bit unclear whether the take seen in the film was the instance when the real glass was broken. If so, it was incredibly dangerous, as Chaney was dragging actor O’Shea into the glass when it shattered. We see O’Shea clutching the back of his head after the glass breaks before he succumbs to the Mummy’s strangling grip. Is this good acting on O’Shea’s part, or a real physical reaction to shards of real glass pelting him? If the glass was real, it is awfully impressive of O’Shea to stay in character in that shot and continue to allow Chaney’s strangling to finish him off. Chaney is supposed to have gotten some glass stuck in his hand. There are dark spots on the Mummy’s chin in that scene that some have speculated are blood, perhaps from Chaney’s injured hand. It appears that those spots are also on his chin as he approaches the guard before breaking the glass. It would not seem that this is part of the Mummy make-up, as we don’t see those spots in any other scene. If they were indeed blood, it would be reassuring to know that they occurred in an earlier take that did not endanger O’Shea.

Chaney’s recklessness has been attributed to actor’s zeal, too much alcohol, or a macho bit of showing off. He is also said to have been trying to impress director LeBorg, whom he hoped to be joining on more films. Another contributing factor was probably Chaney’s frustration of being stuck in the monster rut at Universal. He desired more human roles, and he could get pretty irritated with the lengthy and uncomfortable make-ups that his monster characters required.

The most distinctive thing about this film, which not only sets it apart from all the other Universal Mummy movies, but also makes it quite special among most horror films prior to the 1970s, is the very tragic finish. Aside from some of producer Val Lewton’s horror films at RKO Pictures and Universal’s The Wolf Man (1941), there were not many fright flicks of this era that would wrap up their horrors on such a downer. Director LeBorg is said to have pushed for this ending and I am glad that he did. A lingering aftermath makes the horror matter. Even if we forget about the victims that died during the story, there are still consequences for the survivors. Other lesser films often forget that.