The Whispering Shadow (1933)



Presumably, the $10,000 Bela was payed to star in this second rate 12 chapter serial was the most he was ever paid for a role, and that helps to explain what the heck he is doing in such a lackluster production. Numerous sources agree that Bela was heavily in debt by this point, largely due to lavish spending, and thus was taking roles without a second thought. Only two years earlier, he turned down the role of the creature in Frankenstein, and now he is working for anyone who can pay. A sad state of affairs for someone at the top of the cultural zeitgeist.

The entire nearly 4 hour serial was shot in twelve days, and that tells you quite a bit about the quality of the project. The writing is bad, the action is bad, the effects are bad, the miniatures are unconvincing, and Bela doesn't seem to know what he's doing in the film until about halfway in. In the past, when I struggled to watch this one, I always assumed it was just my attention span at the thought of facing twelve long chapters, but no -- this one truly stinks.


Plot (0-5 points): Beyond the general concept of an enigmatic figure who speaks in whispers through the radio and kills via remote electric shock, there's really nothing to see here. This mystery could have been told in forty minutes instead of two hundred and forty. Essentially, everyone looks like they could be the enigmatic villain, and Bela is especially set up to look like the Whispering Shadow, so you know it won't end up being him even though they very clearly show clues on multiple occasions that pretty much make it have to be him. All that gets ignored by the end, of course, so that the least likely suspect can be revealed to be The Shadow's true identity. Utter waste of time, and not a single decent character nor good line of dialogue in the thing, but I did at least enjoy the final reveal (logic lapses aside). 1

Atmosphere (0-5 points): Lackluster sets, bad action and special effects, unconvincing miniatures, unimpressive camera shots, and only a few scenes that seemed to give any consideration to lighting. 1

Other Actors (0-3 points): There was no real acting to be done in this thing, so I can't really judge the other actors for that. All the same, they never once wowed me nor made me want to keep looking at the screen. 1

The Lugosi Factor (0-10 points): Bela truly seems to have no idea what to do with his role for the first half. By episode 7, he has a grasp on his character and plays him well enough, but there are no truly memorable moments. 2

Overall score: Yikes. I didn't expect to hate this thing as much as I did. Then again, I'd never pushed past the second episode prior to this. 5

Well played, madam.


That has got to be the most lecherous image from the entire Golden Age of horror.

Always kind of wondered, though...why didn't Moreau just buy him some razor blades?

International House (1933)



Grand Hotel meets pre-code Vaudevillian variety show, complete with top tier comedy acts, dance and music numbers, and even a loose plot unifying all the disparate threads together amidst the backdrop of gorgeous luxury and sophistication contrasting sharply with the antics of Burns, Allen, and W.C. Fields. Unfortunately, Bela is here just to play the violent and jealous villain of the film, not leaving him much room to get laughs or humanize his role.


Plot (0-5 points): Considering that the purpose of this film was absurd, raunchy humor and music numbers, the fact that this film actually has a plot fluidly connecting each episode together is downright impressive. It's not much of a plot, but it holds together and manages to maintain our interest. 3

Atmosphere (0-5 points): No one was trying to make art with the cinematography here, but the luxurious backdrop absolutely sets an eye-catching atmosphere that contrasts beautifully with the low class behavior of our comedians, and some of the special effects are downright effective, especially W.C. Fields driving a car down a fire escape. 4

Other Actors (0-3 points): I've never seen a W.C. Fields film before, and he had me laughing my butt off. In contrast, I'm a big fan of Burns and Allen and feel they mostly flopped here. I'm not sure how many of these other characters I was supposed to recognize as big name celebrities of 1933, but none proved particularly memorable beyond Cab Calloway's unforgettable moves and equally unforgettable "Reefer Man" song (seriously, I can't believe the studio let them include that number!). 2

The Lugosi Factor (0-10 points): I can't decide whether the role didn't give him enough to do or if he simply failed to shine in it. Either way, he definitely wasn't a memorable aspect of this film beyond the shocked look on his face when he sees W.C. Fields in his pajamas on the balcony of his ex-wife's hotel room 2

Overall score: An uneven film that misses as often as it hits, but I enjoyed the hell out of it anyway. Unfortunately, Bela had almost nothing to do with my enjoyment this time around. 11


Side note: I hate to be a downer, but I really miss Mechagodzilla's contributions to this thread. I would have loved his opinion on this one. If you're reading this, Eric, you're missed around these parts, and I hope you find your way back here soon.

I just may. I can only hope they get even better.

The Black Cat (1934)



The Universal of 1934 was in a very different place than The Universal of 1932. While only recently at their apex of fame, coming off of Dracula and Frankenstein with the belief that bigger horror films with higher production values and bigger names attached was their manifest destiny, a humbling has taken place only two years later. Island of Lost Souls (1932) and The Invisible Man (1933), the two top tier productions that had since been released, had failed to capture public attention to the same extent that Universal's 1931 successes had. As a result, with The Black Cat, we see Universal stepping back, producing a smaller, less lavish production, and falling back upon the actors that first brought them their success instead of courting outside talent. Whereas Bela had been relegated to second rate Universal releases as recently as Night of Terror (1933), and Karloff hadn't been used since The Mummy (1932), this Universal picture (the biggest horror film they would release in 1934) seems to have been designed specifically to showcase these two once discarded talents.

