I've seen two films by Maddin, though with sound -- Saddest Music in the World & Cowards Bend the Knee, though the latter, at least, is very much informed by the old silents' style.

From a few years ago, J.T. Petty's first feature, Soft for Digging, is IIRC silent except for maybe a couple of words here & there. He's most recently directed the very good Burrowers & the amusing-but-that's-about-it Hellbenders.

Oops!

Bucky & Sophie might've seen at least part of Cowards, since I watched it via Netflix at home.

I didn't have either of them (or any other cats) when I saw Saddest Music, & besides that was at the art house. No animals allowed, AFAIK.

#46: Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde (1932/USA)



There were already nine film versions of this horror classic by 1932, and yet the Frederic March version is often the one best remembered. What stands out the most about this version, in my mind, is how utterly dark and disturbed it is.

Whereas most versions of this story depict Mr. Hyde, at best, as a monster completely different from Jekyll, and, at worst, something once buried deep within his subconscious now unleashed, this film blurs the lines between the two identities in the most uncomfortable of ways, clearly depicting Hyde as little more than an excuse for a man who has constantly denied himself of all things base and immoral to run headlong towards them instead. There are moments in this film where Hyde clearly comes across in Jekyll's dialogue and even in his facial expressions. Sure, his face changes (and no, the make-up effects aren't going to blow you away, here), but it's still more-or-less the same man beneath it all, fulfilling the desires he denies himself when sporting less hair on his face.

Worse yet, Hyde is no simple monster in this incarnation. The atrocities he commits against a woman he desires throughout the film (including kidnapping her and keeping her against her will, repeated physical and emotional abuse, and clearly implied serial raping) is disturbing almost beyond belief.

I would never claim that I "enjoy" this film, but rather that it does too good a job of shining a light on the potential for darkness within each of us that we'd all rather ignore. In a post-Ariel Castro world, this might very well be the most terrifying film out there.

Though no free streaming version currently exists, you can rent it on-demand tonight via Amazon.com:

www.amazon.com/Dr-Jekyll-Hyde-Frederic-March/dp/B0014C5HUQ

#45: Cat People (1942/USA)



Producer Val Lewton didn't seem to like making horror films. Rather, his studio would give him a market-tested name for a horror picture, and it would be his responsibility to somehow turn that into a profitable film within the constraints of a modest budget and limited running length. Given that kind of freedom, Lewton instead tended to produce the kinds of films he wanted to make -- brilliantly psychological films -- that carelessly worked in the imposed title and required horror element just enough so that, technically, he'd done what he'd been asked.

As a result, what is compelling about Cat People is neither the actual cat people (and, actually, there's really only one) nor watching the death toll unfold (and, actually, I think there's only one death too). Instead, it's the deeply psychological overtones of the film, more about a young woman struggling to make sense of all the fear and guilt with which she'd spent her life being programmed, and watching it all unravel within her mind and slowly tear apart her only chance for happiness in life with a young man who cares for nothing but her happiness, yet cannot begin to comprehend and cope with what is happening.

That she starts to turn into a murderous panther is really quite secondary.

Rare is a film that begins with the culmination of the cliche Hollywood romance and ends with something more akin to a real world tragedy -- the scenes that follow after the Disney Princess wedding resolution. One impressive suspense scene aside (the pool scene), the fact that a monster and murders are involved is really mostly secondary.

There are currently no free streaming sources for Cat People, but you can rent it on demand tonight via Youtube:

www.youtube.com/movie/cat-people

I watched the Val Lewton DVD box set last year. About a dozen films and yes 6 or so were extremely good and all were watchable. Cat People is far superior to the sequel Curse Of The Cat People. The remake from 1982 sucked

Plenty more Val Lewton films still coming on this list.

I think the only film in that Val Lewton box set that didn't floor me was The Leopard Man, though I've yet to watch Curse of the Cat People.


(Yes, Dan Bailey. I even liked The Seventh Victim...)

#44: Return of the Vampire (1944/USA)



You're either a fan of Bela Lugosi, or you're not. For some, he represents the worst of B film/washed-up talent fare, and for others, he had an almost elemental vibrance that was so uniquely spooky and yet graceful. Whatever your viewpoint (or even if you just know him as that foreign guy who played Dracula), there was only one Bela Lugosi, and there were only so many serious, well produced films featuring him.

Return of the Vampire is hardly Bela's greatest film, but he does an admirable job in his third outing as a serious vampire (and, while he isn't technically Count Dracula in this film due to copyright reasons, he is the character in nearly everything but name). Truly all three of his vampire films are worthy of inclusion on this list for the simple reason that they feature Bela Lugosi playing (some version of) Dracula.

However, Return of the Vampire also features an unexpected surprise -- a werewolf minion who ultimately proves to be the entire heart and dramatic core of the film. His struggle for moral redemption and independence/self-direction is a welcome and unexpected departure from the fun but often generic fare usually found in mainstream monster films of the 1930s and 1940s. For that reason, as well as for Lugosi, Return of the Vampire is a film worth seeing.

There don't appear to be any streaming versions of this film available at the moment, but the DVD is dirt cheap ($5) and worth checking out:

www.amazon.com/The-Return-Vampire-Bela-Lugosi/dp/B0000694WM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1411001499&sr=8-1&keywords=return+of+the+vampire