Todd’s Horror Movie Blog

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I first saw The Indestructable Man (1956) when I was about ten on the late night local Cleveland horror  movie show Big Chuck and Lil’ John, and loved it from the beginning, mostly because I was a big Chaney fan at the time, having already seen most of his Universal films by that time.  The plot is an interesting mix of Frankensteinian horror and a heist gone wrong Noir film.

The basic plot has Chaney playing a convicted murderer who is sentenced to the gas chamber thanks to the machinistions of his crooked lawyer who got the other members of the gang to turn States evidence when Chaney hid the half a million haul with plans to start a new life with his stripper girlfriend.  Chaney tells the lawyer he will get revenge on all of them (in his only dialogue scene in the film).  After the execution a scientist working on a cancer cure bribes a guard for the body and during the experiment not only brings Chaney back to life, but endows him with enhanced strength and a skin so tough it is impervious to knives and bullets.  The downside of his new lease on life is that his vocal cords where burned out during the process, leaving him mute (this plot point was actually due to Chaney’s alcoholism having reached the point where he had trouble remembering lines).  After dispatching the scientist and his assistant Chaney hits the road for LA, leaving a trail of bodies along the way.  When his fingerprints show up at the murder scenes this brings in veteran character actor Casey Adams as the detective who was on the original case and has been working off the clock to find the missing payroll money.  Along the way he ends up romancing the stripper, who it turns out was only Chaney’s girlfriend in his mind.

This is a neat little horror thriller where the low budget works to the film’s advantage by utilizing a lot of location work, most famously the since dismantled Angels Flight Railway that took passengers up and down Bunker Hill.  Another novelty is having Adams narrate the story into a tape recorder as his case notes for his final report, giving the film a Jack Webb Dragnet feel as the show was at it’s most popular at that time.

As befits the title, Chaney gets to demonstrate his invulnerability several times during the course of the film, mostly shrugging off bullets and one memorable scene of him stabbing himself in the hand to show what has happened to him to the stripper.  Chaney’s stalking of his victims is well done as his hulking 6′ 4″ body towers over the other men.  After an intense closeup of his madly gleaming eyes Chaney will then choke his victim before lifting them over his head and tossing them over stair banisters or down stairways.  These scenes are well handled by Chaney, who always excelled at mime in his acting more than he did at dialogue delivery.

Though only generally watched by bad film afficionadoes, I rather like the film, not just for childhood nostalgia, or to be a Chaney completist, but just as a nifty little horror flick.

Till next time…..Keep Watching.

Hey Guys!

I’m a huge Bela Lugosi fan and my favorite of all his films is the no budget cult classic The Devil Bat (1940). The basic set up is that Lugosi is a kindly and beloved small town doctor (right!) who years ago sold a formula for a new greaseless face cream to two business men, who subsequently became millionaires while Bela didn’t .  Seeking revenge he uses his scientific genius to enlarge a bat to mammoth proportions and then train it to seek out an exotic scent that he has given to all members of the two men’s families as an experimental shaving lotion (”You put it in the tender part of your neck.” he tells every victim). Enter sarcastic newsman Dave O’Brien, who plans to get the bottom of the strange deaths and romance the surviving daughter of one of the victims.

You have to really be a fan of bad old movies to really appreciate the insanity of this film, from Lugosi’s heartfelt monologues to an upside down stuffed bat suspended from a coat hanger to the ridiculous attacks where the victims have to actually hold the monster to their necks or the absurd subplot of O’Brien making a fake Devil Bat to get a picture of it only to have his cameraman partner forget to remove the made in China tag from under the wing, which gets them fired, only to be rehired five minutes later when they shoot down the real one which causes Lugosi to make a second and ever bigger Devil Bat.

Typical of Lugosi’s film work in the forties, the film is goofy in the extreme but is always entertaining thanks to Bela giving his usual 110 percent in every scene and in every line reading.  He was paid to act and he damn well will act the hell out his role regardless of it’s actual merit of the script. Bela is the whole show whether he is obsessively detailing his plans to his stuffed co-star, gravely intoning “Goodbye” to every victims or smugly fielding all of O’Brien’s tough questions.  His best scene is when he goes from condescension to horrified shock when O’Brien douses him with his own formula, just to make it a sporting chance between the two them for the Bat’s next victim.

If you are a big Lugosi fan this is a must see.  If not you might still enjoy it just as unintentional comedy.

Till next time…..Keep Watching.

Hey Guys!

I sadly have to admit I was not a Paul Naschy fan the first time I saw one of his flicks. It was in college and his film Night of the Werewolf (1980) was playing at a theater arounf 1987 under the title The Craving.  Though the look of the film was reminiscent of the old Hammer films I thought Naschy was one of the most wooden actors I have ever seen.  It was only later on down the years that I saw the film again without dubbing and realized that he isn’t so much wooden as somber, with most of his emotions coming through his voice instead of his expressions.  From then on I actively sought out Naschy’s catalog of work.

My personal favorite of his films is The Werewolf Versus The Vampire Woman (ironically the plot was reworked for Night of the Werewolf).  This was the third or fourth film in Naschy’swerewolf series depending on whether you count his never released unfinished lost film Los Noches deL Hombre Lobo as part of the official canon.  Since none of the films follow any continuity from film to film other than Naschy playing a werewolf named Waldemar Danisky, you don’t need to worry about coming in at the middle of something.

The film opens with the body of Daninsky being delivered to the morgue.  When they remove the silver bullets from his heart Daninsky revives, sprouts hair and kills the two attendants before escaping into the countryside.  The plot switches to two graduate students searching for the legendary tomb of famed vampire queen Countess Nadasdy who was supposedly buried with a silver jeweled  crusifix shaped dagger.  When their  car breaks down they come upon Daninsky living in an abandoned chateau.  Learning of the two young women’s quest he immediately decides to help them, as he has learned that the dagger can cure him of his affliction.  Unfortunately once they find the tomb and remove the dagger from the Countess’ body, she is revived and sets about building a vampire army to take over the world.  This leads to Daninsky vowing to destroy the evil he has unleashed which eventually ends with a battle royal between the two nightmarish creatures.

This is a fun little campy horror film.  Naschy, an avowed fan of the Universal classics, loved to rework the monster rally films of the forties. His first attempt at this, Assignment Terror (1970) combined four classic monsters and alien invaders in a wild but ultimately too crowded story.  Striping the concept down to just two monsters makes for a more coherent storyline that builds in suspense till the climatic confrontation.  Unfortunately most available copies are the edited version with most of the gore and all of the nudity edited out.  Sigh. But you still get lots of vampire and werewolf attacks.

Naschy’s transformations are serviceable but nothing spectacular.  Basically the camera cuts back and forth between Naschy’s face and hands, each shot showing a little more hair or claws and fangs added.  No lap dissolves here.  Despite this Naschy is very good as the werewolf, giving an energetic and ferocious performance.  In his human form he is very sympathetic and expresses a world weariness that is affecting.

Patty Shepard’s Countess Dadasdy keeps in the background for most the film’s screen time preferring to have her new recruits do most of the work, but her vertical exit from a tomb is quite eerie.  Gaby Fuchs is also quite good as the woman who falls in love with the moody Daninsky and can free him from his tormented existence.

if you have never seen a Spanish horror film from the seventies, this is a good one to start with.

Till next time……Keep watching.