I actually wonder if Night of Terror ended up outperforming The Invisible Man in 1933, as this film seems especially designed to appease Bela as if he were a major studio commodity once again. Bela gets to play the good guy for once, gets to almost literally crucify the actor he accused Universal of favoring, and the entire film is about a tragic character returning to the Carpathian Mountains for the first time since being on the losing side of a popular revolution, a story that was too close to Bela's own tragic backstory to have been coincidental. Finally, Bela is given a film where he gets to play a multi-faceted good guy and show off his range. Meanwhile, the energy between Lugosi and Karloff is unmistakable in their first cinematic face-off. It's surely what this film is best remembered for today.

The film didn't go on to become any kind of major success; not enough, at least, to convince Universal to make Lugosi an A-lister again, but it does well enough to convince Universal these two still have enough star power together to sell movie tickets. Thus, we will see Universal reunite them for three B level films after this, even as Universal finds a new direction for its A level films next year by resorting to sequels. Karloff gets invited to return to the Frankenstein franchise, but something clearly happened between 1934 and 1935 to convince Universal that Bela should not return to the Dracula sequel (which he was originally slated to make a brief appearance in).

Anyway, back to this film...


Plot (0-5 points): Whereas every Universal horror film up to this point had either been a book adaptation or a recycling of old tropes, this script is entirely fresh and original (sorry, Poe fans!), and it's quite brilliant in much of what it attempts to do. Bela and Boris effectively play inversions of their most iconic roles: Dracula was about an inhuman monster leaving its foreign land to ingratiate itself into modern society, while Dr. Werdegast begins as an affable gentleman in modern society who takes our protagonists to his foreign land, the audience being left to fear what his true nature will end up being. Meanwhile, while the Frankenstein monster was an innocent soul brought to life from a lifeless mass, Poelzig is an evil Satan worshipper taking women who are very much alive and converting them into lifeless statues.

All that being said, this plot definitely has its logic lapses and moments of progression/escalation that simply don't make sense. I feel like the script writer needed a few more weeks, and the film's run time needed twenty more minutes. 4

Atmosphere (0-5 points): There is some effort to create expressionistic shots, but John J. Mescall is no Karl Freund, his tracking shots often shaky and awkward, his cinematic eye nowhere near as eloquent nor as constant. Additionally, while the script outright calls for the sleek, almost sanitized modern feel of the house within which most of the film takes place, the mood it creates is all wrong and almost feels constraining. Karloff and Lugosi need to be facing off in an old dark house, especially with the kind of moody lighting being used that doesn't align at all with the fluorescent feel of the place. 3

Other Actors (0-3 points): Karloff matches Lugosi almost literally step for step. The energy between them is unmistakable and priceless. I get the sense that Karloff understands his character less well than Lugosi does, but he still gives a tragic, beautiful flamboyance to it all that almost feels like a 1933 version of David Bowie. Additionally, this is one of the few horror films of the era in which I find both lovers thoroughly likable, less due to anything the script provides and more due to the efforts of David Manners and Julie Bishop, who both absolutely hold their own in contrast to these two icons of horror. This thread is starting to make me a real fan of David Manners, in particular. 3

The Lugosi Factor (0-10 points): The film seems written for him (perhaps even partially written by him?), and he finally has the opportunity to show tremendous range as a result, which he does with unmistakable flare and energy. That being said, he does ham it up a few times, though I would still call the overall performance unforgettable and an absolute success. 9


Overall score: 19

The Return of Chandu (1934-1935)



You can tell this was pretty much just a steady paycheck for everyone involved (Bela included). Whereas the first Chandu film was a classy special-effects masterpiece by Fox, this is a B serial filmed on a shoe-string budget that technically works as a sequel to the Fox film, but uses an entirely different cast and crew, Bela now playing Chandu instead of the villain. This serial was designed to be repackaged as two separate films (The Return of Chandu is the first five episodes and Chandu on the Magic Island is the final seven), but it was originally released as one ongoing (albeit forgettable) serial.



Plot (0-5 points): It's the worst kind of serial -- slow moving, uncomplicated, and largely occupied by random cliffhangers that come out of nowhere and resolve just as randomly. Did Chandu just drive off a cliff for no reason? Find out next week that he stopped just in time! And if the characters were written as uni-dimensional in the first film, they're somehow even less than that here, delivering lines just to forward an incredibly slow-moving plot. 0

Atmosphere (0-5 points): This is one cheap serial. Seems like they blew the entire budget on renting a lavish ballroom set for the first scene of the first episode that we never return to again. Forget special effects! Chandu barely ever actually uses his powers across the twelve episodes of this film because the studio clearly can't afford to do more than make doors open on their own and make objects levitate via string. And I count exactly two semi-expressive shots across twelve episodes. Fortunately, the budget seems to have increased for the second set of episodes that would go on to be repackaged as Chandu on the Magic Island. Still few to no special effects, but the sets get more exotic, and Chandu's boat floods quite convincingly. 1

Other Actors (0-3 points): Heck no. Naji, the romantic interest, is almost unbearable. 0

The Lugosi Factor (0-10 points): You can tell he isn't even trying in this one. It's just a paycheck to entertain stupid kids. He turns on the acting for the final chapter (pictured above), but that's it. 1

Overall score: 2

Someone has to watch those naff ones so other will know to avoid them. I haven't seen any of the ones reviewed on this page except The Black Cat... I'd most want to see Night Of Terror!