Sept 25 entry:

#36: The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923/USA)



In an era in which Hollywood understands that even the most poorly done low budget horror films are instant box office moneymakers, it's hard to understand the ambition behind the 1923 Hunchback film -- to make America's first big budget horror experience, pulling out all the stops to make it a cinematic spectacle.

As a result, this film is truly breath-taking in its visual scope. The scenery is so carefully crafted, giving the illusion of the larger than life world of Notre Dame and surrounding Paris, all created on a conventional studio lot. It's amazing to watch production stills and see how they created so convincing an illusion of Lon Chaney's Quasimodo scaling the artifice of the cathedral, or moving through seemingly endless hallways, streets, and tunnel corridors. There's always the sense that the backdrop and story continue beyond the scope of the camera, and that lends an authenticity to the film that can rarely be sensed in the horror genre.

There's more to behold in this film, of course -- Chaney's self-styled make-up, the level of compassion the film dared to provide for the monster of the story, fantastic action sequences, and some acting that's relatively strong when not overplayed as if this were a stage production and the audience was viewing from a greater distance, but for me, it's the sheer visual scope and breadth of the film -- the sense that you're watching events transpire on real Paris streets as they did over five hundred years earlier and, therefore, that the characters you're watching might almost be real as well.

Sept 27 entry:

#34: Mark of the Vampire (1935/USA)



Four years after completing the horror masterpiece that was Dracula, director Tod Browning and lead actor Bela Lugosi reunited to film this first unofficial sequel to the film (see #44 for the second), in which you can see both actor and director sweating to outdo their original magnum opus.

Though the film failed to surpass the original over-all, largely due to a terrible script that contained possibly the worst twist ending in all of cinema horror, there was so very much this film did right, from Lugosi's finest and most terrifying performance as a menacing vampire, to some of the absolute finest, most breath-taking ethereal and unreal camera shots I've ever seen in a horror film. So long as I live, I doubt I'll ever forget the shot where the vampire's daughter descends from the air with beating bat wings to be at her father's side. How Browning pulled this off in 1935 is beyond me. And, somehow, the unspoken communication between the two felt almost sacred -- unreal in a story in which they are supposed to be the demonic undead.

I think it's true that every Tod Browning film borders on artistic perfection, but is always weighed down by one significant fault. In the case of Mark of the Vampire, had the script been stronger (and the ending entirely different), this film would have easily made the Top 10.

For what it's worth, Universal (producers of the official Dracula film) were apparently impressed enough with this film to steal blatantly from it in their own official sequel to Dracula -- the 1936 "Dracula's Daughter," also featuring a female offspring of the original horror monster (and said film will not be making the Top 50).

Sept 29 entry:

#32: The Mummy's Hand (1940/USA)



So rare is it to see a sequel outrank its predecessor on a countdown list, especially when the original was a revered Universal classic starring Boris Karloff and directed by the legendary Karl Freund. In fact, I'm not going to pretend that this is a better done film, but rather that this attempt, eight years later, to restart The Mummy franchise, is a more solid and enjoyable viewing experience.

Putting aside any attempt at art and expressionism, this is simply a FUN guilty pleasure film with a competent script, a better defined back-story and set of rules for defeating The Mummy, a mummy who actually walks around as a killer mummy (rather than a brooding not-so-bad-guy who looks relatively not Mummy-like), great action and pacing, and that classic Universal horror film tone, complete with deep shadows, moody audio, elaborate and authentic looking sets, and an elegant but foreboding score to get your blood pumping.

No, The Mummy's Hand wasn't art, but it was damn fun throughout.

Oct 1 entry:

#30: The Mummy's Ghost (1944/USA)



While most film franchises grow stale by the fourth installment, "Ghost" borrows the strongest ingredients from the previous Mummy films and then takes the franchise to a far more impressive level.

Part of its strength lies in Lon Cheney Jr., Universal's go-to horror actor who played nearly every Universal monster at some point (and often with questionable results). Yet, unexpectedly, Cheney truly shines in this one, lending true characterization to the faceless, expressionless, and voiceless Mummy for the first time. Somehow, with a covered mouth and only one visible eye, we can still see Chaney's Mummy experience frustration, rage, love, and even resolute sadness.

Add to this John Carradine playing the best and eeriest villain of the entire series, likable characters, and one draw-dropping surprise ending (gets me every time!), and you're in for one heck of a viewing experience. I honestly don't understand how this film gets overlooked by classic horror fans.

Oct 3 entry:

#28: The Invisible Ghost (1941/USA)



Bela Lugosi stars in arguably one of his greatest roles as Dr. Kessler, a kind-hearted man struggling to maintain his dignity in the wake of losing his wife to adultry. Generally type-cast as a clear-cut villain, Lugosi brings an astonishing amount of warmth and complexity to the role that comes off as completely sincere and not at all faked. We feel great pathos for Dr. Kessler and also admire his strength in the wake of such tragedy, on the threshold of giving away his only daughter to marriage with total selfless love, even as this move will leave him more alone than ever.

Of course, Kessler has two other problems. For one, every year on his anniversary, Dr. Kessler loses his mind, believing he is still married to his wife and is madly in love with her, spending the whole day talking to thin air. Second, there have been a series of unexplained murders on his property. Do the two connect in some way? Is Lugosi reverting to type as a psychopathic murderer after all?

Invisible Ghost is a "Poverty Row" film, known better for the unsavory B film company that produced it than for the work itself, and that's a terrible shame because nothing about this film feels cheap or amateur. The acting is vibrant, the cinematography is strong, the plot is slightly absurd and yet very satisfying, and Lugosi brings one of the greatest performances of his career to the table.

Once upon a blue moon, a particularly strong film will haunt you with a line of dialogue, delivered so well in a scene that is thoroughly clicking, that the line remains with you forever. In the case of The Invisible Ghost, it's Betty Compson absently warning that, "He'd kill me. He'd kill anybody."

It's just that kind of a film, and it deserves more attention than it receives.

Oct 5 entry:

#26: The Golem: How He Came into This World (1920/Germany)



Perhaps the world's first cinema sequel (as well as prequel), "The Golem" (as it's now generally known) is a follow-up to an earlier lost film featuring the same clay monster running amok in the modern day. In this better remembered follow-up, we go back to watch the Golem's initial creation, the events that led him to run wild and terrorize a small Jewish ghetto, and his unforgettable demise at the hands of a young child he chose to trust at the end.

Additionally, the film is highly conscious of an internal struggle within the monster between following orders and listening to its all-too-human heart. In many ways, this film served as prototype to the classic 1931 Frankenstein film, and yet it also possessed a charm all its own.

Though far from wildly entertaining throughout, the film makes excellent usage of early German expressionistic overtones, the sets are elaborate and fanciful, and the ending is unforgettable -- a true highlight in cinema history.